Paid vacations are probably the best part about working. The philosophical overtone in that sentence could be attributed to the fact that its the fag end of my two week long vacation, and i am much more wiser than i was 10 days back. In the meantime i’ve made some startling discoveries and much unlearning has been done.
The train journey from Bangalore to Trivandrum taught me some valuable lessons none lesser than the value of listening to your heart. There was this British couple from Bristol who boarded my train at Cochin. Being my inquisitive self, i interrogated them for a couple of hours and they patiently answered all my queries because jolly good sports they were. We discussed everything from the most trivial of things like the impact of eco tourism on India’s GDP to the most crucial topics like the future of Lewis Hamilton. I must admit that i was rather taken aback by their in-depth knowledge of India’s history and some of its little known cultures. These two people might have been well informed(both were doctors) but then they also told me that many of their Briton friends already perceive India as a super power and as one of the future world leaders. Well at least we are no longer all elephants and snake charmers 
Back to the listening to your heart lesson, these two had been to the usual Agra and Delhi tour but then after that they decided to not plan their travel and instead backpack their way across India. Since then they had been to Dharmshala, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Jaipur and were now on their way to the beaches of Varkala and the backwaters of Veli! I say that sounded quite adventurous and totally fun and more so because i’ve been to these places too! So i decided to listen to my heart on this vacation and not be all analytical for a change.
The catch here was that my heart said sleep! And sleep i did like there was no tomorrow. In fact the first week went by with me doing just sleeping and using Facebook! Now i’ve been using Orkut for almost four years and after the initial honeymoon period Orkut has been more of a burden to bear. Its not just the bad server and donuts part but there is simply nothing worthwhile to do on Orkut. On the other hand Facebook with all its cool applications promises to be a welcome change. A word of caution though - if you use Facebook, don’t ever start the Never Ending Movie Quiz on the Flixter Movies application. It never ends(duh) and will kill all of your time!
Anyway after 1 week of pure unadulterated nothingness, i decided enough void had been created and it was time to do some fun activity. So i cajoled Amma(mom) and Achchan(dad) to join me on a quick trip to watch the sunrise at Kanyakumari. Now Kanyakumari was only 90 kms from my home and i estimated that it would take me about 2 hours to drive down. So the plan was to get going by 4.00 so as to catch the sunrise at 6.15. Unfortunately Amma is worse at procrastination(i am only her son) than me and by the time she got ready it was already 5.00 So we had to shelve all plans of watching the sunrise. We finally manage to reach Kanyakumari by 7.30 and were greeted by this fantastic sight.
As you might know Kanyakumari is where the Bay of Bengal and Arabian sea meet the Indian Ocean. If you look closely at the picture you can notice the color of the sea change from shades of green to one of blue as you look at the horizon. I am not sure which color is which sea but nevertheless thats the confluence and its a grand sight.
Then there are the Vivekananda Rock Memorial and the giant Thiruvalluvar Statue to check out as well. The view of the ocean from both these points are spectacular and you could spend all day gazing at the vast expanse of the ocean and wondering how inconspicuous we were in its presence.
Once we had done that we decided to also make a quick visit to the Vattakottai Fort(Circular Fort) and the beach there as well. The Fort in itself is not much to write home about but the view of the ocean from its vantage position is certainly a sight to behold. The sea out here looked quite shallow and had a beautiful turquoise tinge to it. Its like one of those quaint little beaches which have not yet been touched by man. We also saw a wind farm out here and this was the first time i had personally seen one.
Kanyakumari was one of those few places where you could watch the sunrise as well as the sunset. But since we had locked Angie(our dog) in, we had to go back before evening to go check on her and hence skipped staying back for the sunset. But all in all, sunrise or no sunrise, it was a good trip.
After ages i was able to spend some fun time with Amma and Achchan. On the way back we had lunch at a restaurant and i realized it was the first time in over 8 or 9 years that i was eating out with my parents. Considering that i have been eating out everyday for the past 2.5 years thats quite a revelation to me! Well i also paid the bill and that was another first too! Most times when i go home all i do is get pampered and get treated like a kid but this time i felt all grown up. Must be the coming of age thing. Time i went looking for that fountain of youth.
Posted in Memories, Travel | Tags: beach, india, kanyakumari, Travel, travelogue
