Manu Remakant takes us to the solitude of Pattiyar Bungalow and the intoxicating beauty of the Palakkadan wild.
Keralamedu is the best neighbourhood around. We sit on the concrete slab, which announces, ‘State border’. And gambol up the rolling hills like children screaming, at times to beat the noisy wind.
Behind us, a vast forest is emerging peppered with wafer-thin black roads shining in rain. At this height, we are almost eye-to-eye with the waterfalls, we saw at the Pattiyar Bungalow. One our left, the ramparts of Coimbatore show up.
A few wisps of clouds scud against the sky giving the panorama a surreal touch. We run, jump, roll, crawl until we shed the flab of years our mind had put on in a life, we have dangerously begun to forget.
Back at Pattiyar, we realize it is time to say good bye. Every dream is rounded by ruthless reality. There are cars, buses, motor bikes, schedules, sms, appointments, deadlines, college, family, yentha.com, traffic, heat, time (with their fine divisions of seconds, minutes, hours, assignments, articles, dissertations) and other concerns waiting to claim me back, a few hairpin curves down.
Up here, stands a Pattiyar, with its two hemispheres of experiences – day and night. A building, with its verandah lined with bamboo chairs to help you enjoy the black coffee sipping the wild. A bungalow surrounded with a mote to discourage the elephants.
“But leopards do come at night,” whispers the wind.
Source: yentha.com
