To Kerala.

The effect of watching the highly political English news channels as a matter of ritual and habit every evening and reading the news papers ,first thing in the morning ,brings to my mind the pet name conferred on the crown prince- Amul baby [there i have gone and done it again! mentioning the unmentionable inviting the wrath of the empire.Well my blogs would be drab and boring without a dab of politics, wouldnt it?],by that parties adversary, an octogenarian, in a recent elections, in the state i was visiting to have a darshan of the deities of 13 temples viz divya desams, that are all more or less aligned in a straight line on nearly half of the coast line of this small neighbouring state ofKerala.

In fact to our generation,Amul baby [or glaxo baby]referred to children who were healthy, fair, chubby and exceptionally charming and cute.'Amul' being the first indigenously spray dried baby milk powder, that was first processed in CFTRI labs, Mysore. The first picture adorning these baby powder tins were of my childhood friend's , the daughter of the director of that Lab's,[ then], baby photo.

Trivandram is the first place of halt . The famous temple of SriAnantha Padmanabha ,our first temple of call.

Thiruvanthapuram is also the place associated with my maternal grand fatherM.A.Ayengar,whose name 'Ananthasayanam' is in honour of the presiding deity of Thiruvanthapuram, where his father worked , at the time of his birth.

This place was also in news in recent times with the tales of fabulous wealth sealed in the vaults of the said temple that was being enumerated and its attendant wide publicity and the resultant salivating of any one and every one over the riches and a spate of discussions as to how best it could be utilised. The offerings of devotees!Maybe even my great grand parents offerings are in those vaults.

I have been twice or thrice before to Kerala and also to this temple in more sanguine times .More like a tourist than as a pilgrim.

Whilst my recent flight to Ahmadabad was smooth without a single rattle , the sky being absolutely cloudless, it was otherwise now, especially when we were in calling distance ,aeronautically speaking, from Thiruvananthapuram. The plane cleaved into thick rolling mass of clouds that made the plane jerk giving me the feeling of travelling over potholed roads.The air hostesses with heavy make up, back combed buff and in western outfits ,didn't bat an eyelid nor did those stewards who looked like a carbon copy of the good looking vampires currently stirring up Hollywood .

However the scene that greeted me on nearing the airport was absolutely beautiful.There was the Arabian sea on my left ,with waves ,frothing white as they poured over the enticingly curved beach and just below me was a carpet of dark green palms

The huge red orb of the sun setting between the palms as i waited for the cab at the airport ,signalled the end of the day and negated the chance of an evening darshan of Sri Padmanabhaswamy , the closing time of the temple barely ,half an hour away.

Photo.Approaching Thiruvananthapuram.

Note:Those who are interested in viewing my video's on Ananthapadmanabhaswamy ,Guruvayur and Thiru navaitemples ,the pampa, Bharatpuzha rivers,and papanasam/varkala beach , elephant camp and Kalady, kindly visit my you tube channel---sujataism1