Waking up in paradise!

Around 2 in the morning we were crossing NH 49, steering through the Western Ghats and reached the small village of ’Rendam Mile’ Idduki district in Kerala. It was pitch dark and we did not have enough charge on our flash lights. However, we navigated through the woods with the help of some moon light. We were supposed to hike up a mile to reach a small tribal hamlet on top of the mountain. It was too late to climb so we thought to camp mid way and climb the rest in the morning. The breeze was so cold that it put us all to sleep like we took a hit with tranquilizer shot.

In the morning, it was like someone waking you; I could hear singing tunes from a distance as I am still half in sleep. It was too cold to sleep more so I slowly woke up and what I saw is this …

The song was from a blue koel, he was so gracious and beautiful in singing and I could sense his excitement. The excitement on an everyday basis. Who wouldn’t sing out of joy when living in paradise?

In my 30 years of waking up from sleep, I never have woken in a peaceful state; it would either be my alarm, or the sounds from the kitchen, door bell or the disturbing levels of decibels from the street, or worse it by thinking of the day ahead in the industrial jungle of metal and fire.

I think the picture would explain my experience…

I looked up the mountain as we needed to climb up more to reach the village, finding the feasible path to climb. I was told that the people up there live like gods.

I was told that they are strangers to no one. To them we are their distant relatives, visiting them. They knew we are coming and they were expecting us. We could hear their dogs barking, as even they knew that we were coming to visit.

We climbed for about 30 mins and we saw faces emerging from the bushes, we did not even realize they were watching us. One man came out from the bush, waved his hand and said, “This way”.

We followed him; he told us that we will be staying at Saji’s house, a cardamom and ginger farmer. He also told us that he is setting up a tent for us outside his house.

This is the land of the God's own people; here all is one to nature and nothing mightier than it.

The strong scents of flowers were increasing as we were reaching their place. Saji’s was the last house in the mountain and it seems to me that I was at the door step of the golden gate. The dogs were the first to welcome us ... Tipu, the alpha male was verifying our ids :)

To continue…