Kerala:Elephant

Elephant
Originally uploaded by harisankar.

Flickr again

Kerala: Parboiled Rice

Rice Bowl
Originally uploaded by shivan.

Paddy fields ,flicked from flickr

Kerala : Chai

country side
Originally uploaded by reluktantwarrior.

Tea estate, lifted off flickr.

Uniqueness of Kerala

Malayalees celebrate Onam today. Onam is described as a harvest festival and people of all faith partake in it. Onam is actually much more than a harvest festival, it is a festival to reminisce the good times under a just ruler(MahaBali) and an utopia that was ours, it is a celebration of 'the return of the king' and is probably the only festival in India that glorifies a 'demon' king. That is the kind of stuff that sets malayaless apart from the rest of India. Every other Indian festival known to me is a celebration of a God's birthday or of a demon being slain by one of our god(esse)s!

This folk song says it all:

When Maveli ruled the land
Everyone was equal
Happily they lived
Danger befell none
There was no falsehood, or fraud
And no untruth

Riding the White Horse

I went WhiteWaterRafting yesterday! White Horse is a class III rapid at the end of my river trail where Shenandoah and Potomac meet. Anybody who seeks fun and adventure should definitely try white water rafting and if possible class III and above(with an experienced guide). Our 'trip' down the river was organized by the RiverAndTrailOutfitters and I should say that it was extremely well organized. Our guide was a guy named Gabrielle who sells surfboards on e-bay and aspires to join the marines even though he doesn't really believe in war! I have noticed that most of the good guides are good story-tellers and this guy was excellent at it. He'd unravel the american history on the river and occasionally feed us with bits of local rumors.To top that, he was good at handling the raft too!

My next destination for white water rafting is the Gauley river in West Virginia where I can do a class V rapid ;)

The New York Times Reader V.1

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