Raghuraman

During January 2004 we (Geetha, Arjuna and I) decided to go to Kerala for a holiday. We searched various destinations on the internet, and found that most of the destinations were quite appealing to our taste. Therefore we had a difficult choice to make! So we decided to look at it from a different perspective- why not make it a health holiday? The ayurvedic way and…. Bingo! Kairali Ayurvedic centre gave us exactly what we were looking for, a short health recharging programme at Palakkad in Kerala – Gods own Country. Besides Palakkad being my place of birth, I desired to show my wife and son my village, family temple and my old school. With this bait the approval was unanimous! So we packed for an overnight train journey after booking our programme with the centre who had given us a detailed plan for three days.

We were picked up at the railway station at five am (I was awake with excitement as early as 4 am). After a short drive of about 15 kilometers we arrived for a ceremonious welcome. Welcome greetings, with our programme file and a chilled soft drink (fruit juice). We were escorted to our cottage which had a sit out, a large living/bedroom and bath with a small garden with plenty of ayurvedic plants and flowering shrubs in front. They must have had over 30 cottages of varying size and the whole resort area was green everywhere, with fragrance in the air, situated in a sloping valley, with water ways in between, spacious lawns, and plenty of shady trees.

Facilities offered included a detailed health check up, done by a physician, who would then make a plan for oil massage treatments administered by experts. There were also hot and cold baths, a swimming pool, tennis court, library, reading room, an exhibition hall, yoga and meditation hall and simple but wholesome kerala vegetarian food offered through a buffet system.

A typical day started with a hot filter coffee served at the cottages at 5:30 am. We would then get ready to go for Yoga classes which started at 6:30. Experts explained the basics and took us through a simple programme of initial yoga postures, helping and guiding us all the time. I found performing as a group is good fun, being a rigid bodied person with little flexibility! I tried my best to cope initially but failed miserably! The teacher, a good samaritan, did not laugh but coaxed and cajoled my body to reach some degree of perfection. Arjuna and Geetha managed effortlessly, smiling at me all the time. There were many people from the UK, Germany and Australia who had come to the resort on a long term basis. Three weeks, six weeks and eight weeks plans, some with health specific problems, made for a good cosmopolitan group! After one hour we would go in for breakfast. We were served with cereals, corn flakes and some fruits like papaya and pineapple followed by a choice of Dosas, Idly, Aappam, wheat Uppuma with Kerala dishes and coffee. For people who had registered for short programmes, like us, the good doctor had not prescribed any food restrictions (thank you!).

By 9 am we would head to the hospital complex to meet the Ayurvedic physician for our review. There we would get our day’s prescription, recommendations to be executed by other staff and then head to the massage centre. We were well received. There are separate wings for men and woman and we handed over our bodies to them, literally speaking, for two hours. We lay down on a curved table with minimum dress and they applied different oils to our bodies, head, eyes etc and then they started massaging. A nice warm treatment by two able persons on either side, they would talk only to keep you awake. Most people, including myself, would go to sleep under the care of their hands. After some 60 odd minutes we were escorted to a warm bath followed by a cold shower. Then they applied a nice scented powder on our heads to prevent catching a cold. We marched off to the dining room with a roaring appetite. Back after a simple lunch we rested a while. Some would go for a swim, or to the reading room, or to play tennis as sleeping is not advised except for 30 minutes, if really needed.

By 6 pm we assembled for a meditation session for one and half hours. Various levels of meditation techniques, stages and principles were explained to us. We started with the first level, methods on how to deal with the wandering mind and candle light focusing methods. The result was we emerged as new human beings with a higher degree of confidence, recharged to face our problems and to arrive at sensible solutions without taxing our body.

A light dinner was served afterwards and we went for a walk around the resort through a softly lighted and well paved footpath. We settled down on a bench and began to reflect inwardly, no words were spoken. We could hear the crickets, grasshoppers, rustle of leaves and twigs under the canopy of a soft breeze and the gurgling sound of mountain streams. Our inner peace was reflected in our faces and we thanked God for creating such a wonderful world in which to retire to a peaceful sleep.

On our last day after a half minded goodbye and a heavy heart, but a nice feeling, we drove to Palakkad town. On we drove, further down, to our family temple at Manapully kavu Bhagavathy to witness and pray during the evening Aarthi – a glorious sight with a thousand lights round. We proceeded to our ancient village Tirunillayi and to the house where I was born. The present owners of the house received us well with happiness. Both Arjuna and Geetha were amazed to see their kindness and hospitality, simple folks with uncomplicated life styles. Happy gifted village folks, we prayed in our village temple and drove back to the railway station at Coimbatore in time to catch the train to Chennai. The resort people had kindly packed us some food for the night which was very thoughtful of them. We reached Chennai fresh the next day remembering to send a nice thank you note to Kairali for giving us such a memorable holiday. A note in my diary after this trip reads: “Try and do as many trips as possible to Kerala in future. There remains to be seen and enjoyed a hundred more places and your time is lesser by the hour. So make haste!”