Eagerly Awaiting a train experience to Kerala

Having been a high flyer for the past decade or so, and not actually travelling in a regular train of the Indian Railways, there is so much of excitement among the three sisters, who have planned to go by Mangala Express from New Delhi to Calicut, and halt at Bindu's parent's place for a night. We are planning to drive over to Guruvayoor, the next stop to have a relaxed darshan of Shri Guruvayurappan, Lord Krishna in his most beautiful incarnate in a temple anywhere that I have experienced. The episode begins on June 13, 2007, and I hope to keep writing about my experience in the period.

We then plan to head towards Palakkad, where we will be visiting our ailing and ageing Chittappa and Chitti (my paternal uncle and aunt), who have been struggling in their old age. No matter what happens, they do not want to leave their rootedness. This alone makes us head to Chandrashekharipuram or CS Puram village. We need to go via Edathara for reaching the village. Thanks to modernisation, there are autorickshaws available, but the Pozhai (village river, which is virtually perennial) still has pristine beauty, with fish nibbling at dead cells in your feet when you get in there for a bath.

I look forward also the Narayanan's wedding which will take place in Govindarajapuram/ Kalpathy - now a UNESCO Heritage village.

Raji, Gita and I are surely going to chill out! I will post some photos too on my return, as I plan to carry the beautiful camera and bundle of rechargeable cells, that my loving brother Babloo has gifted me with! This time, he also taught me to frame the pictures and keep playing with the camera to get more confident.

Babs and Bin, I am sure you will enjoy my posts.