Monsoon In Kerala

I am in Kerala, soaking in the monsoon.

Our ancestral home has a small but profound pool - a remnant of a much larger and probably centuries-old water body. There is a tile-roofed shed-like structure over the steps leading down into the water. Persistent rains have raised the water level and partially submerged the overhanging roof. Within the shed, water glimmers very darkly green, steps go down and appear to dissolve into the dim depths and shadowy fish flicker in and out of sight. One gets into the water, takes a deep breath and dives underneath the submerged part of the roof to rise up among floating masses of weeds in the open portion of the pool. And by Jove, swimming in the rain is some trip!

To travel by train anywhere in the western coast of India during the monsoon is a profoundly green experience, perhaps nowhere more so than the branch line from Shoranur to Nilambur in Kerala - it runs for 65 kilometers thru teak plantations and lush rice fields, densely green hillsides and homesteads and across turbulent rivers swollen with coffee-brown waters...

Blogger's Block

Well, not much is being written here these days - there could have been a few posts over the last month or so but they did not happen, somehow....

Let me quickly make a note of a couple of recent events:

1. Visited a place called Nighoj - 80 kilometers from Pune, off the highway to Nagar. The Ghod river runs thru a rocky gorge there - 2 kilometer long, <50 feet deep; although the dimensions are anything but impressive, the rock has been eroded into some cool formations - pillars, potholes... The country around is nice for a drive in the evening. Hope to put up some photos here in a future post.

2. Climbed Purandar fort - 40 kilometers from Pune, via Saswad. From the very top, we saw the first monsoon showers approach from a distance and then got drenched in a thunderstorm and I nearly got hit by a bolt of lightning (saw a sharp flash not far off and simultaneously, something like a mild electric shock ran down my person; and then there was loud clap of thunder; it was very creepy!).