Yukon Ho!!!!

An unbalanced sheet, a marriage and a lot of bird watching

Yupp that is my past 4 days for you. It all started with a some hectic studying in the evenings trying to do some balancing acts on financial statements and by the end of it all i was pretty unbalanced and so was my answer sheet that i turned in for the exam. So when the grades are out i don't have very high hopes, but in the same breath i must confess that i leant a lot about balance sheets in the last few days , though it might not get reflected on to the marks. Once the exam was over i had to skip "Aarambh" , the welcoming party for freshers at IIMB and rush off to catch my bus to Kottayam. It was a sleeper bus and i was hoping to catch up on my sleep for the last two days. The rain gods had other plans for me.

As soon as the bus hit kerala , the rains started hitting me... first in my slumber i thought i was taking a bath , then i realized it is a big leak in the window of the bus... my entire bed was getting wet and finally it transformed itself into a water bed. I decided to take leave of my bed and went into the drivers cabin. Kerala is a refreshing sight in the monsoons. There was greenery all around and it was an exhilarating sight. I felt at home !!!

I reached Kottayam by around 9:00 in the morning and at the wedding house people were running around , everybody was looking at their shining best and there i was looking rather rumpled. Had a quick bath and after some good breakfast even i was shining.
The rains were kind of incessant the entire day. We all then proceeded to the church for the wedding. The roads were a bit jammed because of the rains and we had some minor parking troubles at the venue. But apart from that the event was a great success. After lunch i went to see some old school teachers of mine who are now settled in Kottayam. By evening i was back at the grooms place. His cousins had arranged some ragging for the bride and groom. By night i was pretty much out after the post marriage get-together.

Monday morning we (my friend, his wife and me) decided to head out to the bird sanctuary at kumarakom. The roads leading to the sanctuary are not great but the scenery around it makes up for those potholes. The sanctuary doesn't have any sign boards on the road side, so when you travel there , you have to follow the signboards for the Taj Kumarakom resort and then take the immediate left turn after Taj if you are heading from kottayam. The entry fees to the sanctuary is Rs 5/- and there is a walking trail into the 100 acre santuary.20 minutes of walk later we came to a place where some canoes were parked in the canal. The boatman offered to takes us through the lake for seeing the rest of the sanctuary for Rs 150/-. We took the canoe and must tell you it was just awesome. There were all kinds of birds in there and for some like the Darter and the Australian crane it is the nesting season. I got to see couple of darters darting off with twigs in their beaks to build its nest.

The boatman took us through a myriad of canals and it was a very enjoyable experience. On the way back we stopped at a toddy shop and had some kallu (toddy) , kappa ( Tapioca) , fish and pork. Aah , my mouth waters at the mere thought of that food.

Well had to start back to Bangalore in the evening .It was a very uneventful journey back just like i wanted and i could catch up on some well needed sleep.

posted by Calvin @ 2:49 AM