There are some things which you keep mulling over for a long time, and then suddenly things come together quickly and it all happens. My trip to Guruvayur was one such. I had wanted to go to guruvayur, as well as kerala in general, for a long time, and it suddenly got finalised in a matter of days.
My only prior trip to kerala was a quick one day visit to the trivandrum temple a couple of decades ago, of which i barely remember anything. So i’ll start an account of this trip to guruvayur right from the journey itself.
We went from chennai, so thats the route i’ll be writing about here. The best way to reach guruvayur from chennai is to take a train to Thrissur, and though there are multiple trains on this route, the most conveniently timed ones are the chennai-trivandrum mail and chennai-alappuzha express. We got tickets on the latter, and it starts from chennai central station at 9.05 PM. After travelling through tamilnadu during the night, the train enters the kerala border in the wee hours of the morning - and this was something that i was particularly looking forward to. It has been my wish for ages to travel the konkan railway route, which covers the entire coastal kerala region and goes upto maharashtra, and is famous for its scenic vistas. I dont know when that would get crossed off my list, but for now, the only glimpse of kerala from the train i could get was the stretch until reaching thrissur in the morning and i wasnt going to miss that.
(no particular reason for a b&w photo, just that it felt more suited to convey the pre dawn timing)
The train pulled into Palakkad, the first stop it has after crossing the tamilnadu-kerala border, around 5.30 in the morning and it was still dark outside. Palakkad Junction is one of the major stations of kerala, with a long and clean platform, but at this early hour, it is mostly all quiet but for the people alighting there and a vendor or two. Palakkad is nestled in the ‘Palakkad Gap’, the geological gap or break in the western ghats range, which serves as a gateway between kerala and tamilnadu. I wondered if the western ghats could be seen right from the train, but it was still too dark outside to spot anything. It was a short wait to daybreak though, and with the first crack of dawn soon turning the dark sky into a purplish hue, i could slowly start seeing the outlines of coconut trees and hills in the distance.
In another half an hour, the train trundles into the Ottapalam station. The day has dawned now, and the ottapalam station is in clear view, with a kind of quiet beauty and also squeaky clean. Both palakkad and ottapalam stations have scored high in the cleanliness rankings of the indian railways.
It might surprise one to know that despite its quaint charm and unassuming looks, Ottapalam is home to a lot of accomplished diplomats in the Indian Foreign Service, giving India ambassadors, foreign secretaries, and even one of its National Security Advisors. It is also the constituency from which the former indian president K R Narayanan (also initally an IFS diplomat) was elected as a member of parliament.
Ottapalam is also known for its connection with the movie industry - Vidya Balan, who is known for her powerhouse performances right from her debut movie Parineeta, was born here. It is also home to some notable film directors - Gautham Menon, for instance, being one of them.
The unspoilt natural beauty of ottapalam has consistently made it a popular shooting destination for malayalam movies, and the famous Varikkassery Mana, one of the traditional ancestral homes of kerala, is also located here and also has been the location of many malayalam movies.
Once the train leaves Ottapalam, the picturesque scenes of kerala begin to roll into view in the morning light. Fertile fields, coconut trees and hills still clouded with the morning mist swiftly cross your eye.
Flowing parallel to the train track soon after ottapalam is the famed Bharathapuzha or Nila river, which is the second longest river of kerala. It is inseparably linked with the culture and emotions of people in the region, with a lot of poets, singers and writers having been born along its banks and taken inspiration from it for their works. The glimpses of the river play hide and seek in the morning haze, till the train eventually turns away from its path.
The fresh morning air carrying a cool nip in it wafts past your face as you stand at the door. You dont want to take your eyes off as you try to catch as much of the typical kerala views as possible, for who knows when there will be a next time.
Sometime later, looking on the other side, there are groves of trees with a diagonal or spiral cut on their side, and bags hung beneath the cuts. I realised these must be rubber trees being tapped for latex. rubber trees were brought into the country by the british, and kerala accounts for 92% of the country’s rubber production. (In the foreground are banana trees of course, another kerala staple, but the thin trees being tapped behind were much better visible to the eyes than they are in the pic.)
Shortly afterwards, the views begin getting more urbanised and as the train reached closer to Thrissur, i prepared to get down, and get to our destination from there - Guruvayur, the main purpose of our trip. Guruvayur is about 26 kms from thrissur, and i’ll continue about it in detail in the next part.
Click here to read part 2, about the experience at guruvayur temple. Click here to see all four posts in the series.
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