From: chitoor@thorin.cis.udel.edu (Srikrishnan R. Chitoor)
Subject: Travelogue [Longish].
Followup-To: alt.culture.kerala
Organization: University of Delaware, Newark
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1993 03:05:37 GMT

Hi all,
   Here is a summary of my travel to chitoor (or chittoor,
anyone care to verify?)  and tellicherry (or thalaichery?) last
summer when I had been to India. 
   I was brought up in Madras and have done extensive travelling 
in TN, so I could really compare the states.

We started from Madras in Mangalore mail late in the evening and reached
Palghat the next morning. The journey itself was pretty uneventful and
I could not do my favorite `window-gazing' from the train.

   Reached palghat at around 5:00 in the morning and after waking up
a sleepy auto guy we started off to our relative's place.
I must add here that the auto guy was real polite (remember I am used to 
Madras) and did not ask for the extra two rupees that any auto driver
in Madras would demand. We travelled quite some distance in that
cool morning and was quite surprised to see that the rate came to just about
Rs. 10. After the usual greeting and chatting with the relatives, 
we set off to chitoor to see our traditional god, the chitooramman.
The travel was quite short and the road-side scenery was quite 
pleasing. Visited our ancestral property and roamed around the place 
with my father pointing at various places and explaining their importance
(to him). 

   I stayed there as long as possible clicking photos of the beautiful
scenery (I think we went there at the correct time, the mansoon was
just about to start). We hired a taxi and set off to tellicherry.
We had to go thru' calicut (or kozhikode?) and I was really upset
when I learned that they serve only 'puzhungal' rice for food.
We were used to the `pachchai' rice (both are tamil words, I am not very 
scholarly at Malayalam), that is usually served in TN.  Instead had some
kerala specialities for lunch at calicut and proceeded to tellicherry.
   
   Calicut, I must confess, must be home to a lot of rich people.
I happened to see quite a few (prohibitively) expensive Tata Estate's
(the new car released by the Tata's) and to be frank in more numbers
than I had seen in Madras. Crossed some nearly overflowing rivers
(Bharadhapuzha if I remember right) and stopped frequently to enjoy
the beauty of the scenery and capture them in the camera. Finally reached
the coast side town of tellicherry. My father on reaching the place,
immediately flew off to meet and chat with his old time friends. I had
never seen him being so happy and active any time before.

   Stayed at the quarters of the tellicherry temple till we found that it
had no provisions for hot water. Moved out to some hotel equipped with
hot water taps (ofcourse it is a different story altogether). The next day,
we roamed around the place, went to the beach and enjoyed the beauty that
kerala was. For me it was a new experience as I had not been to any of
(except beaches) such places in TN. Unfortunately TN is one place where the 
number of rivers that do not have water easily outnumber the ones that do have 
water. On the return trip we saw the roadsides lined with plenty of 
`Palapazham' tree. We even managed a huge piece from a roadside vendor for an
incredible price of Rs. 10 a piece (costs 5 times as much in Madras).

   We returned to Palghat and then to Coimbatore in the same Taxi.
Till now I have more or less stuck to facts. Now I am going to express
some personal opinions. It was sad to note that kerala inspite of its
abundant natural resources (atleast water) is not developing as fast
as it should. I cannot generalize, but wherever we went we had problems
with the service rendered (in the hotel they refused to get us hot
water after promising to do so, they supplied us with a leaking bucket
and refused to replace it, in the hotel they refused to refill the food
for a `unlimited meal' and finally the taxi driver demanded Rs. 100
more than what we had agreed for when we reached our destination). ofcourse
there were these guys like the auto driver who took us ungrudgingly to our
destination nearly in the middle of the night.

  I could visibly see the difference between a place like coimbatore
and ones like calicut (ofcourse, coimbatore has benefitted from lots
of keralites), I just wish that kerala shreds its communist image and
goes on the path of rapid development just like its neighbor TN.

-Krishna.
Opinions are mine.
Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala