Kodachadri Conquered

Kodachadri-the name seems to have more meanings than the number of ways it is spelled. But I loved the description that a local jeep driver gave us. Per him, the name has its origins in mythology; ie the Ramayana. The story goes that when Lakshman was hurt and needed the Sanjeevini herb to revive him, Hanuman was sent to find it. Hanuman was unable to find the correct herb amongst all the vegetation and hence picked up the whole mountain and flew back with it. Once Lakshman’s need was fulfilled, Hanuman was asked to return the mountain to its original site. Hanuman, who flew back reluctantly, carelessly dropped pieces along the way and these are the hills that now dot Kodachadri.


The bus ride to Kollur, where the famous Mookambika temple is situated was an adventure by itself. The “sleeper beds” are truly for the brave hearts with the wild tossing throughout the night. And to make things a little more interesting, every pothole every bend in the road is multiplied by the time it reaches the unfortunately sleeper. Of course you can take solace from the fact that at least your joints do get loosened for the trek up the hills.

After freshening up at a nearby lodge, we got into one of the local buses that dropped us off at Karakatta gate where we began the trek. Little did we know that we were to see this bus and its conductor multiple times in the course of the next two days.

The woods are lovely dark and deep…this line from the famous poem of Robert Frost is what kept echoing through my head during the entire trek. Lovely it was, and silent to boot. The silence was only broken by birdsong so sweet we first thought it was someone’s ringtone. Of course, how could I forget the raucous laughter of some of the other trekkers along the path!!

Walking along, we were transported into a whole different world. Our first brush with civilization came when we reached Santosh hotel-right in the middle of nowhere. After refreshing glasses of lemon juice, and a packed lunch of idlies, we set off again…more walking through some lovely leafy paths..uphill most of the time and treacherous roots and fallen trees to add some variety, we finally decided to stop for lunch.

And a lovely lunch it was, in the midst of a green forest, using a fallen tree as a table and improvising with zero cutlery. Lunches at the office cafeteria are now going to be oh so boring from now on.

Laboring along, we finally made it to the top, and the trek was made so much more fun by the constant bantering and ribbing as well as all the encouragement (that was strictly for me…the newbie amongst the veteran trekkers ). The views along the way had us all spell bound. At times, we were walking along the very edge of a hill and if you looked down, you were not even able to see the bottom!! We finally got to a tiny tea shop at Kodachadri where, after, gulping down cups of refreshing tea, made arrangements for our stay that night; in a tiny room with a broken door and loose tiles…but tired as we were; we were dead to the world that night.

The evening saw us take to the hills again (yes, we were suckers for punishment) to go see sunset point, and the hill where Adi Shankaracharya supposedly meditated trying to cajole the goddess Mookambika to spread her munificence to Kerala too. Getting to the tiny temple on top of the hill, we were met with a strange sight…people sitting on piles of stones..all of them in various stages of meditation…while groups of tourists made enough noise to wake up the dead!!

More spectacular views , each better than the other, the monotony of the beautiful vistas only broken by a tiny, well camouflaged snake that one of our photography enthusiasts promptly captured(on camera thank god); sticking his lens close enough for the snake to strike if it was so inclined. He was just plain lucky that it was one of the non venomous varieties.

The next morning saw D, the most enthusiastic of the lot, leap out of his green sleeping bag, (it reminds me of a green snake shedding its skin) to try and drag the rest of us to watch the sunrise. Thankfully, it was misty and the two lazy people didn’t miss much!!

The next day saw us take a detour to Ottinene near Baindoor as one of us in the group did not want to go back without having caught a glimpse of the sea!! Back into our favorite bus, this time to Baindoor. Getting off and trudging along what seemed like a dirt track to nowhere lead us to one of the most beautiful vistas of the sea that I have ever seen, viewed from a cliff. There were guest houses built along the very edge of the cliff and they sure could boast of even loos with the most spectacular of views!!

The trip back saw us get back into the same bus we had been using all this while, this time to get to Shimoga. Unfortunately for us, we weren’t able to book seats on any buses before 10:30 pm. Finally, we made it on a rattling old bus, which delivered us safely to Bangalore the next morning.

Thinking back, the trip was perfectly summed up by P’s words, “This was one of those treks where your tummy hurt (laughing!!) more than your legs!!

Scissors, paper and stone??

Glue perhaps!! It is that time of the year again, when there is a frantic search for saved-up brown wrapping paper, labels, glue, scissors and all of the other paraphernalia in preparation for the yearly ritual of “book wrapping”.


As usual, I had left it to the last minute and 8:30 pm last night finally saw me sit down and tackle this long-overdue task. Frantic appeals to hubby dear for help were met with “We didn’t have to wrap our books in school.” Now I wonder if this is the case with all the schools in Trivandrum or was it only hubby dear’s snooty convent that had this rule?? And beneath it all I have this niggling feeling (call it a woman’s sixth sense) that this is the easiest cop out that hubby dear could come up with at the moment.

So that avenue closed, I set to with a gusto, with frequent pauses due to paper cuts and labels not behaving themselves and sticking themselves everywhere except where they were supposed to go.

My mind flashed back to when friends at work had told me they were going to be outsourcing this task. All agog, I had asked for details. It seems an enterprising bunch of people would wrap books for any school per specifications for a small sum of money. This included doing it for those schools who insisted on white paper wrapping, newspaper wrapping, polythene sheet wrapping…you asked for it...they got it done!! Why, oh why, had I not taken the number?

As the night progressed, nostalgia replaced my outrage at having to do this all by myself while hubby dear and son were fast asleep upstairs. Scenes of the past flashed past my eyes. Doing this almost reverentially while I was at school, the glue all over the floor, my poor mom having to get it all off, the bits of brown paper that were magically turned into fantastic beasts with just a tiny bit of glue; placing the newly wrapped books into a brand new bag, and going to sleep ecstatic that it was a brand new year school with new friends and brand new experiences to boot!

11:30 pm and all is right with the world. I am done!! As I look at all the neat piles of newly wrapped books, my only regret is that I will not be the one that will be going off to school tomorrow. But then, Appu will, and that’s close enuff…me thinks!!

Hope you have a wonderful school year, Appu panther!!