Travellogues

An Evening walk through a fort...

     I still remember the first time I went to a beach. I was just a child then. And I was totally surprised to see tons of gallons of water spread without any intention. For my small eyes, a picture of the beach was enough to become a fan of nature’s works. But when I saw a giant decayed building through my small eyes I was forced to think again about the need of that building in that beach. There was no answer for that, but I still remember that beautiful evening I spent on a beach for the first time. Of all the other beaches in Kannur , the picture of this one will stay close to me forever.

After that, it took me some more years to visit that place again. By then, I knew the significance of a fort and I was still a fan of that beach. When I went there next time with my parents, the fort looked extremely beautiful and it was totally looking new to me. While everyone was interested in the beach part, I headed to the fort side and ran along those big walls for a long time. Even if it sounds so childish, later when I spend some thoughts, I figured that I was running through a place where the biggest colonial empires (Portuguese, Dutch and British) established their power. That picture forced me to turn the history pages back to the age of colonialism. But I failed to find the history of St. Angelo's Fort in my text book. That took down my interest about the subject from there on. Then time passed and I moved on with my career in search of success. 

Some more years after, I visited that beach again with my friends during my vacations. This time there were some few changes from my earlier visits. My voice changed into one of a man, I’ve grown some heights also and my ability to think also got improved a little. When I reached that place, they all darted to the beach like seeing it for the first time in their life. We followed the road we were walking and that led us to the beach. From the shore, the road was extended almost a 150m into the beach and we walked until the end of it. It felt wonderful to walk through a road with sea on both sides making roaring voices and presenting the visitors a chilly atmosphere. From there we could see the Dharmadam Island situated miles apart. It is said that this road was actually made by British until Tellicherry, Capital of Kannur, to make transportation easier. Then, they all started to explain their childhood memories about the place. I also followed them and donated my savings from the past. But that didn’t end right there. It only brought my old memories back into reality. Seeing that fort in my front, I felt those child hood days happening in front of me. The fort and the beach was still looking the same and glowing in the sun with the heads straight up. My memories and my mind were still same, but what changed was me. While thinking about all this, I was already walking towards the fort without breaking their talks. I think I smiled a bit while walking towards the front entry of the fort. I walked in simply and headed towards the huge walls where I remembered myself running and playing. It was a huge set which was crafted in rocks with guns planted in all four sides with a spectacular view of the Arabian Sea and all other three sides from the heights. I wanted to imagine how the Portuguese and the Dutch battled their enemies there and how they managed to succeed in their battles. I climbed on the flat walls and sat on it to enjoy the amazing view of the sea. I managed to spend a lone time there for the next few minutes but then I heard someone calling me from behind, telling me that sitting there is dangerous and he is not responsible for any danger, in case anything happens. He was the security in charge and the tourism policeman of the fort, Sathyan Edakkad. Within a few minutes we were talking and then we became friends in no time. I talked to him about my idea of imagination and expressed my gratitude towards the people of ancient times. He was smiling at first and he explained his experience in the field of imaginations like this. He was not only the security in charge but also a history researcher and a proclaimed writer. He has done the historical research about this fort and published three books named “Vasco da Gama and the Unknown Facts of history, Vasco da Gamayum Charithrathile Kaanapurangalum, Kannur Kaanan ariyaan.” I got excited hearing all this and without asking he turned the history pages back to the age of colonialists and emperors for me.   

Hundreds of years before, the great navigator Vasco da Gama arrived at Calicut with his crew First India Armada and though he discovered the sea route to India. That day remarked the beginning of a new era of colonialism in India. After discovering the way to the godly country, Vasco da Gama returned back to Portugal during late 1498. In 1500, a second India armada was organized by the Portuguese king, Manuel I, and was placed under the command of Pedro Alvares Cabral. They discovered Brazil on their way and even after many failures to land at the port of Calicut, they were not allowed to but they managed to land at Cochin and established their first ever factory in Asia. Then in early 1501, the Portuguese admiral Pedro Alvares and the Zamorin of Calicut opened their hostilities and that provoked the Kolattiri Raja of Cannanore to invite Portuguese to trade in spice markets of Cannanore instead. In 1502, treaties were signed and later the crown factories were also established. Then in late 1505, Dom Francisco de Almeida, the first Portuguese viceroy of India acquired permission from the Kolattiri Raja to erect the stone fortress of Santo Angelo in Cannanore. The fortress garrison of 150 men was placed under the command of Dom Lourenco de Brito. On the same year, Portuguese built a fort on the face of Arabian Sea about three kilo meters from Kannur town, St. Angelo’s Fort (Kannur Fort). On August 1509, Almeida refused to recognize Afonso de Albuquerque’s as the new Portuguese governor to supersede himself, arrested him in this fortress after having fought the naval Battle of Diu. Afonso de Albuquerque was released after three months' confinement, and become governor on the arrival of the grand-marshal of Portugal with a large fleet. Then the fort changed its hand several times. The Dutch captured the fort from the Portuguese in 1663. They modernized the fort and built the bastions Hollandia, Zeelandia and Frieslandia that are the major features of the present structure. The original Portuguese fort was pulled down later and sold it to the King of Arakkal in 1772. Then the British seized it in 1790 and used it as their chief military station in Malabar. And today the fort is well preserved by the Archeological Survey of India and also one of the most important tourist places in Cannanore.

He ended the review of last few centuries with that. I was surprisingly listening to him and enjoying the flow of history just like watching a movie. He then explained how Portuguese was defeated in the Battle of Chaul. That was a roller coaster ride through the history of our country and the story ended on the present day, with me sitting beside the tourism police officer on the fort. Once the greatest empires of the world established their power and defended their enemies in the St. Angelo’s fort, and today I’m sitting there enjoying the sunset with a complete strange tourism officer. I imagined, some way now I’m also connected with the history of the fort with this single day. I saw my friends recording the beauty of sun sinking into the sea, while I was feeling every movement of the sun from the top like the kings used to. Every movement of the sun was creating Goosebumps in me. When I looked at the officer, he was also smiling at the sun with Goosebumps over his body. I wonder what he is imagining in his mind about this sunset.

The Roaring Waters of Athirapally !!!

It was a Saturday night. Even though I never sleep too much on Saturday nights, I slept early this time. I forced myself to sleep. Then slowly I fell into the sleepy world dreaming about a fine sunny atmosphere to begin the next day. Everything was already planned. We’re going to Athirapally to spend the holiday. We were just two so I thought a bike trip would be appropriate for us. We’ve got two hours drive through the Valparai route to enter the Sholayar forest range and to reach this great waterfall in Kerala. That was the plan.
Sunday morning, I woke up at 6 o’ clock and got dressed immediately to leave for the adventure trip. We packed some clothes as well as some food also as a precaution. All set and ready to kick off the journey. And finally we left to the jungle witnessing the rays of sun falling on to the surface of earth with great freshness and intensity. The conditions were extremely good to begin a journey like this. We experienced a very shiny atmosphere throughout, agreeing all those conditions of a good sunny day. We had food from Chalakkudy town, half way through to the great falls and that break gave us more enthusiasm to move on to the jungle. We kick started the final lap of this journey, just 37 kilometers to go from here. It was such a smooth road that anyone would enjoy a drive on this. Then, we experienced a slight change in the climate once we entered the forest region. A cool breezy and cloudy atmosphere with enough lighting, it was like a dream come true for us from the dull hectic days of city life. I enjoyed it completely. We halted at several beautiful spots on our way. And we took some nice photos to memorize those special moments forever. Then again we rode through the amazing darkness filled roads of jungle, like dancing for a deep melodious song. When we reached nearer and nearer to our destination, it became cloudier. Finally, we saw a milestone there with writings on it saying only 4 kilometers to Athirapally. That brought a little relief for us because we badly wanted to take a break. But unfortunately, it took only two more turns to experience a massive rainfall inside the forest. We kept going. But the rain was getting heavier. We didn’t had a chance or an option to do anything but only to get wet. Then on the next turn we saw a small hut held on four wooden sticks. There was nobody near to that place.
We stopped the bike and ran into that hut. That gave us a little refreshment but even our bags were already wet. And it’s still raining outside, even harder. So we decided to take a nap. We sat there on the dirt, half dressed and with two bags keeping on the back of our head as pillows. We sat there silent for the next ten, fifteen minutes trying to sleep. But we couldn’t get anywhere near a sleep with the rainy noises coming out from the forest. Once the rain stopped a little, we got up and start checking the area, if there are any hidden attractive spots lying in surrounding forests. We walked around and around. The only thing we managed to find was just a piece of rock. A piece of rock that’s double of my height and triple of my size. And I wondered how the forest would look from the top of it. It was a bit of work to climb to steeps of that huge one lying in the middle of forest, but I managed to reach the top. I looked around again and again. There was nothing. Purely nothing there other than the top of some trees and that noise from somewhere pretty far. That was a real disappointment to believe about and again I had to do some Tarzan work to climb down the rock.  Once I got down we had no choices other than moving to our destination. Ignoring the slight rainfall with a towel tied to the head, we headed all the way to the great waterfalls of Athirapally.

We knew that we are getting closer and slowly I started recognizing the ‘noise from somewhere pretty far’. It was the roaring voice of the water falling on the beds of hard rocks. That brought a little excitement and anxiety followed by a little smile. This was my second time here, after my first visit during my child hood days. That was a good trip too, but I don’t remember the place this clear and sound. Then, after a few minutes of driving we finally made it there. It felt good.  Once we reached there, we bought the tickets to the falls and then we rushed through the forest which contains various types of rare trees and plants everywhere. We didn’t had much time to figure out the types of plants, so we headed to the falls. We were accompanied by a group of monkeys. I guess they really had some special interest in our bag because they were tracking us by jumping through trees. While we rushed forward, the roaring sound started becoming louder. And even louder once we reached the top. It’s always a great feeling to watch everything from the top. I was amazed to the peak of joy seeing that scenery with my eyes. “Tons of water flowing through the rocky pathways, which separates the Sholayar forest into two and then water falling into an 80 meters steep fall into a bed of hard rock’s”; That was Chalakkudy river, flowing continuously and deeply supplying water to the great two falls in land of Kerala, Athirapally and Vazhachal waterfalls. Vazhachal falls is situated just five km away from Athirapally through Valparai route. We already decided to go there if we have time. But for now we had plans to explore the rock ways and steep falls of Athirapally with monkeys to guide us.  We found it actually confusing to decide which part to explore first. There wasn’t much water in the river so we easily crossed it to the other side with a little swimming exercise in the end of it. We just wanted to see how it looks from there. We changed positions frequently from the other side and believe me, that waterfall was looking stupendous from all angles.
Once we concluded on that part, we headed to find the origin of the river. I felt a little adventurous walking through the rocks without touching the water. But the origin was not anywhere near. Well, that was really stupid thinking about finding the origin of the river but I guess we were actually caught up by the situation. At that time we would have climbed even the Mount Everest if it was there. But interestingly, we only found a small pond like water storage in the middle of the river. We checked its depth first and then we decided to bathe in it. With Sun on top and water everywhere we took a long relaxed bath in it. It was such an amazing feeling, away from the world of city life to deep down in forest under the sun in a pond situated in the middle of the river where peace lies…
We took a bath from there. Then we changed our clothes and started walking back. We were almost done with the place and a little tired also to drive back. But there was this one thing left to check out the view of the falls from down side of the 80 meters-high hill. It was monkeys again guiding us through the complications of forests to reach the bottom of the steep fall. We climbed down with no regrets and rushed through green forest to a terrific water storage they preserve under there. That was actually a 3D view of the waterfall like in a Hollywood movie. Tons of water falling on the bed made of rocks making that roaring wild sound along with spraying water drops into the air. I wished, if there is a heaven somewhere then I want it to be like this. Lots of water, falling from the sky to meet the well structured rocks. I felt like sitting there until time departs. I knew it then, that this was the view I have been searching for since morning. It was such a magnificent experience. But we wanted to make it even more memorable. So we bathed there again even though it’s restricted to get in there and we captured some more photos to frame onto our heart to remember for the lifetime. Even though we managed to get into the river from there, we couldn’t go out from there because of the securities over there. So we swam through the river a little more forward. And finally we got out from that area. We started walking back to the city life that we’re holding. And when I was walking out all tired and hungry… the river was still screaming, breaking the silence of peace inside the forest now getting more energetic. I wondered, from where it is getting this much energy and how could it become this much beautiful. Even more peoples were arriving there to feel the beauty of that extra ordinary art of nature. And even more monkeys were reaching there from forests to guide them to the most beautiful waterfall in god’s own country. I realized that it’s time for me to depart and to let others experience the splendid falls lying beneath the dark forest. So I threw a bunch of bananas into forest for monkeys. They sensed it in no time and most of them jumped on it. While some of them were looking at me guessing the bananas weren’t just food but also my good bye to them.Athirapally

A Short cut to Munnar !!!

    Munnar, being one of the major hill stations in Kerala, attracts a lot of travelers from all around the world which includes almost every age group. Every time I went to this place, I felt I know this place better. But every time I learnt new things about this place and the outstanding sceneries of this place are still teaching me. I still remember the first time I felt the most attractive thing of this place, the climate. And when I think of it, the Goosebumps will arise to make me feel it for a fraction of a second. And in the next second I’ll be making plans for my next trip to Munnar.

This time I headed straight to Kodaikanal, with my 3 buddies in two bikes, to explore the mesmeric beauty of pine forests and heavenly caves buried in lap of mist filled huge hills. And I lived an entire lifetime in every moments I spent there. Now you don’t have to guess why I’m explaining the beauty of some buried caves in Kodaikanal, while explaining the attractive climate of Munnar. I don’t have an appropriate answer for that, but I can explain where I headed from the heavenly caves of Kodaikanal.  After exploring some innermost villages and dark green forests in Kodaikanal for two days, we were preparing to go back. We checked out our room and just after lunch before leaving, we went out to a store to buy some fresh and natural wild honey. Fortunately, we got some fine information from the honey hunters in the town. They presented us information about a closed route from Munnar to Kodaikanal. The route was earlier used to transport goods between two towns, Kodaikanal and Munnar. But they also told us it’s now known as smugglers paradise. Only smugglers and locales who know the route very deeply went through that way. They were already worried telling us about it with the danger hiding in each every corner of the route. But even with all these dangers, it was like a dream come true situation for me and those fellows with me. We always wanted to feel that tension and grief behind an adventurous trip. So, we got all the possible information’s that we could get about this route from the town itself and we kick started the bike saying ‘Bon Voyage’ to Kodaikanal.

Moving through the countryside routes of Kodaikanal, we were presented the impeccable beauty of villages where the villagers started looking at us like we are some aliens. I guess they don’t get to see people like us very often. Moving from villages to villages, we had a hard time riding through the busted roads and the availability of food and water were also very low. But somehow we managed to find the short cut-road at Vattavada village, one of the innermost villages in Kodaikanal with extreme living conditions and no footprints of any urban culture. Once the villagers saw us climbing the forest path in bikes they came forward to lend a hand on everything. They were amazed when they heard that we’re going to Munnar through this forest route in two bikes. They said it’s impossible. They showed us the route also. The extremely dangerous route filled with many wild animals and no marks of humans until we reach Munnar. Well, I was blown into air when I looked at the route and it inspired me a classic rock song, Highway to hell. The road was designed with high quality mud and big hard stones. We had no intentions to change our mind even after watching the exact situation of our journey and I agreed to ride one bike through the forest. We collected water from the village in every bottle we had and then just before noon we set off our flag for the most adventurous journey.

The whole village was present at the scene to watch us riding through the road filled with deadly stones and mud. We panicked at first and it wasn’t a kid’s game to ride through that wild route. We fell down in front of the villagers many times and lost our pride in those muds flowing down from the top of the hill. The villagers explained we had to climb this huge hill first to reach the top most station between Kodaikanal and Munnar.  They said climbing down the hill is the most dangerous task and it’s gonna take us to the top station of Munnar. I was already picturing the view from the top most point between two hill stations and that blew my heart away pumping energy to ride into the pile of mud.  The tires got jammed several times in mud and we had to lift the bike from mud to keep moving. Our dresses were already buried in mud completely. After repeated attempts, we accomplished victory on our first stage of the journey keeping alive our pride in front of villagers. Once we finished the mud way to the hills we stopped our bikes there to wave at the villagers. And then before starting the journey again we met there two foreigners and a team from a travel magazine called Yathra, trekking from Munnar to Kodaikanal. It took them 24 hours to complete the journey and they got stunned seeing us trying to conquering the hill with bikes. They took our photos riding through the impracticable roads through the forest. They explained us their whole experience while trekking which includes the list of wild animals they saw and the difficulties they experienced. They declared it’s impossible to go on through the route with bikes but they guaranteed us a life time experience ahead.

 The next moment we started our bikes and rode through the forest to witness that invaluable secret. For the next few kilo meters the road was quite okay to climb the hill through the small walkways of forest. Once we reached the top of that small hill we had to ride down through the steep road into the middle of the forest. Even though we weren’t sure how much acceleration and brake to apply, we rode down into the fall like stunt masters. The whole things were in complete control until the halfway and then the speed kept increasing and suddenly both bikes went out of control. The brakes weren’t quite enough to stop the bikes from falling down. I managed to slow down my bike to an extent by shifting gears down. Even though we hit on several rocks and trees we managed to bring out a trouble-free end. But the other bike went completely out of control and fell down with two of them hitting on a tree. They slightly escaped from a major accident but the incident brought down the condition of bike. The headlight was broken completely and the handle got tilted to one side a little.

After taking quite a break there, we re-started the journey with new strategies but the front tire of the broken bike was vibrating constantly making it even more difficult to drive. Once we reached down that hill, it was the starting of a yet another hill, but this time even bigger. We stopped our bikes there itself and walked forward a bit to examine the route. Leaving two of them there to watch the route for us, we the drivers walked back to drive on through the 70 degree steep hill. I had my own strategies in mind and I decided to go first. Even with all these strategies, my bike got stuck several times and I had to run along with the bike to remove all the weight from the bike so that it can be lifted easily from the mud. The condition of the other bike was becoming more difficult but still we showed every bit of courage lied in us to take it to the top. While we were almost reaching the top, the other two were waiting for us there making bad faces than ours are. When we reached the top, bad faces talked to us about our next setback, to climb down the hill through the lost ways of forest to cross a small U shaped stream that dug on the land. It was like a border between this hill and the next hill that is coming on our way. We cannot take our chances this time because any simple mistakes could ruin our every plan. We spent the next few minutes thinking about how to cross the stream. We examined that the rest of our way is completely filled with dust powder with no stones in it and that brought a little relief to us bringing back from the memories of rocks and mud. But the relief didn’t lasted too long and I discovered very later only that driving through this road is not that easy. The dust powders that spread over the road made the tire slip even with brakes applied. There was only one chance to take it to the bottom, to drive on first gear with extreme control over the vehicle with partner sitting on back to give the exact amount of balance. Once we covered half of the distance to the stream, we stopped bikes there to find a solution to solve this situation.

The idea came out from one of us very fast to build a bridge to cross the U shaped stream. We collected woods from the forest to build a 6-7 meter bridge that could help two 100 kg weighing bikes. We started introducing our engineering techniques to build this bridge but we were short of woods. Still, we managed to make a small bridge and we calculated if we could pass the bridge by applying full acceleration, there might be a slight chance for us. Then it was a judgment time for all of us to apply everything that we studied and to make it to a success. None of us where ready to take the bikes because all of us knew that a single mistake would cause hard damage on both bike and the driver. But still somebody has to take it beyond the stream so I agreed to ride one of them. But all the other three were slipping away from taking this brave decision. One of them even claimed he’s going to stay in the forest and even asked us to leave him behind. And the other one joined him. This was when we faced our biggest difficulty in the trip than anything to convince them to get back. Since they both prefer to take rest, we drivers decided to take it to the front. I was presented the second slot and the broken bike to move forward by my fellow friend. We counted until three and he jumped through the bridge spreading a success smile over the area. It was my chance next and I was done making strategies and before counting until three, I took off with great speed. The front tire was vibrating in dust powder at this great speed. At some point I realized I’m gonna fall and then I increased the speed to cover the bridge even if I fall after that. But unfortunately, the bike fell down a long before the bridge and I got thrown into the stream. That was when all of us realized we’re facing a real trouble here. They came forward and helped me climb from the U shaped stream of water. I was so disappointed with the whole thing and I got up again, this time I removed a lot of dust from the area which I’m gonna drive and I set a new and smaller path to drive. Counting until three inside my mind I took off the bike and rushed towards next end. The handle was still creating a lot of problems but still I managed to jump a bit and I almost made the front tire on the other side of the stream and suddenly the others jumped into stream and lifted the back tire up. That was a moment of success for me as well as my mates that we screamed and hugged and laughed at each other in the middle of a forest, where all the wild animals consider to be their home. The next hill was the biggest one but the tracks were quite easy to ride. So we just charged into the wild making engine noises and started climbing the hill. It was easy to climb the steep roads but a new problem rose to our big adventure. Since we were climbing a steep hill, the fuel got concentrated on the back of the tank and the flow into the carburetor was stopped. So in middle of everything bike got stopped and in the next moment we were slipping down from the top of the hill. Being aware of the situation, somehow we managed to stop the bike from falling down completely. Even though we lost it half way we turned the handle and bike got stopped. But all of us fell down with some minor scratches over our body. Then we had to push both the bikes with full energy to take it to the top of the hill. Since the bike got stopped there we had to make sure the bike can still run. Once we reached the top, nature healed all our wounds with the chilled climate and made us forget all the difficulties with the splendid view it presented to us. On the top, there was a road leading straight to next two hills with vertical falls on both sides. We quit everything right there and sat on that road observing the mist flowing on both sides. We were on the top most part of the area that splits Kodaikanal and Munnar. I roamed around through the area for some time and pictured every corner of the place into my mind to remember it every time I close my eyes. Since it was getting dark, we decided we had to move. The bike easily started and then we rode through that line drawn on the top of those huge hills with mist passing by us. While driving I realized not everyone in this world gets this chance to feel the classic vibe of that drive through the mountain ranges.

Once we finished the road through the top then it was a 70 degree fall from the top. Then there was an 8-9 km road steeply where we had no resting point or anything. We didn’t even had time to think about how to drive this distance. The bike was powered off and we went on focusing completely on the balance. We covered almost a 6 km distance in no time and then we faced the biggest ever problem throughout our journey.  There were two ways from there with both leading to the different sides of the forest. This time we had nothing to think about and no strategies to make. And there was nobody there to ask the way. After spending almost thirty minutes there out of hunger and tiredness we started roaming through the area. It was getting dark also, we spotted some lights far away on one side and we took our chances with that side of the road. We rushed through that road to make use of the sun light entirely and after some 5-6 kilo meters; we again reached a road full of mud and rocks. But the mud and rocks were just a kid’s game for us by then. We managed to get past it quite simply and reached into a village in the border of Munnar. There weren’t any vehicles anywhere near to that place. So we stopped our bikes on the middle of the road and lay down on the road. The villagers were amazed to see us and they came to us looking our bikes. The villagers said the last time they saw a bike was six months back, when a different set of adventurers arrived there. But they were hurt more than the bike that the villagers had to take them to the hospital. I realized with those words they were trying to say “you people have survived something great in a fantastic way”. After taking rest for a couple of hours, we had to ride down the mountain 20 more kilo meters through national highway to reach the top station Munnar. We stopped our bikes at the checking point and headed to the top station to get a glance of it. The Sun was going down and the view was simply wonderful. While all the people over there kept their mouth open staring at the incredible beauty of the top most point inside the city, we were lost somewhere far on a road on the top of the mountains with, which can be considered to be renamed as paradise for all reasons. After the most stunning and adventurous come back from many falls, we reached Munnar and spent some long hours there to refresh ourselves. We had lots of food and called our dear ones to explain the daring experience we faced in the middle of wild forest. Happiness was penetrating through our mind for no reasons. I believe an experience like this can change one’s life and I believe this experience has affected my life in a good way. We left Munnar same day without visiting any other tourist places because a lot of memories were filled on my mind that would keep Munnar close to my heart until I forget the misty pathways through the top of the mountain.

After a few more weeks while we all got busy with our own lives, this Yathra Magazine came out and this hidden shortcut between Kodaikanal and Munnar was exposed in the main feature. They explained each and every point on the route and they also mentioned, in the end of their journey they met a bunch of wild adventurers starting their journey to climb the top most station buried inside deep forest. That produced Goosebumps on me and every time I read that feature again, those Goosebumps captivated me. And in the next second I’ll be dreaming about a next trip to the top most mountains inside the wild-wild forest of Munnar.

A Temple Carved from history...

           Every year, monsoon enters with a bang just after the hot and the boiling days of summer. It starts when the clouds spread to the land from the sea, holding tons of gallons of water. The heavy clouds even cover the light rays from the sun. And suddenly the mood of the atmosphere starts changing. Clouds start spreading faster, to collide with each other, and create heavy lightning, followed by the striking noises of thunder. Slowly the atmosphere starts fading into darkness. Then the wind arrives with a wild touch, blowing almost everything on the surface of the earth. The trees swing through the air making the leaves fall, the atmosphere will get filled with dust particles and making the temperature fall. The intensity of the wind might get higher, carrying all the dusts and leaves from one place to another. This many clues are more than enough for people or even the animals to hide in their shelter before it happens, The Rain. The water slowly starts falling down from the sky reaching the surface. It becomes heavier and heavier with the wind blowing from one side accompanied with the thunder and the light works from the other. Once they all come under a particular wavelength, then it’s like a perfect blend for the perfect music played by the nature. It goes on and on and on and stops only after giving birth to a new season, The Monsoon.

Just like that, the rain is pouring down at high speed, on my moving vehicle with a small wind. The transformation of seasons is occurring right before my eyes and I simply shifted the gear up to pump more acceleration for a little adventure in the heavy rain. The wipers were fantastically leading me through mud filled roads by murdering each and every drop of water falling on the front glass. I looked in the mirror in search of my unshaved scary face and it explained my real condition, lost in the woods with a train to catch. It was me alone driving back home from Chennai with, a bottle of water, some junk food and a packet of cigarettes for me plus a bunch of books for my brother, all resting in the front seat. The straight road took me from one place to another through the remote areas of Tamil Nadu. It was raining everywhere and throughout my way people were quite enjoying the change of season by riding triples in bikes and dancing on it through highways. I tried smiling at each one of them, but later I realized it wasn’t me who was smiling, it was the memories, chilling memories from the past.

Finally I found some turns on the road and I tried to recover from it by holding the hands tight on gear and steering. When I reached the next straight road, I raised the volume to the maximum and triggered the accelerator. I thought I was enjoying the ride with energies getting from music and speed. But even after travelling at high speed in this torturing climate, the distance weren’t quite going down; although it was becoming more difficult to drive through the well structured roads of the state.

I badly needed a break after a long drive as I was struggling with my back pain and that thought signaled my eyes to catch an attracting spot to take some rest and thereby enjoying the darkness entering the land. It was still heavily raining outside and I parked the vehicle on road side, with a good view on all four sides. In my front and back, there is a beautiful long straight road with no one on it. The other two sides were full of sugarcane fields spread across until eyes can spot anything. Such an amazing view made me sleep for some time in just a few seconds. The rain was becoming harder and that restricted me from getting out of the vehicle. I stayed inside it and lighted a cigarette. It took my frustrations out to some extend but again it was slowly creating a shortcut for me to death. I threw it away before reaching its second half and stretched my muscles.

I badly wanted to stand on my foot for a second, but the rain was still driving madly through the surface. So I gently pushed the seats back and leaned back in search of some peaceful rest. Since there was no one to disturb my peaceful world, I took some rest so happily and then I realized that I’m getting bored, a brand new problem for the perfectly scripted situation. I kept thinking about the same again and again which gave me a weird feeling that I’m perfectly bored. I played some music, but that also didn’t work because I’ve heard it so many times. Again I was dipping my head hardly into the world of boredom. I leaned back again giving some rest to my back and lighted one more cigarette. While I was blowing the smoke all over the vehicle I spotted those books I bought for my brother, on the seat, and took some of them and checked the headings. Honestly speaking, I never had touched a book with my hand other than my school books, but still I didn’t have any other options than turning the pages restlessly. It was named, “Keralam Ithu vare…”, and when I gave some thoughts it appeared that I’ll have to touch Malappuram & Palakkad district on my way home later so it would be interesting to visit some fascinating spots on the way. I was actually thinking about finding some spots through the book. Then i slowly started reading by blowing a yet another puff into the air, the preface was looking even more bored than I am, so I thought skipping it would be a good idea. I directly turned the pages to the first chapter, The Great Mamankam, and that was the first time I was hearing about it and the book sounded like this.

            Mamankam was an ancient festival that was celebrated in an old temple called, Thirunavaya temple situated in a small village called Thirunavaya, near Bharathapuzha River, in Coast of Malabar. The presiding deity of the temple is Navamukundan Vishnu along with other deities such as Lord Ganapathy and Goddess Lakshmi. The Puranas says that Goddess Lakshmi and king of Elephants, Gajendran, worshipped the Lord Vishnu with Lotus flowers from a lake nearby here. There is also a legend deity associated with the temple, Navamukundan; the ninth idol was installed in the shrine by the Navayogis, a group of Rishis. The first eight idols were soon disappeared after placing there and the ninth sank to its knees before it was forcibly stopped. Hence the idyllic image of the deity is portrayed only from above the knee and it is believed that there is a bottomless and unexplored hole in the ground behind the image in the chamber.

The temple itself is the traditional venue for the rituals of Mamankam festival. The festival is celebrated for 28 days in the presence of a massive crowd, including an enormous trade fair with traders from Kerala and Tamil Nadu arriving at the small village of Thirunavaya through Ponnani Port by ships and barges. During the grand finale of the celebrations, a great assembly of rulers is formed here to select the new king of Kerala. The two kings who are known to have abdicated their throne were Kulasekara Alwar in 8^th century and Cheraman Perumal in 825 A.D. When the rule of Perumal’s empire came to an end, the right to conduct the festival vested with the Hindu Nair rulers of Valluvanad and Kings of Perumpadappu holding the title, ‘Maharakshapurusha’. Most of the Perumal’s provinces become independent, which lead to the rise of many Nair cities along the coast of Malabar.

During that time of 1351-1363 AD, the two villages Panniyur (Anakkara, Palakkad dist.) and Sukapuram also known as Chovvaram (Edappal, Malappuram dist.) competed together as they both belonged to different sectors. The leader of Panniyur group, Tirumanasseri Nambootiri, who was the ruler of Gowardhanapuram attacked and burned Sukapuram village with the help of his 3000 Nair soldiers. The Chovvaram group asked the help of Valluvanad king but the Panniyur group didn’t accept the mediation of the King of Valluvanad. Thus the King of Valluvanad and King of Perumpadappu declared war on Tirumanasseri Nambootiri and later he appealed to the Samoothiri of Calicut. Then time marked the entry of another legendary king into the scene, Samoothiri, the ruler of Kozhikode, the feudal king, or in other words, the rising power. Samoothiri was looking for a chance for the same, and gladly accepted the offer, and the King declared war on Valluvanad and Perumpadappu, popularly known as Thirunavaya wars. After acquiring the Polanad state; the King turned his attention to other states around him.  The Samoothiri’s army combined with the other armies of his sub ordinate kings attacked the allied army of Valluvanad and Perumpadappu from the north, together. Meanwhile another huge army under the Samoothiri prince, Eralpad, came across through the sea and landed at Ponnani to attack Thirunavaya from south and to restrict the Perumpadappu army from joining the Valluvanad army. With the help of Muslim commanders in Ponnani, machinations and tact, Samoothiri gained in the war and the news spread everywhere that Samoothiri is winning over the protective deity of Vellattiri, Goddess of Thirumanthamkunnu, by appeasing her at Kozhikode. Everything was going in Samoothiri’s way and just like he intended, the Samoothiri’s minister, Mangattachan successfully turned Kadannamanna Elavakayil Vellodi to Samoothiri’s side.  The consequent war resulted in death of two Valluvanad princes and thus Vellattiri at last withdrew his army from Thirunavaya. Following the fall of Thirunavaya, Samoothiri captured the nearby sectors Vanneri and Perumpadappu, and forced the Perumpadappu rajas to shift their capital to Thiruvanchikkulam. Then Samoothiri announced that from then on, he has the sole right to conduct the Mamankam festival and proclaimed himself as ‘Maharakshapurusha’.

Suddenly, I heard a long horn from a vehicle and I jumped up from the seat without intervention. It was a truck, and it was pulled over to my right side, nothing serious. I checked the heading of the book once again, Mamankam, and closed it. The rain was becoming calm and I was becoming weaker staying inside that car for hours. All the words I’ve went through in the book were making questions in my mind. All the kings, the wars and the title, Maharakshapurusha, I was half buried in that world for some time.

It was darkness already and I knew I have to get going right now. I saw the people from the truck were watching me and I smell some danger there. I started the vehicle immediately and moved on through the road. The road was still growing and expanding and I have 32 more kilo meters to reach the next city, Salem, and I planned for a grand dinner at Salem. I took a glance at the book lying on the front seat. My thoughts were still inside it reaching through its every corner and many why questions started getting to my mind; I decided to go on with reading. I triggered the acceleration once again, with a grand dinner in mind and some history writings sliced in form of a book for my dessert. I reached the city in a few minutes and in other few minutes, I spotted the best restaurant available in town. I got in, washed my face, ordered food, and then opened the book. I went through some pages; there were still a lot of pages to go to finish the chapter. So I tried to calculate what time it would take to finish the chapter completely. But couldn’t find the exact answer and the food arrived just in time. I was already starving and all ready for the royal dinner. After having the brilliant food, I moved on to the corner of a café and took a chair to enjoy my dessert.

It was the beginning of a new era of blood feud. Samoothiri, who proclaimed himself as Maharakshapurusha continued being the supreme power by creating many more bloodsheds and made living hell for people living in areas under Valluvanad and Perumpadappu. The fights went on in a long-drawn-out manner for a long time and the Rakshapurusha encountered a stiff resistance from Vellattiri. The council of great men under the Vellattiri was a huge challenge for Samoothiri even during the hardest times of Vellattiri Swaroopam. During the festival, all the Kings used to send their flags as a symbol of regard to the proclaimed emperor, Samoothiri. While the King of Valluvanad, who lost the title of Maharakshapurusha started conducting a Pooram festival in place of Mamankam at his capital, Wallapally, now known as Angadippuram. Vellattiri did not recognize Samoothiri as Maharakshapurusha or a lawful King and he started sending chavers (Suicide squad) instead of flag, to kill Samoothiri, who was protected by more than thousands of armed soldiers. Later, this became a ritual every time the Mamankam was celebrated and more chavers were sent to the festival ground in search of Samoothiri’s blood. That was their only chance to get back the right of Maharakshapurusha from Samoothiri.

Chavers were sworn soldiers who were ready to sacrifice their lives for their king and they chose death in top of everything. These chavers were mainly from the four Nair families who were loyal to Vellattiri. Chandratt Panicker, Putumanna Panicker, Kokat Panicker, and Verkot Panicker were the four families. If a member of the family was killed, it was the duty of other members and the upcoming generations to avenge the death. The chavers were fuelled with Blood feud against Samoothiri and are accompanied with a number of soldiers who have also lost their ancestors and have chosen death in search of revenge. It is said that a total of 18 people including the four governors of Valluvanad, went to the festival led by the Nairs of each families and the other 14 belonged to the Perumpadappu Swaroopam families. Every time the festival was conducted, the better chavers were sent and every time the result was same. Thus the blood feud to avenge the death of the dead ones kept increasing with the other family members and they prepared even better for the next time. This also fuelled the angriness of Samoothiri and he led many attacks on the areas under Vellattiri and Perumpadappu to show his aggression. The attacks went on for long time and the people suffered their worst every time. Samoothiri followed the idea of comforting the feudatories of Vellattiri by presenting them the land they actually held under Vellattiri. Thus Samoothiri managed to become the lord of Nilambur, Manjeri, Malappuram & Vallappanattukara and the Samoothiri prince ruled these feudal lords as a supreme commander to them.

Samoothiri then invaded many of the areas under the Vellattiri. Pantalur and Kottakkal also came under Samoothiri but only after a prolonged struggle. Unable to withstand the extreme and terrible war conditions, the Perumpadappu rajas later known as Kochi rajas submitted themselves to Samoothiri and accepted being his feudatory. But the Vellattiri was stern and stubborn with his stand that he did not accept the idea of surrendering to Samoothiri. Most of the families residing in the areas under Vellattiri has lost members from their family and was fuelled by blood feud against the king. And those people accepted Vellattiri as their legitimate king even in those extreme conditions. Now, with only a few areas left under Vellattiri, the small army fought from the landscapes and kept the Samoothiri’s army successfully at Bay.   

A Picture of Zamorin from Imaginations....

After many years of successful and unsuccessful bloodshed between two sides, many got killed; many lost their families and in between to increase the volume of bloodshed, came the colonial empires of Europe in the name of trade. The Portuguese arrived here first under the leadership of Vasco da Gama, who is well-known as one of the legendary navigator around the world. But a little more dig into cravings of history will prove his black mind behind finding sea route to India. Right when they arrived here, they became the enemy of Samoothiri and that led to a series of bloodshed across the state. Samoothiri was little anglicized to Zamorin by the Portuguese. The Portuguese declared their power by using their strength and with the support of Kochi Rajas they finally made Zamorin to withdraw his army and dissolve with them. When Portuguese has almost started to loot the land in all possible ways, entered the Dutch, another colonial empire from Europe, with the same intention of trade. This seriously affected the stand of Portuguese, because the Dutch were more powerful and made more contacts in the land. The Dutch exploited the situation by offering Zamorin a hand for help to destroy Kochi Rajas and Portuguese but in return, the needed permission to enter Calicut and Ponnani for trade. In 1661, the combined forces of Dutch and Zamorin not only destroyed Kochi, but they expelled Portuguese from the land also. With the help of Dutch traders, once again Zamorin was back to his ruling chair and just two years after the war, in 1663 came a yet another Mamankam festival.

After a lot of time, the Zamorin got back his strength and power and the entire crowd was all ready to take part in the festival.  Thousands of crowd has arrived to attend the trade fair and to witness the inglorious bloodbath with their eyes. With more than 16000 spearmen armed with swords to protect the Zamorin, enters the King with much din all around and takes his seat above the terrace. Just like the Portuguese described, The Zamorin was almost naked, having only a piece of white cotton round his waist, wrought with gold. On his head he wore a cap of cloth of gold resembling a helmet. In his ears he had rich jewels of diamonds, sapphires, and pearls, two of the latter being as large as walnuts. His arms, from the elbows to the wrists, were covered with golden bracelets, set with numberless precious stones of great value; and his legs, from the knees to the ankles, were similarly adorned. His fingers and toes had numerous rings, and on one of his great toes he wore a ruby of great size and wonderful brilliancy. One of his diamonds was bigger than a large bean. All these were greatly surpassed by his girdle of gold and jewels, which was altogether inestimable, and was so brilliant that it dazzled the eyes of the beholders. Beside the Zamorin was a rich throne or state chair, all of gold and jewels; and his andor, in which he had been carried from the palace was of similar richness, and stood near him. He was attended by twenty trumpeters, seventeen of whom had silver trumpets, and three of them gold, all the mouth-pieces being finely wrought and set with jewel. While the chavers used to unite at a temple nearby called Thirumandham temple before moving to Thirunavaya (the place was also known as Chaver thara). After taking the last meal on earth and with the all the blessings and farewells of families from here, they move to Thirunavaya, all tarnished with ashes and decorated with flowers. When he imagine the sword and shakes his hand from the terrace, Nairs step forward from the crowd, mainly, Putumanna Panicker joined by 17 of his friends, with swords kept close to their heart, and targeted to support the men who are willing to die for the land, rush into the line of soldiers, they jump and turn their body in the middle of air, as if they had no bones, spreading towards back and front, up and down, making the crowd wonder, but they are not enough to withstand the flexibility of their leader, their skills, the result is predictable. They all find the spears of the guardsmen everyday and end up the journey right there. It is said that the number of Chavers who died there in the early morning was 18 including the Putumanna Panicker and during various times of the last few days of the festival, the same thing happened again. The dead ones were thrown into Manikinar (a well) using elephants decorated with golden accessories. The Vellattiri side was once again smashed to death while the Zamorin was enjoying the striking comeback.

    Suddenly I was disturbed from the imaginary world by a server, it wasn’t his fault, it was their closing time. I made him happy by handing some extra tip. Then I walked out and got inside my car. I sat there for a moment thinking about the strange traditions took part in this world long before. We had some real men living on our land centuries before. If we didn’t have this fight between us, then we must have been the supreme power all time. But I guess that’s not quite possible here in this culturally and traditionally diverse land, with 1 billion people and 100 billion opinions for all of them, the world is simply same for all of us. I opened the last pages of the book with a smile and started reading from just where I stopped.

After a few more years, say exactly 12 years after, the festival was once again organised by the Lordly King of Calicut, The Zamorin.  There were three men who were ready to practice the desperate action, just like their ancestors, they arrived with swords targeting the guards and killed many while some of the guards ran away wounded. One of the Chaver was nephew to the other one, was 15 years of age and was protected by his uncle during the whole action. But once he smelled the fall of his uncle, the young guy got through the guard, in a lightning time, into the tent and made a fantastic stroke aiming at the Zamorin’s head. But again the luck saved the Zamorin in the form of a large brass lamb, which was burning over his head, restricted the blow. But before the boy could make another one, the guards sent him to the pool of death. The 15 year old young boy’s name was Chandratt Panicker. Again the time witnessed many changes with its passage. And then years after in 1766, the last Mamankam was once again organised by Zamorin, Chavers arrived from Valluvanad just like in the old pages of history, this time also observed the sacrifice of these Chavers, who were born and preferred by death for their land. That was the last time the festival was conducted and it marked the end of an era of massacre, from 1364 to 1766.

"The Kinar"

The first chapter ended there with the end of that great festival. And I started driving like a machine through the unknown roads mixed with darkness and rain. The 15 year old boy, the Zamorin, Vellattiri, the colonialists, they all share a heroic profile together now in my mind. They faced many problems and solved it in their own new way. Today we know how to live in this world, through them. It must have been pretty-amazing during those times.

I wanted to drive a horse, but I can’t, I definitely can ride this car, so I speeded up the accelerator, the distances were passing like anything. I didn’t feel like stretching my muscles either. When I reached Coimbatore, I stopped for a tea and it was around 4.00 by then. I ordered the tea and again turned the pages of the book. The next chapter was about Pazhassi Raja, but the time wouldn’t allow me to read that so I went through some photos which showed the present situation of Thirunavaya temple and other places imported from history. The photos were of Manikinar, Nilapaduthara, Chaver thara and Royal one of the Zamorin, a picture which can describe the cruelty and goodness inside that king.

After that there was a brief description about how to reach this temple to see the preserved historical monuments in here. Even a big map was printed inside it and I checked on the routes while sipping the hot tea. Before the tea glass was turned empty, something new flourished my mind and I rushed to the vehicle. I opened the book and read the first line, if you’re coming from Palakkad, head towards Puthur road and take first left. I took it. At Kerala Journalists union I went straight onto college road passing district Ayurveda hospital. I had to cover a little distance to spot that hospital and now I have almost 90 kilometres to travel to reach this holy place before sunrise. Then I had to turn right from Shankuntala Junction and continue onto market road. Since the roads were all clear in the early morning, I easily rushed and covered more distances in calculated time. At Mepparamba Mosque, there will be a straight road onto Palakkad-Ponnani road, and then again a straight road for the next 41 km. A straight road, just what I was looking for and I managed to cover it in half an hour and then I took Shoranur-Perinthalmanna highway. By then there were some traces of sun light coming from far-far away. After reaching the Tirur-Kuttipuram road, take the first left in 5.8 km, and again another one in150m would take you were all those holy rituals has been take placed. When I checked the road I was the only passenger on this Koppam-Pengattiri road, but then I closed the book and hurried to the temple.

Half an hour later I was standing in front of the temple and getting Goosebumps all around. The temple was already open and people were already there to worship their god, Navamukundan. As fresh as dew in the early morning, men, women and even some children were present in the front of deity to convince him for their good. A heavenly odour was present in the atmosphere and I stood in the middle of all that searching for Nilapaduthara, Chaver thara, Manikinar; but nothing was there in my vision. So I decided to get inside the temple and I untied my shoelaces. But the people around restricted me because of my manners of dressing and tidiness. I wore my shoes once again and started walking through the land just like the lost souls in the land. I didn’t ask anyone about anything because I just wanted to find it by myself, and after some lone time of exploration I found something very prestigious, Now it look more something like an old broken stage now situated in the middle of a faded ground and some stones still there preserving inside the premises of a tile factory was the Nilapaduthara, where Zamorin and other rulers used to present themselves in full retinue. And the Manikinar was also there situated nearby with a scary look inside with an essence of blood pumping in the atmosphere. I took a walk around it and slowly headed to the banks of Bharathapuzha to take a glance at the sun. It was a breezy and a warm atmosphere there with people still living like not knowing the significances of the place. I enquired them about the festival and they started stating the same story with some special effects. They explained, even the land I was standing on was once a blood ridden conflict ground which has witnessed many changes happened during the past thousands of years. But the local people were more excited to tell me about the story of a banyan tree. A tree situated in the middle of the river and the temple. The people say the tree is the only, silent and lonely witness of almost all Mamankam festivals and almost all battles that took place in this land. They all are excited that they still have this tree to witness the change of time and the living. They moved on in their own ways and I moved on to that banyan tree.

The tree was seated well in there with two supporting reinforcements at the bottom with steps, built from the ground, so that people can sit on its wall there and enjoy the view of the river with a cool breeze to keep one cool. I sat on it and went through the writings on the pillar situated on the top and simply enjoyed some surprising moments with that ageless wonder. That beautiful day marked the starting of a brand new chapter in my life and also one among the many beautiful days that happened in the million years of this tree. The leaves started dancing when a wind hit its top from the sky and I lied down automatically falling for the music made by the wind and the leaves. I slowly fell into sleeping listening to the lullaby of nature and waking up my unconscious mind from the historic times. The image of the feudal king and that 15year old boy once again crossed through my mind even in my deep sleep. After an hour of lost and lonesome time with tree, the rain came with the message of monsoon, which again added up the beauty of the place when I got up. I rushed to my car. Even though I couldn’t visit the exact blood filled places there, that sleep on the thighs of the tree was more than enough for me to stay in a peaceful mind. I started the car and rushed to my home, which was again more than 200 km far. But I felt fresher than the dews with that sleep while driving and I found some extra energy in me than the previous day. When I reached home, I gave those books to my brother and he was more excited when he saw that book. I saw him turning the pages of that book and I memorized the time when I turned its pages and the world I travelled to reach my home.