Beckoning Backwaters – Travel Diary

My friends and I are on a houseboat in the Vembanad Backwaters of Kerala, India.  Truly, God’s own country.

We lounge on the deck, soaking in the serenity, the lush greenery and the rippling waters, as our boat glides in silence.  A silence that is only punctuated by cawing crows, flitting butterflies and rustling reeds.  Water plants float in merriment, in celebration of all that wonderful beauty.  We are awed by this experience, as we keenly observe the lives of the people, who have made the backwaters their home.  Our raucous laughter and incessant chatter are sucked away by the beautiful silence, where we do not exist any more.

Later in the day, we board a small wooden boat, which takes us through the villages in the backwaters.  Life is happening all around us, everyday life – a woman is cleaning fish in preparation for dinner, three little girls are waving out to us in sheer joy, an old man is sitting on the bank, fishing, as he ponders over the mysteries of life.  Small fish and water snakes give us company, as our boat cuts through the waters.  Kingfishers sit on electric cables, waiting for just the right moment to swoop down.

Coconut trees flirt with the water,  some of them arching down to the water’s surface for a good gossip.  We wave out to people on other houseboats, and a sense of camaraderie prevails, at having enjoyed something exquisitely beautiful.

There is a sense of timelessness, as we sip strong tea and munch on ‘pazzha pori’ a local delicacy.

We feel distanced – from our everyday lives and from the mundane.  We feel content, we feel complete.  Life was meant to be lived like this, in the company of nature – rippling water, singing birds, swaying reeds and majestic coconut trees. Where a sense of completeness prevails, where solitude is the best company, where there are hundreds of thoughts as we took it all in, and then no thoughts at all……just bliss.

Sharing some pictures!

 

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Strange Things Do Happen

Sometimes, when we read about strange incidents that have happened to people, we stop to wonder whether such things can actually happen in people’s lives.

There is one such incident that happened in our lives, many years ago.

We’d just bought a new car – a beautiful, deep green colour. Shiny and clean, waiting to guzzle up the miles.

My husband usually drove to work in the car. A few days after we had bought it, my husband called me at work and casually mentioned that a coconut had fallen on the car; from a tree that was close to where he had parked. A small dent appeared on the roof of the car. We laughed about it and moved on.

Image courtesy – Wikipedia

Exactly ten days after the coconut fell, and I was at work, my husband called me again.

He said, “Guess what happened to the car?”

I laughed and replied, “Another coconut fell on it?”

He said, “No, a coconut tree fell on the car. The hood is completely smashed in.”

I gasped and reeled from the shock of his statement.

He had taken pictures for insurance purposes and forwarded them to me.

I was amazed at how the tree had fallen. There was a row of cars parked, and the tree had fallen exactly on our car, not an inch this side or that side.

We were glad nobody was near or inside the car, when the tree fell.

Maybe, the initial coconut fall was a warning of sorts, or the tree was trying our car on for size. Whatever it was, it happened.

Strange things do happen. Sometimes we are those people, whom others read about and say, “Can’t believe that actually happened.”