To VENICE via KAPPA, KALLU and KARI-MEEN.

A sudden decision and enough money; the right recipe for a getaway. What better place than Kerala for that.

Round of "puttu" + "kadala"..umm smack and a good hot tea with lots of do’s and don’ts from Amma; I was all set to explore the Greens of Vazhachal and Back waters of Alleppey with a group of 10 colleagues (non-mallus), for whom "water" meant a bucket or Hussain-Sagar lake and "nature" was a poster on the wall or a .JPEG in the numerous forwards.
They came only to corroborate the pictures in travel brochures about Kerala were not manipulated or fake. They went back satisfied; quoting “boy those pictures don’t do any justice”.

Vazhachal is one of the many exquisite falls in south India and Alleppey it is the “Venice Of East”.
Though it wouldn’t be my first visit to both these places; I was looking forward to it.

Rain patting on the glass, droplets seeping into the lap of Mother Nature, smell of fresh mud and green every where.
This was the menu for my friends to start with.
The habitually noisy crowd was evidently very hushed. It was not the dead beat journey or any kind of friction among them; instead it was all the copious beauty nature was giving them and they couldn’t find time to talk while they soaked in all that.





We started the journey with a visit to Vazhachal;

I'll let the pictures do the talking.




Latter that day, a boat ride to the sea mouth in Cochin harbor-"Queen of Arabian Sea" and brush with the Chinese nets; lots of fish and nostalgia. I had enough for the day to retire weary in my own bed, at home.

Next day was scheduled for Allepey; but truly I was a little weary about the specs of us hiring a house-boat. First they don’t come cheap, and second this being my third visit, will I get tired of the place!??

Thomichan at the wheel, Biju and Shaji in the kitchen we set sail to feel the cool breeze of Arabian Sea and calm of the back waters in our hired kettu vallam. The boat resembled a two bedroom apartment. Bath attached bedrooms, kitchen, dinning and a sit-out plus paradise around you.

Definition (Alleppey) : Paddy fields, Kettu vallams, ducks, poricha meenu, kappa, kallu, rossa kutty, her low cut blouse and loose lungi, and lots of coconut tree.

6 hours in the boat and suddenly…. "What it’s over?"

My finger is sore of all the clicking and I don’t want to go back :-(
but do i have a choice!..hmmmmmm, I always wanted to be a fisherman hmmmmm.


Our love boat and that's Thomichan at the helm

Thank a tone mates for that kari-meen pollichathu,
and that chicken curry and that aviyal and that....

and thank you GOD for all this..




only if i be a droplet and sink in the picturesque landscape, blend in the green;
only if i be a tree and stand still by the river
only if i be a ripple in that vast body of water
only if i be ........

Truly, I am proud to be minutely associated with all this;
I am a MALLU.
And I belong to this land of GODS