wayanad kerala travel india
TravelTravel Destination

Wayanad Wonders – Wayanad, Kerala – Incredible India

by Tina Basu
written by Tina Basu
The Wayanad district in North East of Kerala state is a perfect weekend getaway with lush green tea gardens, hiking trails, National Parks and natural falls
When I was confined at home with a stupid back pain and restricted from doing anything I realized there are so many things that I want to write on… but that was one time when touching the laptop or sitting up was forbidden L. Sadly, when I am fit I keep forgetting the topic I think to write on? Ideas roam around in my mind like some random stuffs in a whirlwind! Does it happen with everyone or it is just poor me who keeps forgetting?
 
Anyways, now I feel like writing on one of my weekend gate away to Wayanad, Kerala. I am so happy that I stay in Bangalore which is absolutely the centre point from where you can travel everywhere in South India. I am closing on my travel wish list (within India) as I had mentioned earlier. 

 
A long 8 hrs drive took us through the spanking new highway out of Bangalore and beautiful greenery off Bandipur (and some other places which I don’t remember) to the state of Kerala – God’s Own Country. Why I don’t remember the names is mainly coz I was busy looking at the long stretch of road with blissful greenery on both sides and was as usual busy taking naps J.
 
For those who don’t know – Wayanad is a district of Kerala famous for its hilly terrain of the Western Ghats. It is known for its lovely wildlife, velvety tea estates and its absolute beautiful weather. The weather is pleasant almost all round the year. You get some good resorts but can opt for home stays too… they are very popular in these places. Well I don’t want my post to become a guide book for Wayanad. You can check here in case you are planning a trip there. But it’s a nice place to visit on your weekends. Kalpetta is the area where you should be staying. It’s the most popular and connected to most of the sites.
 
Road through the Forest
While driving through the forest… our friend pointed out twice for some deer which was busy in its morning meals but by the time I woke up and my eyes wandered to spot them they had vanished. 
 
Bamboo forest – straight out of some story book
The first touchdown in the communists state was at the RTO where we got company from another communist state – my original state of West Bengal [When we visited red was still ruling WB and Didi sadly was not in the picture.] I was surprised to see that Basmati rice is transported to Kerala from West Bengal every week in trucks. We enjoyed the Bengali chit chat with the over joyous driver who was happy to see someone speak in Bengali after a long time.  
 
The Communist Connection
As we entered the velvety hilly district of Wayanad we were welcomed with nice refreshing cool shower… Rains in the hills are so different… suddenly you have a shower and suddenly it’s gone.
 
Late afternoon after a wholesome lunch we visited this place called Pookotte Lake. It is supposed to be the largest natural fresh water lake in Kerala. It was decent sized green lake with curious monkeys hopping around everywhere. I think the monkeys don’t even care if you are ten times bigger and still want to catch you inattentive to grab something of its choice. And people happily ignored all sign boards asking them not to feed the monkeys. I so don’t like this thing about tourists/visitors – why they end up doing what they are asked not to do? Well we went for a long boat ride in the lake…. It’s only then I realized that even paddling for 20 mins can become tiresome!
 
Pookotte Lake
The long winding roads of the hills with massive tea estates on both sides down the terrain looked picture perfect. We stopped over to feel this velvet of nature many a times. These tea estates looked different from the ones I had seen in Darjeeling and Assam. But very surprisingly the tea drinkers with me (my husband is a tea addict) didn’t like the tea served at the hotel! I, in anyways don’t like drinking tea so I didn’t find any difference from my little sip.
Friends had plans for trekking and hiking but thanks to all the rain gods that it got canceled… (Much to my delight J. The hill they wanted to hike looked too tall and dangerous – and I can certify I am the wrong person to dare to go there!)
 
Green Velvet of Tea
Instead we went to check out this waterfall called Soochipara Falls. As you enter the parking lot near the waterfall the blank looking man in the traditional ‘munda’ selling tickets will tell you to walk for 5 mins to get to the falls – Word of Caution – do not believe him. This walk is loooong through winding rocky path… you literally have to climb down some hills to get to the falls. You will find yourself running down more than walking. But once you reach down you can’t help yourself but will risk climbing down further to the base of the waterfall. Though we went at a time when it was not in its full grandeur but it still looked lovely and the water – refreshing in a bright sunny day after a long walk.
 
Soochipara Falls
While we were down enjoying the cold water little did I realize what was about to happen next. We had completely forgotten that we had to climb up that long stretch to get to our car! And climbing up slippery rocks wasn’t a very good idea of a vacation for me. I was so bad at it that I don’t even know how many times I sat down to catch my breath! Yes I am ageing I guess at 25!
 
Our next stop over however was the best time we had at Wayanad. It was the Banasura Dam – supposedly the second largest dam of Asia [I don’t know how far that’s true but I have read it in websites.] As we proceeded towards the dam we were caught in heavy downpour and we spent a long time confined in our car thinking of all possible lip smacking snacks which would feel like heaven with the heavy shower outside. With all the discussion of ‘garam chai’, ‘hot samosa’, ‘bhajiya’ etc etc I was only feeling too hungry as I had skipped my lunch. [I get nausea when travelling in the hills and get a fear of throwing up – as I used to do when I was a kid – so I tend to eat less. That’s like my little trick to save some embarrassment. J ]
 
The Dam in a Romantic weather
However once the shower thinned out we took a jeep ride towards the dam. A massive water expanse surrounded by hills on all side and covered with clouds felt like we had reached to some door way to heaven. I felt it was very romantic to have a sight like that in front of you. The chilled weather and rain made it very interesting. I would have loved to go boating there if the rain had stopped. If you are visiting there and it’s not raining don’t miss this chance. I am sure it will be worth enjoying.
 
Dreamy hills surrounding the dam
We started the next day with some authentic Kerala breakfast. I like to try authentic food of a region when I am travelling. These experiments can go wrong at times but I think you should always try out new things. I enjoyed the ‘Puttu’ with veg curry. Puttu is a steamed rice flower cake sort of thing which is steamed within bamboo. The concept is very exciting and I quite liked its shape and presentation. I also came across ‘idiyappam’ – a round shaped rice flour cake kind of stuff which looks like it is made with noodles. I am not too sure how they make it but I enjoyed both its taste and shape!
 
Thats how Idiyappam looks like
very interesting I felt
Puttu – the name’s so cute



Our last destination was the Eddekal Caves. It’s famous for its rock carving by the Neolithic civilization. Feels like pre historic right? Yes it is and so is its climb… If you are successful in climbing up till the top it will feel not less than any historic moment of your life – I can bet that. I was cribbing at waterfall on why they couldn’t arrange something better for climbing… little did I know what was lying ahead for me in Eddakal. You get the same response from the people at the parking lot that it’s a 10 min walk to the caves. Don’t believe them –it will feel like a ‘Climb to Remember’ kind of thing at the end of it.

 
We walked and walked and walked passing by many weary looking people looking like they have been in some war or something. I felt sorry for the elderly people who tried hard to keep up the pace. Only the people walking back seemed happy and smiling that they were out of it finally.
 
After climbing for almost half an hour we reached the base of the hill on top of which the cave was! That came as a shock to me. Some more climbing was ahead of me! And this time around it was not on paved stairways but climbing up huge rocks keeping your foot in whatever edge, crook, joint you get! I felt that hill was almost a straight hill and you have to climb up straight! I don’t know how others were managing but I surely had a very hard time catching my breath keeping my foot firm. I felt almost all of my muscles refused to co operate with me!
 
Clicked from the point that I could climb uphill to Eddekal Caves
– I now think I didn’t do a bad job given the height of the hill 🙂
Every level we reached people kept on saying 5 mins more… but that final cave seemed to be on some Mt Everest. On the last leg of the climb my mind also gave up forcing me to stay back when others dragged themselves up. It’s this historic day when I declared myself the big loser with a bad stamina! Its specially a shame for someone who had spent half of her life (till now) practicing dance for 5 hrs daily. How everything turns upside down when u change your lifestyle. Let me not write more on my loser story and feel more embarrassed.
 
TwinklingTina in her Loser mode 🙂
 
There are other places which you can visit but for that you must have some more time I guess. But what one must enjoy is good food. I’ll suggest all non vegetarians to try out beef curry and pork (if you eat them), I had expected fish will be good because I am in Kerala but wasn’t that great.
 
Shopping tip: If you want to shop for local spices or any authentic Kerala stuff please don’t wait for the Sunday (like me L) – most of the shops are closed. I so wanted some Kerala Ayurveda oil.
 
Well, while driving back through the forest if you are lucky you can have some grand visitors like how we had. So keep your eyes open. J
 
The big visitor. But the question is who was surprised – him or us??

And Guys if you are planning to visit Kerala, have a look at the Backwaters as well, they look breathtaking. I’ll post a Backwater travel post also soon.

Pic Courtesy : Kerala Tourism
Pic Courtesy : Kerala Tourism
Image Source: All copyrighted to Twinklingtina and which are not are from Google 🙂
 
 
15 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Uncategorized

What’s unethical about the Osama Raid?

by Tina Basu
written by Tina Basu

Ever since the Osama raid took place I have been reading mixed views about the man who killed thousands and terrorized the whole world. Peace prayers were being held at places across India, Pakistan and god knows where all! This completely beats me. Praying for peace for the man who probably didn’t understand ABC of peace, humanity, love, human rights??? I thought it’s disgusting.

Yesterday I read (here) that his battalion of sons is lashing out against the killing of their father telling ‘it’s unethical to kill an unarmed man’! As I read it I thought what a joke! But I want to ask all these people who said it was unethical to kill Osama who was unarmed when shot dead, where were you when this very Osama killed thousands of unarmed innocent men women and children? Was it very ethical on his part to kill civilians? If you couldn’t raise the question of ethics to OBL then why raise now?
I get very inquisitive each time, I come across such things, to find out the history behind all this, so I started reading a lot on it recently. Some of the ideologies I came across made me think in which century these guys are living in? I have quoted some examples below, read them and you can decide for yourself if they are ethical, unethical or absurd.
Example 1
OBL’s first bombing attack was on December 29, 1992 at Gold Mihor Hotel in Aden where civilians were killed. It is after this incident that they came up with a justification for killing innocent civilians.

“According to a fatwa issued by Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, the killing of someone standing near the enemy is justified because any innocent bystander will find their proper reward in death, going to Jannah (Paradise) if they were good Muslims and to Jahannam (hell) if they were bad or non-believers.”  – testimony of Jamal al-Fadl, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osama_bin_Laden#cite_note-84
Now what sense does this make? If I am standing near my enemy my murder by someone else is justified?? How?? If one is not a believer or a follower of a particular religion that person becomes bad? Why?? Wasn’t this unethical??

Example 2

OBL and his groups had dynamited 6th century standing Buddha statues carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan. This was widely covered in the media. Some quotes on this incident.

“It was the spring of 2001. I was in Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley, together with my brother Ahmad Shah Massoud, the leader of the Afghan resistance against the Taliban, and Bismillah Khan, who currently serves as Afghanistan’s interior minister. One of our commanders, Commandant Momin, wanted us to see 30 Taliban fighters who had been taken hostage after a gun battle. My brother agreed to meet them.

I remember that his first question concerned the centuries-old Buddha statues that were dynamited by the Taliban in March of that year, shortly before our encounter. Two Taliban combatants from Kandahar confidently responded that worshiping anything outside of Islam was unacceptable and that therefore these statues had to be destroyed. My brother looked at them and said, this time in Pashto, ‘There are still many sun- worshippers in this country. Will you also try to get rid of the sun and drop darkness over the Earth?'”” – Yahya Massoud (July 2010). [Afghans can win this war, Foreign Policy].

I swear by the sentence Will you also try to get rid of the sun and drop darkness over the Earth? They have already brought enough darkness in people’s minds… darkness of illiteracy, darkness of inhumanism, darkness of violation of human rights, darkness of extremism, darkness of terror. Wasn’t it unethical to destroy a world heritage? Will they do the same to the pyramids in Egypt because the pharaohs worshiped Ra (the ancient Egyptian Sun God)?

Example 3

Under Taliban rule rights of women were nonexistent in Afghanistan. God only knows how much they must have suffered under these extremists.
From the age of eight, women were not allowed to be in direct contact with men, other than a close blood relative, husband, or in-law ,they were not allowed to appear in the streets without a blood relative and without wearing a Burqa. Women were not allowed education, right to work, and even right to medical attention as male doctors were not allowed to treat women and females couldn’t practice. Ban was imposed on wearing high-heeled shoes as no man should hear a woman’s footsteps lest it excite him! [How disgusting, put cotton balls in your ears if you don’t want to get excited, pervert]. Women could not speak loudly in public as no stranger should hear a woman’s voice. All ground and first floor residential windows had to be painted over or screened to prevent women being visible from the street. And when any one violated any of the above they were flogged, whipped, tortured, gang raped or killed.  You can read more on http://www.rawa.org/rules.htm
The extremists stated their aim was to create

“Secure environments where the chasteness and dignity of women may once again be sacrosanct” – Nancy Hatch Dupree. ‘Afghan Women under the Taliban’ in William Maley (2001)
 
 Dignity of woman? Do they even understand the meaning of the word dignity? Abusing a woman, taking away all her rights, denying her medical help forget about anything else.. Does this count as making the dignity of women sacrosanct? [http://www.rawa.org/women.php]


In one of the most horrifying incidents, the Talibans publically executed a woman ( a mother of seven children) in a soccer field where they invited common people in masses. Zarmeena’s story is not unknown today because of youtube and different other websites.  But it’s due to a brave move by some brave women workers of RAWA that today the world know and has seen images of this barbaric act. Zarmeena had beaten her husband to death after being unable to bear any more torture and abuse by him. She was arrested and kept in prison for 11/2  years. But the extremists wanted to keep people terrorized so they decided for a public execution of a helpless woman.  

“Several minutes before the execution, her husband’s family announced to the Taliban that they forgave Zarmeena. But the Taliban said that it was impossible to stop the execution because they had already announced it to thousands of people. Islamic law allows the family to forgive the killer but the Taliban did not pay any attention to the law.” RAWA reporter, With All Our Strength by Anne E Brodsky 2003
This is the book which I am currently reading and getting to know more and more how women in Afghanistan have been denied all rights and left in a condition where survival is next to impossible. It’s sickening to read that a girl’s thumb was amputated for wearing nail polish! Someone’s leg broken because her heel was accidentally visible under the long burqua! Isn’t it unethical, inhuman??
Coming back to my initial question, if these people (OBL’s family) didn’t raise questions of ethics at those times why are they raising the question now? What did they want, US to arrest him and give him a fair trial! And again some other planes would have been hijacked, thousands would have been killed to release that man before that trial. I believe what you have done to others you will get it back and he too got it back.


There’s some problem happening in the blog today, formatting is changing on its own.. can’t do much about it…regret about the weird formatting 🙁

4 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Uncategorized

Pain Pain go Away

by Tina Basu
written by Tina Basu
In the last two weeks I saw myself handicapped, dependant, confined to bed, and bored to hell. I suffered a bad back problem which almost left me crippled for some time when I could neither walk nor sit. That’s the reason for fewer posts in June. For a second on that fateful Sunday morning I thought my back and right leg had become paralyzed! I know I think too much at times…
All the doctor said I could do was lye straight and watch the ceiling!! No TV no Laptop, no getting up, no going out, no work, no nothing…. Now I know what prisoners might feel in solitary. How can someone just spend days watching the ceiling! Anyways I couldn’t help myself much because I couldn’t even move. L
For some time now I was cribbing to my friends on how worked up I am… I think God heard me… but heard me in a wrong time in a wrong way. I did get to sleep a lot… a whole lot… and managed to read some novels too… Indro said this perhaps was the first time when I read up so much… 😀 [I don’t like reading novels that much… I am more of a newspaper or a magazine person… I always felt novels take up a lot of time to finish off.]
Then started a week of physio at the hospital… and yes I did get scared to hear about the ‘electrotherapy’.  I almost made the therapist laugh when I asked if they are going to give me electric shock and its gonna hurt like hell. I think he still thinks why do I have so many questions for him 😀
But I am so thankful to the doc and therapist for getting me upright so soon. Those electrical waves worked like magic and I am back to work and back to being normal. J Indro was too sweet, he took care of each little thing and almost got on my nerves to make sure I am lying in the positions recommended by the doc and watching the ceiling!
I just came across an irony of life, people complain for standing for a long time and I am in pain when I sit for a long time! Poor me.. And the culprit is my best friend… computer and laptop… how do I reduce using you and sitting in front of you?
1 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Uncategorized

My Bangalore is back!

by Tina Basu
written by Tina Basu
When I landed in Bangalore back in 2007 the one thing I had loved about the city were light silver clouds hiding soft sun shine between them, cheerful green trees swinging in cool breeze and regular showers at 4 in the evening when I used to be back from college. This very weather had forced me to stay back and not return to the hot and sultry Kolkata (though I love my city quite a lot).
This beautiful weather of Bangalore greeted me with a cool hug when I woke up in the morning today. It almost felt like meeting someone after years. I have missed you badly ‘My kinda Bangalore’. Pollution, dirt, heat, water logging, power cut, mosquitoes had hidden you for such a long time, but yes you are back today and you are the best part of the city. You hold me back under the quilt for a little long and I am not complaining – because I absolutely love it to cuddle up under my soft quilt early in the morning. 🙂 [It reminded me of all those days when I hid under the quilt and bunked the first class in college and felt it blissful:p. But sadly I can’t do it now at work :(].
While sipping his morning tea Indro was telling me this is the perfect Bangalore weather. [He knows more about the city than me as he is here from 2005]. I think he is also in love with the city for the same reason as I am! I was even cheerful while coming to work – I didn’t need to take out my umbrella or shades (otherwise it’s almost impossible to walk under the strong sun in the morning – forget about after noon).
I am sure my parents were very happy with the news of this weather change since they will be visiting us tomorrow and can escape the scorchy Kolkata which is never in a good shape at this time of the year.
Thank you ‘My Bangalore’ for being so nice and for coming back. Thanks to all rain gods, wind gods and cloud gods (if there is any) for thinking about us and giving the Sun god some rest! 🙂

Weather was very similar to this… I don’t know why I din’t click.




0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Uncategorized

Grazie Readers

by Tina Basu
written by Tina Basu
Dear Readers,
When I checked my blog in the morning I saw the current stats count and I went tee hee with a big broad smile.The number of visits crossed 3000, in fact, its 3011 right now :).
So I want to thank all of you who have read my little humble posts. I hope it makes sense to you – because I write on many random stuffs what ever strikes my thinktank.  
A big thank you to all those who have been kind enough to post comments and made me feel happier *blush blush*. And for those who haven’t I have added this little bee who sweetly asks for your comments if you like my posts. I would love to hear from you more :)]. Thanks to all of those who have visited from all across the continents.
Grazie.
Yours Truly
Tina Basu

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Uncategorized

I, Me, Myself

by Tina Basu
written by Tina Basu
A tag post which I saw here, and am copying it. Only the questions & not the answers 😀

I am: Tina, a.k.a. Sarani Basu. I should have written it the other way round but I am known to people more as Tina than Sarani, moreover I am tired of the numerous weird renditions of my good Bengali name so I stick to Tina!

I think: I speak a lot which makes my friends & my husband think– ‘how can she speak so much?’

I know: If I think positive and have faith in myself I can do everything… most of the things actually (I don’t know if I can confront a cockroach, or overcome my fear of the dreaded maths!)

I want: a life where I am always happy… I like to be bright and smiley… [Oh yes I also want back my vital stats which I had when I was a regular classical dancer ]

I have: a good sense of humor, creative mind and good culinary skills (which I got to know only after I started living away from family) J

I wish: terrorism & violence never occurred.

I hate: disrespect for women, corruption, hypocrisy and oh yes drinking milk, all reptiles and cockroaches.

I miss: college days when I could bunk classes and sit in Green Benches (familiar term with all Xaverians from Kolkata), in the canteen, so wake up late bunk few classes and still maintain attendance. FYI I had 98% attendance in the first year in my Post Graduation in Bangalore!   

I fear: losing my loved ones.

I feel: I need to know more, there is never enough of knowledge, I want to know so many things.

I hear: myself talking to the ‘inner me’ often asking her questions and getting the answers.

I smell: everything that I cook. [I make sure all my recipes smell good, look good and of course taste good]

I crave: for sweets all the time. I call myself ‘sweetoholic’. Whoever is visiting me from Kol please don’t forget to bring the sweets. I become shameless when it comes to sweets and keep on asking people to get sweets because there is a huge dearth of good sweets in Bangalore!

I search: for stability and peace when I have conflicting moments in my mind. I like to be quiet than screaming in these times.

I wonder: if ever I will be able to fulfill all my wishes J

I regret: nothing. Even if I made a mistake I have only learnt from it – not to repeat it again!

I love: keeping myself, my family and my friends happy.

I ache: for people who are wronged. 

I care: about myself not hurting anyone in anyway

I always:  think positive and keep my mind strong

I am not: the one who can be selfish, rude or cruel. 

I believe: Past is past, future is future, present is the gift that you should always cherish. 

I dance: because it’s my passion. I dance from Kathak, to Jive. [ occasionally, me & my friends R, V & A have danced Afro tribal when Wakka Wakka was a craze and believe me it was fun]    

I sing: only in bathroom or when I am alone. I know my limitations!

I cry: only when I am hurt badly.

I don’t always: tell everything true to parents specially, I keep myself safe from running into trouble.

I fight: in my mind. I always think I’ll say this n that and when the time comes I can say nothing L

I write: in MS-Word. Had a wonderful handwriting till college but these days I prefer digital!

I win:  people’s friendship I can start talking to anyone any time.

I lose: my patience… rarely.

I never: pretend to be perfect because I know I am not… no one is for that matter.

I confuse: my cook almost everyday when I tell him “Don’t make too many things today, but make this n that n that too and the list goes a lil long” 😀

I listen: to my parents… but it’s mostly literally… what I do after that is entirely on me 😉

I can usually be found: shuffling between my laptop & desktop in office, lazing on my favorite spot in the couch with TV/ laptop/ book, or cooking up something new in my kitchen.

I am scared: of anything which is creepy and crawly. Surprisingly I am not scared of ghosts & thieves and have enough courage to face them and I know many of my friends don’t have it 😉

I need: peace in mind to go about in life. 

I am happy about: who I am.

Photo credit goes to creators of Photoshop – making life easy

2 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Newer Posts
Older Posts