#3- Kodai Diaries | A Travel Memoir

Is this a fact or not, I don't know. "Some things, even if it feels like it is in our control, it is actually not in our control." It has happened to me many times, both in a positive and negative manner. Now, What's this quote doing in a Travel memoir ? Yes, it has a relevance to this. IMHO, Solo traveling is far more easy, convenient, freedom of choice, less expensive and a lot more personal experience. But, a group travel/trip with friends or family even if they are close to you, sometimes it feels a little bit difficult, inconvenient, restricted choices, a little bit expensive and this has a more shared collective experience. Here there are exceptions too for group trips like Lingusamy said “Orey sindhanai oda irukka nabargal kedaichaley, vaazhkai inimai aagidum".(If we get people with the same mindset and vibe, then our life gets wonderful) If the group is like minded and are so in sync with your tastes, then viola. It would be one heaven of an experience. 

Like SJ Surya said in a tweet, for me everything is happening a little late than the rest of the others. But, it's worth the wait 😇. During our College days, everyone went for IV(Industrial Visit) at 3rd semester or 4th semester, but we went at the final 8th semester during March just before the semester exam study holidays. Me and my friends,we haven't traveled much during college days either. If it was a travel, it was only for theaters and hotels within 20-30 kms of Madurai. Very rarely a few 150 kms roundtrips in our bikes or buses.

For some people it may seem, what the heck is this, going for a trip to Kodaikanal, he is over glorifying/over romanticizing / over complicating stuff. We guys even if we had less money we had went. Yeah, I know. Here comes the above mentioned quote. There are a lot of factors determining certain things and we are not in control. Ok, let us think in this perspective. Like the masculine quotes such as "The Boys", "Men will be Men", "Pasanganaaley gethu" bla bla bla., Boys before marriage goes to bachelor party(like the one shown in "Hangover" movie), we have the privilege to go anywhere, even after marriage, boys have reunion, gettogether trips(Like the movie "Saroja"). But I haven't heard about a girls’ only friend's trip to tourist places after their marriages or seen such stories even in  movies(I may be wrong too). And this small trip may still be a huge dream for some people who live just below the hills of Kodai in and around Madurai, Theni, Dindigul. Ok, now let's get back to the story.

The first time we went to Kodai was right after the final semester exam on May 2,2016, where the much anticipated "Kabali"s trailer was released. That too, this trip was not planned at all. It was a 5 member crew on a WagonR. The owner of the car doesnt know to ride the car at that time and only one of my friend knows to ride rest others don't know to ride. And the rider friend "Rajesh" also have experience in driving hills. We weren't planning to go to Kodaikanal actually, we were planning to go for Sirumalai or Megamalai, but when we saw the sign board which showed some 80kms. We thought it's only 80. So let's go. And there it started. We played Kabali Trailer multiple times on the Car, which was so good for me for a former die hard "Thalaivar" fan back then. We went to a few places like "Moirs point", "Pine Forest"(Which felt like "Kadhalin Deepam ondru" song that song was playing into my head the entire time), "The Lake", we didn't see Guna Cave at the time I guess. I had motion sickness and was very giddy and on the roads of Pine  Forest which was very steep, I could literally feel the gravity pulling me down. and then, As we had only less time left and traffic was also very heavy as it was summer of the peak season. Then we somehow reached to our home at around 7-8PM.

The second time I went to Kodaikanal was with my family, in a rented car during 2019, June/July I  guess. This time I didn't eat anything even though my mom had prepared curd rice with homegrown pomegranates, but my mom and dad ate. To no surprise, they too got vomiting sensations while driving uphill, and vomited the whole curd rice(Trigger Warning : The Vomit contained those whole grains of pomegranates right from my home to Kodai,- Dispersal of seeds through vomit). On reaching there, we stayed at a hotel. We went to Coakers Walk, Botanical Garden, and Evening Walk at the Lake. Then the next day we went to A Murugan Temple, Guna Cave and a few other places, then we returned back home.This time I noticed the normal crow, myna, dogs, everything was so furrier, this is because of adaptation. Darwin sparked my mind. 

Ok. Now, the third instance, that's the very recent one with the same old friends group out of which 2 members are out & one is a new one in. This time I thought of a different plan as Kodai got used to me, so let's try a different scenic and short route to Hilltop via Kumbakkarai Falls, Adukkam Village. (Kumbakkarai Falls trek to Kodaikkanal was first known to me by our Department HOD during college days). But my friend rejected this plan, quoting a insta reel where a guy following google map landed at Batlagundu from Kodaikanal. So I agreed to go on the regular route, but want to go to some other places. So I suggested some places outside main kodai like Poombarai, Mannavanur, Berijam Lake, Kookal grassland etc. They also agreed to go if we had time. And the day we went was July 7, 2024, a Sunday full of Muhurtham Weddings all the way from Madurai to Kodai. So we guessed there will be lesser crowds in Kodai, also it was off season. But we were in doubt like the dialogue from Paridhabangal(Nammala mathiriye ellarum nenachu inga vandhutta ? which means, everyone thought similarly like us and has come here). Finally we started at around 7, ate at a highway motel where nearly 45 mins was wasted(that's because of me, I'm a slow eater). Then we each of the boys suggested some songs to play and it was played. I have this OCD even if I don't like a song, I wont change the song in the middle right away, it really spoils the mood and abruptly changing its rhythm makes me irritable. I was sitting at the backseat with one of my friend and we were indulged in a deep intellectual conversation about feminism, man woman relationships testimonials from reddit posts and bla, bla, bla.. But the other 2 guys sitting in front were trolling us. Then when the car was nearing the hills(the road towards the uphill), I told them to play "Nebulakkal Song" from "Manjummel Boys". It was so good and wholesome on hearing it en route to Kodai, but this time it's "Madurai Boys". 

Meanwhile in between the hill ride, we halted near silver falls, ate Corn, took pictures. After some time of still driving uphill, I saw a different kind of fruit that was being sold in a road side shop. And I asked one of my friends, “What is that fruit ?" and he said it was a “Star Fruit”. And I asked what it tastes like and he replied it would be sweet, a little bit sour and a little bit spicy. I believed it for a second and all the three of them started laughing. Then only I realized that he was making fun of me and I also started laughing. The laughter went on for some 10 minutes. These are the moments we long for when we meet our friends after days and our stressful routine life. Whenever I see this star fruit I will remember this incident.

Then we reached the top around 11, took a few pictures at Lake. Then we were deciding where to go next. I told them that let's go to Poombarai, Kookal via Guna Cave. Then we checked for traffic in map it showed too heavy. So we took another route to Poompaarai. I checked accuweather priorly and it showed thunderstorms & rain after 1PM. So I also warning them, if it rains heavily it would be risky to drive downhill. But to our surprise Kodai was not at all chill, it was literally hot and the Sun was scorching too hot, not exaggerating we even put on AC in the car. This is what I felt as the greatest irony of Climate Change.(Kodaikanal la Car kulla AC podura nilamai). My friends trolled me like "ithan unga oorla thunderstorm ah, veyil mandaiya pulakkuthu".(which means Is this your rain ?, sun is steaming our heads)

Then in that hot weather, the breadth of the road towards Poompaarai got shrunk to a great extent and there are no barricades at the edge of the roads which were so steep. This is really a risky terrain to drive cars. But in that buses were also going. They must be really skillful to ride in those roads. Then we reached the spot which is "Palani View Point". After that there was a spot named "Poombarai View Point '', from there we could see the Poombarai village, which at this point looked like a place in the brown color tone of the movie "Dune ". There was no vegetation other than houses there were only brown sand with little green plants. This sight was absolutely the opposite of the lots of travel videos / drone shots I saw about Poombarai which was full of greenery. The lesson learnt here is that the fault is not with place, its with us by expecting something suddenly when it is not the right time.I  feel there is a divine timing for everything. So don't expect more or rush something for your convenience, keep calm, eat kitkat, and do nothing. 😂 Things will fall in place.(This is a philosophy I discovered recently - The Art of letting things happen- Taoism)

Now on seeing this place all the 3 got angry at me, and we even went down to that village, only to take a U-Turn in a highly congested road. While taking the turn, a van driver asked us "Enna ji thirumbiteenga, Mannavanur polaya ?" On hearing this, my driver friend instantly looked at me and said "Mannavanur aavathu ma**avathu" (FYI, this is not to disrespect the place, but the frustration that came out of driving so long to see nothing). They all trolled me for suggesting this place, then we returned back towards Pine Forest to Guna Cave. There was heavy traffic, a board showed 2.5km to Guna Cave, it was a one way road and vehicles were moving at snail speed. So after a few meters me and one of my friends told the remaining two that we will go on foot to the Guna Cave and you can join. So we walked, walked and then reached the entrance. There was really huge traffic in the off-season even with the E-Pass facility. So imagine how it would have been during the peak season after the humongous hit of "Manjummel Boys". We thought with this traffic they would still take time to reach there, so we decided to get tickets and go inside and also we went there. There was a huge crowd and literally we could hear the hooting, shouting sounds of people in a most enjoyable way. And while seeing the place with the huge tree with huge roots it was full of people taking photos and the place got foggy and became chill. The entire place turned like a theater and everyone was enjoying themselves. Young boys had huge portable speakers playing "Kanmani Anbodu" songs. And everyone was literally enjoying the vibe. This reminded me how much people are stressed, because in my hypothesis the amount of entertainment we need is directly proportional to the amount of stress we are having. And also on seeing this much traffic, and this many people in a very small place, I suddenly got in my mind the opening Voice Over Dialogue from the movie "Kadhalum Kadanthu Pogum" by Madonna Sebastian. ie., "Intha ulaguthula irukka periya prechanaiye Population than." (The biggest problem to humankind is the population). Now put that STR template "Appo puriyala, ippo puriyudhu".(I didn't understand then, but now it's understood.) Then we looked at the places and people on how much they are enjoying, took some pics and returned outside. Now we called our friends and they were still stuck in the traffic after some 10 mins they reached us and they both were fully drained and frustrated as they didnt eat anything  and time was around 03:30 PM and then we got & ate some steamed groundnuts and masala poori. Then we reached back to the lake, parked our car and ate food at a hotel, then again spent time looking at the lake and it was around 6PM. We again started downhill and brought some freshly uprooted native carrots and beetroot to home. And around 10PM. We reached our home. The total expenses of this trip was around Rs.3000, & it was 750 per head.

The major lesson we learned from this trip is that we should first plan for the entire trip, have alternate plans and  all the members have to agree on the plan. And also we decided to go on a trip once a year every year. This idea is only popping to us when we are nearing our thirties and to arrive at this idea we spent all our twenties. So, the conclusion, what I am saying is the similar thing what Thiagarajan Kumaraja has said, “If you want to go to Madurai, Go to Madurai”. Period. If you don't want to go, don't go. The choice is yours. Like Ram says “The scale for happiness should be yours and not someone else should give you a scale for your happiness”. So let's live our life like the third parent in the “Appa” movie says, but with a slight twist “Irukkara edam theriyama, yaarayum kastapaduthama, namma santhosama vaazhnduttu poiranum”. (We should live a life not bothering anyone, but a happy life).

Peace. 

-Senthil Rajan V.