Idukki & Cochin, Kerala - 16th Jan 2011

Our first stop was on the way to a college at Idduki, where we saw this huge dam. Rakesh said something about it being the oldest or the largest dam in Kerala. It was fun, we were all asleep in the vans because we had left at 5:30am from Kattappana and we just got up for those 10 minutes, looked at the dam, took a couple of pictures and then went back to sleep. Dam(n)..

The crowd at the college was by far the most enthusiastic we’ve encountered! The welcome we got was super enthusiastic with chants of ‘K2K zindabad’ and everything. They listened to everything our people said with interest and genuinely applauded all of it. And the expressions on their faces was like they were actually taking everything we said very seriously and that they were mentally taking pledges to make a change.

They were so warm and it felt really nice that you were in a place where ever person you spoke to smiled at you, asked about you, actually listened to what you said and expressed such happiness that you were there and they were meeting with you. One girl, her name was Angel, we were thanking her for taking such good care of us and she said, “Oh no no, we are grateful you are here.”

What mould are these people made of yaar.. There should be more people like them in the world. She’s rightly named.

In the evening we went to the National Shrine Basilica at Vallarpadam. It looked sooo beautiful with the green light and all. It’s an international pilgrimage center here in Kerala. And there were a whole bunch of people sweeping in front of the church. With real brooms and all. Our friend Jinu Chetta told us about the legend about the sweeping where there was a lady called Meenakshiamma who prayed to  a Lady Saint called Vallarpadathamma to save her child from drowning in the flood. And miraculously after 3 days the child was saved and reunited with Meenakshiamma. So Meenakshiamma out of gratitude went to the Church dedicated to the saint and started sweeping outside the entrance. And people started to think that by sweeping outside her church, you get whatever you wish for.

So this still carries on today. Everybody goes inside and prays/wishes for something and then comes outside and sweeps the front of the church.

 At first I wasn’t so inclined, but Rakesh said he’d been here before and he did the ritual and he actually did get what he had prayed for. So I thought, why not?