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Lord Shiva at Murudeshwar

Kerala comes in many colours. The greens predominate and the hues change as you travel from the south to the north. In north Kerala there is more earthy color and the greens lose their sheen a bit.

In the last road trip spanning a good 850 kms along the west coast from Cochin to Goa, we stayed first night at Cannanore. This is in Kerala and it is an ancient town. More on Cannanore later.

Today is Shivratri and the day is celebrated for Lord Shiva. The God of Death, Destruction and Creation. So I thought it is an appropriate day to put up a picture of a Lord Shiva on the internet. The picture is a statute of Lord Shiva meditating in a sitting posture. The staute is of immense proportions and it rises sheer on a hilltop. Overlooking the deep blue waters of the western coast of India in Karnataka, this piece of cement, concrete and masonry is at a place called Murudeshwar.


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Murudeshwar is a small town on the coastal highway 17 that spans the western coast of India. It is in the state of Karnataka and about a few kilometers north of another famous Hindu town called Udipi.

Travelling North say from Mangalore to Goa, you have to veer left off the highway and in about 2-4 kms you enter the small town. The only visual that hits you with immense force is the statue of Lord Shiva as shown above. It is made of masonry and painted over and with the blue sky as the background it appears majestic. The statue is blue coloured as Shiva is supposed to be a consumer of alkaloids and poisonous mind altering substances, that you call "drugs" these days.

The construction appears to be under the munificent benevolence of the local industrialist of the area Mr Shetty with diverse interest in infra structure construction, manufacture of tiles etc.

The place has a hotel and a resort which is reasonably priced. The waiters and the support staff have all been recruited from the neighborhood, so language and finesse may be a tad lacking, but they are all willing to help and make your stay comfortable.

Other then it being a temple town with the statue of Lord Shiva, Murudeshwar has a beautiful beach which is clean and the water is wonderful at this time of the year.

More coming in the next blog specially The Girl from Murudeshwar. Whew ! some girl.

Darjeeling Locomotion

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Darjeeling breeds some of the best high mountain teas in the world. The hillsides east and west of the mountain ridge have the tea gardens plunging onto clear streams and rivers. The population inhabiting these areas comprise of Nepalese stock and they came in initially from Nepal as labour for the tea gardens.

I was fortunate to travel and stay in one of the tea plantations enroute from Darjeeling to Mal Bazar in Sikkim. The road is steep. narrow and twisty. If you drive down for the first time, it is with the proverbial heart in your mouth kind of ride.

The only traffic that you meet is a regular stream of World War II vintage Land Rovers that carry human cargo up and down. Downhill is mostly in neutral gear with the engine switched off to save fuel.

The surprise is the number of people that the vehicles carry. There are young lads hanging on to every crook and ledge of the vehicle. The front bumper has a few passengers. The bonnet has some and the tail section and roof top is also jammed with human spiders and flies. I am sure they would all become expert mountain climbers given their strong grips and extreme sense of balance. Sherapas are from Nepal , mind you.

You can count the number of passengers outside the vehicle. Easily about 9 in the tail section and 9 on top of the roof. Count a few on the front fender and the bonnet and about another 15-18 invisible occupants inside the vehicle.

You have a count of almost 35-40 Nepalese atop this 4 wheeler. Quite a feat !

The photo quality is poor. Something to do with it being a bad time of the day.

The image below is the same vehicle and passengers viewed from the rear.

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Open Bill Stork @ Ranganthittu

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This is another one from my recent visit to Ranganthittu in Mysore, India.
This is the Open Bill Stork. As the name suggests, the bill remains open.

Painted Stork in Flight !

Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary is located downstream of the Cauvery Dam in the outskirts of Mysore. It is a great place for wintering migratory birds and the Forest Department oversees the organization with commendable success.

After many years of wanderlust I visited the sanctuary last week. The place was swarming with migratory birds of all shapes, colors and calls. The air was abuzz with frenetic activity. Prime amongst the birds in terms of numbers were Open Billed Storks, Painted Storks, River Terns, Black Ibis etc. The occupancy rate was a mere 25 percent. The peak season with 100 percent occupancy may be a overwhelming experience.

The current lot of birds were from Australia, Japan, Nigeria etc as well as from inland India.

Here is a shot of a Painted Stork in flight.


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To Coconut Lagoon, Alleppy

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A late evening ride on the waterway that takes you to the Hotel Coconut Lagoon at Kumarkom. In this part of Kerala,life revolves around the water. A completely different ebb and flow of life from what the city people are used to.

One( actually two ) word on the fancy hotels. Frightfully expensive !

Even then the occupancy rates in winter are 100 %.

It only proves one thing. Money is a concept that can be explained only by the Theory of Relativity. Now even that is not true.