Life's a Journey not a Destination: Kannur- The crown of Kerala

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Kannur- The crown of Kerala

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March 9-11, 2006

Four site seeing spots and a wedding. Three colleagues of mine (Afzal, Arun and Pratish) and I went to Kannur to attend an ex-colleague’s (Anjily) wedding and do some sight seeing on the side. Kannur (Kannan’s uru – or Krishna’s town) is a sleepy little town in northern Kerala around thirteen hours away by train.

This was the first time I got to see a Mallu (i.e. Malayali) wedding and it was beautiful. The actual wedding was quite short with the resplendent bride making a grand entrance accompanied by her entourage and musicians on drums. The priest then says his mantras and the father gives the bride away by placing her hand onto the grooms. The groom then ties the Thali and the couple circumbulate the melam thrice. After which the elders and others bless the couple by showering them with rice. We wished the couple, had a scrumptious Sadya (traditio

nal Mallu lunch) and headed back to the hotel to change into our tourist clothe

s.
Our first stop was the St. Angelo fort, a short auto ride away. It is a Portugese fort (later changed hands to the Dutch and finally the British) built in 1505 AD, that was quite impressive making us wonder how it would have been in it’s hey days. We took some interesting photos of the

fort, the chapel, the ramparts, and of course of ourselves in various poses (Arun displayed a little known side of his – his modeling side).

We then headed back into town to catch a bus to Muzhappilangad beach – Kerala’s only drive-in beach with the softest and cleanest sand in Kannur. There were quite a few cars and bikes whizzing around the beach. We though headed straight to the water. Afzal was so excited that he was literally shouting at nothing in particular. Once we got into the water he chilled out and we had a refreshing and much needed dip. We stayed for the sunset and took many photos (I r

ealized that this was the first time I had seen a sunset at a beach).
On the way back to the village bus stop we flagged an auto with the plan of asking if he would drop us back in Kannur (mind you we were about 16 km away from Kannur in a completely different village). I made a comment that he would probably laugh at us but surprisingly he agreed to drop us for just 130 rupees (no grumblings about night charges or the fact that he would have to return empty or that we were four people). We Chennaiites were amazed and jumped into the auto. The autos in Kannur were overall really cheap never going above 15 rupees in town – only if the Chennai auto drivers were that accommodating.
Back at the hotel we had a meal of Malabari Parottas, Mutton Nadan Curry, Egg Masala and Kalamakka (Mussel) fry (the specialty of the region) before retiring for the

day.
Afzal and Pratish had to head back to Chennai the same night, so the next day it was just Arun and I. We headed to the bus stop to find our way to the Dharmadam Island (a privately owned island near another virgin beach a

bout 18 km away from Kannur). The island is accessible by foot during low tide; however we were there during high tide and could only see it from a distance. Arun though was determined to go to the island

and tried coercing the local fishermen to take us on a boat but they refused as they needed the permission of the village elders. His Malayalam (or English-Tamil-Malayalam mix) was commendable though. We hung around for some time taking in nature’s beauty and dreaming about owning our own island someday before taking a bus ba

ck to Kannur.
In the afternoon we headed back to the bus stop and boarded a bus to the Sree Muthappan Temple at Parassinikkadavu (26 km from Kannur). It is a Shiva temple on the banks of the Valapattanam river and the deity is

a fearful incarnation of the Lord Shiva (Bhairava – methinks). Before heading to the temple we took a brief cruise on a motorboat which gave us a primer of what it would be like to be on the backwaters. The temple here is one of the few temples in Kerala that allow non-Hindus to enter and the USP (if I can use that term here) of the temple is the Theyyam performance that takes place every day. Theyyam is a ritualistic dance with the performer dressed in an elaborate costume. He is offered a drink of kallu (toddy

) which he drinks and starts his trance like dance. He then blesses everyone and makes his exit. The dog is the vehicle of this incarnation of Shiva and there are statues of dogs and few resident dogs in the inner sanctum. The story goes that there were many dogs there at one point and the temple authorities decided to leave only one or two and shoo away the rest. However they noticed that after the dogs were sent out they w

ere not blessed with Muthappan's presence in the Theyyam performers. Hence the dogs were brought back and Theyyam has been performed successfully since then.
After this unique experience we headed back to the bus stand and back to Kannur. By now Arun and I had become accustomed to the efficient Mallu buses and were able to make out Kannur in Malayalam. We actually guided a Mallu to the right bus to Kannur!!
Once in Kannur we headed to the Payyambalam beach (the beach situated in the town), for another sunset. We then picked up some black halwa and banana chips for the folks back home from the famous Sheen bakery (recommended by the locals - it is situated opposite the railway station) before calling it a day.
The next day we killed some time by going for the Tamil movie ‘Thambi’ (luckily not a dubbed version) before boarding the train back to Chennai. We both could only concur that Kerala is truly ‘God’s own Country’.

The photos of the Sadya and the Theyyam performer were provided by Arun.

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