We had tea sitting outside, with the sunlight filtering in through the leaves of fragrant frangipani. Today we would be pushing off as soon as we were ready, all four of us, travelling to the campus of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, set in the foothills at Ettimadai. We would drop the Gees there and proceed to Coimbatore.
AVV campus at Ettimadai (9.30 am)
The one hour drive to AVV passed in a blur, blessed by the sonorous chants of hanuman chalisa by the Gees. The cloud-topped Aravalli mountains kept approving watch all the way, even when we passed through the ghats into Tamil Nadu. We bid fond farewell to Kerala, whose coastline we were now leaving and plunging eastward once again, to head for the hills (We will touch Kerala again at Waynad, but just in passing).
The AVV campus is wonderfully sculpted, serene and spaced out. Established in 1994 by Mata Amritanandamayi, AVV is now a deemed university with 9 campuses all over the country, teaching 30,000+ students, with academic staff exceeding 2000. The Gees are both part of the senior faculty here, teaching for the last 20 years, and a better place to spend their productive life they could not have wished for - and I could see why. It would be easy to envy them, but that would be an insult to the clarity of their vision that made them choose this life joyfully and with courage, and the blessing of a simple satisfying life has flowed their way in spades.
The Gee's quarters here is a small simple one, by choice, but they are blessed with a fantastic terrace that looks out over miles of cultivation and the Aravalli mountains, with a railway track chugging along one side of the landscape.
DeeGee took us around the beautiful campus, ending with the business school dept where both of them teach, and we had a quick breakfast at the canteen next door before we said goodbye.
Sri Perur Pateeswarar temple at Coimbatore (11.30 am)
DeeGee spoke highly of this temple, a Shiv-Parvati temple erected in the 2nd century by the Chola emperor Karikala. A combination of high crowding and lack of parking demotivaed us from entering the temple this time. The gopuram was also covered with scaffolding for some renovation. However, descriptions talk about intricate carvings of Shiva on the pillars, gold chains on the ceilings, and a golden statue of nataraj in the Kanaka Sabha. Wish we could have seen it properly in this trip.
Hotel Sree Bharat Residency at Karunya Nagar (12.30 pm)
We travelled just 70 km this time, from Palakkad to this hotel, which is not in Coimbatore proper but located near the Isha Foundation, which we plan to visit in the afternoon. We had a quick nap and a simple late lunch at the hotel itself, which seemed to be serving good fare at reasonable cost.
Isha Foundation (5.30 pm)
I had planned to visit this place around two years ago but somehow could not come. Who knew then that I would be driving into Isha? The Velliangiri mountains surround the campus on three sides and the ashram is dedicated to Shiva, the Adi Yogi, of whom a huge 112 ft bust 100m inside the entrance gates fills visitors with awe. A kilometer down the road there are other attractions like the Suryakund and the Chandrakund medicated bathing pools, the Dhyanalingam or consecrated lingam which is, as per Sadguru, the most powerful installation on the premises. Well, we could not enter the dhyanalingam hall since it was packed solid. But there was an interesting light and sound show - a projection on the huge bust of the Adi Yogi, relating his mythical and mystical history.
My impression of the whole endeavour was that of a massive effort at reviving interest in Shiva, through icons, rituals and chants, without the purohit mediated offerings. One can easily spend a day here. Perhaps because it was a Friday evening, it was quite crowded and people had come in busloads. However, the area being 150 acres, we did not really feel jostled. Signages and volunteers to move things along were aplenty and the peak loads were very well handled.
We returned to our hotel by 7.30 pm and had a simple veg dinner in our rooms. Tomorrow we move to the hills - Coonoor, Ooty and then Gudalur for the night.
Photo credits: Panna Rashmi Ray