KERALA WATERWAYS

This is Kerala, blessed with natural beauty. Unfortunately the locals are insensitive to the surroundings and not aware of the lush green natural beauty they see every day. Their dreams lie elsewhere. the grass is greener in the Gulf,  Europe or the USA. Is there any grass in the Gulf ? 
They don't mind.



Very romantic settings spread all over Kerala. The above two pictures were taken in Engandiyoor near Thrissur.

There's your house and here is your boat. 

Not everybody can afford to own a boat. Mostly lower middle class and poor live here. People depend on small boats to cross the backwaters to reach the road. Everybody prefers the road as it is lot faster. But they have no options.

My friend  Father Mathew a priest hails from a village called Thiruvarpu on the Alleppy kottayam backwaters.  This boat costs over hundred thousand rupees to make. This is not back waters actually. some areas get isolated in the rains and the only mode of transport is the boat. there are canals on both sides of this village.

This is an old picture taken near Mahe'. Boats are a vital mode of transportation in most parts of Kerala. Its always a joy ride for me, where ever i am, in Malabar or Cochin Alleppy kottayam or Kollam. These boats take you to the inaccessible areas.

This is a luxury boat for rich tourists. Costs more than 5000 rupees a day to hire.

This is a tourist boat in cochin. a similar double decor boat capsized in Thekkadi lake drowning more than 50 tourists last year. There have been accidents due to over crowding.

This is a local Kerala State Road Transport Corporation ( KSRTC) managed boats. Doesn't look very healthy. But the locals are dependent on it. Gets over crowded during the peak hours.

i had no seat here, i didn't want one actually,  i stayed out on a narrow deck taking pictures. This is near Cochin harbour.





This is not crowded but gets crowded in the mornings and evenings. There is room for traders carrying things to different islands like Vypin Mattancherry, Fort Cochin.



















This was a very sweet ride for me from Aleppy to don't remember where, as i got in to a boat one early morning with school going children. i didn't want to reach anywhere.

they were doing their homework in the boat

you are supposed to do your home work at home,  what were you doing last night ?

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE  we were watching TV

The boat picks up more children.  There are houses on both sides of the backwaters. The boat has to touch both sides even if there is a single school child waiting.

Run Lola run, you'll miss the boat. She didn't. The boat waited for her until she was safely seated.

All these children come from very poor families. They are neat and clean well dressed children, despite their poverty.  Education is their top priority. They will go without a meal but they will not miss the school.

The friendly and kindhearted boat conductor is helping the children with their home work. They see him every day. The children carry a subsidised pass issued by the government owned transport department. 

while boarding,  one girl said she forgot her pass and she has no money to pay. with a smile,  this conductor said hop aboard kid.

The fare is ridiculously cheap. and a lot cheaper for everyday passengers holding season tickets and still cheaper for the school children.

Its slow moving boat, there is lot of time to do the home work, play or fight. lot of mischief too. Here on the boat the conductor plays the role of their teacher and a guide.

End of fun on the boat,  here comes their school.

Leaving for Coorg tomorrow, to get some rain drops on my body. i sit at the door steps of the train. This picture was taken on my way to Aleppy in Kerala. I am not going there now, going there by the end of this month.  Here comes the controversial picture.

Can any one of my new readers explain what in the heaven's name is happening here on this boat ? Why the stupid husband is sitting comfortably and why his wife holding a baby is standing ?

i posted it a couple of years ago in Black and white in Environment series SPEED and there was a debate on this picture.

Thank you so much for your patience. i know it takes a while for the page to load as i have posted bigger size pictures this time.

please do your best to be silly and stupid

that's the way to live

nothing else makes sense.

All my love

AND THEN IT COMES

hesitation first, a bit of caution AND THEN IT COMES, a big smile






Nearly nine months of silence. i was not silent actually. sudden hesitation and panic gripped me.

Is it any good ?   Is this blog useful to any one ?

i don't know. 

Friends were urging me to write, what ?

what do you want me to write ? i can never be a writer

you've been writing, write something pleasant, you've been pretty nasty and  annoying

i know

oh! you know ??

ok, don't write anything then,  just post pictures.

Is it useful ? i asked nodder friend

not to me, he said, then he called me again to say he doesn't read my blog

Is it bad to say don't waste water ?

No, but the way you say it is quite annoying. said nodder chap.

oh !

OH ?

nutting better than a bagful of smiles before i turn nasty again. 

Her modder was selling watermelons on the road

here comes her smile.

She finds me quite funny. i don't know what she is laughing at. Me perhaps, Anyway she finds sompting amusing in me. i don't remember what i did. This was in Nepal lass month.

The whole format of posting looks different,  some new icons here which i have nebber seen before

'Enter' Key doesn't work, erratic, don't know if sompting wrong wid my keyboard, works fine odderwise.

oh deeah !  this posting box is not behaving. i think 'publish post'  would be quite a struggle.
This curser doesn't go where i want it to go  What ?

Boy with an ear ring.   

i forgot the boy's name, this is Rikku,  slowly opening up. Children trust you fast. Not always though.

They talk even if they don't speak your language. Life is simple

This is Ghausia, very sweet. 

Not much traveling this year, been to some places, have to think. Don't remember where i've been since January. i've been broke moss of the time. i was not active on facebook eeda.

i don't like facebook,

i like blogs.

moss of the time peeple show off on facebook. i think you have to, that seems to be the format. But i have seen some good stuff toos posted by friends. Some amazing videos, some very touching. You see them all on one page. All the tings your friends post.







This is Rima. collecting wild mushrooms, and minding her goats, up a beautiful valley near Nagarkot in Nepal. Been there twice some 30 years ago. This visit was more pleasant and Nepal is lot greener than what i had seen before. i'll  write more about it later. 

Most of us are happy to see the green than any other colour.

A little girl, collecting food and working,  is not a happy story. There is poverty everywhere. 

Why there is poverty 

Who started it ?

Not a good subject to discuss, but i will in a couple of weeks.

See this happy chapee  ? 
somewhere near Villipuram in Tamil Nadu. 

He has many followers.

95% of the people of this world are like his followers. 
They believe in myths and follow without any question.

This is Priyanka and Monish 5 years ago.
Priyanka Monish today

i think i posted Priyanka's picture before

They came with their parents, my friend Suresh and Kanchana last month, no, this month.

Friends visiting keeps me in good spirits. Good for my health. Better than organic food. But i can't visit them all as some are abroad like Priyanka and Monish. i don't know if i'd live to see them again, if i do Priyanka would be a  gorgeous young lady. i'll post her picture if i am still blogging

i have my share of failures. i did my best to make her smile. She kept staring at me. While i was at the height of my clowning, her mother appeared on the window and i fled. 
Some are naturally cheerful. Some are not.

She is about to burst. 
i said you are wearing a beautiful ear ring and i want to take a picture. 
This is Sarita.

She's a kid, but runs a tea stall in a bamboo shed near the same valley in Nagarkot, Nepal. 
Very shy at first.

then comes the smile.

you can see the reflection of my yeddu there.  She should be in school, playing with her friends, unfortunately she is not.  She has to help her parents to survive. She made badly needed tea for us. 
Black tea. 
She said i don't have milk, is it okkay ?  
i said that's what i want. and it was a life saver in a very remote and beautiful place.

A friend, beautiful young lady accused me of being an unhappy man for speaking my mind.

i think you have to be very insensitive to be happy all the time. i learn from people who find happiness in their state of utter poverty. 
i don't have such courage.

Not been reading much, many half finished books on my bedside,  no patience, no inclination. Difficult to sit through a movie toos. i was 62 when i wrote my last post and i'll be 63 soon.

This is my condition but i am still on the road.

i am fine, no health problems except for occasional cold. i love washing my clothes, hand washing, no washing machine. 
i check the Google weather before i put my clothes for wash.

Can't you just open the door and look out and see if its a right day to wash your clothes ? a friend asked.

i think we are losing our common sense very fast. 
The TV will tell us what to worry about and what not to worry and soon the TV will become our conscience,  i think it already has.

please stay away from TV as much as you can.

Pandurangan Pillai is fine. Gets bullied by bigger cats. He is just over a year old. i am afraid soon he would be bullying younger cats which i would not approve. He is not going to seek my approval anyway.

Walked into a big Mall, new,  very close to my house, couldn't resist.

'Buy one and get one free' caught my attention.

i fell for that.

Then i noticed ' buy two and get one free'

i fell for that too.

These big Mall people have a knack of making you feel very smart.

that's how i felt

i felt very smart walking away with things i did not need.

This is a silly post, incoherent, forgot what and how to post after a long gap.

until next time, i don't know when

Be silly

be stupid

Its nice to be a human

All my love.

RUSSEL WALLACE

Bought shoes

no no Russel Wallace is not the brand of shoes i boughted.

My friends are urging me to write something today. Lots to write buttoo have no energy to select pictures and edit dem.

oh deeah its raining, so unusual, unseasonal,  i enjoy the rain but its not good for the farmers

i promise i'll respond to all the comments on previous two posts in a few days

Back to the shoes i bought

i think i'll have to walk barefoot in a couple of years as i may not get the kind of shoes i want. Had lot of trouble finding the right pair of shoes as all the shoes were looking like battle ships, aircraft carriers. So huge that i cud play Cricket on them. 

What are these ?

what ?

What do you call these things ?

'Shoes'  said the sales man who seemed to  know i had very little money in my pocket. He was not interested in selling me anything.

Nice elegant shoes for ladies though, thought of settling for one of dem, high heels an all, but you know peepals would stop me an take my pittures wid their mobiles pones and show it to their friends. Man with a beard wearing ladies high heels and walking around.  

Which is da movie  where John Cleese wears dem high heels ?  and dances around da room ?

Out of towners, the new one, only Steve Martin would get ideas like dat, it wasn't there in Jack Lemmon movie. the original Out of Towners.

The ones i liked were way too expensive for me, any way after walking up and down many shops found one soft leather pair of shoes. i normally don't wear my forest trek shows in the city, and the other ones which i bought some months ago were breaking my toe nail.

Back to Russel Wallace. Why Russel Wallace ? Bikkaas he was born today, January 8th.

Alfred Russel Wallace. please look up on Wiki for more information.

Everybody knows Charles Darwin. When you discuss Evolution, you always talk about Darwin. Absolutely no mention of Alfred Russel Wallace who did extensive research and study on the origin of species in Amazon forests, and in tropical rain forests of Malaysia and Indonesia and came to the same conclusions as Darwin did at the same time. 

And not many talk about Herbert Spencer eeda.( 'Survival of the fittest' )

Royal Academy of science pushed Darwin,  the way they Pushed Newton, actually he pushed himself. 
Royal Society i tink, now National Academy ??

They have always been a funny bunch of peepals.

Any way no controversy, everything was buried as the religions of the world were under a new threat. 
Fresh problems for the Vatican. 
This time they were smart. They din make a fool of themselves the way they tried to put a lid on the earth being round, or the Heliocentric theory. Its a long story. 

Added
not many remember Jean Baptiste Lamarck, who was the first to think of a natural order in the origin of species, which later became the theory of evolution.

The other guys born today January 8th are Stephen Hawkins, Elvis Presley, David Bowie, Shirley Bassey.

Traveling again, To Kumbakonam for Roshana's wedding. My childhood friend Babu's daughter. A friendship of 50 years, still green. Then on 16th i am going to Karnataka with Sujith.

somewhere in between i'll respond to all the comments, i promise.

Y'know, sitting on the fence is not very comfortable.

there are Bible thumping theists and Darwin Thumping Atheists. i don't belong anywhere

All my love.

Happy New year !