{"id":1097,"date":"2011-06-23T06:10:46","date_gmt":"2011-06-23T00:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mohamediqbalp.wordpress.com\/2011\/06\/23\/views-of-kumarakom-in-god%e2%80%99s-own-country\/"},"modified":"2011-06-23T06:10:46","modified_gmt":"2011-06-23T00:40:46","slug":"views-of-kumarakom-in-gods-own-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2011\/06\/23\/views-of-kumarakom-in-gods-own-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Views of Kumarakom in God\u2019s own country!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Yahoo!By Clint Thomas<\/span> | Yahoo! India News<\/span> \u2013 Tue, Jun 21, 2011<\/abbr><\/cite><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/div>\n

By
early June the southwest monsoon breaks and there are three months of
wind and water with short spells of sharp, glittering sunshine that
thrilled children snatch to play with. The countryside turns an immodest
green. Boundaries blur as tapioca fences take root and bloom. Brick
walls turn mossgreen. Pepper vines snake up electric poles. Wild
creepers burst through latente banks and spill across the flooded roads.
Boats ply in the bazaars\u2026thus Arundhati Roy begins her Booker Prize
winner \u2013 The God of Small Things. Although the novel – which is set in
Ayemenem village adjoining Kumarakom – does not render the unspeakable
beauty of Kumarakom, aren\u2019t the aforementioned words enough to lure you
to the most beautiful place in Kerala<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> (arguably)? And If I say Kumarakom is the capital of the God’s own country, will you disagree?
<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

<\/span>
Well,
honestly, this is my fourth trip to Kumarakom, with an intention of
doing a photoblog on Yahoo! Strangely, it had been raining all these
four times, maybe, to make me realize that the beauty and majesty of
Kumarakom are at its best during monsoon.
<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

<\/span>
And
this time, I\u2019m in a houseboat, the perfect place for chilling out -and
much more ;-). Houseboats are big barges with five-star amenities \u2013air
conditioned bedrooms with contemporary bathrooms, modular kitchens that
prepare the choicest Kerala-style food, home theatre and whatever else
you want. Some of them have as many as five bedrooms, some have
conference halls and some are even double-storied.
<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

<\/span>
Every
here and there you see a fisherman, hounding for Karimeen (pearl spot).
The boat captain excitedly explained to us four different methods to
catch a pearl spot fish and how clinically they do it. Interesting!
<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

<\/span>
At
the prow of the houseboat sits Sreehari, 15, after whose name the boat
is named. He doesn\u2019t just share his name with the boat, but he owns it!
The young guy too has his share of knowledge to impart \u2013 about Tiger
Prawns, another taste of the Kumarakom. He flashes his torch into the
water, toward the stone wall of the canal\u2019s side and I see two small
bulbs flashing between two stones. And he says those are the eyes of a
Tiger Prawn. Wow!
<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

<\/span>
Before
I clicked this photo, it never occurred to me that lightning is the
best source of light for night photography. Yes, this photo was clicked
at 11:40 pm, there was lightening and the photo came out like this.
<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

<\/span>
It
may be the company of boatmen, the palatable Karimeen (pearl spot) fry,
mouth-watering tiger prawns curry, a bottle of chilled beer from the
boatmen\u2019s icebox, a romantic night with your other half, or the cruise
across the Vembanad Lake, Kumarakom guarantees you something to cherish
for a lifetime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Clint Thomas | Yahoo! India News \u2013 Tue, Jun 21, 2011 By early June the southwest monsoon breaks and there are three months of wind and water with short spells of sharp, glittering sunshine that thrilled children snatch to play with. The countryside turns an immodest green. Boundaries blur as tapioca fences take root and bloom.…
Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1097\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}