Kerala - accross the Western Ghats

The best offer for getting down to the South was taking a plane from Pune to Kochin. Also for raising awereness of impermanence this unexpected journey turned out to be the most imposing. Getting use to life in India it was releasing to walk in a less crowded town than Mumbai, to follow my curiosity, getting involved in the everyday life of the local people. I liked Kerala so much that I decided to spend one day more to look around, and I did not regret it.

Looking for a cab at the airport I could luckily join two girls from Australia, so we shared it driving to the center of Kochin. They told me the usual story - they are traveling for two weeks in India, already have been to Goa, if I haven't been, I should go to that beach and so on.. Well. So far I have seen so many drunken videos, that even if it's a nice place with lot of consciuos people, it isn't the corner of my heart.

For a beach holiday (which I actually never have been to) there are much better conditions in Greece or Croatia compared to India. We Hungarians have lake Balaton, not exactly an ocean or sea, but it's really beautiful and sweet water.

Waters in India rather ring the bell as the five sacred river (Gaṅgā, Yamunā, Narmadā, Kāverī and Kṛṣṇā), glaciers, or lakes - water as an element for transmission and to gain focus. (Or am I a vaishnavate nerd...

The driver was really nice dropping me out first, exactly in front of Hotel Neighborhood.

Laxmi helped to spot this new art hotel, totally modern, artistic, one can feel the fresh smell of food and artifacts (you can feel like in a gallery). This 2 pics are from their website. The young receptionist guys were really helpful and sketched me all the local sightseeing spots on the wallsize map behind them. Also we had quite an interesting conversation on the Keralan vedic culture - mainly about the languages and the Rig-veda style of chanting. My favorite sentence: "Namboodiri Bráhmins just talk too much of Samskrit".. Indian people can be so hilarious :D

On the next morning I could wake up with the rising Sun, amazing practice helped to reside the whole day in a really good relaxed mood. Breathing properly is always more than not breathing properly - like Ganesh Mohan said "Usually wiser to emphasize slow breathing first and then do fast breathing as a challenge."

Also after not having proper rest like for two weeks (days before the flight I could not sleep as well) here eventually I felt nourished. Also after the Northern budget-hostels here I got some áyurvedic cosmetics, felt so relaxing and indulging. Nature is nature. Kerala has lots of it! maybe I will always organise my future journey starting with Kerala (sailing there to avoid carbon footprint? Future seems blurred)

By their suggestion I visited Ernakulam Shiva temple, which was really peaceful and enjoyable (due to the different religious practices), chanted Namakam, and was glad to hear Krishnayajurveda from the lips of an old lady. It felt like coming home. Kerala is really nice. Just not that much pressure, people are not yet in a rush.

After the first áyurvedic thali I made a boat trip to Fort Kochin on a Government Ferry. It has a really low price of 4 rupees, but in fact its and necessary journey to the locals living on these islands almost every day. Some people seemed to be rude and disconnected at the port, but later the sea was brightly glittering and so beautiful, I forgot immediately. I met some amazing people on the boat.

There was a lovely woman with her cheerful daughter from Nepal. They lived in India for a long time - it was interesting to hear how their life has evolved during the last 13 years. I felt a bit parallel to my life which has just started to change 10 years ago...

To see people's reactions and interactions at this region made me think, that celebrating ethnical diversity is one of the greatest achievement of the 21 century Europe.

After these two days I was heading towards Coimbatore, as we already had a couple of phone calls talking Samskrit only with Suveesh Ji, the regional director of Samskrita Bharati, as they were expecting me to arrive soon in their town.

The journey accross the Western Ghats was beautiful especially with musicians - Swathy and Girish from Kalakshetra Chennai. Swathy was really sweet, smiling graciously as on the stage, calling her family there and back like hundred times during these 3 hours - of course less, but even Girish made a joke on this :) they were really nice people. She isn't just a very famous dancer, but also coming from an old artist dynasty. This is the time when you get deeper into Indian culture. You understand small-small tiny parts of this vast tradition. How the different layers of the society correlate to each other. Don't worry - as a foreigner you will always be a special thing to examine in various ways, but no harm expectable if you keep certain rules how to travel.

We travelled through enormous rainforests, herbal plantations. It was one of the most beautiful train journey of my life. So the landscape is more steep and the mountains are covered by rainforests on the Western side, getting over you might be hit by enormous rainfall, and you can see the breathable beauty of nature and woods. Slowly passing by the Ghats the terrain becomes more and more deserted, after some herb plantations it changes to dry, as the rain is unable to get to this distance due to the attraction of the mountains and the aerosol of the trees.

Unfortunately this continuous rain we saw was the beginning of the 2018 Kerala floods. We were watching the news each day with my new Samskrita Bharati volunteer teacher. She mentioned Idukki Dam was not opened first time after 26 years.

Statistics show a tragedy: 483 people died and over a million people has been evacuated during the floods, many are missing still today. For the first time of the state's history 35 of 54 dams had been opened.