It was the scorching month of May in Hyderabad and the children were having their annual summer holidays. My wife and kids wanted to escape from this cruel heat by going to Kerala, but since no train tickets were available, they dropped the idea. It was then that I had to go to Kochi for some business purpose. The idea of going by road in our new Tata Mobile that was converted into an utility vehicle spontaneously sprang into my mind, as the trip would be serving two purposes at the same time. I had some material purchases to be done at Coimbatore. Since my wife and boys were disheartened at their aborted attempt to go to Kerala, I asked them to pack up along with me that same night. All my trips were undertaken at night hours as I enjoy night driving better than day time as I can avoid the cattle, villagers, dogs and so on and the concept gels with my mantra of work by day and drive by night while on business tours.
We fixed the journey at 9.00 pm on the 27th May 1992. The pickup side had a seat-cum-bed, was filled with mattress and pillows for the boys to sleep well behind. The maidservant too accompanied along with us, so as to take care of the children behind. We were all ready to start the vehicle, when I noticed that I had left my wallet behind. I went back to the flat to get my wallet. As I was reaching the main door, I could hear the telephone ringing in the hall. I almost reached when it disconnected and before I could turn again it started ringing. I answered the call and to my surprise it was my mother – in – law sounding quite panicky and excited on hearing my voice!! We had spoken to her only an hour back about starting on the trip at 9 o’clock. She said that she had been trying our number frantically for quite some time and asked us not to start on with our journey as she heard a PTI report of our Prime Minister Mr. Rajeev Gandhi’s assassination at SriPerumbudur, near Chennai and that the situation was quite grim and that there were reports of violence and vehicle burning every where. Knowing my nature, she sternly insisted that I refrain from taking out the new vehicle and not to risk with the family, as the mob were going berserk over the news and were on a destroying spree. I understood the gravity of the situation and went down to tell this to my enthusiastic travellers, waiting and wondering as to why I took so long. We were so gloomy hearing the news, all that thrill we were having some time back drained out of us. We slowly brought back the luggage etc., back home not sure as to when we really can start with the trip in such a scenerio. We dumped everything in the room and were eager to catch up with the news. The reports were just coming in as The Breaking News. The next 2-3 days we were glued to the TV feeling so sorry for the handsome, vibrant, witty, young Leader, whose life was snatched off in such a demonic manner.
Three days later, we again set out for the Kerala trip via Anantapur-Bangalore. As per the advice of our well-wishers we started the journey early morning. We stocked sufficient food items with us, in order to be on the safer side of not getting into trouble, due to lack of food availability, as the boys were young and hungry at all times. On the way, we found numerous charred vehicles big and small on the roads. The roads wore a deserted and spooky look. We considered ourselves lucky to have escaped the wrath of the miscreants destroying the private and public property in the name of fury!!! Since the roads were unusually empty with a handful of vehicles plying, I thought of covering up a considerable distance till we reached Bangalore. We didn’t have any trouble on the way, though we were keeping our eyes and mind very alert on the movements on the road. At some places some kiosks were half opened. These places had STD, ISD facility. Since we didn’t have any cell phone facility at that point of time, like we have now, we had to call up from these places to tell our dear ones, who were tensed up on account of us taking up this journey. We passed by many junctions were Rajivji’s garlanded photo was kept on a pedestal with lighted joss sticks and men standing in & around these places. We kept our fingers crossed to reach Kerala safely without being held up on the road. The vehicle had to be filled with diesel as it was showing half tank and most of the pump stations were closed. We went in search of one, as I didn’t want any problem with insufficient gas. By around 8 .30 pm we reached some town in Tamilnadu. We had hardly covered a few Kilometres, when a group of stick wielding people stopped our vehicle and peered inside. They enquired as to where we were going, to which we answered that we had to urgently reach Kerala due to a relative’s poor health and since no vehicle was available due to all these unfortunate happenings, we set out on the trip. One of the fellows in the group was not convinced, asked my wife where we started our journey. My wife’s eyes were red and swollen, due to the incessant tears she shed on hearing about Rajiv Gandhi’s demise and she answered the guy with a very gloomy look. They went behind checked the back area and were convinced on seeing that we were travelling with the family, and finally let us go. We thanked the Almighty for helping us through that situation. We reached Bangalore and went to our friend Raj’s house. They were waiting for us as we had informed them of our visit on the way. We took a break there for some time. Though they insisted us to stay there for the night, we didn’t as I wanted to cover up as much distance as possible and I never felt any fatigue or drowsiness driving continuously.
The most fabulous beauty of the heaven and earth meeting each other, one can experience during the early morning, during sunrise, when you see the sun in red, climbing up and again at sunset when it goes down. As we were entering Tamilnadu border again, some cops posted at the check post advised us to put a black cloth like a flag on the bonnet as there were some riots going around and if it looks like the sympathiser’s vehicle it will be spared. We didn’t have any black cloth, so just drove on and on praying to the Almighty to be our guide. We heaved a sigh of relief on reaching Kerala, as the situation there wasn’t bad as it was in Tamilnadu. Moreover, people slowly came back to their normal senses, as so many days had elapsed by, after the assassination. We drove straight to Palakkad. The sight of the cloud kissing blue-lilac mountains, with the lush green plants and trees all around was a feast for the thirsty eyes. We went to my sister-in-law’s house and rested for a day there.
The next day around 8.00 am, after breakfast I started out alone to Kochi, leaving my wife, maid and kids at Palakkad, as I had some official matters to be attended to in Kochi. Kochi was only 3-½ hrs drive from Palakkad. It took me a day there. The next day I came back to Palakkad and along with the jing-bang left for my hometown Allapuzha, where my parents and aunt stayed, in our ancestral tharavad. We spent two days with them and proceeded to Thiruvananthapuram. Since we have a lot of relatives scattered all around Kerala and mostly in Thiruvananthapuram, it was a must to visit all of them, as they loved to see us once in a year.
Since my wife wanted to go to Kanyakumari, we set out on this trip, on the way getting down at Padmanabhapuram Palace, where King Marthanda Varma once resided, primarily to show the kids the remnants of Travancore history. We then went to Kumara Kovil to get the darshan of Lord Muruga, the presiding deity, which is so tall, that the priest has to climb up a few flights of steps to reach the deity for garlanding and doing pooja. From there, we visited the ancient Sucheendhram Temple, where it is believed that even today Lord Indra ascends there to do pooja to the Almighty Shiva. You can see a beautiful huge sculpture of Nandi, which is made of sea shell (conch). There are many stories related to that temple.
It hardly took us an hour to reach Cape Comorin (Kanya Kumari). We checked into a hotel with the sea view. After having a shower, we had some hot idlies, masala dosas and tea. We visited the temple, did some shopping – buying straw hats, shell chains and the like, took a boat ride to the Vivekananda Rock and by the time we reached back at the starting point, we were so hungry that we headed for a restaurant, from where we had a heavy lunch. Like a python after heavy intake, we walked slowly back to the hotel room for relaxing. In the evening, to see the sunset we walked close to the Gandhi mandapam, when suddenly police started shooing away the crowd making way for the VIPs bearing the pot containing the cremated ashes of the slain Leader Rajivji, to be immersed in the seawater at Kanyakumari. So we went to the other side of the platform, from where we could get a view of both the immersion as well as the sunset. We had a long walk, sat on the side of the temple wall, overlooking the lashing waves and just didn’t realise the time ticking by. Later, at the hotel we had some light dinner and went off to sleep early, as we wanted to get the sunrise view at the sea, but were disappointed as it was cloudy and we could see the sun half hidden behind the clouds, winking at us as though he fooled everyone. But the picturesque hue that was painted all over the sky, at that point of time was enough to make a layman yearn to be a poet or a painter!
That night we left back for Thiruvananthapuram, stayed for a day and from there back to Hyderabad. The route was a bit different from Coimbatore, from where I purchased the needed materials & then left for Ooty, where it was too crowded with tourists. So, we just had some on the way – by the way sight seeing, did a light shopping of buying some eucalyptus oil, honey and some dry flowers for making an interior arrangement. My wife went berserk collecting the wild flowers and picking up twisted twigs and collected all dried grass and patterned leaves. She was beaming with joy at the ample collection of all these additional tit bits! We left for Mysore the same day. At Mysore we checked into a hotel for refreshing ourselves and took some chapatti and korma with some strong flavoured Mysore filter coffee! Soon after we made a hurricane visit to the Royal Mysore Palace, then to Brindhavan Gardens, Nandi Hills and later on, our way back, we purchased some aromatic joss sticks having a special bearing to Mysore and also some sandalwood oil. As I had taken some time off from the busy schedule back at Hyderabad, it was time for me to call up the shots and pack up. Otherwise, the strong desire for seeing newer places may drag on for more number of days and we had to be back at least a couple of days ahead of the re-opening of the school for the boys. Road to Bangalore I didn’t stop anywhere except for food and biological compulsions. Kept the same pace till we reached Hyderabad.
Knowing about a place is mere information. If we don’t dare to go out in search of places, how do we experience the feel, ambience of the place???
Every journey we made had its own sweetness, anxious moments, thrilling moments, dangerous moments, as well as bitterness. But that is what we call the TRUE SPICE OF LIFE and we always try to take it as it comes, as we feel that by sharing the joys and sorrows in life we become better understanding and meaningful people.
We fixed the journey at 9.00 pm on the 27th May 1992. The pickup side had a seat-cum-bed, was filled with mattress and pillows for the boys to sleep well behind. The maidservant too accompanied along with us, so as to take care of the children behind. We were all ready to start the vehicle, when I noticed that I had left my wallet behind. I went back to the flat to get my wallet. As I was reaching the main door, I could hear the telephone ringing in the hall. I almost reached when it disconnected and before I could turn again it started ringing. I answered the call and to my surprise it was my mother – in – law sounding quite panicky and excited on hearing my voice!! We had spoken to her only an hour back about starting on the trip at 9 o’clock. She said that she had been trying our number frantically for quite some time and asked us not to start on with our journey as she heard a PTI report of our Prime Minister Mr. Rajeev Gandhi’s assassination at SriPerumbudur, near Chennai and that the situation was quite grim and that there were reports of violence and vehicle burning every where. Knowing my nature, she sternly insisted that I refrain from taking out the new vehicle and not to risk with the family, as the mob were going berserk over the news and were on a destroying spree. I understood the gravity of the situation and went down to tell this to my enthusiastic travellers, waiting and wondering as to why I took so long. We were so gloomy hearing the news, all that thrill we were having some time back drained out of us. We slowly brought back the luggage etc., back home not sure as to when we really can start with the trip in such a scenerio. We dumped everything in the room and were eager to catch up with the news. The reports were just coming in as The Breaking News. The next 2-3 days we were glued to the TV feeling so sorry for the handsome, vibrant, witty, young Leader, whose life was snatched off in such a demonic manner.
Three days later, we again set out for the Kerala trip via Anantapur-Bangalore. As per the advice of our well-wishers we started the journey early morning. We stocked sufficient food items with us, in order to be on the safer side of not getting into trouble, due to lack of food availability, as the boys were young and hungry at all times. On the way, we found numerous charred vehicles big and small on the roads. The roads wore a deserted and spooky look. We considered ourselves lucky to have escaped the wrath of the miscreants destroying the private and public property in the name of fury!!! Since the roads were unusually empty with a handful of vehicles plying, I thought of covering up a considerable distance till we reached Bangalore. We didn’t have any trouble on the way, though we were keeping our eyes and mind very alert on the movements on the road. At some places some kiosks were half opened. These places had STD, ISD facility. Since we didn’t have any cell phone facility at that point of time, like we have now, we had to call up from these places to tell our dear ones, who were tensed up on account of us taking up this journey. We passed by many junctions were Rajivji’s garlanded photo was kept on a pedestal with lighted joss sticks and men standing in & around these places. We kept our fingers crossed to reach Kerala safely without being held up on the road. The vehicle had to be filled with diesel as it was showing half tank and most of the pump stations were closed. We went in search of one, as I didn’t want any problem with insufficient gas. By around 8 .30 pm we reached some town in Tamilnadu. We had hardly covered a few Kilometres, when a group of stick wielding people stopped our vehicle and peered inside. They enquired as to where we were going, to which we answered that we had to urgently reach Kerala due to a relative’s poor health and since no vehicle was available due to all these unfortunate happenings, we set out on the trip. One of the fellows in the group was not convinced, asked my wife where we started our journey. My wife’s eyes were red and swollen, due to the incessant tears she shed on hearing about Rajiv Gandhi’s demise and she answered the guy with a very gloomy look. They went behind checked the back area and were convinced on seeing that we were travelling with the family, and finally let us go. We thanked the Almighty for helping us through that situation. We reached Bangalore and went to our friend Raj’s house. They were waiting for us as we had informed them of our visit on the way. We took a break there for some time. Though they insisted us to stay there for the night, we didn’t as I wanted to cover up as much distance as possible and I never felt any fatigue or drowsiness driving continuously.
The most fabulous beauty of the heaven and earth meeting each other, one can experience during the early morning, during sunrise, when you see the sun in red, climbing up and again at sunset when it goes down. As we were entering Tamilnadu border again, some cops posted at the check post advised us to put a black cloth like a flag on the bonnet as there were some riots going around and if it looks like the sympathiser’s vehicle it will be spared. We didn’t have any black cloth, so just drove on and on praying to the Almighty to be our guide. We heaved a sigh of relief on reaching Kerala, as the situation there wasn’t bad as it was in Tamilnadu. Moreover, people slowly came back to their normal senses, as so many days had elapsed by, after the assassination. We drove straight to Palakkad. The sight of the cloud kissing blue-lilac mountains, with the lush green plants and trees all around was a feast for the thirsty eyes. We went to my sister-in-law’s house and rested for a day there.
The next day around 8.00 am, after breakfast I started out alone to Kochi, leaving my wife, maid and kids at Palakkad, as I had some official matters to be attended to in Kochi. Kochi was only 3-½ hrs drive from Palakkad. It took me a day there. The next day I came back to Palakkad and along with the jing-bang left for my hometown Allapuzha, where my parents and aunt stayed, in our ancestral tharavad. We spent two days with them and proceeded to Thiruvananthapuram. Since we have a lot of relatives scattered all around Kerala and mostly in Thiruvananthapuram, it was a must to visit all of them, as they loved to see us once in a year.
Since my wife wanted to go to Kanyakumari, we set out on this trip, on the way getting down at Padmanabhapuram Palace, where King Marthanda Varma once resided, primarily to show the kids the remnants of Travancore history. We then went to Kumara Kovil to get the darshan of Lord Muruga, the presiding deity, which is so tall, that the priest has to climb up a few flights of steps to reach the deity for garlanding and doing pooja. From there, we visited the ancient Sucheendhram Temple, where it is believed that even today Lord Indra ascends there to do pooja to the Almighty Shiva. You can see a beautiful huge sculpture of Nandi, which is made of sea shell (conch). There are many stories related to that temple.
It hardly took us an hour to reach Cape Comorin (Kanya Kumari). We checked into a hotel with the sea view. After having a shower, we had some hot idlies, masala dosas and tea. We visited the temple, did some shopping – buying straw hats, shell chains and the like, took a boat ride to the Vivekananda Rock and by the time we reached back at the starting point, we were so hungry that we headed for a restaurant, from where we had a heavy lunch. Like a python after heavy intake, we walked slowly back to the hotel room for relaxing. In the evening, to see the sunset we walked close to the Gandhi mandapam, when suddenly police started shooing away the crowd making way for the VIPs bearing the pot containing the cremated ashes of the slain Leader Rajivji, to be immersed in the seawater at Kanyakumari. So we went to the other side of the platform, from where we could get a view of both the immersion as well as the sunset. We had a long walk, sat on the side of the temple wall, overlooking the lashing waves and just didn’t realise the time ticking by. Later, at the hotel we had some light dinner and went off to sleep early, as we wanted to get the sunrise view at the sea, but were disappointed as it was cloudy and we could see the sun half hidden behind the clouds, winking at us as though he fooled everyone. But the picturesque hue that was painted all over the sky, at that point of time was enough to make a layman yearn to be a poet or a painter!
That night we left back for Thiruvananthapuram, stayed for a day and from there back to Hyderabad. The route was a bit different from Coimbatore, from where I purchased the needed materials & then left for Ooty, where it was too crowded with tourists. So, we just had some on the way – by the way sight seeing, did a light shopping of buying some eucalyptus oil, honey and some dry flowers for making an interior arrangement. My wife went berserk collecting the wild flowers and picking up twisted twigs and collected all dried grass and patterned leaves. She was beaming with joy at the ample collection of all these additional tit bits! We left for Mysore the same day. At Mysore we checked into a hotel for refreshing ourselves and took some chapatti and korma with some strong flavoured Mysore filter coffee! Soon after we made a hurricane visit to the Royal Mysore Palace, then to Brindhavan Gardens, Nandi Hills and later on, our way back, we purchased some aromatic joss sticks having a special bearing to Mysore and also some sandalwood oil. As I had taken some time off from the busy schedule back at Hyderabad, it was time for me to call up the shots and pack up. Otherwise, the strong desire for seeing newer places may drag on for more number of days and we had to be back at least a couple of days ahead of the re-opening of the school for the boys. Road to Bangalore I didn’t stop anywhere except for food and biological compulsions. Kept the same pace till we reached Hyderabad.
Knowing about a place is mere information. If we don’t dare to go out in search of places, how do we experience the feel, ambience of the place???
Every journey we made had its own sweetness, anxious moments, thrilling moments, dangerous moments, as well as bitterness. But that is what we call the TRUE SPICE OF LIFE and we always try to take it as it comes, as we feel that by sharing the joys and sorrows in life we become better understanding and meaningful people.
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