INDIA TRIP PART 9: Riding elephants, avoiding snakes, and partying into the night – July 29 – 30, 2011

Selina and Cherian

Sofie and Frej on Kesavan

29th of July
After taking the first day in Aymanam to get settled, we started our adventures BIG by taking the kids for an elephant ride.   The agency we used to book the elephant rides didn’t really explain how it all worked, and we heard that the elephants could even belong to the Kerala government, which is why they don’t advertise for tourists.

So, we showed up, rode the elephant, and tipped the keeper without anyone from the tourist agency (or government) present.  In the afternoon, the kids got to play cricket with their cousins to round out an exciting day.

30th of July

A cow with no shed

Amma's land

The next day, we went for a walk behind Puliyampallil to see Amma and GPs land that Amma inherited from Cherian’s grandmother. In the old days, there used to be a cow shed on the land, but when we visited, there was just a cow and only the remnants of a shed.

The path that led from Puliyampallil to the land used to be a well-trafficked path, as it was the path from the house to the river and the servants’ houses. But now it was overgrown, and we were advised to not walk in that area without pounding a walking stick into the ground as we walked to scare off the snakes.

Velutha

At the river

As we walked down the path, we passed by the house of Velutha, an old servant of the family that earned his land from working for Ammachy and since the Indian government made a rule giving 5 cents of land to the house where the servants lived. We then followed the path, crossed a road and went to the river, passing a mangosteen tree and a rambutan tree.
On the way home, we took a little road where lots of people lived. We saw beautiful flowers, cats, goats, birds in cages and chickens. We passed by the Pataliputra house where we met Amma’s dad’s brother’s daughter-in-law. Then we passed by the local bank where Amma and GP did some business and back home.

Before the party

Looking fancy...

In the evening, we went to a hotel/resort where Wiji Papa threw a party for friends and relatives. He did a LOT of work to call lots of people, and people drove for hours to attend the party.

Since Wiji Papa and GP went to college together in Thrivanthurapurum, he invited a bunch of the old gang, and it was a big surprise for GP to get to see so many people.

GP's college buddies

The view from the hotel

There were also many relatives, making a total of 40-50 people with kids from Denmark, UAE, Australia and Kerala running around most of the time playing. Wiji Papa also arranged for some traditional singers and even some of GP’s old classmates got up and sang. Selina had so much fun running around, dancing, eating and playing that she deemed the party ‘the best party ever’…

INDIA TRIP PART 8: Arrival into Aymanam – July 28, 2011

Puliyampallil

On the road in Aymanam

The roads in Kottayam were still extremely crowded and chaotic, but instead of cows, goats and wild dogs on the road, we saw an elephant. We stayed in Aymanam, a small village outside of Kottayam at the Puliyampallil house, the house Wiji Papa (Ammas brother) inherited from Cherian’s grandmother, Ammachy. The house was built by Cherian’s great grandfather in 1925 to be a gathering place for all of his grandchildren.  It lies on the top of a hill, and is the house that is fictionally depicted in the Pulitzer Prize winning book, “The God of Small Things”, written by Cherian’s second cousin.  

The grand hall in Puliyampallil

Although Wiji Papa spends most of his time in New Jersey, he has managed to keep a nice garden that the kids like to play in and even put up a homemade swing made out of a rope and a coconut tree branch for a seat (one of his security guards made it for our arrival).  

On the coconut branch swing

One of the first things Cherian showed the kids were  ‘touch me not’ plants that fold up their leaves when touched (the boys tortured these plants wherever they could find them). Wiji Papa has 2 security guards, one during the day and one at night. The night shift guard sleeps on the front terrace.

Shamala cooked for us

When we are here, there are two servants that cook and help with the cleaning.  Both have worked for different parts of the family for years and one was working at this house 15 years ago when Cherian was here last time.  As the house is not occupied for most of the year, there is only one stove for cooking and as the servants do the cooking, there is a lot of planning and management to keep the house running.  Cherian’s mom took the lead to manage the kitchen, working out the meals and grocery lists as the servants speak mostly Malayalam (this used to be the role that Cherian’s grandmother played for years, so it was interesting for him to see his mother step in where his grandmother used to be…). 

Streets in Kottayam

Ammachy's grave

So, after working out the meals for the first few days, we went grocery shopping at the ‘supermarket’ in the center of Kottayam.  We tried to get a SIM card to get online, but due to security requirements, only Indian residents (with an election ID card or Indian passport with local address) can get a SIM card.  We then went to pay our respects to Cherian’s grandmother, Ammachy by visiting her grave and then to Becky Kochama, Cherian’s 92-year old grandaunt, by visiting her at her house near the river with all sorts of plants in her garden (i.e guava, mangosteen, papaya, nutmeg trees). Becky Kochama is Ammachy’s sister and it was great to see her in such great shape. There are 4 generations living in her house, including her 10-year-old great-grand-son who the kids played cricket with. 

On the veranda at Mohan Papa's

Matthew

On the way home we stopped to say hi to Cherian’s uncle, Mohan Papa (brother of Amma & Wiji Papa). Their son, Reju and his family was there visiting from Dubai, so it was really fortunate to get the chance to see them.  Reju and his wife Amy have 2 kids, Matthew and Josiah 11 and 6 years. So the cricket-playing continued. 

INDIA TRIP PART 7: Our overnight train experience from Vellore to Kottayam – July 27th, 2011

2nd Class

Continuing west, we took the overnight train from Vellore in Tamilnadu to Kottayam in Kerala.  In Vellore, we got help to get on the right car from Prasad, Jiji and their eldest son Avinash. The train had 22 cars with mostly 3^rd class non-AC cars, some 3^rd class AC cars, a couple 2^nd class AC cars and one 1^st class AC car. Frej, Amma and GP were in the 1^st Class AC car. The rest of us were in 2^nd AC. As the train was planned to stop only for 2 minutes in Vellore, we said goodbyes on the barely crowded platform before the train arrived, and rushed onto the train.

1st Class

After getting onto the train, we got to check out the difference between 1^st class and 2^nd class. They both had beds to lie on with 4 people in the room. The main difference was that in 2^nd AC there were curtains to divide the berths and sheets were provided and in 1^st AC there was a glass door to separate the berths and the beds were already made. We left at 21.30 and were scheduled to arrive at 7.35 the next morning. The Indian style and Western style toilets were also not too dirty, and as the kids slept through the entire ride, we didn’t have to use them that much. The ride was pretty smooth, and the train was less noisy than Cherian remembered of his last train trips. We slept well and woke up to scenery that was very green, with tropical trees, lots of water and little houses. And the sound we woke up to was the man running from one end to the other in the train every 5 minutes yelling “KAAPY” (coffee) and “CHAYA” (tea).

The trip definitely trumped our expectations!

When we arrived, we found out that our train grew overnight and had a significant amount of new cars added to the end of our train, making the train and platform extremely long…  Cherian’s mother’s brother, Wiji Papa greeted us on the platform, and two porters took the largest suitcase on their heads and dragged the rest to the car that Wiji Papa arranged for us.

Although we arrived only 45 minutes late, it was a pleasant start to our adventures in Kerala…

INDIA TRIP PART 6: Factories, hospitals, temples, forts, clubs with cousins in Vellore – July 26 – 27, 2011

Prasad and Jiji's on campus home

On the 26^th, we departed from Chennai and headed west. We got picked up after breakfast in a van and drove 2.5 hours to Vellore. The roads were pretty nice and decently empty. We passed a lot of factories including Hyundai, Saint Gobain, Nokia and even Dell. Most factory workers live closer to Chennai and get driven to/from the factory by factory-owned busses. 

Kiran and Tarun

In Vellore, we stayed at Sonny Chayan’s son, Prasad’s house. He is married to Jiji and they have two sons Tarun (7 years) and Avinash (14 years).  They are both doctors and they live and work at the Christian Medical College Hospital in Vellore (rough commute!).  Prasad in general medicine and geriatrics and Jiji is an obstetrician.  Jiji and Prasad work Monday to Saturday and then they get vacation 45 days a year.  They took off a few days to take care of us and we greatly appreciate it!! They are great hosts and took us to see all the sites in the area, bought us skin lotion to help the kids with their mosquito bites, bought Selina some scissors, and prepared and bought a LOT of great food and desserts. It seemed like Jiji was determined to make us fat and she definitely succeeded!!

Christian Medical College

CMC Vellore

The hospital was founded by an American, Ida Scudder, in 1902 because she saw first-hand the need for medical attention for women that men-doctors couldn’t attend to (i.e. Hindu, Brahmin and Muslim families would not allow a man doctor to help during childbirth).  Over the years, the hospital has become a world-renowned teaching hospital with 2600 beds.

Nurses wear white saris

Jiji showed Sofie around inside the women’s building (NICU level 1-3), labor rooms (level 1-2), pediatrics and maternity (anti and post). In general, there were lots of people outside the hospital and inside on the entrances. People were sitting down on the floor eating right under the sign saying “No Eating”. The labor room is for about 6-20 patients, so men are not allowed and have to wait with their families in waiting rooms. Healthy babies stay with their mothers in the maternity ward. For mothers of the neonatal babies there was a room that could sleep about 30 mothers and they can buy food in a food court, as the hospital does not provide food.

NICU Level 3

At this hospital care is given to everyone and the poor people don’t pay and rich people do pay.  (It could be different at other hospitals in India). Therefore decisions are made based upon resource/outcome economics.  For example, the hospital can save babies born on or after week 27 and greater than 1 kg, as the chances of survival are great. However, if the baby needs expensive, intensive care, then babies from young mothers won’t get saved, as it is cheaper for everyone if they just have another baby. Babies with heart problems will not be saved unless you have the money and then they have to be transferred to Bangalore.

For the nurses reading this… They don’t do ECMO. They do have ventilators, incubators and ultrasound. The nurses are mixing the electrolytes themselves. There is no central monitoring, as all Level 3 babies are in the same room…

Commercialized Hinduism at the Golden Temple in Vellore

It is not often that one gets to witness the birth of new branches of religion.  In May of 1992, the goddess, Sri Narayani was inaugurated into the Hindu religion, as the embodiment of three other Hindu gods (Sri Durga, Sri Lakshmi, Sri Saraswati) and was even brought to earth incarnated as a 16-year old boy, Sri Sakthi Amma.  This ‘new’ goddess is to represent the love and compassion of a mother.

Commentary: Yes, a goddess for a mother in the body of a boy.  This is truly special.

So, somehow this 16-year old boy started this following in 1992 and has had extreme success in gathering a crowd.  His vision is to restore order and balance in the society and create peace and joy and one of his messages is that peace can be attained through prayers (so he prays for 6 hours every day). Along with the birth of a new goddess came a charity organization that created so many large scale humanitarian projects that they gathered enough money to build a huge temple plated with pure gold. Now, people come to the golden temple to perform prayers in front of the (new) goddess Narayani that is placed in the middle of the golden temple. It is surrounded by a 6-star, approx. 1.5 km covered pathway where you read Sri Sakthi Amma’s blessings on the way.

6-point star walkway around temple

Commentary: Yes, at the age of 16, he called himself a goddess, and amassed enough wealth to create a temple out of gold. This over-achiever is the true antipathy of Bart Simpson…

Sri Puram - The Golden Temple

So, now this temple is a mass attraction for Hindus, and to enter the temple you cannot wear shoes, you cannot bring mobile phones or cameras, and adults have to wear clothes that cover their ankles. But you definitely should bring your wallet… It is built to pump volumes of people through the temple and politely extracts money from them at every point in the star (entry fees, parking fees, donation collections, food purchases, souvenirs, incense, clothing, etc…). 

The Vellore Swimming Pool Club

a truly awesome pool

As Prasad and Jiji are lifetime members of the Vellore Swimming Pool Club, we went swimming on both of our days in Vellore. The pool had beautiful water and really nice green, tropical surroundings and the kids loved to be in a pool playing around.

Vellore Fort

The Vellore Fort

Prasad also took us to the Fort in Vellore that was built in the 1500s. Inside there is a temple, a church, and a mosque. Commentary: that's what we call protecting the freedom of religion.

It also contained government buildings, recreational facilities, and a museum that had statues of Hindu gods dating back to the 6^th century… 

inside the temple

We visited the temple, and outside the temple, there were a few people selling fruit, and we saw a bunch of cute baby monkeys (baboons) and even an adult baboon drinking some 'Mirinda'.

outside the temple

INDIA TRIP PART 5: Up close with animals!

We’ve seen animals on the streets, in preservation ‘banks’, in the natural wild, in cages, on safari, in our residence, seen the results of spider & mosquito bites first-hand, held some fresh seafood, and we’ve even ridden on an especially big animal…

Cow on the streets of Chennai

Goat mugging in Mahabilipuram

The kids were warned about the cows on the streets, and have now stopped counting (after reaching 67 or so…).  They found an equal number of dogs, goats, chickens wandering the sides of the streets as well. And we warned them that the cats on the street may not be so nice to hold their lap as our upstairs neighbor’s cats.  I also have a feeling that our dog Charlie would not get a pleasant sniff and hello from the dogs we’ve seen… Sofie saw a man taking his cow door-to-door selling its milk.  In Vellore (Chennai area), we saw lots of bullock-carts, but missed the chance to take a photo of the long, painted horns. 

Gharial crocodile

The ‘Crocodile Bank’ featured the narrow-nosed Indian crocodile, the Gharial, and also had turtles, butterflies, snakes, caymens and alligators from all …

Chameleon

Eagle-eye Kiran found a gecko the size of a thumbnail, and also chased after chameleons in a gardens area in Mahabilipuram. 

We took a trip to the Vandulur Zoo near Chennai and had fun watching the people in the safari bus go crazy when spotting a lion.  We saw a “Wild Ass” and saw a whole lot of other fun animals including sloth bears, elephants, white tigers, deer, hippos, parrots and more…

Near a temple in the Fort of Vellore, we saw some really cute monkeys, where one found some Mirinda to drink!!

Cherian, Kiran, Josiah on Kesavan

In Kerala, we drove 30 minutes from Aymanam to a place where they own 13 elephants.  We saw them making porridge for the elephants and we saw one person training an elephant.  

We met a 27 year-old elephant named Kesavan and his keeper, and the kids had a ride of a lifetime.  

Sofie and Frej

Kesavan was highly trained, and kneeled all 4 legs down so that we could climb up, using his front leg as one foothold and a rope around his neck as a handhold.  We all needed help to get up, but Sofie needed a bit more help than others, and Kesavan’s trainer was hesitant to push Sofie’s butt up onto Kesavan’s back…

It was so much fun that Selina really wanted a second ride and couldn’t understand that it was time to go and had a big temper tantrum on the way home....

spider bite

While in Chennai, we experienced mosquitoes inside our rooms, to the point where the kids competed on who got the most mosquito bites (Kiran won with over 200 bites J). 

the bat that loved to visit

In Kerala, we’ve seen lizards, spiders, cockroaches and even bats inside the house!  We’ve even seen the result of a spider bite on a foot!! Check your sandals before you put them on!!

freshwater prawn

On a houseboat trip (we’ll write more about this later!), we saw lots of birds, tried to catch some fish, and bought some freshwater prawns…

INDIA TRIP PART 4: Meet the family! - July 2011

Yes, this trip is a first for our little family to meet our extended family.  We hope we get to learn a bit about our Indian roots, and how we are a part of a huge network… In fact, it is amazing to see the network in action.  We can visit our aunts, and they know more people than we can possibly put together on Facebook or LinkedIn, and can speak to how each person is related to each other.  In fact it has been quite amusing to hear things like: “my grandson’s wife’s sister-in-law is married to your mother’s second cousin’s daughter who lives in Newfoundland…”…  And when Cherian’s grandfather had 6 sisters and 2 brothers, and Cherian’s grandmother had 3 brothers and 4 sisters, Cherian’s second cousin network becomes quite large… So bear with us while we list out who we’ve visited so far…

NOTE: Kochama = Aunt; Chayan = Uncle; Amma = Cherian's Mom; GP = Cherian's Dad

Kochery Kochama

Cherian’s aunt, Kochery Kochama, is not only my dad’s brother’s wife, but is also my mother’s first cousin.  At an age of 70 something, she can still muscle her car through the streets of Chennai, laying down the horn to make the others move out of her way.

Captain Joe Chayan, Molly Kochama,...

We got to meet Cherian’s mother’s cousin and husband, Molly Kochama and Captain Joe Chayan, who are keeping extremely well for their ages of 85 and 90 respectively.

Leela Kochama, Jimmy Chayan, GP 

Cherian’s uncle from Kansas, Jimmy Chayan was fortunately visiting in Chennai and we’ll see him again on this trip… It was great to see Cherian’s Dad, his older sister, Leela Kochama, and his younger brother Jimmy Chayan, laugh late into the night playing their favorite childhood card game and talking trash to each other...

Cherian, Dhilip, Prasad

Cherian’s first cousin Prasad came to Chennai to visit, and we got to see Cherian’s other first cousin, Dhilip and his parents Leela Kochama and Valli Chayan, who have recently built an impressive 4-story apartment complex.

Jiji

On a random drive through Vellore with Prasad and his wife Jiji, we stopped by Cherian’s second cousin, Meera's house who was a teacher for Prasad and Jiji's son.

Sofie, Meera, Amma, Cherian

In Kerala, we are staying at Cherian’s grandmother’s old, historic house built in 1925 by Cherian’s great grandfather (and as fictionally illustrated in the book, the God of Small Things, written by Cherian’s second cousin).  

Wiji Papa

Cherian’s uncle from New Jersey, Wiji Papa, now owns the house, and is fortunately visiting at the same time allowing us to stay in the same house that Cherian used to visit during his past 6 visits to India. 

Mohan Papa

In front of this old, historic house lives Cherian’s uncle, Mohan Papa and Susie Kochama.  Their son, Reju and wife, Amy, are also visiting with their 2 boys Matthew, 11 yrs and Josiah, 6 yrs from Dubai. Our boys and these 2 guys figured out how to play cricket together, and now our boys want to take any chance they can get to walk down to their house to play. 

Amy and Josiah

We even went to visit Cherian’s grandmother’s grave and had 3 generations visiting 3 deceased generations dating back to 1820.

Amma and Becky Kochama

And we visited Cherian’s grandmother’s sister, Becky Kochama, who at the age of 92 is keeping extremely healthy and says that she feels like she is only a little over 80.  

Lulu Kochama, Reba, Sofie

Four generations live at her house including her son (Babu Chayan), daughter-in-law (Lulu Kochama), grand-daughter (Reba, who has been a great help!!) and great-grandsons (Jake, 10 yrs and Bevan, 14 yrs who have played extensively with our kids) live in her river-front house near Cherian’s grandmother’s house…

Sofie and George Isaac

At a party that Wiji Papa held, we got to meet a LOT more relatives, including George Isaac, Cherian’s mother’s cousin who has 3 sons in Sweden, a daughter in London, and a son in Dubai.  He is extremely friendly, and spent a good amount of time giving his perspective of many topics (memories of Sweden, difference of Kerala vs. rest of India, investments in education and healthcare are the way to move India forward) to Sofie.

We’ve met a LOT more relatives and we’re going to see a lot more, but we’ll keep this blog short for now, and apologies to the relatives not featured in this blog…