Made in Humane Club
I woke up at 6 am, and so did Pradnya. I pushed her in and sat up to see that the pillow was about to fall on Guruswami. That’s a problem. So I snatched the pillow and put it on the side. Srinivas woke up and told me to push Pradnya in, so I did so, but then Pradnya woke up and rolled to the edge. I told her to roll back, so she did so. I got up and started climbing up and down the fort. Pradnya too woke up and did the same. Pradnya even learned how to get off the berth by herself.
Srinivas cracked a joke, saying that the daughters rose before the sun rose. I started telling Pradnya some stories about the Marathas. Mahaksh woke up very late.
The fight for forts continues
Boosted by last night’s fun, we were ready to start the new day. This time, we decided to keep a valuable thing in each fort. In our fort, Pradnya and I kept my book, The Epoch of Nanasaheb Peshwa, and my bindi packet. In his fort, Mahaksh put his Rubik’s cube. The goal was to snatch valuable things from each other’s fort. In the 1st round, I lost, and in the next 2 rounds, Pradnya and I won. In the 4th round, I got pushed down the top berth, and I landed on my feet. I ran up yet again to continue the game. But a break was announced by Kumar. This was a very nice game and we enjoyed it.
After that, we had some milk and we had idlis for breakfast.
The fight for forts gives way to a sword fight
We all gathered in one top berth and started sword fighting. We rolled up the blanket bags into swords and used pillows as shields. Throughout, Mr. Serious Pranad was focusing on his video game. This time, I also tried a Rubik’s cube. It was hard to solve it. Mahaksh was much better than me; he solved it in two seconds.
We started playing a game called Climber Tag. In that, we climbed up and down in the berth, crossing from berth to berth from the top and playing tag. There’s one person who catches you. Pradnya, because she was tired, was not able to play that game. She sat down and started to cry. We asked her what happened. “Are you alright?” She said, “Yeah, I am,” in a very timid voice.
Lunch
We had rice, sambar, curd, payasam, some spiced veggies, and channa. This was a very heavy meal. We even had a fried banana. Its texture was grainy as the sugars had come out while frying and steaming it. We even had some pineapple shiro, which was extremely sweet and was made out of maida.
The lack of sleep catches up
When it was half past twelve, Pradnya’s father, Srinivas, told us that anyone who wanted to get some sleep could have a good night’s sleep because all three of us stayed up at night. Pradnya liked that idea, but she wanted someone with her. She wanted to think, “Oh, everybody’s sleeping, so I will also sleep.” Because if all the kids were awake, then she wouldn’t sleep; she’d just get cranky. The day after tomorrow, we will have a trek.
Then I made her sleep; she slept for ten to fifteen minutes and woke up energized. This is called a power nap. After the power nap, we quickly packed up, played another game of tag on the berths.
View from the train
The view from the train was very beautiful and green. Kerala is a very fertile state. There was greenery everywhere. Between every house, there was a green patch. The BACKWATERS ARE MAJESTIC bodies of water that we viewed everywhere from the train. The terrain was full of coconuts. We had reached Kerala, but we had not reached the station where we needed to, which was Kottayam. We would reach at 04:00, and it was 01:00 right now. Pradnya and I started to cool down and went up and down the stairs the same way.
The Jokey Conversation
Venkat told me, ” See, the trees are running! ” I said NO, they are not, we are moving very fast, that’s why it appears like that. He said, but how do I know that we are moving? If we were not moving, and the trees were running, then wouldn’t it look the same? I said yeah, but the train is rumbling and sound is coming from it moving so that is why we are moving. He said, but that still doesn’t prove it.
Kottayam
Alighting from the train
After reaching Kottayam station, we stepped off the train. We put all the luggage right outside the railway station. Then, once the bus arrived, Pradnya and I picked the first seat. This seat had the best view. My father asked us to put on our seat belts. We agreed.
Dharamshala
I thought we would be going on a long drive, but we arrived at our first destination in 10 minutes. We reached Kottayam Brahmana Samooham. This was basically like a dharmashala but for Brahmins. The last time I stayed at a dharmashala was in a Jain dharamshala at Palitana.
The dharmashala was big and cosy, and it had room to fit tons of people. It was easy to go from one room to another. You could see the roads and shops from it. There was even a small temple inside it, a dining hall, and medicated water which was pink in colour.
Getting ready
After resting and bathing, we wore new clothes. I wore my new frock. My dad was struggling to wear his lungi, {as usual.} Srinivas guided him. Then we went to Guruswami’s room where he did a small pooja of Swami Ayyappa. He gave us shiro as prasad to eat.
The Thirunakkara Temple
A quick walk from the dharmashala, we reached our first temple. This temple is called Thirunakkara Temple. It is 500 years old.
This temple was very big and beautiful, I tell you. Its red and gold beauty was shining like anything. There was even a garden for the snakes and an enclosure for an elephant, with a real elephant inside.
We learnt many things from the temple visit. For example, we learnt that the tall pillar inside the mandir complex was a way for the god to connect with it; this pillar also shines light on the murti.
When we reached the temple, we did a quick darshan of Shiva. We did the same to the guardian deities. When walking around the temple, we could not cross the guardians.
Srinivas told us stories
Right outside the temple was a majestic big tree. Sitting on the steps, Srinivas told us a story. There are seven chakras in your body. A Devi is sleeping underneath, and Shiva is up. This Devi needs to be awakened to reach Shiva and get her full powers. After that, you will get powerful. But you must have a strong mind and a strong body to achieve that. If you have those powers and awaken the Devi before you have a strong mind and body, then you can do destructive things. We listened to the story and carefully understood its meaning.
One of his stories was on mental strength. Once a man was in a forest. He sat next to a tree that could grant wishes. He wished for food, and food appeared. He wished for rest, and a bed appeared. He wished to settle down there, and a house appeared. Worried, he feared that if there were ghosts here, ghosts appear. Scared, he thought, what if ghosts ate him, and the ghosts ate him. Srinivas concluded his story that to connect with Devi, we need to build mental strength and control what we think.
Krishna temple
We crossed the road and entered a Krishna temple. The mood here was more jolly and fun. Drums were playing. We had Krishna’s favourite prasad, which was rice balls with coconut mixed inside.
Returning to the Dharmashala
When we returned to the Dharmshala, we had a heavy dinner. For dinner, we ate prasad, sambar, rice, and curd. This is the first time I’ve had the pink medicated water.
We got ready to sleep, did masti with Mahaksh, and then slept.