Summer of '09

Well, The summer is over for quite a while. But I felt the title is apt to relate some of the wonderful experiences through this summer up until now.

It started on 1st of May when I had given a talk titled "The Hinduism" to some of my fellow grad-school friends. I really enjoyed preparing for the talk which involved going back in to my past quite a while ago when I had been a pampered kid in the aegis of my parents where I was taught the basic facets of religion. At once, I felt very happy remembering the days when I had the chance to gloss over some of the greatest texts such as Bhagavata purana, Ramayana etc during which I have unknowingly gained a solid background in hinduism. I received some appreciating comments from some of the audience and I am left with good feelings abt it. One notable feature in the presentation was a clip from "Matrix-The revolutions" with a background score of recitation of Shanti Mantra.

And then, the summer went on with lots of activities that I have not done in any summer to this extent as much as I can remember.

I had the opportunity to go for a lot of hikes and hence experience a lot of nature.

In between my friend Gopins made a trip to Canada where I had the opportunity to visit Canada east of Vancouver has got materialized with a wonderful and very memorable road trip, the best I ever had.

It is like I had a fantasy of mine(particularly enhanced by movies such as 'Dil Chata He') got fulfilled.

Finally it all comes to the end in an astounding way.

I would say that I had an amazing night, one to remember with lots of satisfaction and happiness for years to come. I am part of club called "UTSAV" which is the Indian student's association of UBC and we organized a function for the upcoming festival of Deepawali. We call it Deepmala.

It was an amazing experience to really bring it out to the people. It was an attempt by people who have been passionate about achieving the goal of organizing a great Deepmala function.

Cease to weave to not let life to cease

I was in my hometown sometime ago and I along with a friend gone to a nearby village to have a look at a hand-loom mill. It is a village that was specifically planned and constructed for hand-loom workers by Government way back in 1960's to promote the industry and to provide employment for all those people who used to depend entirely on this.

After entering the mill through a side door, I noticed a long row of old unused looms and somewhere from behind the familiar clumping sound of a hand loom was emerging out. An old man perhaps in his 60's strenuously working on the farthermost loom came near us and introduced himself as Rangaiah and that he is the one of the few workmen in the mill. We requested him to explain/show us the working of the loom and he was glad to make us familiarize the same.

I cannot describe the entire art of weaving but what I can surely say is that it requires good coordination of both hands and legs. It definitely would take good effort mastering this skill.

Then he said, "I work for the whole day and I get paid twenty five rupees. What can I buy with that? Thats why I have not put any of my children in to it". It looked very logical of him to say this and I tried to intrude, "Why is that the payment of yours so less. Why aren't there customers for your cloth?"
"Days are gone when people wore simple cotton garments made from hand-looms. Recent textile advancement in the form of more shiny and cheaper polyesters and development of completely mechanized itself emerged in to the market and became wont of the day. And even recently, availability of read-made garments in the retail industry also affected the hand-loom industry. Also on the other hand, cotton continued to be as costly as it is and hence price of pure cotton cloths could not compete with the newer clothes".

So, I got another question to him. What has the government been doing all the while the industry is dying? Is it not helping these people out by finding suitable sales for this cloth.
He said, "Yes, Government has been trying to help in some ways at least. It has taken an initiative such that public institutions such as government offices, Indian railways etc. should buy this cloth and use it for their purposes wherever required. Some market has been carved out for these products".

We felt we got some kind of insight in to this art and its present market value. One question was lingering in my mind as to what all the old looms lying in the mill doing. Have they been discarded of being old or non-functional and then never cared for. My friend wondered that aloud and when we did ask him, he replied, "These are all dead looms. They used to be used by people who are dead now. After their death, there is no one to work on them and hence left non-functional." And finally pointing to the loom he was working on he added, "Once I am gone, even this loom will become dead".

I felt very sorry for this man and the industry and was very uneasy coming back from there.

A journey in to God's own country

I have been dreaming for quite some time about being there and finally I see that I am realizing it. I cannot control myself from the feeling of being there. It is Kerala, otherwise called God's own country. Kerala is so close to me since my childhood for I had been taught by teachers from Kerala. Yet in all my 22 yrs of life I never made it there.

It was early morning of 10th march, 2007. The Bangalore-Kanyakumari express was gliding through its way when I was still dozing on upper berth. And I heard Anish say, "Next is Palakkad, the entry point of Kerala". The excitement which has slept with me had suddenly woken up. I immediately got up to get the first real sight of Kerala. It took a while for me to get the feel of being in Kerala when I saw scores of coconut trees distributed in the dense foliage interspersed by rivers. Anish is a colleague turned friend who has volunteered the role of a tourist guide for three of us touring Kerala for the first time. With his enthusiastic and versed nature coupled with being eloquent in many languages including Malayalam and Telugu, he played a much bigger role than just being a guide and made the trip memorable.

We got down at Chalakudy and took a bus to Athirapalli falls. I got to see so many Malayali Kuttis, as they are called and they really appealed to me. They appeared quite traditional and unique in their own way and added to already existing beauty of the surroundings. The first sight of the falls was simply breathtaking. We were further astounded by the beautiful landscape view once I was atop the hill where the waterfall starts. There were some miniature falls too preceding the bigger ones, under which we took head bath. The natural shower we had was quite interesting and exciting indeed.

We then took a journey to Aluva (Anglicized as Alwaye), which is a significant town for being the point of inception of largest private bank of Kerala, Federal Bank. In the evening, as planned we left to Cherai Beach. From Aluva, one has to take a break journey through Paravoor to reach Cherai. The beach was superbly clean and there were very few people to share your (temporary) private space you want on the beach. It was a joy watching the sun setting on a nearly clear evening dipping in to sea. My friends also relished lake fish Kori-meen along with Kappa during the evening.
In the morning, we quenched our appetite with few Kerala special varieties of breakfast. We had IdiAppam which looks like a softer version of vermicelli. It is made up of rice and coconut. We also had Puttu which is made up of a special variety of rice called chamba rice and coconut with coconut in slightly high proportion. It looks like cylindrical balls and it is also taken with veg/egg/chicken korma.

We reached Ernakulam(Anglicized as Cochin) in the morning and went boating in marine drive. It is a good drive in the sea making a very close journey to Port, Ship Yard and Naval base of Cochin. No wonder, Cochin's landscape looks simply magnificent with lot of sky scrapers on the sea as there are quite good number of aristocratic people there for it handles a significant amount of Exports/Imports to Southern part of Peninsula of India.

There is a uniqueness in every aspect of Kerala. From being a quite traditional place following age old festivals and customs to being one with people with extremely flexible mindset and adaptivity to various cultures, Kerala exhibits extreme contrast and variety in cultural, religious and social aspects.

Finally, it requires no more description to say that it is one of the most important destination for tourists around the world. It has arguably finest beaches in India as well as wonderful waterfalls and wide variety of wild life that is unique to itself. I cannot simply wait for another trip in to this unique land, very rightly termed as God's Own Country.