To the Land of Karimeen and Chengara Heritage

Well another long gap before the post. I've been away to kerala for the weekend and wasn't it the much-deserved break i needed? Just for three days and i feel so refreshed- no work, no schedules, no worries.... peaceful! It was jus the three of us - my mom, elvis and I... dad decided to ditch us this time. So we set off on fri evening to catch the mangalore mail, which was until then, not confirmed!! my bro-in-law promised us confirmed seats, even though our waiting list numbers were somewhere in 200s!! 'Believe' - i told myself and set off from my office. Thankfully the tickets got confirmed just at the last moment! the compartment was packed with passengers, reserved and otherwise!! there was a family of four with two young boys and they had burgers and fried chicken for dinner from marrybrown (the details are for your information only!;)) i was wondering what their parents were teaching them just wen i saw the dad of the boys having a burger himself!! duh, no comments!

Elvis was thrilled (at the sight of burgers and chicken, partly) and about the trip partially! he's never been to kerala and he always wanted to. we were jus yapping and passing our time and the day closed and we were off to our berths. dawn broke and we had to get down at shoranur for our connecting train to my sweet little hometown angadipuram. but that was a wait for about 2 hours. the passenger train takes about 45 mins to my town and it has one of the best scenic views en route. completely covered with lush green and early morning rays peeping through the trees - what a sight! elvis was clicking away. i havent uploaded the pics yet, i'll post those pics in my next post. got down at my station after a while and off we were to my uncle's house. Home at last! traveling surely takes you for a toss during pregnancy. i was glad i got home without much complaints but for a nagging backpain and broken sleep. breakfast was served, pleasantries exchanged and elvis was dazed! he found himself amidst a lota mallu folks.. hehe... time for him to learn a new lang!! :P

Saturday lunch was lavish... elvis was hell bent on having karimeen. so i made sure there was fish for lunch (though not karimeen). some gravy and fry - whether he liked or not, i hogged and had a bloating stomach till late evening! :D In the evening we were off to our temple to make arrangements for the puja on sunday. just when we were about to step out, one of the pujaris called us back for having payasam prasadam - double bonus at the temple! i wonder how the prasadams taste all the more heavenlier in temples, quite interestingly! two down for elvis - he was mesmerised with the taste! back home we were so loaded up noone wanted anything for dinner. i had requested for rice porridge and chatni. Yummm... but the size of each grain of rice was a scary affair. i managed to gulp down some and off i was!

Sunday started with the temple. there was crowd worth a trissur puram (for people wondering what it is, you can figure it out from google, am lazy you know :D) mann... it took us about 2 hours to get over with the formalities and come out with two vessels full of prasadams, koottu payasam and nei payasam. back home with a glass of payasam in hand! :) lunch was on us, elvis and i decided to take everyone out for lunch (its different that we had selfish reasons to go out ourselves, for the karimeen of cos!) so we were there, 8 of us, at this famous restaurant in town dying to dig into the fish, and bingo... we were just lucky! they were having some fish fest at the restaurant. there you go - 3 karimeens pollichadhu and one ordinary fry for yours truly and lots more. well i jus had a sweet corn chicken soup, fish fry and mutton pulao, thats all :D Have i ever told you am a foodie??? oh almost forgot to mention elvis' delight. he was seriously digging into that large karimeen and a ceylon paratha. had we been there for a tad longer, he would've gone in for a second round of karimeen, but i must tell you, for just 100 bucks it was truly worth it.

ok ok... back to basics. post lunch, we headed to chengara heritage hotel. ok, this i NEEd to tell you all about. this chengara heritage hotel has an ancestral background - a background linked to my mom's family. chengara belongs to my mom's ancestors (mom's name being chengara puththanveetil radha), as in my mom too partly grew up in this house. it seems my granny was born there. Its a huge mansion, rich and grand, with around 15 rooms, a huge pond, large lawn and amazing architecture. the pic shown in the site is the actual structure of the mansion without any change or damage done. the property is 108 years old and still going very strong. my mom was narrating her tales about the place with such awe in her eyes, elvis and i were transported back in time. there is so much story written in those walls, i was literally lost. mom was so happy. elvis was amazed. this is just my second visit to this place and i feel a remote sense of belonging already. i can imagine the flush of nostalgia my mom must have experienced. she was simply gleaming! the place is now a heritage hotel with guest rooms, restaurant, bar and a function hall which was in those days a place to burn wood for cooking. but i must admit, the place is so very well maintained by those people... most of the rooms are untouched except for tweaking here and there. what an experience! i shall post the pics of this place as well. i feel so proud to be hailing from such a background, from such ancestors. wow, the feeling's simply amazing. we then headed to some relatives' houses and were back home by evening. the night went peaceful with images of that place running in the head.

monday was rest day and i was completely taking the day off for the journey back home that night. by evening we were signing off and left the place for the passenger train to shoranur and then it was the usual. i wouldnt say it was uneventful journey back home cos only two of the three got confirmed seats. my name was in waitlist at 13. luck i say! horrible night in train and elvis had to sleep on the floor :( come perambur and we jumped off from that horrible train swearing never to book in second class again. dad picked us up from the station and i was back home smiling. no matter where i go i need to get back to chennai to feel truly home... only to curse that i had to rush to my office in a coupla hours :(

o oh! the post became super lengthy. chalta hai... you see i write only occasionally and when i do i can manage only this. so excuse me! :D