Good and bad moments

Been an okish start to the New Year but a rather morose end to 2005.

The IISc incident left a lot of people outraged and worried about terrorism, against innocent lives being taken away and blah. But to me it was more than that. Not because I lived in the same city as the incident, not even that I lived anywhere close to the said venue, but because the concerned victim was someone I knew so well, who walked in the same corridors and taught in the same classrooms I went to, was a mentor to few of my closest friends and me too in retrospect. Here's a silent prayer to Prof Puri. It’s indeed a great shock to all of us that you had to go away so unfairly. I hope your family and friends are able cope up with your absence. Amen!

New year and the eve was different this year. I went to this remote village in Tirunelveli called Ambasamudram (fondly called Ambas by the inhabitants). The husband is away for a training program somewhere about and I, having never seen Tamil Nadu beyond Chennai, decided to be with him for a few days. And the prospect of staying in a remote village sounded exciting as well as skeptical. Not being used to more than a handful people talking in Tamil at a time around me, I used to find Chennai very 'claustrophobic'. And 2.5 days in a village was scarier thought. But this turned out to be a nice, little township which was just on the base of a hill. It was fairly cosmopolitan and food was simply splendid. Simple, bland and delicious, just the way I like. And the village was extremely picturesque with lovely shades of cleansed green in the blades of grass just like they would look after a rain shower, tall palm trees in the backdrop, clear and clean water of the Tamarabarani River flowing through the region and lovely waterfalls. Did anyone say Tamil Nadu is scarce of water; this is what needs to be shown to them. I can speak of myself being one of them.

I had a very filmi view of the villages there. Sparse, draught-like land with dark, Veerappan-like moustached men with sickles in their hand ready to slit throats of the farmers, hungry and naked children running about with runny noses. But with all the lovely landscape, conservative (maybe) but nice and friendly people, devoid of any of the brashness I had seen in cities like Chennai or movies at large, this was a complete revelation for me. T'veli rocks.. :-)

We visited a dam called Kariyar and a small waterfall nearby. The route was through a forest which was also a Tiger reserve. Very green and beautiful and weather was perfect. There were amazing rapids along the path of the river and I really think, one could attract more tourists in the area for white-water rafting and such. And the next day, husband and I trekked up the hill adjacent to the township. It was nearly a 2 hour trek up along slush and canals and general greenery, not to mention unpleasant, creepy companions like chameleons and insects. On the way back, we lost our trail. We kept going round in the same place. I was getting slightly worried because I was losing out on time to catch the train back to Bangalore. Finally, we went all the way up again and this time we got the path right. I did a dramatic DDLJ-type sprint to catch the train just 2-3 min before its departure. Only difference being that there was no Raj to pull me into the train, it was more like the husband pushing me into it. ;-)

But all in all it was a nice relaxing trip and a good start to 2006. Oh and I, now, know all the hit-and-not-so-hit tamil songs till date. Chandramukhi and the ilk. Will put up pictures soon. :-)