Tag: family

Right Place, Right Time

Have I ever mentioned June’s a great month? Because that’s when the weather makes you crave hot chocolate and a warm book.

But July isn’t that far away, and that’s a great month too. More so if you’re holidaying in a wooden cottage in a place like Thekkady.

I just can’t get the picture out of my mind: A small wooden hut, surrounded by trees, shrubs, and flowers I’ll never remember the names of.

Little insects scurrying about, alarming people heading for a warm dinner at the restaurant, waking up to a chilly sunrise, with my legs perched on top of the railing, blowing the steam from my cup of tea, and smiling at dew on the leaves from the previous night’s rain.

sterling resorts thekkady

That’s how our holiday was in Sterling resorts. It’s a beautiful place to spend time alone — or with close friends or family. Thekkady itself brings you closer to nature. And a comfortable resort only brings you closer to your family.

But it’s not all fancy goodness, love, and affection.

It’s annoying to wake up to the morning chore of scooping up and letting out, a worm or two that had found solace inside your cottage.

It’s annoying when you’re generous enough to make tea for everyone and someone ends up complaining about too much milk or too less sugar.

It’s annoying when you want to gorge on the local favourite puttu (steamed rice flour meal)  with kadala (chic peas gravy) but you don’t get the gravy when you have puttu, and no puttu when you have gravy.

But when you step out of the cottage and look up at the pale-grey sky, every annoying thing would disappear. The sky would seem to have a hard time deciding whether to clear its way for the sun to shine or to hold its stance. It’s such bliss to be in such a place at such a time that nothing else would matter.

One Night

She looked up.

Darkness surrounded her. She sat up in silence.

She remained observing, as cold breeze kissed her cheeks.

The white drapes swayed, revealing the midnight full moon.

Her room door stood ajar, so she had to squint to clear her vision.

A couple stood under the light. Talking of innocent things, unknowing.

She stepped down as light as air. her bed creaked, nevertheless.

Her long, loose hair flew about her shoulders.

And she didn’t push it off her face.

She emerged from the darkness.

“Boo!” Her parents startled.

Thekkady Days

Last week I was away on a family trip to Thekkady. It’s a beautiful little town perched on the border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

on the way

Just beyond the border is Kumily, after which comes Thekkady. There’s not much distance between the two towns, and we saw plenty of shops with address boards that read “Kumily/Thekkady.” It’s almost as if the locals have made peace with the fact that tourists will never understand the nuance differences between two small towns.

Nevertheless, we were in Thekkady. I love the way the name of the town rolls off my tongue. It starts slow but halfway through, it tumbles as if in a hurry. It’s a beautiful word, to name a beautiful town.

Even before we chose Thekkady to spend my parents’ anniversary, we knew there was nothing for us there. Sure, there were a handful of tourist attractions but they all came in a package. The package which starts at 5.30 am, ends at 3.00 pm. And during that time, we’d travel on a ferry, get a glimpse of a waterfall, trek through a spice garden, and ride through one part of the 1388 sq.ft of the forest cover.

We did none of those, though. We didn’t want to lose sleep and cram a tiny boat, with other tourists pointing fingers and cameras at overgrown trees and the silhouette of a tiger.

We chose the untrodden way, instead. My brother knew a local guide who had been doing jungle safaris for twenty-five years. He didn’t promise serene stuff like a lake-view lunch. But he asked for four hours of our time. And told us we’d be going to three places, all of them view points.

the green

He took us to The Green Mountain, The Shola Forest, and Parunthampaarai (Translates to Eagle Rock). And a bonus, he bought us the local special tea in one of his friend’s tea shop. It was cardamom tea at its best.

Each of the three places had so much to capture that one panorama couldn’t do it. I realised a whole different meaning of getting high. Having lived in a city with just enough fresh air to sustain myself, I was thrust, all of a sudden, into more oxygen that I could take in.

All three places deserve separate posts, and that’s what they’ll get. Stay tuned.