A spiritual sojourn

I wouldn't describe myself as particularly religious... or maybe actually ritualistic. But one thing I have appreciated in the past, and earlier this week was the 2 day trip to Guruvayoor. I find that I feel very peaceful in this particular temple, inspite of whatever is happening around. Also, I appreciate most things Keralite, like the food, the scenery and their traditional clothes- simple whites with a gentle border. We got Anan a paavadai in white with a gold border... which surprisingly she seems to have forgotten about, otherwise, it would have already become a brown/off white paavadai with gold border.

Anan, with the in-laws visited the elephant sanctuary at Punnathur Kotta, which is about 3 Km south of Guruvayoor temple. There are about 50 elephants there and she had the most fun ever watching them getting a bath and seeing the baby elephants eat. This is also the closest she has ever been to an animal.

After the trip, she informed me very seriously that she only saw boy elephants. When I asked her how she knew that, condescendingly she said, "Amma, all the elephants there had tusks, and only boy elephants have tusks, not girl elephants... didn't you know that?" No, my baby, I didn't. Looks like there are going to be lots of things you have to teach me now...

This visit is of particular importance to me as I marked off a month since Appa died. And it felt quite right to pray to a god he was named after.... Krishna. Still missing you dad.....