Its been two weeks. I see a lot of changes here and there, but the essence of “home” remains the same.

I was in Bangalore for a week and in Trivandrum for another. Bangalore, every where I turn, there is something new. Trivandrum has a few things changed here and there, but overall it is just that same old city! Everybody was also apprehensive of me driving, to say the truth even I was, a bit. But it was not the least difficult. Ok, first few minutes I tried to do things “right” but very soon my Indian instincts took over and lo I was honking, not stopping at pedestrian crossings, not following lanes.. hehe.. it was smooth from then on! One thing that changed regarding driving in Trivandrum is the number of FM stations available. When I left, there was just one.. now I turn the radio on and there seems to be a channel every other frequency – Big FM, SFM, Club FM .. what not! Then I see that there *are* traffic symbols posted neatly in India, just that before I never noticed them before and even if I did, never knew what they meant. Enough of blaming the government, our road culture is the first problem, nothings gonna change without improving that!

Most of the week in Trivandrum was spent visiting & being visited by friends and family. I even cooked for them. The shock on my mother’s face when she saw me cooking (‘Chicken Trivandrum’ ;) ) was a priceless moment. Nobody thought I had it in me to cook :D Well, not any more dear ones.. Even I can cook! Many evenings were spent idling away in the city.. brought back many flashes of nostalgia. I even managed to go to a cultural show organized by some department of my old college in the amazingly beautiful Kanakakunnu palace grounds. Sat there for hours with my college buddies… it was the best feeling ever! :D

It was a not a totally smooth transition, but not as difficult as I expected. Things seem changed, and I look at things differently than before.. But I am so happy being back :)

A few days ago while I was driving through the city, I gave a foreigner a lift. The first thing he said was “You are a lucky guy. What a beautiful city you live in!” I was a bit surprised to hear that. That’s because somehow most of the people around me, have some sort of complaint about the city. Some even go to the extent of describing it as a cage :). But me? I kind of agree with the tourist. Maybe he was exaggerating a wee bit, but yes Trivandrum has served me well for 21 long years.

What I like about Trivandrum is its quiet, under-crowded (relative to other Indian cities) nature. And despite all the noisy and sometimes violent political protests, the city does give me some sense of safety too. And what’s more it is my hometown and almost all of my buddies live here. That’s probably the biggest reason why I just can’t hate Trivandrum.

Yes Trivandrum does have its fair share of problems too. The biggest accusation is the lack of hang-outs with very few “trendy” places in the city. But if you are resourceful enough there are several places that the capital of god’s own country can offer. Another problem attached to Trivandrum is it’s slow pace. Probably it’s due to all the government offices here, but somehow I consider that as a plus point. :) The city also dies too soon at night. 9′o clock seems to be too late in Trivandrum. But that too is not a big problem for me, my friends would know why ;)

I will be bidding adieu to Trivandrum in four or five month’s time. I do not know when I will return, but I do know that I’ll want to return to the quiet and peace of this beautiful city sometime later.

All being said, if you ask me whether I want to leave Trivandrum, I would quickly say yes. Not because I don’t like Trivandrum… but because I like change. 21 years is too long to be stuck in a city… even if it is Trivandrum :)

Read the Intro first :)

It was sometime in July last year. So this one day we had a shortened college day for some reason. Someone suggested we go somewhere. Subhash I think, came up with the idea of a very little known beach called Aazhimala. Our first of those several “dynamic” plans began there. 6 of us squeezed ourselves in my car and 4 more followed in two mobikes.

Driving around narrow but uncrowded roads, we reached this big turn on the road. Subash, who was the only one who had visited this place earlier, was constantly telling us that we’ll all gasp in awe at the sight we’ll see… and boy he didn’t exaggerate a wee bit. The sea seemed to sneak right in front of our eyes with all its grandeur all of a sudden. It was an experience I cannot describe. One second we were looking at dull gray asphalt and at the next the gorgeuos blue sea.

Being a “road less taken” has its disadvantages too. There was no real fixed path to reach the sandy beach down, from the cliff where the road ended. But yeah, we did find one in the end and that was part of the fun too. Coming down to the beach made it look even more amazing. We were all enjoying the serene beauty of the whole scene, when suddenly disaster struck. I in my over enthusiasm to get into the water, misjudged the laws of physics, slipped on a rock and crashed my elbow on it. It was paining like hell, but to put a brave face in front of the others I kept saying it was alright (In reality a bone was almost broken and couldn’t move my hand properly for almost a week ;) ). That did dampen the spirits for a minute but soon we began a game of volleyball cum football cum basketball. I tried my best to join them but my hurt arm kept saying no. After a while, we sat on the many huge rock jutting in to the sea and kept chitchatting. Sitting there was another awesome experience too. I know I have been repeating these superlatives so many times, but trust me this place deserves it. The only thing we did wrong during this trip was not taking a camera. Hmm. that was a basic mistake, but luckily something we never made in our future endeavours.

All done, we climbed back up to where the car was. Then came a local guy, talked a bit rough to us saying that this place was a bit dangerous and blah blah blah. Yeah, he is probably right you need to be a bit careful coming here, but hey.. what is life without taking some risks?

How to get there? So if you are impressed and want to visit this place, well here is how. Aazhimala is located around 30-40 minutes drive from Trivandrum city. Take the National Highway 47 towards Kanyakumari and take a right at Balaramapuram. Travel down the Vizhinjam road and ask some locals for precise directions. There are a few turns you will have to make, but its not that difficult to find. If you wish to travel via bus, then last time I checked there was a city bus from the East Fort stand going to Aazhimala Temple, which is only around a 100m away from this site. I am not very sure about the timing, frequency and crowd-factor of this bus though.

Highly recommended trip. But before you get down the cliff, it is always good to seek the advice of some local. Just to be on the safe side. :)