Of rubber, concrete, greenery & us - Of Kerala

Come Summer and it's already hard dealing with the fact that you don't get summer vacations like you used to back in school. What makes it worse is names of a million places being flung around your head, when you're amongst people, making you wonder how bad sitting at home in summer actually is.

Anyways, battling all of these absolutely baseless noisy thoughts, we (I!) decided that it was time, we threw in some bags and headed out to some place new. After a lot of deliberation on where to go, how's the weather, how far, who'll drive and after bumping off a lot of candidates (Chikmagalur, Pondicherry, Kodaikanal, Ooty, Coonoor, etc), we seemed to be left with Wayanad. So basically, I really can't remember why we picked Wayanad over other places, but we did and that's where we were to be in, come noon of the last sunday of April, aiming to make complete use of the Labour day weekend.

We were booked in with Banasura Island resort (after one of my Malayali friends insisted that the Banasura property at Thrissur was really good and Wayanad might not be completely off). At Rs.12,000 for a couple for a 2N3D stay, including meals, a boat trip and a head massage, it seemed like a little steep right from the start but maybe worth a shot, anyways.

Saturday night, the operations manager at the resort gave us a call to suggest we leave early since it would be am 8 hr journey. For a distance of about 330 km to the resort, considering we even fought on the way over either of our reckless driving, 8 hours seemed a little too much. However, we anyway were to leave @ 6 am and we consensually decided that was the earliest we could do.

And we're off!

6:15 am, 20 degrees outside in Bangalore, we were off.

Fairly straight forward route we had with us. Bangalore to Mysore via Bidadi, Kengeri, Ramnagaram, Channapatna and Maddur ====> Nanjangud =====> Gundlupet =====> Sultan Batheri =====> Kalpetta ====> Padinjarathera ====> Banasura Sagar Dam =====> Banasura Island Resort

We took the Electronic City route out to the NICE road towards Mysore. Not the best decision  maybe, since we ended up paying an extra toll while we could have taken Bannerghatta Road and hit the NICE road. Well, for next time!

Extremely good roads, up to Bidadi, where on for a couple of kilometers, the roads were a little crowded with village transportation hogging the tar. We stopped just ahead of Maddur, not at the McDonalds, Barista, KFC or the CCDs we saw on the way but at Adigas. A little turn onto the other side of the highway, 25 minutes later and dosas and puris down, we were back on track.

And that's all the spotting I did!

Driving through Mysore was fairly easy with signboards all through, guiding you easily till Nanjangud, where on there is a distinct, well-marked right turn to Sultan Batheri. The roads here on seem to be slightly less convenient to drive on and here's where you start losing speed.

Soon, we were entering the forest area and this was one drive I looked forward to hoping hard to see some elephants, deer, some tryst with wildlife. I was lucky enough to only however spot monkeys and a lone crow. Peak of noon is not the best time to hope to get lucky animal-spotting.

By around 12:00 we were in Batheri and headed towards Kalpetta and then Padinjarathera. Kalpetta could probably be one place it would be better to stop and ask someone for the turn to Padinjarathera, since there wasn't really any board to guide anyone. Once you get to Padinjarathera, there is a steep left turn leading you on to the dam and then to the hotel. The basic problem with the roads starts from about 2km after you cross the dam. There isn't really a road, more so of a path made by several vehicles having passed on it. Mud roads are fine to drive on, the ones with unevenly sized, pointed, sharp jelly stones is what makes you wonder if it's fine to subject your car to that kind of torture. The last 4 km or so makes you drive at a speed of 2-5kmh. As you drive up to the resort, you still don't see the point of this miserable last stretch of a drive till you reach the top. The view, to be absolutely honest is beautiful. The lake with the small islands on one end and the Banasura hill on the other, constantly peak-covered with clouds is a sight to remember. Peek at the watch and it is 2:15 pm - in line with what the manager told us!

The view of Banasura Hill from our room

The aftternoon wasn't much except for the long snooze we had post the Kerala style cooked sumptous (Roti, Dal. Curry, Rice, Sambhar, Pulao, Beans poriyal, Curds, some pepper chicken for my husband, papads and some kheer). We woke up to some hot chai and pakodas served up in our room, which happened to have a nice balcony overlooking the lake and the hill. Special mention to the rooms - which were extremely strictly in line (maybe too much!) with the wilderness friendly, minimalistic interiors concept. Exactly one tube light, one fan and no bulb, in a room with a hard bed, clay tiles and bugs walking on walls.

The Reception and the Naaluketu rooms

Needless to say, after the chai had been drunk and the sun had begun to set it was time to shut the door and rush inside. We then took a walk around the resort and chanced upon the Manager - Binod who we liberally chatted up about the place, the property, the people, etc. Turns out there are about 15 rooms, no televisions except in two rooms, limited staff and the miserable state of roads can be attributed to the fact that there is an NOC which has not been cleared for the construction of the roads. Anyway, long story short, after the extensive gyan about nothing, we began to look forward to dinner which was supposed to be South Indian and Chinese and turned out to be South Indian and something resembling Gobi Manchurian, only by sight. Tired souls have few choices and we decided to eat whatever we could and head up to the room and crash.

The view from the boat ride

Day 2 was to be our sightseeing day. Post breakfast - A surprising mix of cornflakes, toast, poori sagu, puttu and some omelettes, we headed down the treacherous road to the dam. A Rs.15 entry fee (instead of the Rs.80 Jeep ride) to reach the top of the dam and a short walk through the park, we made it to the boating ticket counter. At Rs.450, a little steep for a 15 minute ride, the speed boat promised to take us around the 32 islands in the lake, with a view of the hills and at some point, our resort. After about 30 minutes of waiting (since there was only one boat operational), we were off on our short swift ride. A few good clicks and a lot of wind in our hair later, we made our way back to the park where you seemed to find more adults than children on swings. Needless to say, I decided to join the party and go back to memory land on the swing myself. Not much to see besides all of this, after which we headed back down to the car and made our way out to MeenMutty Waterfalls.

The rocks on the path up to MeenMutty

On the way to the resort but a 3 km detour and we were at the gate of MeenMutty waterfall. A little struggle to park and Rs.20 later we were on the path leading up to the falls. Must say, the soft trek (the way it started off), gave way to a pretty stony, difficult looking path to the falls. Poor footwear and you can be sure to slip off a rock or land into a bunch of thorny bushes on the sides. Few (very few!) clicks later, we were on our way back and to my complete amazement, I saw a bunch of kids and a few teenagers walking to the falls barefoot! Either they do this real often or they have a pretty rude shock in store!

The terribly stony road up

We headed back to resort after I had a little unfortunate bump on the back of my car and managed to push the mud guard all the way in till my husband realised it was scraping off the tyres and fixed it, on the way. We reached in time for lunch, a la carte (no menu though!), versus yesterday's buffet, but the fare remained the same. Just more of it and in many more bowls! Another nap later, we were all set to go for our complimentary massage - Head & Shoulder only. Took about 15-20 minutes and the masseuse seemed to forget that there was a complimentary shower post the massage. Not interested in wasting our energy trying to explain, we had our respective massages and headed back to the room for our showers and waited for our chai and pakodas, which made their way to our room by about 6.

As night began to fall, we packed a little bit of whatever we could and decided to watch a movie on the laptop (Thank heavens for his thinking!). Half of ZNMD later, it was time for dinner and we were downstairs. Similar fare, a different sabzi here and there and some fresh halwa later, it was snooze time again for a long day of driving and roads.

The Wayanad Museum

We were thinking of doing a little sightseeing on the way back. And what was do-able without some painful detours was the Wayanad Heritage Museum and possibly Edakkal Caves. The caves are known to have some beautiful interior stone pictorial writings from the times of 5000 BC. However, there is a 2 km upward trek to reach the caves and I wasn't too up for it. We were to find the deviation to the caves a little before Sultan Batheri and there was a big board to the right with the way to the caves alongwith "Holiday - Mondays and 1st May". So yes, good decision not to have driven down there yesterday and today being 1st May, wasn't going to be possible anyway either.

Vivek with some stone artefacts

A little ahead and we found the deviation on the right to the Wayanad Heritage Museum. Passing by Phantom Rock on the way, we reached Amabalavayal. The Museum has some interesting collections of Stone artefacts apparently indicating some connection to the Indus Valley Civilisation and also maybe going to show how diffusion of their culture happened down south as well. Fairly decent collection for about Rs.20 per head in entry and Rs.25 for the camera. On the way back, we decided to stop at some handicraft store and buy something as a keepsake. There are pretty interesting bamboo and rosewood collectibles and we settled on a small elephant made of rosewood, to store in our shelves and be reminded of the place. Rs.200 (steep), but no bargain, considering we weren't able to communicate a price to the seller.

That done, we were on our way to Mysore, where I suggested we have lunch at this old quaint restaurant Dasprakash. Terrible idea, considering the fact that we were in Mysore on May Day in the peak of noon, searching for the place. Post the lunch, not really worth the effort, I found myself with a really snappy husband driving around Mysore without knowing which way to head to Bangalore and just find the goddamn highway! 25 minutes and a lot of Kannada here and there later, we were on our way out. Terrible amount of traffic considering the public holiday and we got off at Bannerghatta Road post the lovely NICE road stretch by about 7, but took an hour to get home in Koramangala. Long drive, would have been great except the getting lost in Mysore and wasting time at the hotel part. McDonalds would have been a better option I suppose!

All in all, a good break. Except, 700 km and about 38 litres of petrol and 2 days later, I can't help but wonder if it might have made more sense to stay at a place a little more closer to towns like Kalpetta or Sultan Batheri and maybe driven around to more places in Wayanad. Or was it better to find this little place up the hills and relax. If it were a trip intended to sightsee, I'd probably say option 2, but to rejuvenate and relax, the first one would work pretty okay, I'd suppose. 

Till the next trip, the next time we hit the road, the next adventure awaits...

Vicky Donor..Of Dilli, sperm donation and Annu Kapoor!

Rarely comes by a movie with oodles of humour and a subtle message. Same goes for Vicky Donor. Something that starts with a WHO statement on sperm donors, stating that several families are childless due to lack of sperm donors and ends with a couple walking off from an orphanage with an adopted child, is a very discreet way of promoting the idea of adoption, of respectful sperm donation.

And everything in between (Save parts of the second half) are absolutely hilarious, stuffed with stereotypes and jibes at two ethnicities.

Pretty straight forward plot. Vicky Arora (Ayushmaan), the true blue Punjabi Delhi boy seems to attract a lot of unwarranted attention from Annu Kapoor (The owner of an Infertility clinic and sperm bank), who believes Vicky has quality sperm and must donate to save the world (and the business).Vicky resists but relents and once the money starts coming in, becomes quite a regular. Family doesn't know, girlfriend/wife doesn't know and when the truth comes out, all emotional hell breaks loose. All's well in the end however as Annu Kapoor finds out, takes blame and tries to fix all the damage he's caused in his own queer way.

The high point of the movie for me, is in the treatment of the subject of sperm donation. There is absolutely no hesitation in showing how people actually react to the idea. How dates can end up with one tight slap, how wives can just pack up and leave, how mothers think it's a dirty profession and how the donor himself might have reacted when the idea is first thrown at him. Select soft serious ideas such as the legality of the issue, the treatment of the money and the gifts is all carefully wrapped and comically delivered to ensure you understand and remember the message but laugh your heart out. You can't really ever forget Annu Kapoor's obsession with sperm and how every conversation and every sentence has to have a connection to it, his gesture to indicate sperm movement and the hallmark dialogues such as "Eh kaam legal hai, aaj se hi nahi.. Mahabharat ki time se..jananiyon ke jaab baache nai hote the toh rishi muniyon ko bulwa lete the.. baba aulad nai hai... babe ne ki kitta, tathastu kitta....... Hogiya"..Or even "Vadiya vadiya kha te vadiya vadiya phen, load na le asar pade ga sperm pe.."

You almost can't help but sympathise with Annu Kapoor at some point for how he diligently chases Vicky, acting as part-time chauffer, part-time bill payer at restaurant, to convince him to donate sperm.

Annu Kapoor has got to be the most impressive character in the movie, with his seemingly natural comic action in the movie, definitely closely followed by Dolly and Beeji, Vicky's mum and grandmom. The two women come across as typical endearing Punjabi women who will fight over 'Dolly's attache' and Vicky's lack of seriousness, but will bond over their late night regular bar setups agreeing on one thing that Punjabis are the world's best race.

All in all, a must watch, purely for the fun you can have at the cost of blatantly laughing at Punjabi and Bengali stereotypes and the side of Delhi you get to see. Parts of the second half dragging making you believe it's a hindi movie after all, but definitely one you mustn't miss.