In the ruins of Ammachi Kottaram

It was October 2^nd; I got up late as there was no office. Two students knocked on my door and asked whether I can accompany them to Ammachi Kottaram. As I was free and I was looking for opportunities to go outside the campus, I said YES. When students came with this idea, I was in a prejudice that the students knew everything about that palace and its route. I didn’t know I was stepping into a new adventure.

                                                             Ammachi Kottaram

We got ready by 12:30 pm and went outside. I got the details at that time; there were 53 students and me for this journey. None of them knew the exact route except a rough idea. I am the faculty here and so it is my sole responsibility to take care of 53 students. I said to them that we will go by auto. To our luck there was no auto. So we planned to go to next bus stop by walk. It was 30 minutes walk. Students really enjoyed it. Some students were tired. And then when we reached the stop, it started raining. It was at that time I realized that most of the students didn’t carry an umbrella. Peermade is a place where frequent raining occurs and yet the students dared not to carry an umbrella. It started raining heavily. Under one umbrella there were at least 5 or 6 students. There were 8 or 9 groups like that including mine.

                                                                      Assembly hall

Two students went to catch auto. 5 auto’s came as per their request, others climbed the bus. We reached Ammachi Kottaram by 2pm. I told the students that we will spent one hour here and will go back. They said Ok.

The steps leading to secret passage

The Secret passage

I wouldn’t call this a palace. It would be better to say we found the ruins of Palace. What makes a palace a palace is its architecture, indoor decorative, antique collections etc. This is my concept about a Palace. But here we won’t find anything like that. If we search in the nook and corner of palace, we may see some beauty.

Our Guide

Dharma lingam was the name of our guide. He was a very old man. It is from his words I get a glimpse of the palace history. I don’t know how far it is true. But let me narrate what I heard.

Ammachi Kottaram, (the Palace of Queen Mother was built upon the ghaut at Glenrock Estate ans was opened by J D Munro. The Palace was built by Thiruvithamkoor Maharaja and is 210 years old now. It was like a olden summer resort for them. The palace consists of 3 rooms, 2 halls, one visiting room, Dinning hall, Kitchen, store room and 2 secret passages. One secret passage is for movement within the palace and the other secret passage will take one to Sree Krishna Temple in Peermade. But that passage is closed for security reasons.

Another view of Nadumuttom

The visiting room is a small one with chimney in it. This will lead to a hall which was used as an assembly room by the king. At the end of the room there is a semi circled portion which adds beauty to the room, there is also two French windows which give more light to the room and easy entry from outside. The next room is ‘Nadumuttam’ which is an open area covered by walls on the 4 sides. Here 3 rooms are there on one side. One used by Raja, One by Rani and One by maids of Rani. A secret passage laid here ensures that any time anyone in any room can go to the other rooms. Our guide told that this was used by the maids, so that they can go to any room when they are called. (Something just popped in my mind- (WHY CAN’T THE MAIDS GO NORMALLY USING THE DOORS?)

The Italian made windows

One room is used by the guide now. In other room all furnitures are dumped. The third room was used by Maids. It was there I saw the window which was imported from Italy. The design for that was given by Maharaja. Now this is one among the few things in palace which has not been destroyed in the wrath of time. The design, the craftsmanship and the look of the window was magnificent.

Entertainment hall

Then there was one more hall which was used for entertainment activities like dance, singing etc. This was similar to that of assembly room expect for the fact that there was no French windows.

Then we have the big dinning hall. I saw the majestic washbasins there. If it was renovated it would be a superb palace, but here it is in all its ruins, neglected by government and people. The Kitchen was very big and it could fit 100 people there

Nadumuttom

Guide said that the palace is now owned by an IT company at Bangalore. He doesn’t know the name of that firm. Our guide was so nice to us, so we gave him a nice tip. Anyways Students and I enjoyed the trip very much. It was so good and nice. The students have already done the photo session of it. Yet I let them have their photo session for a bit longer. When I saw them I was recollecting my college memories. We don’t remember the classes but we do remember the trips and IV’s. So I said to them, enjoy very well, for these are the one among the most beautiful memories one can have.

Girls’ day out

This is the best trip I ever had so far. It is amazing when you get a very good travelling partner who thinks like and acts like you. Yeah I am talking about my best friend Neeraja. Even though is is elder to me by 3 years I call her by her name. Neeraja currently works in Peerimedu in Idukki. She has called me many times to visit her there, unfortunately we didn’t have time, so we postponed many journey and plan. Finally from March 28^th to 31^st it was holiday since it was good Friday and Easter. So let me talk about the trip….

On 28^th March I went to kottayam via train. I had to select a train which would stop at Kayamkulam also since Neeraja would get in from there. We then went to Peerimedu via bus. It is altogether 5 hours journey. I stayed with Neeraja in her realtives place. That night we had ‘Kappa” and chicken curry. It was so tasty. Thanks to her aunty for preparing such a spectacular dish for me. At night I played badminton with Kichu ( neeraja’s cousin). He is a great player like me… night time it is cold there, same way early morning too. But not that much cold, still cold enough to use a blanket while you sleep. I decide I wouldn’t be taking bath early morning, water is so cold there. Cold enough to give Goosebumps.

Next day morning Kichu  showed me tea garden behind their house.  This was something new for me.. to have a tea garden in your backyard.. kind off cool thing… but it was not as green as I expected. Moreover it has been planted recently and still at initial stages of growth. But that morning walk was so good and hot that it made me to take bath.

Neeraja said we would be going by “Hero Honda pleasure”, her another aunty’s scooter. I gladly said ok. When we got the scooter, to my senses I understood that the self starter won’t work. The next option was to kick start. Uncle started kicking, no result. Neeraja started kicking, no result. Finally she asked my help. I started kicking, it won’t work. I became desperate. That scooter was our only vehicle for adventures and that damn thing won’t work. Then I decided I would keep kicking till it starts or it breaks.  Brrr brrrr brrrrr

Wow the ‘Pleasure’ started. I was so proud to be a great kicker… Bravo !

She started riding and I started exploring the wild hills, tea garden and all. The journey in it with her was one thing which made our trip memorable.

She said she would be taking me to Wagamon, a place where green plain hills are there. It is almost 1.5 hours journey. Her another cousin Akash joined us with his friend Muffin. They were our bodyguards… after all the family wouldn’t leave 2 girls to travel so far alone. Akash with his heavy super bike was guiding us.

Finally we reached there. Akash’s dad is renowned businessmen. He was also a popular kid there because of the same reason. We went from one hill to another. It is a tourist spot, there is lot of rush in morning afternoon and evening. Don’t go there at night, because local people may be having drinks and drugs there. It is a place for couples to walk, talk and get lost.

We started to walk from one hill to another. When we reached other hill the old one became more green and beautiful, when we returned the other one became greener. Finally we understood that hills are playing with us. We had carried one umbrella with us; it helped us to save our skin from scorching sun. Even though there was wind, it was not good enough to keep us cool. After spending 30 minutes there we went to another hill which was a bigger one.

We then went to Pine forest which is 15 minutes away from there. It is again another tourist spot but the local dudes were shouting and holing, we were fed up with them. They were like monkeys in the tree. I wanted some silence, peace and I wanted to get dissolved in nature. But these monkeys wouldn’t let me, then there were children who imitated them. I loved the place but was disappointed with people.

 FOR PUBLIC NOTICE: IF YOU LIKE TO SHOUT, HOWL AND DO SIMILAR THINGS, PLEASE GO TO PUB OR SUCH PLACE. DON’T DESTROY THE PEACE OF NATURE, PLEASE.

We said bye to Akash and his friend.

Again in the ‘pleasure ride’… On the way back to home..

Our next destination happened to be PATTUMALLA PALLI since it was in the route of our way back to home. It is a big church but it was closed by the time we reached there. I got info that Italian marbles were imported to build the same. I would say it is worth because the church was such a beauty. Tea gardens were surrounding it. These tea gardens were green and green. Simply beautiful. We spend some time there enjoying the beautiful tea garden, then we came back. That was truly beautiful…

Next day we planned to go to Thekkady which is about 30 minutes away from home. Neeraja, Chikku and his mom and I went there in a prepaid auto. Thekkady is one of the most favorite destinations for tourists and all grocery items, food etc are priced accordingly for the tourists. Ten minute walk inside the forest to reach the Lake. If you want boat ride you should have booked it earlier. Boat journey will last for 3-4 hours. Aunty told that Lake has dried up a little more and hence boat journey would be a waste. So we just viewed the outside and came back.

Aunty had plans to buy plants and flowers for her garden, so we visited few nurseries for the same. There a number of nursery’s there and huge collection of wide varieties of flora.. Soon we came back and had lunch from home.

Our next destination was PARUNTHANPARA which was almost one hour from home. Only domestic tourists go there because foreign tourists might have less idea for the same. Anyhow this time I was riding the scooter and because of my careful driving we reached there, little late. Akash had already reached there and he was ‘admiring’ the speed of my ride. Parunthanpara has very good mountain scenery and there is spot called ‘Tagore head’. It got the name because it resembles the head of tagore with similar face and beard. And the interesting thing is that we can go to spot and sit there. ( we can stand, sit and enjoy the view of mountains over ‘Tagores head’). We spend sometime there and went to AMMACHI KOTTARAM. Since it was late and there were local drunkers there we couldn’t go there. We stayed in Neeraja’s grandmom’s house.

So far I had a nice time and it was time for me to go next day. Next day morning we went to Akash’s house, his mom made us good breakfast and we talked a lot and said bye to them. I took bus and went to Kottayam, Since we missed the train, I took another bus to Trivandrum.

Back to Trivandrum…

The days were awesome, really felt happy and good. Thank you my dear friend Neeraja and family for giving me beautiful memories… I will miss you all !