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Tourism to Kerala received a
fillip, when the national Geographic Traveler recommended it
as one of the top fifty tourist destinations of the world for
the visit of a lifetime. Kerala and its natural beauty have
been praised and exalted as paradise found, green symphony,
gods' own country.. Kerala with its misty mountains, its green
forests and its lush valleys, its warm beaches and its blue
lagoons, its culture, its people and its ways of life is
indeed the most beautiful place on earth. |
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But what is it
that makes Kerala a paradise, a green symphony? What is the
source, the harbinger of all this beauty? Perhaps this
phenomenon, this fountain of beauty, is itself another unique
experience of a life time, and it comes in from the Indian
Ocean.
There are some things in life, which though we experience
almost every day, still stirs up an indescribable something in
us.
On my morning walks, I take in a flyover, which spans two
lagoons with a railway line in between. Often I see from afar
a train negotiating a bend in the line through the coconut
palms on either side, like a long centipede through the grass.
And every time I stop and watch the train from the flyover
until it passes under me; and so do many others.
There are many similar things in life, which though we have
witnessed a thousand times still comes as a new experience- a
glorious sunrise, the rolling waves, a moonlit night, the stateliness of
an elephant, the magnificence of a thoroughbred, the love of a
dog - these are just a few of them.
And it is one such thing, that brings all the aforesaid beauty
to Kerala- The Monsoons.
I
have spent over forty of my fifty odd years of life in Kerala
and I have not had enough of the Monsoons- not till date.
It is the Monsoons that make Kerala so green and beautiful.
Had it not been for the Monsoons, Kerala's would have been a
different fate altogether. There are two Monsoons that nurture
Kerala- the South West Monsoon from the Indian Ocean and the
North East Monsoon from the Bay of Bengal.
The
South West Monsoon sets in, in the first week of June and it
pours- sometimes for days on end-until August. And after a
month of rain, the ponds and puddles, fields and low grounds
fill up with water. And water gushes and rushes through every
waterway- large and small.
And when the South West Monsoon is done, The North East
Monsoon sets in, towards October- November with lightning and
thunder. The North East Monsoon normally puts on
its show at dusk or at night.. Streaks of lightning,
rend the dark sky, rains fall in sudden showers, and then it
rolls and it growls, it rumbles
and grumbles and trembles
and then it bursts in on you in deafening thunder. Your
clothes and your hair bristle with the static electricity in
the atmosphere.
The
Monsoon is also the time for love. The sky showers all its
love on the waiting earth below and the earth blushes all over
in a riot of colors.
It is also love time for the hibernating frogs. With the first
rain waters, reaching their dry mud holes, they spring to life
in a deafening chorus, croaking out their love to their mates
and putting on a show for them, with their colorful throat glands ballooning in and out. And
they make love all over- in the pools and in the puddles, in
the green grass and in the lush undergrowth. The females then
lay their eggs and then both male and female go back to their
hibernation and wait and pray for the next Monsoon.
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The Monsoon is also love-time for the white ants, holed
up and hidden deep under the earth. With the waters
reaching down to them or on some other cue, these white
ants sprout wings to fly into the air and mate and lay
their eggs and then perish or fall prey to the birds.
It is also love-time for the glow worms, which lighten
up the dark, rainy nights, beaming their love to their
mates. They turn on and off in unison and the night
lights up one second and blanks out the next.
And a holiday in Kerala during the monsoon can be
love-time for you too. Cuddle up on your bed and listen
to the rain roaring in the trees, rustling in the
leaves, drumming on the roof and pouring off the eaves.
Or cozy up under the awning of a houseboat,out on the
vast expanse of a lagoon and |
watch the huge drops of
rain fall on the still surface and splatter.
A
vacation in Kerala during one of the Monsoons will excite you
and mesmerize you and carry you back in time to that
primordial self in you. I have had this inexplicable feeling
in me a thousand times from a thousand rains. And the
monsoons- they still
excite me time and time every year
And I can
guarantee you that a tour of Kerala during the monsoon
downpurs will excite you and stir you up, as it has stirred me
up a thousand times, year after year after year, as it has
stirred up those frogs for a million years from the beginning
of time. |
