First things first - the car turned one year old yesterday. How time flies! It was on this day last year, I drove her home and it has been an amazing journey thereafter. We celebrated her first birthday by giving her a thorough wash and wipe followed by a small puja in the morn before I drove her to work.
I tied the knot last month and instead of going home by flight, I chose to drive down in the GT. I don’t regret that decision, not even after spending close to 4k for tolls, over 11k for fuel and then some for the shelter, food and misc. expenses. It was an expensive affair but at the end of it, it was all worth it. I just loved all the trips we undertook. And with a partner who loves traveling, the joy doubles!
So when I first put up this idea to my parents over the phone, I recall the conversation went something like this:
Me: I am planning to drive down to Palakkad from Surat for the wedding trip. It might take a couple of days or 3 at the most.
Mom: Are you crazy? What if the car gets stranded in the middle of nowhere? Where will you stay? What if you fall sleepy while driving? How will your wife accompany you on your way back? Do you think her parents will allow that? Am never letting you do that!
(Mothers will always be mothers! Always concerned about their children no matter how old we grow up. Well, I respect that but at times I’ve felt it goes overboard!)
Me: *silence*
Dad: Are you sure about this?
Me: Yes daddy. I’ve been thinking of a road trip like this for a long time. I won’t get a better opportunity in a long time.
Dad: OK. Do you want me to send Mahesh along?
(Mahesh is our trusty old family chauffeur who has been with us for the last 2 decades. He has a proven track record right from a rickshaw (which he uses today to commute school children) to a 407 which he used to transport goods for his employer.)
Me: I never thought of that! That would be awesome!
Dad: Alright I’ll speak to him. You’ll have to book his train tickets.
(Fathers are awesome!)
And thus, we drove down.
And as far as the wedding trip goes, we concluded the trip last Friday. Let me just say, the trip was darn awesome - absolutely no hiccups anywhere. The car didn’t throw any tantrums, none of us fell sick during the course of our trips, we did not hit any blockades anywhere (save for a hartal at Idukki district which made us wait for 15 minutes), all in all we had a fantastic and a memorable trip.
Let me share some snaps, information and tidbits - where we drove to, the place, the events, people around etc. The drive from Surat to Palakkad has been already covered in the last page (post #329, previous page) so I’ll skip those parts but do have a look in case you missed it. We had an awesome drive covering 850+ km a day, starting the drive early morn. For the rest of the experience last month, read on.
September 9, Tuesday - Started from Surat at 3:30 AM (gotta love early morning drives!), paused for lunch at Satara around 12 PM and reached Hubli around 6 PM.
Next stop - Palakkad.
September 10, Wednesday - Started from Hubli at 5:15 AM, paused for lunch at Salem outskirts around 2:30 PM and reached Palakkad around 7:30 PM. Parents were already standing outside the house to receive me and I was overjoyed to meet them after a long time.
September 11, Thursday - Washed the car and got the upholstery changed. I was put under under house arrest and wasn’t allowed to wander outside. Palakkad doesn’t have much to offer anyway compared to Thrissur and Cochin so that’s there. Fortunately, Sons of Anarchy’s final season (S7) had begun airing and I caught up with the season premiere.
September 12, Friday - Planned to drive to Madurai to pick up my sister and her family but we sent the Dzire instead along with the driver. I wasn’t too confident on sending my car what with her super naughty children going all crazy once they step inside the car! The house arrest continued.
September 13, Saturday - Had to do a few errands with dad. Arrangements were made for the stage/home/car décor, reception catering and finalizing the menu etc.
September 14, Sunday - The last 24 hours I shall spend as a bachelor. My best friend and ex-roomie Moorthy arrived at Palakkad. Many relatives had come to see the groom and the setup (as a part of the traditional wedding culture here). Got the car pressure washed from a service station and dropped her at an FNG for some detailing.
The décor guy arrived later that night to dress the car up for the occasion.
Next stop - Malappuram.
September 15, Monday - The wedding day and also happens to be
Janmashtami! I woke up at 5 AM that day, was a bit tensed and kept wandering around the home greeting relatives and guestsand guiding the caterers. As per our Hindu traditions, we give the
dakshina to the elderlies at home and get their blessings.
In the meantime, the car was parked outside our home all dressed up and ready for the occasion:
Curious eyes found the GJ number plate of the car a bit amusing and some of them were a bit surprised to know we drove all the way to Palakkad from here.
The wedding was at Malappuram so we started from Palakkad around 8 AM taking the Cherpulassery route (Palakkad - Mundur - Kongad - Kadampazhipuram - Cherpulassery - Thootha - Angadipuram - Malappuram) and reached the mandap around 10:30 AM. In the meantime, the bride had arrived at the mandap in her brother’s immaculately kept Tuscan Wine Punto:
The Punto is his daily driver and has clocked 35k in less than 12 months
*lump in the throat*:
A set of tires and brake pads changed, two scheduled services completed, and he loves his ride as much as I do! He is an amazing driver. Anyways, moving on, the wedding was concluded around 2 PM and the couple drove back to Palakkad immediately after lunch. We reached Palakkad around 4 PM. There were some traditional rituals yet to be completed before calling it a day.
September 16, Tuesday - The wedding reception day! Hosted by the groom’s side, this was scheduled to be held at Palakkad later in the evening. We went to a Siva temple located nearby and offered prayers. The bouquet attached at the bonnet showed signs of drying up due to the heat of the bonnet. So the older bouquet was replaced with a fresh one in the evening.
At the reception hall:
The reception concluded that night and we had arranged a small party at our home for my close friends.
September 17, Wednesday - Now begins all the traveling and roaming around part!
As per Kerala’s Hindu traditions, after the marriage, the couple is expected to visit our respective ancestral temples, our ancestral homes, close relatives’ homes, have a meal or two and maybe stay there overnight. There is a problem however. If we were to announce our arrival beforehand, they would plan for a huge meal with several dozen dishes and expect us to gorge everything! But we didn’t do that. We chose to do a surprise visit instead, had light meals with the usual tea and snacks and left. However, we weren’t lucky everywhere.
At
Mangottukavu (Athipotta, Alathur dist.), our ancestral temple:
At my father’s ancestral home (please excuse the pink shade!):
Got to love the location! Located at a small hillock, the home is surrounded by rubber and pepper plantations. They also have a small livestock shed in the house which dates back to my great grandpa’s era. This is the lone building here which hasn’t been demolished and reconstructed. The rest were constructed from scratch.
Way to the home:
There is no proper road that leads to the home still since the local panchayat is not willing to build a road due to the only house in the locality there.
Mrs. Moo gives company to the car while she was parked outside another home:
After visiting a bunch of places that day, we retired back to our home later that evening.
Next stop - Malappuram.
September 18, Thursday -We are mostly done with visiting the groom's side relatives. Now comes the bride's side which is Malappuram and the adjoining areas. We had a quick breakfast, set the location on the GPS of my phone and departed Palakkad. We reached Malappuram around 11 AM, went to the local Panchayat office to complete the marriage certificate related formalities and visited some relatives' places nearby.
Next stop - Madurai (via Palakkad).
September 19, Friday - We departed from Malappuram after having breakfast to our Palakkad residence, had a quick lunch, packed some clothes and left for Madurai. We usually prefer the Pollachi - Udumalpet - Oddanchatram - Dindigul route when we head to Madurai.
We crossed the windmills en route:
And went around the Palani temple (in the background of the snap below):
We reached Madurai around 7 PM, had a sumptuous dinner and took rest.
September 20, Saturday - We visited the Meenakshi Amman Kovil in the morn, had a good darshan and left for Palakkad after lunch. We reached Palakkad around 8 PM and were really tired to do any cooking so dined from Hotel Kapilavasthu, reached home, packed our clothes for the big trip starting the next day and crashed.
Next stop - Alleppey.
September 21, Sunday – Now begins our mini honeymoon trip (if you could say so!). Since it was just the two of us, we had minimal luggage - a backpack and a small cabin trolley. Stowed them in the boot, had a quick breakfast and we departed for Alleppeya.k.a The Venice of the East. The roads were bad until Alathur ridden with potholes and diversions but were better after that. All the speedcams were glaringly visible mounted on poles in the median so we limited the speeds to under 80 kmph. We reached Alleppey around 10:45 AM.
We had a houseboat booked from 12 PM to 9 AM and had to check-in around 11 AM. Our acquaintance was Mr. Johni Thomas and we rendezvoused with him as planned, parked the car inside a compound adjacent to the boat jetty and boarded the boat. The belongings were kept in our bedroom, we had our welcome drink and sat in the boat’s open deck. The boat started from the jetty around 12 PM and thus, the journey began.
The brilliance of the Vembanad and Punnamada backwaters can be seen here:
And this is how the boat is fueled mid-way:
Since fishing nets are deployed in the evening, houseboats cannot sail in the backwaters and have to be berthed along a coast. We had our houseboat berthed near a small island overlooking paddy fields and caught an amazing glimpse of the sunrise and sunset.
Sunset:
We had the dinner in the boat cooked by the chef in a small galley located at the AFT of the boat. Menu – rice, fish curry, fish fry, dal, chapattis, traditional chicken curry, curd and rasam.
Next stop - Cochin (after disembarking the boat).
[Contd. in the next post; running out of the 30 image upload limit]