Kerala and the eight girls!

Fun in the upper desk of the house boat

Post lunch pic

As we entered the boat house

    June 08^th morning my twin’s call wakes me up; she and my younger sis were at the door. It was Friday and I had to rush to office as I was supposed to get back early. We had plans, yet another trip with friends. And this time I had my sisters joining me. We were all set to what is known as the god’s own country, Kerala.

   Planning was fun, the frequent emails that we exchanged chalking out the places to visit, How-to-get-there, the expenses and more. And how we had our fingers crossed singing the rhymes ‘Rain Rain go away, Come again another day’:P. Kerala had witnessed the rains early by June (early cos Bangalore was still humid) and we had so many telling us , “this is not the time to visit Kerala”. But, we did.

   As expected, we were in the bus by 6:20 in the evening. It was a KSRTC bus(Bangalore to Ernakulam). At around 9 pm, we heard the bus stop for dinner ( I remember bugging the driver to stop for dinner at around 8:30). We ended up hogging some hot chapathis (made out of maida, I hate that!) , veg kadhai and dal fry. It was pretty good considering the place he stopped at. The night just continued with more music (ear phones) and the continuously varying dark sight of stars and the moon due to the moving bus.

   And the next morning when we woke up, our eyes met these well -structured homes with well-maintained gardens (not just one or two houses but most of them). It was drizzling and surrounded by greenery. As we got closer to the city (Ernakulam) , we witnessed more and more hoardings of many malyalam actors but mainly Mohanlal.

Ernakulam : We reached by 8 am and were going to be picked by the” Boat house “ guy, who would drive us to Allepy ( well-known for the boat houses). As we waited for him, we had a quick breakfast at a restaurant nearby the bus stop. The buffet included, idli sambar, chutney and idi appam (authentic Kerala style).

     By 9:30 we started to Allepey (expected to reach in 1.5 hrs). And as we progressed towards Allepey , it was humid ( more humid than that seen in Bangalore). By this time, we wished for a cold shower and we kept asking “bhaiya?, aur kitna door hai??” Yes, yes madam.. half an hour- came the reply.It was around 11:30 when we heard him say “Madam, from here onwards you will only see back waters and boat houses” and we had reached.

Allepey: Parking the vehicle he says “ So my job is over, “Tony” will take you to the boat house.” Ab yeh Tony koun hai???” came the abrupt reaction. I remember laughing over someone say “I hate tony”!! After 20 damn minutes ,with a sigh of relief and that excitement of getting into a boat house, we started walking (yes, with Tony:P). We kept wondering , in an area packed by houses on all four sides where would the backwaters be with the boat houses (and we were told there were around 2000 boat houses ). It was not more than ten minutes when we were there. We passed by a number of boat houses to get into ours. There were women selling fishes , washing clothes as the edge of the back waters were surrounded by houses. There were tree- houses and guest houses as we passed by ( for the ones who don’t wish to stay back at the house boat overnight).

     Ours was a 2BHK with an upper desk (entry from the hall) . We were welcomed with an orange juice( reminded us of the Rasna !) . As the boat started, we had two open entrances (door-like) turn by turn we sat on the edge and admired the water, the passing boat houses, the people sailing on small boats, the kids at the edge of the back waters waving at us and that sight of the lake which didn’t seem to have an end. At around 1:30 we were all on the upper desk posing for the pictures when the cook called out for lunch (we were accompanied by a sailor and a cook).Soon we heard the boat stop. Here , we found a small shop for tender coconut( 20 bucks!, yes we failed to bargain for the first time :P) . We had a cute dining table set at the entrance where we now find the food placed neatly. There was Rice , Dal, aloo , beans, cabbage sabzi and salad (how we never got to complain about the food ).

     Post lunch, we were all set at the upper desk. Pictures and more pictures were clicked. Later in the evening something weird happened. The sailor suddenly comes to the upper desk and says “ Dhoni aur uska team samne wale Boat house main dikhenge , gallery main khade raho”. Ofcourse , what you expect? Most of us started screeching , yelling and what not. We now stood at the edge of the gallery waiting to wave at the only guy on earth we knew that moment– Dhoni! As the boat got more closer, we got louder and we started waving “Dhoni!!!!!” When we saw what we saw, most of us got back to hide all ashamed and dissappointed . I have no idea if there was Dhoni in that Boat house but there were more than 15 oldies who held beer mugs , sat in their upper desk of the boat and who excitedly responded back to us saying “CS!! CS!! CS!!” ( Chennai super kings, it was the time of IPL then) and Dhoni was there for an add shoot (we were told so). Although we never figured out what it was, that sudden adrenaline rush , the way we screamed , jumped was something to watch for.

    By 5 in the evening we had some tea and Bhajiya. And as it got darker, we chose to share some horror experiences (somehow this becomes the favorite thing to do ). To remind you , we were surrounded by water, not one boat house to be seen( wonder where the remaining 1999 boats were sailing ) and it was pitch dark. The upper desk had very less illumination and we had planned to stay up here all night (but we were requested to get back to our rooms after dinner as per the boat house rules).Around 8:30 in the night and after 5 haunted stories when we were called out for dinner, none of us had the courage to climb down the stairs to reach the dining table. No, it was not the fear of the ghosts. It was more dreadful than that. A creature who has been scaring the girls since ages, who when occurs gives sleepless nights. They are seen crawling on the wall, roof and sometimes floor. And we call them the “lizards”.

    We now felt punished, as if someone had dared us to stay overnight in a boat house (whose roof is not at a very great height) filled with lizards. Now that we were there, we had to make it. We took our own sweet time but reached the dining table. The dinner comprised of chapathis, bhendi, rice, dal, rasam ( we were hungry yet scared). With so much drama around, we never realized how the night passed. We woke up to a morning where the world (boat house) suddenly was a better place to live in. And we all laughed over the night’s experience.

    Idli , sambar and sliced pineapple for the breakfast. And we soon got ready as we were expected to vacate by 9 am (We wished it would never end). We met Tony again, who helped us to get back to our cab. At around 11 am we started to the alleppey beach. With the scorching heat , there was not much we could do than getting back with a few pics. At around 1 we went to a bird sanctuary called Mangalavanam (We saw bats and some crows:D). Next was the marine drive in cochin (worth a visit). At around 2 we were all hungry and ended up at a pretty decent restaurant for north indian thali ( No , we did not want to experiment with the food with hunger pangs). After lunch, we wanted pan (and trust me it was hell of a task to explain the driver what It meant). He kept guessing with pan parag sometimes and manikchand when he finally realized it was “murukund” in malyalam. When one of us had the first “murukund” she screamed as she realized she was munching tobacco! (by then three of us had successfully munched it). We now wished only to get back, as the ones who had the tobacco treat were dizzy. Since we had planned only for two days, we were left with not many places to see. We now wanted to wrap the trip by visiting a church and some shopping.

     St. Anthony’s church had a sight of a temple at the entrance, where the incense sticks and camphor were lit. As we entered it was a church ( a consequence of a population of converted Christians). From here we left to the Oberan mall . Here we looked for a coffee day, and all us peacefully sipped coffee until the tobacco effect reduced. Here I remember someone say “ No matter how hard we try, we are now used to the malls and the brewed coffee in unusual big cups. We will always want to get back here”.

      At around 5:30 we leave the Oberon mall and were told by the driver that the KSRTC bus stop is just 10 minutes-drive from here. We had our bus at 7.00 pm, we estimated we still had some time to buy the famous kerala chips and halwa. By 6:45 and a tiring search for the appropriate bakery to buy the stuff we started to the bus stop. And for some reason the driver kept taking the same route again and again until it was 7.00 pm. We all choked and tried calling the KSRTC, but nothing happened. It was 7:15 and we were still looking for the bus stop. We all were raged with anger against the driver, but had no choice. By 7:25 pm we somehow made it to the bus stop. The bus stop had two entrances. Me and my twin rushed to stop the bus(hoping it had not left us).And we left the others to pay the driver and get the luggage.

As soon as me and my twin took the main entrance we saw a bus moving towards us, it was Kerala to Bangalore. I waved my hand, the bus stopped. The conductor comes out and asks “ is this the time to come?”. I leave my twin alone to deal with his questions and I rushed to get the others (not sure which side of the entrance they must have taken). After a long search, phone calls when I saw a familiar face I screamed on top of my voice calling out for them (I have never been this loud in my life ever). As we rushed towards the bus we saw my twin juggling with this rude conductor. We heard the driver say as we entered “ Because you are ‘girls’ we waited , or else we would have left, get in quick!!”.

All ashamed we entered the bus (the stares that we got from the co-passengers) and how some silently laughed at us was a feeling I cannot put into words. After this when the bus stopped for dinner, we were the first ones to get down and hurry for the dinner (now that we had to make up for being late). We made sure we were back soon ( we became such a laughing stock that night). When the bus started after dinner, I remember we said to each other “ we’re finally done with the trip”.

The next morning at around 6 am on the highway , we heard people getting down ( none of the 8 knew what was happening). When we overheard someone say “ The bus is punctured” ,we burst into laughter. When we 8 got down from the bus, we were looked at as if we were the reason for the puncture. As we sat beside the road until it was fixed, we saw a few people cursing us (and we realized, No we’re not done with this trip yet). Few got into another buses and few waited for the tyre to be fixed. We reached Bangalore at around 10:30 am that morning and only when we all reached our office we knew “we were done with the trip”!!