The Trivandrum Diaries - Day 6

Easwar left early in the morning as his wife had a eye procedure scheduled at Chennai. Mony had arranged a driver to drive for most part of the journey which made immense sense because its a long journey. Mony had originally planned to go back to Chennai with Easwar and plans were made for our road trip accordingly. Later Mony realized that he cant make it back to Chennai with Easwar which meant that Easwar would have to drive alone all the way back. Not too happy about Easwar driving all the way alone for nearly 12 hours (though Easwar was all game) Mony arranged for a driver which made us all breathe that much easier. When I got up in the morning Mony was up, having seen off Easwar at 3 or 4 in the morning, and he gave me some hot coffee and I was all ready for the day.

Breakfast at Indian Coffee House

True to his word Vijay picked me up at 8 and off we went on our way in his car, chatting about this and that. We stopped at an Indian Coffee House joint and ate some breakfast. Though I probably visited the Indian Coffee House outlets in various places (Bangalore surely, on MG Road?), the Jaipur one struck a chord with me. We would go often - NP Singh, Pavan, Riaz and whoever was on tour in the last two years. Here in Trivandrum I see many ICFs and wonder why. Interestingly it is a worker co-operative which has now grown to 400 coffee houses in India. There is an interesting story of how despite coffee being grown in India since the 16th century, the concept of coffee houses was a British one and an elite one - no Indians were allowed. Perhaps as a retaliation, the Indian Coffee House was started, with its first outlet in Churchgate, Bombay in 1936. (If its still arund there, I must go next time.) At some point the Coffee Board began to close down the ICFs when workers of the Coffee Board compelled the Board to hand over the outlets and  there began the story. Of the 40 branches 50 branches are in Kerala. Masala dosa with beetroot, cold coffee certainly I can endorse right away. 

The Padmanabhapuram Palace

A short ride and we were at the Padmanabhapuram Palace which was where the Travancore kings ruled from 1729 until 1795 when the capital was shifted to Thiruvananthapuram. The Kingdom of Travancore (a British corruption of Thiruvithamkoor it appears) ruled the area from 1729 to 1949. The palace however was built in 1601 by Iruvi Kulasekaharan Perumal and was the seat of the Travancore rulers till the 19th century. King Marthanda Varma (1729-1758), the founder of the dynasty, rebuilt the palace in 1750. It was he who led the war against the Dutch and defeated them at Colachel and was responsible for unifying the area. He defeated the Zamorins of Calicut in alliance with the King of Kochi and it was he who dedicated the kingdom to his family deity Sree Padmanabhaswamy and ruled as the servant of his lord. After Marthanda Varma, the era of Karthika Thirumal Rama Varma (1758-98) is considered a golden age. It was he who shifted the capital to Thiruvananthapuram (Thiru Ananta Puram) and it remained there until 1949 when they joined the Indian state during the reign of Balarama Varma II (1939-49).  

   

Vijay with the tickets to the palace

Vijay had visited this palace before. It seemed like a huge place with a lot of history so we hired a guide thanks to Vijay who called someone and after a while one old lady joined us. She was our guide.  

The verandah

The palace is entirely made of wood and there is intricate wood work. It is built in the Kerala architecture style and is one of the biggest wooden palaces in Asia spread over 6.5 acres with about 15 edifices inside it. At the entry there was a royal chair, an interesting oil lamp. We climbd up some wooden stairs and went into the palace and its fascinating interiors.

Royal chair

Oil lamp

The Secretariat perhaps

In broad terms as I remember there was the place where the king met his Council, then a large kitchen and dining area that would seat 1000 people each - two such dining halls - where they would feed people everyday.

Steep descent

Dining hall that would feed a 1000

The palace is not easy to walk - steep and narrow staircases, narrow walls, a longish walk till the end. She held her own, explained everything in detail, did not miss anything even in the museum outside, had a cup of lime juice with us and always had this good humour about her, taking a joke and laughing at this or that. 

Another descent

Exquisite woodwork

Then there is a Mother's Palace which was where the Queen Mother lived and which was well maintained.

Royal bedrooms

A view of the palace

Balcony from where the king would address the people

Pass through long corridors and we came upon a balcony from where the Maharaja would address his subjects below. 

Then we passed the Indra Vilasom which had notably high doorways and everything was large so we can guess its newer and also a guest house where foreign dignitaries were housed. Then onward to the beautiful, stone pillared dance hall, then to the meditating place or relaxing hall or clinic of the royals which is outside.

We took about a couple of hours inside the palace, or more. We stopped at a canteen which was luckily modeled after the architecture of the palace and not some crass architecture to save money. After the walk, we decided to go to the museum which was very interesting as well with artefacts, paintings and pictures.

Vijay also has this thoughtful nature  - he clicked candid pics and captured the moments for me. He has been like that - taking 100 books from my publisher and selling them by himself for my first book - who does things like that!

Dancing hall

Punishments

The entrance

On the way back we stopped at some joint - and I ate a parota beef fry which had been on my mind since we had reentered Kerala. The palace which originally belonged to the Travancore kingdom went to the Tamil Nadu state geographically when states were realigned. However the control and management of the palace remains with the Kerala Government - which means that to visit the temple we have to go into Tamil Nadu and return to Kerala. 

Vijay dropped me back by about 3 in the afternoon. Mony was out so I let myself in and had a quick nap. 

In the evening I told Mony I would like to head out to Kovalam again and check out the walk to the Vizhinjam lighthouse that Padmanabhan had highly recommended as a night walk. Mony sent Surendran with me and off I went. We landed up on the Grove beach again. I told him to park there and used google maps to find Kovalam by walk which was on the other side of Leela. 

Sunset at Grove Beach

Vizhinjam Lighthouse from Kovalam

Kovalam at sunset

The Vizhinjam Lighthouse

There was small walkway, down to the beach, past a small rocky area and then the other side or what is normally known as Kovalam beach. Even this beach was of two parts, I walked past some rocks and then it appeared like I was in the middle of action - shacks, people, the hullabaloo associated with popular beaches. I walked up to the Vizhinjam lighthouse gate (built in 1972, though the Vizhinjam sea port was pretty active in the 18th and 19th century), the weather was good and I walked back to the car. All in some hour and a half. It was really nice. Glad I at least saw Kovalam and checked that off.

On the way back we could see the Painkuni festival celebrations kicking off. Fantastic lighting etc.

Childhood friends - Mony, Kannan, Rakesh, Sundar and Padmanabhan at their favorite meeting spot - Vettumukku

 
Back home there were Padmanabhan, Rakesh, Kannan, Sundar and Mony and some of us had a drink or two and left to Kumar's at Killipalam which is a great place for typical Malayali food, vegetarian and non vegetarian. I ordered some appam and beef roast. Maybe we had coffee after. We returned, fully satisfied again and I slept like a log.