Pattambi - Kottakal

Pattambi was familiar surname for me till 2010. Then I happened to meet K after almost 10 years and he asked me to go for Kottakal ayurvedic treatment, that too on a shasti. I missed 4 shastis after that and finally decided to go on 29th. I really do not know till now, why K mentioned, book a train till Pattambi. He even gave the address of one of the lodges - Rajadhani, just near the railway station. So I did not heed anyone’s words when they said, that I need to alight at Tirur, and not Pattambi to go to Kottakal. I had even mailed Kottakal and even when had replied that the nearest station was Tirur, I adamantly thought, probably K was referring to a Kottakal Ayurveda Sala in Pattambi and that is where I need to go and not Kottakal.

The train was at 4:45 am, so we boarded the 2:45 am bus from home and reached the station 1 hour ahead of scheduled departure. I was so hungry around 5 am that I bought Britannia chocolate cake to munch at that hour. Mom and I promptly collapsed on our LBs once the train started moving and just as we were in deep slumber we found a family with 2 boisterous kids in our compartment. Man, they never let us sleep even for a second, and we were exhausted after a sleepless night since Tuesday.

Train Journey

Once we crossed Coimbatore, man it was sheer peace. There was a stretch of grey blue mountains and an awesome view of meadows. It was all greenery everywhere, with gay little flowers, odd peacocks and peahens, a small rivulet here and there, lush green paddy fields, a rush of plantain gardens, rows of coconut trees, it was so ecstatically beautiful, everywhere one looked.

Mangalore express stopped at most stations for 30 minutes to 1 hour, which seemed to be an interminable wait, especially the 1 hour wait in Palakkad. We alighted at Pattambi close to 3 pm and after couple of phone calls, discovered that K did not mean Pattambi.

Pattambi-Valanchery-Kottakal

We boarded a bus to Valanchery. It was a little more than a 1 hour drive, a picturesque one nevertheless. Everywhere we saw burqa clad pretty faces, so fresh and nubile. We had no problems finding the bus, since everyone there was very helpful and the conductors were crying the names of the destinations aloud. From Valanchery, we boarded another bus to Kottakal which took less than 1 hour.
Our conductor was over helpful and he made us get down at the charity hospital instead of our intended place. So we had to take an auto to go to AVS square. Things got over there in a jiffy. I took bath there and we started our long trip back home.

Kottakal-Palakkad-Salem-Trichy

Just nearby AVS, we had Changuvatty busstop. We boarded a bus to Mallapuram sub bus depot. We were famished, but I wanted to eat full meals with kerala boiled rice. However, obviously that was not to be available. So I ended up buying veg samosa and masala parrupu vadai from a bakery which was a blunder mistake, for it made mom sick.

We reached Palakkad in the darkness in 2-3 hours. And another bus to Salem, which we reached around 2:30 am. Buses to Trichy were frequent from Salem and we reached Trichy around 6 am and we were back home little after 7 am.

The lush green paddy fields, picturesque scenery everywhere, the nubile muslim girls with their heads covered, the charming disarray of cluttered, shining shops full of knickknacks, the winding roads, hills to border those roads, with gorgeous valleys and streams and bridges, man Kerala is God’s own country indeed.