Mesmerising Munnar

Modern day life in a city can sometimes get stressed and though we all try our best to maintain a good work life balance, more than often we end up with a feeling to need more time to relax, rejuvenate ourselves and deviate from the routine. This change in itself, can be very healing and if it is in the lap of nature, the effect is manifold. In September of 2016, realizing the need to take a break from work, I head out for the mountains in Munnar, a hill town in the state of Kerala. It was a part of my 5 day trip to Kerala. Among others, Munnar was the most memorable one.

Tea Gardens have always fascinated me, not only because of my love for tea, but since the plantations make the mountain slopes breathtaking. The hill station of Munnar in Kerala is one such place among many others in India. I started from the port city of Kochi and as I travelled from the plains to higher altitudes, I could feel the chill, the freshness in the air and see bluer skies. But its not only the plantations that characterize Munnar, there is a lot more to the city. With numerous waterfalls, lakes and scenic beauty alongside the roads, I wished the roads just went on to no end.

By dusk, I reached Munnar and since there was nothing much to do for the day, chose to witness a show of "Kalaripayattu", a traditional form of martial arts and "Kathakali", a traditional classical dance form .

Originally from Kerala, Kalaripayattu ( aka Kalari - meaning 'science of war' ), is one of the oldest surviving martial arts of India. It involves the use of weapons like swords, daggers, spears, bows and arrows. In spite of the risks involved, it was amazing to see the performance with the highest levels of energy, agility, team work, precise timing and expertise, which made all the difference for one wrong step could mean serious injury to the performer.

It was followed by a classical dance performance of Kathakali. This dance form is usually a story play performed by male actor-dancers. It is a distinguishable dance form involving masks and elaborate colourful make up and costumes. The one I watched was an act from the ancient epic "Ramayana". It was a one hour show, after which I got a chance to talk to the performers and of course click some pictures with them.

It was amazing and praiseworthy to see how age old traditions are still being maintained in India. Even in a small hill town of Munnar, there were schools which taught these art forms across generations and in the most professional way possible with the limited grants and funds.

The next day I woke up to a spectacular and breathtaking view from my hotel room window. It had various shades of white, blue and green all around. With tea plantations along the slopes of the mountains, it seemed a green carpet as far as the eyes could see. Before anything else, I stepped out of my room right into the middle of the plantations. The rays of the morning sun made the little leaflets shine up and appear translucent. In the middle of the vastness of tea plants and not a person in sight, it was paradisaical. With no one around to guard the plantations, I could have probably plucked some leaves and made tea out of, straight from the garden, but only if it were that simple.

To understand how difficult it really was, I paid a visit to a local tea factory. It catered to all stages of manufacturing tea : from segregating, compressing, oxidizing, drying, rolling and many more up to the finished product with the right blend and perfect taste. It was here that I learnt about "white tea", which apparently is of the highest quality, has the most health benefits and rightfully the costliest. I was told the difference between green, black and white tea, how the quality of tea leaves determines the color of the beverage, among many other aspects of tea making. I ended up having a lot more knowledge about tea than I ever could.

The rest of the day was spent exploring Munnar. I visited some of the beautiful lakes, waterfalls and gardens around the city. The weather was perfect and I chose to walk. As I got to know more about the city, I got more and more convinced of settling there post retirement from work, a feeling I end up with for most of the places I have travelled to. Though there were many other attractions in Munnar, I chose to spend the day with nature getting the most of the pure air, listening to the sound of birds chirping, and seeing the spectacular view of the mountains as far as my sight could reach. The day ended seeing an orange colored sun going behind the mountains, leaving behind a trail of peach, blue and orange colors in the sky. Having called it a day, I head off to my hotel for a quick dinner with hopes of more experiences.

Munnar had clearly fascinated me on all fronts and I was pretty clear I would be back some day to stay longer. The next day I left Munnar for Allepy, a coastal city of Kerala. The road trip was downhill and en-route I took some time to see more of tea gardens and cardamom cultivation on the mountain slopes and an elephant training camp.

It would be unjust if I did not post pictures of some spectacular flowers cultivated in the gardens. With the appropriate climate, flowers were in plenty, some of them I had not seen before.

Though my visit was a short one, it most certainly met its purpose. I continued my journey to explore more of Kerala but the impact Munnar had on me remained for a very long time. The peace and tranquility I felt in Munnar could not have been any different than paradise.

"Paradise is not the place you go when you die. Paradise is when your mind is in perfect state. "