ghumakkar.com

I was all excited when Jim called up and invited me for his wedding. 2 reasons.
1. Jim was getting married and
2. it was happening in Kerala, which meant that I had a chance to go to Kerala. I had been planning kerala tour for quite some time, but never happened due to one reason or other. Here was one more chance and I was determined not to let go of it.

A brief about Tiruvalla

Tiruvalla is a small (in terms of area) town close to Kottayam.. This is a rich city in the sense that there are lots of NRI influence here. One can find almost all banks here. Next in number to the banks are the Jewellery shops (famous brands like Alukkas etc). So, that would give an idea of how the place is ?

Tiruvalla also is a place of religious importance.

How to get there
(more…)

When we started our trip to the backwaters of Kerala, in all the travel books we had read, area around the backwaters was referred to as the “Venice of the East.” Till we reached Kollam and explored it, we were finding this comparison exaggerated. Our visit to Kollam changed our complete perception about these backwaters.

In my guidebook, half-day trip to the Monroe Island, organized by DTPC was suggested. DTPC office is situated near the bus-stand in Kollam. I booked the trip in the morning. When I enquired about the number of co-passengers we should expect, I was told that in general booking for around 8-10 couples was done. When we reached at the assembly point after lunch we were surprised to know that on that day ours was the only family interested in the trip.

On normal days a mini-bus goes from Kollam to Monroe Island, on that day they apologized and arranged an auto-rickshaw. On the one hand, we were happy that fewer tourists meant less crowd and we could request for slight changes in the itinerary according to our liking. On the other hand, lack of tourist interest lowered our expectation and suggested that this tour had lost favor among tourists.

Monroe Island is at a distance of around 25 Km from Kollam. At Monroe Island our guide Sujith and rower RadhaKrishanji received us. The name “Monroe Island” might arouse in some readers’ minds memories of Marlyn Monroe. I am not aware of the origin of such a name for this island. However, let me assure you that the Island was as beautiful.

(more…)

On one cool morning last year, we some of the members of Marthoma Church, Karimba, gathered at the Parsonage. After coffee at 6 am we started for Palayur (an important pilgrimage center of Syrian Christians) in a hired Bus. Shortly before 8 am we reached, as planned, at the Ravi Varma orphanage at Trichur run by our church. We had free breakfast with the inmates, wash our plates ourselves and gave donations to the institution. And go around and saw the institution and talked to some of the inmates.

Ravivarma Orphanage
(more…)

Palakkad is an important Rubber growing district of Kerala. Karimba a village in Palakkad is famous for Rubber Nursery Last year, when I was at Karimba village of Palakkad, I visited a Co-operative Rubber processing and marketing society there. I am giving a detailed note as known to me as to how rubber is produced and processed for marketing. Some photos are also included to understand the process better.

History
Joseph Priestley, in 1770 in England, observed that a piece of the material from the tree was extremely good for rubbing out pencil marks on paper, hence the name “rubber”.
Many plants species produce natural rubber. But most plants are not economically viable to collect its latex. Source of natural rubber is limited to one species, namely Hevea brasiliensis.
(more…)