Reached kottayam on time to enjoy
the nercha kanji on Good Friday from a church there. Next day morning, started
to Malayinjippara to visit a great man who devoted his 40 years in planting,
caring and loving trees as his own children. I had decided to visit his place
after reading an article on Malayala Manorama on his fabulous life last week.
First reached Eerattupetta via Pala
and from there got another bus to Poonjar. Waited more than 30 minutes there in
Poonjar to get the Koruthodu bus. Walked around 1 km after getting down at
Malayinjippara since the person I wanted to meet was not staying exactly there
as I thought!
At the abode of Devasiachan.. in the
middle of a forest..
There I could see a lot of trees
including Njaval, Parijatham, Kariveetti, Ambazham, Maravuri maram,
Yakshippala, Israel tree(dunno the name.. it was brought from Israel.. and so
the name!), Butter fruit tree, Anali vegam (presence of this tree with white
flowers would keep away snakes), kunthirikkam to name a few.
Gone inside the man-made-forest and
spent around 2 hrs inside with a shivering heart as I was afraid of snakes (I
was told about this Anali vegam tree only after I returned from the forest L). At that moment I realized how valuable was life and how
much I loved living in this world without any injuries.
Apart from the rare trees in the
dense forest, there are a lot of jackfruit trees of different genres, many
kanikkonna trees, wide varieties of mango trees, coco trees, jaathi trees,
kamuku etc. I ate one Jaathikka(nutmeg) from there.
Near to his house, saw a pig
enjoying in the mud created exclusively for this mud lover creature and three
cows in a near-by farm. One of them was a kid. Fed the two big cows with some
grass and leaves. They didn’t mind me initially. But soon they became friendly
after giving them their food!
There was an Erumaadam(elevated hut
on the tree) in the front side. Climbed up the Earumaadam and meditated there
for a few minutes. It was a nice one built upon bamboo trees.. sorry bamboo
plants of the grass family.. I don’t know why they are being treated as plants!
He asked me to have lunch from there
as I didn’t eat at noon. But I requested to get coco fruit instead. He then plucked
2 coco for me. I ate one within no time. It was almost ripe.
Talked with him on the medicinal
benefits of the herbal plants. There I saw Vaathakkodi plant leaves with its cables
swinging down from some trees.
Upon leaving I hugged him and assured
him I would be coming back with the seeds of ‘Lakshmi tharu’ from the Art Of
Living Asram in Bengaluru. I left the other coco there instead of taking it
with me. Got bus quickly and while sitting in the bus, I realized that along
with that coco, I left my heart too there..
