– Day 01 –
There was a time when trips just happened. Someone would initiate the idea, others would chip in and we would just go. Backing off was considered a sacrilege and the fear of missing out was real. But times have changed, we have changed. Somewhere along the way, we forget that the best reason to go on trips is to not have any reason.
As organic trips became less frequent, the best we could do was make every occasion, every function, a reason to set out on a trip. Nandakrishan and Punya’s wedding marathon gave us a perfect reason. Hailing from Trivandrum and Kasaragod respectively, their wedding festivities gave us an opportunity to explore Kerala from top to bottom.
We were done with the engagement in Kasaragod a couple of months back. Starting off from Bangalore, we took a detour to Coorg, trekked Thadiyantemol peak, spent quality time in a cottage on the hills, and had a memorable road trip to Kasaragod. Now we had the chance to create another memorable trip. The wedding was scheduled for Sep 1st in Guruvayur followed by a reception on Sep 3rd in Thiruvananthapuram.
With Onam around the corner, we struggled to make travel plans in advance. Things kept changing till the last moment. Tickets were bought, then cancelled. Leaves were informed but never applied. In the end, Nandu left for Kochi before Onam. Me and Pro meanwhile spent Onam in Bangalore and then started off towards Guruvayur on Thursday morning (Aug 31). Pillechan and Govind decided to skip the wedding function and join us straight for the Trivandrum reception. There are quite a few characters in this story, I will introduce them as the story progresses. For the time being the following info would suffice – Nandu (Nandagopan) and Pro (Vivek) were my roommates in Bangalore. Pillechan (another Vivek) and Govind (actual name) were our extended roommates living in a nearby flat. Nandakrishan was our former roommate and the groom-to-be while Punya (also a close friend of ours) was the bride.
With introductions out of the way, let’s start the story. We (myself and Pro) started our journey from Bangalore on my Polo. It was a smooth journey with both the weather and traffic gods on our side. My curated playlist – “Tamil Vibes” was getting all the speaker time as we cruised through the cities of Salem, Coimbatore, and Palakkad. Apart from a minor mix-up at the toll booth when I forgot to stop at the barricade, the drive was quite uneventful.
A few kilometers before Thrissur, we made our first deviation from the highway. A slightly difficult phase for driving with thick traffic, an SNDP Padaythra, and frequent road closures. Nonetheless, we managed to reach Guruvayur on time for our evening tea. We checked into our stay at Temple-Inn (which as the name suggests – was right next to the temple) and synced up with the bride and groom. We found them in the temple premises, clad in all-white, blushing, and ready to get married.
Punya had this desire to wear white for the temple wedding ceremony. However, due to logistical issues, it was going to be impractical to do so on the wedding day. Hence the idea to visit the temple on the night before and get some photos clicked in white. The photography team wasn’t available for the night. So it was up to me and Pro to make the most of our limited photography skills.
Punya had already scouted for favorable locations, so we started off without much delay. Nandakrishan, being shirtless, was slightly shy to pose. Nonetheless, we got some wonderfully candid shots.
We finished up the photoshoot and headed for the hall to have dinner. It was also a good chance to take a look at the stage where the wedding dance had been planned. A dance was never part of the original wedding plan. A week before the wedding, Rachana asked me if we (as in Nandakrinan’s friends) were dancing for the wedding since there were quite a few of us. I didn’t break it to her then that we were all terrible dancers. Anyway, I passed on the idea to Punya, who initiated the dance discussion back to Rachana and her other room mates – Radhika and Kalyani. All of them were very much interested in shaking a leg. Punya also roped in her college friends – Niranjana, Varsha, Anit and Anisha. From the groom’s side, Pro rejected the idea straightaway and Nandu was not convinced. So eventually, it was just me and Nandakrishnan.
Two dances were planned, an entry dance for the bride and groom, where we would come out as pairs to the stage followed by a conventional group dance in front of the stage. I was planning on joining only the entry dance. However, on Nandakrishnan’s insistence, I ended up joining the group dance as well. Rachana had choreographed and sent steps for everyone, but I was yet to go through them and morning was getting closer.
We finished our dinner and decided to head back to the temple to sync up with Nandu who had just reached from Kochi. We took another stroll through the temple premises before going back to our room. The temple even at this time of the night was alive with believers doing their darshans, dancers going about their performances, pappaan’s feeding elephants, and kids running around happily. Having spent very little time in temples, I wondered if the most buzzing nightlife in Kerala happens in temple towns. People of all ages enjoy, having a good, peaceful time totally undisturbed about getting late. In some ways, it was a more inclusive nightlife than what you would find in a tier1 city like Bangalore.
After strolling through the premises for a while we went back to our ‘Inn’ and called it a night. I put myself to sleep watching the dance steps in repeat. For the entry dance, everyone was paired up and each pair was at liberty to come up with their own steps. My pair was Niranjana. Having immense confidence in our abilities, Punya was kind enough to send across steps for us to practice. I was somewhat confident about the entry dance, but not so much with the main dance. Normally this would have worried me, but knowing Nandakrishan hadn’t learned the steps either and that all eyes would be focused on him, gave me a sense of relief.
– Day 02 –
We woke up early morning to make sure we didn’t miss the wedding ceremony at the temple. Nandakrishnan and Punya were allotted a time slot between 8:00 – 9:00 AM and the wedding could happen anytime in between. It was only by chance that we reached the ‘nada’ 15 minutes in advance. The extra effort paid off as the Pujaris for some random reason decided to conduct the ceremonies before 8:00. We watched Nandakrishnan and Punya tie the knot, walk the circles, and put leaf garlands around each other’s necks. The pujaris rushed through their ceremonies before handing over the couple to the photographers. Rachana and Kalayani joined us somewhere in between while Varsha and Niranjana only reached well after everything was done. We still had some time to kill before the function at the hall, so we had a photo session for ourselves and decided to head for breakfast. The three of us: Me, Nandu, and Pro went for breakfast along with Rachana and Kalyani. I left my camera with Varsha as she was busy taking photos of her other friends. She was handling the camera with such confidence that I thought she was a professional photographer. It was only later when I took out the memory card and deleted a bunch of blurred photos en masse that I understood I was wrong.
The breakfast trip was quite eventful as well. All the eateries in the temple premises were filled to the brim. At the first eatery we entered, we gave our names to the waiter and waited patiently as we do at any Bangalore eatery on a weekend. It was only later that we understood that we had to stalk and pounce upon emptying tables to capture our seats. Lacking the skills for the same, we moved to another eatery where the rush was less. We ordered Dosas and tea/coffee and decided to go back to the temple.
We spent a while roaming around the temple and then headed to the hall with still time for the function to begin. Nandakrishnan and Punya were done with their photo sessions and were struggling to have breakfast in all the clothing and jewelry. We joined them at their table and started going over the dance routine for one final time. We used paper cups to get the positioning right. This was one of those dances that sounded great on paper but was never actually tried out. We decided to do a sample run just 15 minutes before the actual event. We gathered in the narrow hallway and tried out the steps for the first time. This did give me some confidence. Nandakrishan couldn’t join the practice fully as he was busy with other groom duties. It was only five minutes before the actual entry dance that he and Punya decided on the steps for their entry. Surprisingly, he played the entry part quite well. However, he made a total mess of the group dance. Both dances were well received by the Guruvayur crowd which mostly contained elders. With the dances done, we joined the audience for the remaining proceedings. The proceedings were followed by a good vegetarian Sadhya at the back of the hall. Puthukkad and Meera joined us somewhere in between. Puthukkad (original name – Deepak Puthukkad) had been Nandakrishnan’s roommate during his early days at Synopsys. Both of them were also our batchmates at MEC. We clicked some group photos, bid our farewells, and started plans for the onward journey.
This is where the plan starts changing rapidly. Originally me and Pro planned to start our onward journey to Trivandrum along with the wedding party. Sometime during the function, Pro invited Varsha and Niranjana also to come to Trivandrum. This left both of them in a lurch. They weren’t originally planning to come for the function at Trivandrum. However, hearing our plan they started rethinking. I too encouraged them but didn’t think they would be up for such a spontaneous plan. Anyways, thwarting all assumptions, both of them decided to come along to Trivandrum. Of course, it took quite a bit of time for the decision to come. The wedding party had already left by the time, they reached a consensus.
We debated for a while on which route to take to Trivandrum. With the wedding party already gone, we were at liberty to take whichever route we deemed fit. The Alappuzha route seemed shorter, however, Nandu had suggested we take MC Road as it was a ‘four-line highway’ from Kottayam to Trivandrum. With limited knowledge about Kerala roads and waning faith in Google Maps, we decided to take Nandu’s word as gospel and take MC Road to Trivandrum.
Five minutes into the journey Varsha had already slept off. Niranjana was a more attentive traveller paying attention to the road and changing scenery. The scenery wasn’t particularly interesting though. It was just urban roads and vehicles all around us. Apart from a few towns on the way, the traffic was kind towards us. We paused somewhere near Angamaly for some refreshments. Me and Niranjana took coffee while Pro and Varsha went for tea. Varsha complained that the tea was too sweet, nonetheless, she stayed awake for a while after this and made us play Aswamedham and a movie-guessing game. Niranjana wasn’t interested in the movie game and kept complaining her movie knowledge was limited. Nonetheless, she was getting most of the answers right. The games helped in lightening up the journey which had started to become a bit exhausting by now. The traffic was less, but still significant enough to tire us. Nandu’s promised four-lane road was yet to start and it had started to get dark. Eventually, I gave up and handed over the steering to Pro way earlier than I planned to. We stopped again at Thiruvalla for dinner. The food wasn’t great, but manageable. We again ordered two glasses each of tea and coffee. Varsha wasn’t satisfied with the tea here either. By the time we were done with dinner, it had started to rain. It was becoming increasingly certain that we would never make it in time to Trivandrum for Punya’s ‘Griha-praveshnam’. The four-lane road Nandu promised still didn’t come and the rain was not going to make our travel any faster. Anyway, Pro had other ideas and put the pedal to the floor and cruised through the last 100 kilometers. We still reached late, but not by much. We sat down with the newlyweds and shared our travel stories – how Varsha and Niranjana decided to come, Varsha’s problem with all the tea, the rain playing spoilsport, Pro’s final flourish, Nandu’s promised four-lane road and so on and so forth. We delayed their official first night by at least half an hour before remembering we still had an hour’s travel to reach our hotel in Kovalam.
For a brief moment, I wondered if there was any need to book a hotel so far away from the city. But this was not just another wedding trip for us. This was also meant to be a getaway. A chance to relax. And what better way to relax than waking up to the sound of waves hitting the sand?
– Day 03 –
Despite being extremely late to bed, we woke up reasonably early on Saturday. The wedding reception was to happen only by evening, so we had plenty of time to explore Kovalam. Our stay was at a property overlooking a rocky beach. After searching various breakfast options through Google Maps, we finally settled on the in-house restaurant. The restaurant overlooking the beach gave us good views and a pleasant breeze as we savored the Bread-Omelette and coffee. As usual, me and Niranjana went for coffee while Pro and Varsha went for tea. And also, as usual, Varsha wasn’t satisfied with the tea.
Soon after the breakfast, Pillechan and Govind joined us. They had taken the morning Vande Bharat from Kochi. All of us then got together and searched for places to explore in Kovalam and eventually decided to visit the Lighthouse Beach which was at a walkable distance from our place. We walked through a beach road for about half an hour to reach the lighthouse. The black sand beach definetly had a character of its own. The red and white painted lighthouse at the edge of the cliff was a splendid addition to the already beautiful scenery. We didn’t have anything else planned for the day so we took our sweet time exploring the beach. The sky was relatively cloudy today with a few sporadic drizzles now and then. This brought down the temperature to favorable levels for our noon-time beach exploration.
We got into a beachside restaurant eager to try some seafood for lunch. The food was delicious and perfect for the ambience. As we had lunch, the sky started getting darker and a storm was brewing up near the horizon. Luckily it didn’t rain, just another mild drizzle. After lunch, Nandu joined us straight at the beach. He too had taken a train from Kochi. We spent a couple of more hours on the beach playing with kites, buying souvenirs, and eating beachside snacks before finally heading back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding reception.
The reception was to take place at Al Saaj Auditorium, about 40 minutes from our hotel. We reached the place reasonably on time and joined Nandakrishnan and Punya for the festivities. The reception was a comparatively relaxed program spread out over a few hours, thus giving us enough time to talk with the newlyweds, enjoy the food, and socialize with other guests. We stayed in the hall till the end of the function and were the last to leave.
Nandu, Govind, and Pillechan planned to head back to Kochi the same night. So we bid our farewells before heading back to our hotel. As for the four of us, we were to start to Bangalore early morning the next day. As we got back to the hotel, the beach had acquired an entirely new character. The waves had gotten stronger, the winds chillier, and the moon gave a silvery touch over everything it shone. We stayed outside the hotel staring at the sea for a long time. The feeling was surreal, and part of me wanted to stay there all night.
– Day 04 –
The journey back to Bangalore was going to be a long one, Google Maps was predicting around 15 hours. After much debate on when to start the journey, we settled to start at 6:00 AM. Me and Pro got up just in time and did a hurried packing only to find Varsha and Niranjana were still asleep. In the end, we left the hotel around 6:30. We walked out of the hotel to find the sea in yet another beautiful but distinct state. The car was lying just next to the shoreline crying out for a photograph. This was indeed a beautiful place.
We started the journey by driving further south to Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu before turning back north to Tirunalveli and then Madurai. The road was perhaps one of the best roads I have driven to date. My eyes lit up when I saw the buttery smooth roads with hardly any traffic. The scenery of mountains and windmills all around us further increased the appeal of the road. We were cruising at 140 kmph for quite some time before Pro suggested dialing it down. But even then we were covering ground really fast. Varsha had run out of car games and spent most of the journey sleeping. Niranjana meanwhile was observing the roads with great attention and shifted the jukebox to English songs.
Our dream run lasted only till Salem though. Traffic started developing and it started feeling a lot like Bangalore again. Varsha woke up somewhere in between and we spent the remainder of our journey talking about stories from the past, aspirations for the future, and just random things of no importance. It’s funny how a road trip brings people together. Varsha and Niranjana were strangers only a week before. But by the end of the trip, it felt like we had known each other for years.
We reached Bangalore around dusk, a bit tired but very satisfied. We took the Atibelle road and dropped Niranjana at her place before heading to our home in Mahadevapura. I gave Varsha a house tour as Pro made tea for all of us. Varsha, surprisingly was satisfied with the tea this time. As we didn’t have the energy for another hour’s drive to Varsha’s hostel, she decided to take a cab.
And just like that, the eventful, loaded, three-day-marathon came to an end. A dynamically planned and executed trip. Certainly one I would remember for a long time to come.
Read.Reflect.Repeat 