India - Part II- Kerala (God's Own Country)

Even before we came to India, we had decided after researching a lot, that we should go to Kerala, a state in the Southeast part of India that strecthes to its tip. Everyone here in Mumbai confirmed that. It is nicknamed 'God's own country' because of its beauty. So, we decided to go.

A friend of the family, Behram, who is a travel agent was nice enough to set everything up for us. We wanted to stay 3 nights at an Ayurvedic resort, and then do a houseboat ride down the backwaters of Kerala.

Ayurveda is an ancient India science of human health that is based on trying to keep a balance in your body. It is a holistic science and all remedies are natural with little if any side-effects. So we wanted to get some Ayurvedic treatments and rest at the resort.

We did the houseboat because of what everyone told us...it was an experience of a life time. But little did we know how it would be and what to expect.

India is not as cheap as it used to be. It used to be a steal. Now it is still cheap, but flights are almost as expensive as in the US. Trains are cheaper, but take a while....

SO we decided to take the train down to Kerala, to see the nature and environment on the way, and take a flight back to Mumbai to save some time. The train was supposed to take 26 hours!! Luckily now trains have A/C sections with private beds (seats that convert to beds), so it was comfortable.

So we get onto the train about 45 minutes before departure, and the train suddenly starts going...and going and going. We were sitting next to this Indian lady and her two 10 year old twin daughters, and another older couple and their late teen daughter. Thank God for these people. They were SO nice, and we all felt so at home. Indian people are laid back and chilled. Formalities seem silly to them (that is why some snooty cultures are baffled by them). The lady had her feet up on our bench, we did the same. No worries, just getting comfortable and relaxed.

Layla got along so well on the train, and the lady and her daughters basically had Layla on their bench the whole time. Stories, jokes, songs, sharing food....we passed the time well. Since it was such a long trip, food was served to us on the train. The quality was great, the prices were phenominal. A veggy meal which was enough rice for 2, with 2 veggy curries and a soup, and bread was about 75 cents. The Non-Veg meal was around $2 (OK, India is still cheap!) Snacks such as wadas, dosas, samosas, masala chai and milky chai were brought every few minutes by theses teenage boys. I drank maybe 10 chai masalas (they were about 10 cents a cup).


The scenery was so beautiful. Southern Maharashtra, Karnatika, Goa and Kerala are beautiful states in India. Lush green mountains, rice paddies, small villages, rivers and even glimpses of the sea. So nice. And we slept quite comfortably too. BUT....

remember how i said the trip was to be 26 hours? Well, due to heavy rains in Goa, our train was diverted and it took....(drum roll please)...................34 HOURS!!!!!!!!!!! Really, 34 hours on a continuous journey with no stop overs!! It was the longest trip Jammie and I had ever done. Layla said she had done one longer when she was younger.

It was insane, so thank God for having the other 2 families next to us, who really helped pass the time.

OK, Time out:

Something I realized about India as it compares to the US. For me, the US and India are 2 opposites of the same coin. They are in many ways the same type of country, but in different stages of their lives. But what i realized is that they both are very good teachers.

The US gives you what you want, much easier than what you need. India gives you what you need a lot easier than what you want.

I think this is why India is so famous in the west. It frustrates the Western mentality of getting what we want when we want it, how we want it. But in the end, a Western soul leaves India having got what it needed, although it may have not known that is what it needed.

I think living in the US can teach you self-control, responsibility and decision making. But they are hard lessons, and most of us in the US do not do those things well, maybe. But since it is so easy to get what you want, you have to learn these things or sink into debt and depression.


OK, back to our story:

So we finally reach Allepey, Kerala a day and a half later. Delirious and tired. Luckily we had a driver waiting for us at the train station to take us to our resort as it was quite late at night.

The resort we stayed at was really a treat. It was a quiet place that could accomadate maybe 15 people at a time only. We opted for our own private cottage right on the water's edge (maybe 20 feet from it). It was very rustic, but clean, with electricity and a very nice bathroom. The bathroom was so interesting! It was another room in the house, but the shower area had no roof. It was made of wicker walls, with beautiful floor tiles. Above you as you bathed was simply banana tree leaves from the tree next to the cottage, and the sky. I LOVED that. It was a very nice touch, and done very well. The toilet area was roofed and was modern, but showering there was a special treat.

The back waters of Kerala are like little water ways that seperated pieces of land. Villages were seperated by the water, so most villagers' main transport was via canoe. LOUV...i thought of you a lot here. This was your paradise. Believe me.

We would wake up each morning at around dawn to the sounds of Hindu prayer floating over the water from the other side of the water, from some village. The music was so beautiful and peaceful, and the voice calling on God to bless this day, and thank him/her for the new beginning. So beautiful and moving.

Our first day at the resort we decided to get Ayurvedic massages for the both of us. We took turns, so we could watch Layla.

Ayurvedic massage is not like any other type of massage i have had. It is not to relax you per se, but rather to get your body organs, muscles and energy balanced and functioning well. First, i had to strip down to nothing. I was given a loin cloth to wear and then asked to lay down on a large wooden massage bed as two men massaged me in unison. Each would work on one side of my body at the same time, so it was all balanced.

The massage was done in a small cottage in a clearing behind the resort's dining room. The windows were open, and a nice breeze and silence flowed into the room that helped in relaxing me. The massage took about an hour, and my whole body was felt rejueved and amazing after words. I felt organs start functioning that i didn't know existed!

We met a British couple who was also there at the resort, and we became good friends real quickly. We would enjoy meals together at the resort's restaurant. They were so nice, and we really enjoyed each other's company.


You Get What You Need

So one afternoon at the resort we decide to go walking down a path and see if we can walk all the way to town. There were no signs, no directions, we WANTED to go to town, but instead as we were walking, we heard someone playing the Indian flute. Haunting Indian music that sounds like a beautiful bird crying softly stopped us in our tracks. I was mesmerized by the music, and something told me to check it out.

I took a couple of hesitant steps towards the music, that was coming from a shabby resort next to ours. I wasn't sure if we would be tresspassing. Suddenly a man saw us listening and bid us come hear the music. The guy who was playing the music had a big black beard and dark piercing eyes. He welcomed us to sit and listen, and we started talking....

That is how i met Murali Krisna, a nationally awarded painter, and state awarded cinematographer from Kerala. He was at the resort with a director, Martin, an Indian Christian, and their producer working on a film script in the peace of the backwaters.

He wanted to teach Layla the flute so we stuck around. We suddenly started talking more and more and we connected. SO we came back after dinner for more conversation and we had a great discussion on religion, philospohy, God, Krisna, Christna (Christ), Islam, Bhagavad Gita, the Bible, films, documentaries, poverty....and on and on.

He is a soul friend. So is Martin. We connected very deeply. He invited us to his house in Cochin (a major city in Kerala) to spend a week or so and work on some film ideas and documentaries. Unfortunately we had plans already.

He had made a documentary called 'The Pain of the Soul', a short piece about orphans in India, and the tough life they go thru. He made it and wanted all money made from the film to go to an orphanage where he supports secretly a few children. But a friend of his sold it in Canada and kept the $$. So I want to ask Monica Rouaud if she would want to help me help get this film some marketing and help his project.

It was very special to meet Martin and Murali. I am thankful for somehow meeting them, although all we WANTED was a way to get to town. But what we actually got was what we NEEDED, and that was finding good souls trying to do good and a good cause.


The Houseboat

Going down the backwaters of Kerala is higher on my list of things one must do when they come to India than seeing the Taj Mahal. Oh the experience!

You basically start off in the morning on your own private houseboat made of whicker type material. The crew consists of 3 people (a captain, a cook, and an engine operator). You spend most of the day sitting at a shaded, yet open air table enjoying beer and food, or laying on a matress that is open to the sky...and you just slowly cruise down the backwaters.

I will try and post some pictures when I can, but let me tell you....pictures do not capture the experience. The peaceful experience, the scenery, the kids and adults who walk by smiling or waiving, the little inlets that are like driveways for canoes of a small neighborhood here and there, the farmers working the field or fisherman fishing much like their forefathers had done for centuries...

Louv, this is a cajun's home away from home, you'd love it.

The food they made for us was excellent. We've had so many types of Indian cuisine. In the US all we get is vindalu or curry, but man there's so much good cookin' going on in India. YUm!

Then came night time!!!! So we dock by a rice field for the night and are to have dinner and tehn sleep in our indoor cabin. Well....I killed may be 30-40 mosquitoes during the day and evening, and when night came about, there was a conference of mosquitoes, and maybe 20 other types of bugs.

If you know me well, you know i am a mosquito magnet. I attract mosquitos from miles away. I HATE mosquitos (they are the only beings on earth I can truly say that about). I get paranoid, I get nervous, my body senses when a mosquito is in the room (i am THAT sensitive to them).

So you can imagine the nightmare this was for me. Layla and i were bit a bit, Jammie wasn't. We put mosquito repellent so the mosquitos didn't bite that much, but just seeing them everywhere with other bugs...AHHHHH!!!!! Luckily Layla is still young, and was not that bothered by the insanity this was. Don't worry no malaria or anything like that. It was so overwhelming, there were so many bugs, that while we were eating, we were swallowing bugs at times. It was crazy!! All we could do was laugh, we put

Then at night, we went to the room to sleep, and i became paranoid. I slept about 2 hours the whole night. I stayed up waiting for any mosquitos to fly by. I was deliroius and even laughed at myself like a mad man. I stayed up all night thinking about ideas. My cousin, Meherwan, read my blog and told me I need to publish this as a book called 'One Love, One People, One Heart' my motto. I loved the title, so started thinking about it seriously.

I was so happy when dawn arrived, i could have ran around naked singing 'In da Gada da Vida'!! :)

With everything considered, I would still go again on the backwater boat ride. It was so amazing, that it was worth the mosquito experience. In fact, once again, I didn't get what i WANTED, but rather what i NEEDED. I am now not as paranoid as i was about mosquitos. I no longer hate them...i just don't like them at all now... :)

That morning we took a cab from where we were (Allepey) to Cochin to catch a flight back to Mumbai. The cab ride was nice, since we got to see even more of Kerala.

Kerala is awesome. Truly.


sami 11-08-05