Meeting old friends

I was at Coimbatore for over twenty days from the 21st of May to 14th of June, visiting my parents. A peaceful sojourn as usual. I took two days off to travel to Kerala by road, traveling to Moovattupuzha, and then to Ernakulam, and on to Guruvayoor via Kodungalloor, and to a quaint little village called Vellattoor and back to Coimbatore. It was monsoon time in Kerala and the views were mesmerizing. But I couldn’t help noticing that the Kerala of 2008, especially the stretch from Palakkad to Thrissur is not as green as it once was. Malayalis, take care – you have inherited something beyond compare. Do not turn it into another wasteland. Of course the other regions were as beautiful as ever but the evils of development seem to be creeping in.

At Ernakulam we naturally met up with the Jayachandrans. (or is it the Panickers? After the unfortunate passing away of JC’s dad, JC seems to have become the new Naicker – Panicker rather) JC is going from strength to strength both in terms of weight (he tells me that he weighs 125 kilograms and I feel like a size 0 Karishma Kapoor before him) and in financial terms. He has quit Chettinad Cements in protest against the rising inflation rates brought on by Palaniappan Chidambaram Chettiar, and is joining Dalmia Cements at Chennai soon, where he will be reunited with Brother Ramprasad and Sister Gomathy (remember the pledge we used to take at SACS? “All Indians are my brothers and sisters”). He called up Usha Ramachandran and fixed up a rendezvous for me with her. And thereafter started a journey.

We left Ernakulam at about 3 PM and traveled north along the west coast. The waters and the greens were a feast to the eyes and we reached Guruvayoor around 5 PM. En route I fixed up an appointment with Usha Ramachandran and got the directions to reach her place. After worshipping the Lord, we left at about 7 PM and traveled towards Thrissur. All was fine till we reached Kundankulam. Then came the confusion. We strayed, got lost and at 8:30 PM reached Usha’s house. We met a lot of drunks who vied with each other to direct us to Vellattoor. After a long drive which really started to worry me and our driver, we met up with a gentleman who turned out to be Usha’s Dad, whom I had never met before.

It was a very happy occasion seeing Usha after such a long time. Her husband is a gem of a man and I only hope I am half as good a husband to my wife as he is to her. She has a kid daughter and lives a happy life in the deep interior of Kerala. I envy her, her wonderful life, but pray to God Almighty that it continues and she lives long with her wonderful husband and daughter.