A Travelogue by K.C.Ajit Kumar
1. A travelogue to a place within our "God's own country", that too by a native, may come as a surprise to the other natives within and outside India. Though Kuttanaad is almost contiguous to Kochi, it took me what the good old HMT advertisement professed, "If you have the inclination, we have the time", to gather both inclination and time for the tour. Other impediment(a)s (remember the stout, haughty wife of Vitalstatistix) were my aversion to the stinking canals of Alappuzha and mosquitoes of Cherthala which had to be crossed to have a bash at "Kuttanaad".
2. Finally the trip took place on 30 Dec 98. The party of six was made up of two adults and four young adults. From Kochi we drove down to Alleppey. The new four lane NH 47 between Ernakulam and Cherthala was a sea change from the stifling, traffic clogged roads of Kochi. The speed of the drive carried me fast through Cherthala and its notorious mosquitoes. Entry into Alappuzha was detected by the nose rather than the eyes and reminded me of Chennai with its "Coovum river".
3. We were in time for breakfast at Alappuzha. The Indian Coffee house near Mullackal temple was known to me from the late sixties. I had a nostalgic trip to the Coffee house with its simple but functional layout and fairly standard food quality, One thing I realised is that it is next to impossible to find a clean, pure vegetarian restaurant at Alappuzha. The local populace is not satiated until they are filled to their gills with fish (in many forms) and rice, whenever they can.
4. Alappuzha has its own share of Shylocks, probably due to the proximity of the so called Venice. The migrating tourists looking for warm climate and warmer (or hot headed?) people had pushed up the hiring charges for boats. We Asians by nature enjoy haggling for a bargain just for the heck of it. I am sure that some of our brethren would be itching for a bargaining session even in the shopping malls of the USA. I enjoyed the haggling over the hourly rent for a boat.
5. The starting
point for boats are just outside the KSRTC Bus stand, along a filthy, narrow canal filled
with a brown viscous solution with some water content ; no wonder that the boats were
floating high. A boat was hired through the Alappuzha District Tourism Promotion Council.
A two hour ride in a motor boat which could carry 15 people cost Rs 400; the driver,
chairs, the ambience and engine noise, all inclusive. We
started the ride at about 0930 h. We were seated on the roof of the boat canopy and it was
very comfortable.
6. As the boat
left the filthy canal and entered the broad backwaters, the quality of water improved and
the scenery changed. Gone were the filth and congestion and and what met the eye were the
clean, vibrant and lush greenery of Kuttanaad. The normal cliche sentences invaded my
mind; "if there is heaven on earth, this is it", and "saare jahan
se achha" , were couple of them. The lake and the numerous islands formed
by inter linking canals were mind boggling. How anybody got through from place to place
without losing their way is surprising.
7. Water is the way
of life and the life line for the people in the region. It plays a tremendous role in
their economy, culture, attitudes and life styles. The islands depending on its size have
their own A to Z shops, places of worship, cinema theatres and of course Toddy
shops. At one point there was a well advertised stand selling tender coconuts
("Cocanuts" to be exact). Mechanised ferry boats kept
criss-crossing our path. Most houses in the islands boasted a
small wharf cum bathing area. The way the urban crowd park their vehicles, most Kuttanaad
households have their boats tethered close by. Woman-power was very evident; most of the
small boats scurrying up and down were being rowed by women. In most of the houses someone
or the other was cleaning utensils, probably from their morning meal. Temple festivals
were in vogue in the Kuttanaad maze too. The local edition of unhygeinix (the fishmonger),
in his small "Kothumbu vallom" gave out the familiar "koooohoooo"
call to attract customers.
8. In Kuttanaad, the
islands are at a lower level than the water in the backwaters. The water from the
sea flows in and mixes with the backwaters, thus making it brackish.The paddy cultivation
is done under tremendous constraints, using innovative techniques. In fact Kuttanaad is
also known as the "Rice bowl of Kerala". The lush green paddy fields are
surrounded by trees and dotted with small thatched or tiled houses. The mango season seems
to have hit Kuttanaad early this year ; many trees were laden with raw mangoes. Many
of the smaller islands are connected by short, narrow foot bridges. Absence of automobiles
has allowed the Kuttanaad environment to remain fairly unpolluted.
9. As we went along, a song which came to my mind was from an old Malayalam movie, "Ezhu Raathrikal", which went on like this, " . . . . thottu, thottu pen pillerude kuli kanaam". The boat driver took us through short canals, wider rivers, under narrow bridges and so on. It is true that "necessity is the mother of all inventions. We saw STD/ISD booths in the small islands, boats (Kerala model wooden canoes) fitted with Yamaha and Volvo outboard motors. There were many House boats with tourists plying in the canals. Few of them were still being punted with long bamboo poles and others had outboard motors. From outside, these house boats looked elegant with its bedroom, dining space, lounge etc. Every one of them had a well stocked kitchen at the rear end.
10. By about 1045 h, the sun started beating down and we wished that we had started our ride earlier. I could make out that we were on our return leg only by the direction of the sun. Otherwise there was hardly any change in the scenery. We reached back to the jetty by 1120 h. Thereon, came the elusive search for bargains for the famous local "coir products". Alappuzha makes the bulk of the coir products but has hardly any retail outlets worth its name. The "miser" in me took charge and the famished tourists had to satisfy with makeshift meal of bread, bun, biscuits and bananas in the car itself on the way back to Kochi.
11. I realised a few things on this trip.
# Every cloud has a silver lining. (Alappuzha has Kuttanaad)
# Biased ideas are not necessarily correct. (Relatively speaking)
# That even six is not a crowd. (the cliche "three is a crowd)
# Kerala could be so peaceful.
# Every place has its own charm and beauty.
If you want to know more about Kuttanad, please go back to the top and click on the "Info Button" down below.
Thank you readers
Ajit
K'nad
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