Vagabonding

I'm in a coffee shop at Kalpetta, Wayanadu on the way to attend a funeral. A truck carrying a container to collect coffee and other produces from Kudag stops by. The coffee vendor wonders, "ho! What all places this fellow (container) must have visited! Cold, hot, beautiful, barren, warring, friendly and hostile lands! So lucky!". Was there a hint of jealousy, I'm not sure.

Thycattussery St. Antony's feast and pamplemousse

Today (9th Oct 2016) is Thycattusserry St. Anotony's feast. A few decades ago this was an important day for the people around Thycattusserry. The church was very crowded in those days. On this day, Kambili Naranga (Pamplemousse) was the main attraction. Most would return home with at least one on the shoulder.

Today, I could not locate a single vendor of this fruit. No crowd! No traders! The feast has become a quiet affair.

From Kelamparampil house front-yard at Thycattusserry

Forbidden fruit?

I found this fruit on the widespread climber on the outer walls of Trivandrum Technopark. It looks ominously beautiful and positively poisonous. Not sure though.

Country boat repairing at Pallippuram

In my childhood, the sound "tak tak" was almost prominent all through the day at Pallippuram. Somewhere on the lakeside there would always be a repair work on country boats taking place. Those were huge boats mainly used for transportation of goods. The repairing process involved replacing the borer-ridden planks and stitching the new planks together with coir and coir fiber. The repaired boat would be coated with sardine oil so that it would be smooth and agile on the water. The stink from the oil would be dominating and intolerable. Recently I saw a repair session in progress on a small country boat as shown in the picture.