Check Post - 2

Check post is a series I have started (click here for post 1) where I would like to share moments related to check posts that I have come across during my travel. There’s a check post everywhere and these check post are important in sustaining a control over unruly esp. when it comes nature environment, wild and national defence and interest. Let it be anything, crossing a check post need consideration because skipping any working check post will land in trouble. Though we hadn’t messed up anywhere but got warned by the check post guards sometime and threat a penalty.

Just like in the previous post, where we stopped by a forest dept. check post before entering Hogenakkal and this post too is similar to the evening but here it was afternoon when we try to cross Papanasam check post to visit Karaiyar Dam in Pothigai Hills. It was in 1999, during my first time trip to Kodaikanal and Tirunelveli; we visited Courtallam on the 4^th day of our travel and then went to Agathiyar Falls inPapanasam and Karaiyar Dam (which weren’t in our plan) and we had no idea about this terrain as well. It was our friend who hailed from Tirunelveli, took us around the places and guided us on the entire trip (which I think I need to write a separate post on it later) and after taking showering from the popular Coutrallam waterfalls there we pursuit to Karaiyar Dam, which is 10km uphill from Papanasam.

The forest check post at Papanasam blocked our Ambassador car, and I guess they request for a permission letter and if I remember we paid some amount per head of us for them to allow inside the Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, where the Karaiyar Dam is built across Thamirabarani River. The road was narrow and potholed at many places where our Ambassador car passed effortlessly and entirely the road was silent and far empty with couple of stops with EB quarters and some settlement. The road travels along the Thamirabarani River and we could see huge pipes taking water down to the PowerStation at the foothill. I felt a sense of quietness all over; except for the voices inside the car and it was there I spot the Nilgirilangur for first time. The water level at the dam was far down then and a row of boats were parked along the bank to take visitor (on their willingness) to the other side of the dam  to check Roja Falls – named after the popular film Roja where  it was shot.

The view that I got from the dam is etched still on my mind. I rarely had a photo on it where I really need to dig out from the old photos collection. I was so interested taking the boat ride there, despite the ankle sprain I got on Kodaikanal; we were in lack of time as we need to head east to visit Tiruchendor before the end of the day. The picture of Nilgiri langur (above) was shot from the wilderness of Nilgiris during my visit in 2017.  

Summer Breeze 2019

Summer breeze picked up

earlier to the season
transports me to past, where
some best moments exists.

Breath-taking it feels
every time the sea breeze
take off and land my field
to feels embrace wind.

Sun shone its fine
but still the winter chill
plays a role between
like a string in music.

And I enjoy this view
of palms and other trees
dancing to the tune of
imbalance wind breeze.

The trees lose leaves
like skin shed off layers
to prevailing dry weather
the wind blows to ground.

RGB Monday

My aunt's sparrow kolam for the New Year

Kolam is a custom followed by the households in south India and it’s a daily activity for many, including ours. Kolam always been my favourite thing and I enjoy watching different patterns and for me, Kolam is apart any belief and its way of exhibiting art and beauty.

Maya and Mysore pak

Our dog Maya loves anything that taste sweet (which I’m not sure all dogs come under this category) and whenever we have something she used to bark which means she needs some bit too. We rarely offer her some piece of sweet or cakes or cookies made of chocolate to satisfy her unending desire and to make her have medicine or tablet we used to hide it inside the sweet or chocolate because she never took easily orally a medicine. Sometime we voluntarily drop a tablet in front of her and pretend to pick it up where she swiftly act and take the tablet in mouth. Rarely she eats the sweet alone and split the tablets separately.

We don’t keep down things Maya is interested on when she was on loose and sometime she behaves senseless picking anything from the house dustbin. Two days back, relatives visited us and they brought a sweet box and some fruits which mom had left on the floor in thought Maya were tied and forget to shift things from there. When we saw later everything was fished off the sweet box. Maya had eat 1/4kg of the Mysore Pak and looked with a weighted tummy as if having offsprings and also found difficult to walk. We really thought/worried what going to happen to her as she already have wheezing and weaker heart and this heavy loaded Mysore Pak (made of generous amounts of ghee and sugar) could cause anything. But glad she’s doing well and turned normal next day after couple of toilet visits.

About Mysore Pak: It was originally called as Mysuru Paaka, in which Mysuru indicates the city of Mysore, in the Indian state of Karnataka and Paaka means sweet syrup, is a popular Indian sweet made of ghee, sugar, gram flour and cardamom.

Linking this post with SATURDAY CRITTERS

மகிழ்ச்சியான மாலை / Delightful Evening

மாலை பொழுதில், மகிழ்ச்சியில் 

கீச் கீச் என்று பறந்தன  பறவைகள்

தன் கூடு தேடி இதம் சேர்க்க,

இரவுக்குளிர் அதிகரிக்கும் முன்.

செக்கச்சிவந்த வானமாய் எனது

இளஞ்சிவப்பு நிறத்தில்

மெலிதாய் போர்த்திய பனி இடையே

உறைந்தது அன்றைய தினம்

இரவை நோக்கிய பயணத்தில்  

அழகு சித்திரமாய் மாலை 

இருள் ஒளியில் முழுதாய் 

மறையும் முன் மகிழ்வித்து சென்றது.

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In the evening, cheerfully
chirping birds fly away
searching their nest to feel pleasant
before the night cold elevates.

As alpenglow my sky
in pinkish color
between the thin layers of dew
frozen that day 

On a journey towards night
evening as beautiful canvas
delighted, before fully disappear
in the darkness of light.

Ps. Inspired by the evening outside the home