My travel chronicles started from the day I cannot even remember, with the journeys to the tea estates of Peermade as my dad was working with a tea production company which was found in 1925. My grandparents and a few grand-uncles also shared a history of being part of the same tea company in different estates. Carady-Goody and Arnakal, these tea estates have a legacy which dates back to the Colonial Era of India. The travels to and fro the estates and the tours from the estate offices which covered almost every touristy places of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka marked the beginning of my love for places and travels.
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| Pashuppara Tea Estate |
Peerumedu (as pronounced in Malayalam) is a hill station in the Idukki district of Kerala. The place is believed to have got the name from the Sufi Saint Peer Mohammed, as it is translated as "Hill of the Peer". The location has traces of a rich Neolithic History according to the Archaeologists. The townships Vandiperiyar and Kumily share a close border with Tamilnadu, and the surrounding regions have a varied and rich amalgamated culture of Malayalam and Tamil.
Grown up in the middle of tea estates, I have always been a girl of hills and green. We lived in different estates and quarters provided by the company for its employees, all of them had views of tea-cladded hills, tall trees and thick forest views to wake up to.
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| Where I grew up. The estate was once inhabited with bears. |
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| The bus-stop from where we used to catch the buses to Vandiperiyar. |
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| The second quarters where we lived in Carady-Goody. |
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| Just a few meters from our quarters, surrounded by the tea-plantation. |
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Walking through the memory lane.
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| Imagine an office in the thick greens. :) Dad's office then and I literally grew up there! |
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| The road to our childhood! |
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The office premises were so full of pine trees and eucalyptus trees.
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| Where I first found my childhood best friend. The Estate Manager's Bungalow which carries the architectural traces of Colonial Era. |
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The Arnakal estate and the last quarters we stayed in was my favourite regarding the views from our quarters. Summer or winter, you step to the courtyard to the thick layers of mist coming and hugging you at the doorstep not letting you see what's there some 2-3 steps ahead. The thick white mist begins to disappear around noon, and you see the greens. Right outside our courtyard was a small natural meadow with the "flames of the forest" trees in an equal distance which provided you with a better view of the geography. Towards the right, you could see the road leading to the factory and the locality taking twists and turns through the hectares of tea estates which went beyond the horizon and your visibility leading somewhere. The direct view was that of the thick green forest and a dam, immediately after the tea plantations. Eucalyptus trees and tall trees which I don't even know the names of, filled the area. That's where for the first time I have seen huge honeybee combs in the wild. Our days and nights were filled with the chirping of crickets. In a way, those wild and deep forests were much familiar and comfortable rather than the occasionally visited hometown for me. Visitors from the wild was also not rare for us.
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| While climbing the uphill, when you saw the factory in a distance, you knew you were nearing home. |
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| The Tea Factory next door. |
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| The view we used to wake up to. |
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| The Tea Garden right outside. |
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| That's the road to the quarters we stayed. |
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| Entering our quarters. |
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| A few meters ahead our quarters stood this rock which resembled an elephant. |
For me, roads were always the hairpin ones. Even now, the moment we start the uphill road with altered altitude covered in mist, I feel, we are nearing home. Hitting the KK Road (Kottayam-Kumili Road aka the State Highway 13 and also shares the route with NH 183) is still the best thrill I experience without losing any freshness regardless the umpteen number of times, I have travelled on the same route.
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| The winding roads! |
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| Panchalimedu, a high-range meadow on the way to Peermade. |
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| The invisible roads through the plantations. |
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| This one house has always been a marker of location since childhood for the beautiful nursery they have. |
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| Just before reaching Kuttikkanam, is Ninnumulli Paara (Valanjenganam Waterfalls) a natural beauty. |
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| A tea from the local tea shop, rain and waterfalls in the background is the best combination en route the hills. |
Later the estate became my vacation home, as we had to shift to our hometown. But till 2004 my dad worked there and for me, each visit was a home-going. It never settled within me for a long time that our hometown where we live now is where I really belonged. The roads that lead to the estate is so deeply engraved in me that, any day anytime, without losing the route, I can reach the destination. Any chance to go back to the estate is still the best travel destination and experience for me. I know that any day, the mist-covered hills with anklets of waterfalls are there to embrace me close welcoming home. If I grew up fondled by the mists, I breathed tea throughout in the fresh air. I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with that aroma of tea leaves while undergoing processing. That's the smell of my childhood and still one of those best aromas I have ever sensed. The irony is that I was never a tea lover even if the best of the tea has always been a part of our lives. But I was a hardcore coffee person. Later when I fell in love with tea, I realised, those senses to recognise the tastes and differentiate the quality of tea has grown within me even without my knowledge. The memories of fishing in the dams and getting home the alive ones to put them in the water tank and mom preparing it fresh were some of those entertainments from those days. I admit that till we left that place I didn't know what I was going to miss, but now when I look back now, I know where my heart belongs. All through my life, hills have been the places to which I escape for solace from the loudness, noise and other disturbances. The greenery, mist, cool wind, clear streams and the cricket chirps which penetrates the silent nights, can settle the chaos within me any given day. This is how I discovered myself. I'm a girl of the hills. :)
P.S: Most of the photos are from the archives clicked from 2008-2017.
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