A picturesque, pristine & peaceable place in Kerala which hardly shows any sign of human intervention

Coffee shops, malls and restaurants have become the most sought-after meeting place for friends. This is largely because these are found in plenty, as against quiet and organic settings. Yet, the time spent in a perfectly beautiful natural environment is something all together different; an experience that is unbeatable. This article is about one such experience.

A 40 km travel from Palakkad town towards Nenmara will take one to Karimpara, a small village with considerable tribal population. Pothundi Dam, considered as an entry to the Nelliyampathy hill station, is just 6 km away from this water-self-sufficient village.

Karimpara is royally picturesque and has a small, perennial stream passing through it, the origin of which is from the mountains of Nelliyampathy. During the non-rainy season, the stream is quite narrow and shallow; one can walk through its knee-deep waters. Originating from the hills and passing through dense forests, the water is cold, crystal clear, and sweet.

A walk through the stream is an experience in itself. All through its course, the stream is surrounded by lush green shrubs and trees which makes one ecstatic; and the cold water makes the legs numb. But one cannot walk carefree, for there are high chances that one might stumble. The stream bed is made up of rounded rocks, over which, because it is completely undisturbed, there is algae in abundance, making it very slippery. Probability that one can walk the entire stream till its end point without falling at least once is minimal! Though big trees have bordered the stream they do let the sun rays fall on the water. This enables one to see the entire depth of water clearly. Fishes and other smaller marine insects can also be spotted easily.

All though the water-walk to the end point is more than a kilometre, one will not find it stressful. Rather it is thoroughly enjoyable. What makes it even more pleasurable is that at the end one finds the deepest point of the stream, and the most beautiful. There is a huge rock at that point, and it is over it that the water coming from the mountains makes its fall into the stream, which has, therefore, made the point the deepest. Though during monsoons the water gets to 12-15 feet high here and the entire stream itself becomes unapproachable, other times it is just neck deep. The depth isn’t sudden, but gradual, and thus one can very safely stand there and enjoy the pristine nature at her best. One can swim around that point. Once tired, nature has provided nice rounded stones at the borders where one can rest.

The most wonderful part is that all through this wonderful journey through the stream and its surroundings there is not a single trace of any plastic! Usually such beautiful and less populated places are used by people to sit and consume alcohol, and thus one finds liquor bottles and plastic cups. But here that doesn’t happen. One isn’t that safe! Nature has provided her own security guards, and they are wild boars and elephants! During summers when water in the high forests get depleted they come down from the forest to the stream. Early mornings and evenings are the times when these come down. Maybe it is because of this risk factor that people do not come here for consuming alcohol. Even otherwise, the place shows hardly any trace of human intervention. Perhaps, this is one of those few places on earth that is yet to be exploited by man.

For anyone wanting to visit, there is good road facility till Karimpara. One can park the vehicle and then take a half an hour walk through the forest to reach the stream. Walking further inside the forest, one reaches the place where the tribal community lives. There they have a pond which never gets dried up, from which they get all the water they need.

(The post first appeared in The Yatra Diaries)

A Book Exchange activity that is now viral

By Sangeetha Sekar and Siddharth Mohan Nair

Social networking sites have been used for a variety of good causes; the latest instance where it was put to great service was the relief work carried out by scores of Twitter and Facebook users to help people stranded in Chennai floods. In the recent past, these social networking sites have also been used to raise resources through "challenges" like the Ice Bucket Challenge, Rice Bucket Challenge, etc. They have also been used for fun discussions like #BreakUpIn5Words, #YourLoveIn5Words.

This time around, some person, of whom we have no clue yet, has started a wonderful "ACTIVITY" called the Book Exchange. It lets a bibliophile connect with others of his creed, gift a book to some person (perhaps even a complete stranger) and then get book(s) in return. The activity involves a person sharing a post asking people to buy and send one book to a person and get 36 in return!

How it works 

The activity is simple. For a moment let us keep the figures aside.

1. The person, say X, who posts this is contacted by people, say A, B and C, who are interested in taking part in the activity. 
2. A, B and C are sent a message which contains the name, age, and address of a person to whom they are supposed to send a book. Also included in the message would be the interests of that person to whom the book is being sent, just to ensure that he gets books that he likes reading. 
3. Next, A, B and C are asked to share the original post of X so that the chain isn't broken. X's address and interests are asked to be shared by A, B and C to all those who contact them, say M, N and O, wanting to join the activity. They are supposed to send books to X. 
4. M, N and O are part of the activity now. To those who contact them, they share the addresses and interests of A, B and C. 
5. Thus every person in the activity buys and sends only one book but, quite likely, gets more in return.

But what is to be kept in mind is that there is no guarantee of minimum or maximum number of books that one may get in return. Plainly, it is based on luck! Yet, the idea is brilliant. Kudos to that unknown person whose brainchild this is.

On reading about this incredible activity chain of buying or sharing books, one cannot help but compare this to the other book sharing platforms and networks. Fierce bibliophiles do follow bloggers who write book reviews and websites like goodreads which suggest to you the next good book based on your interest. There are other book sharing platforms like bookmooch.com where people can join the network for free and share books they no longer need in exchange for books they may like to read. Similar desi version is an application called Clapshare started by a couple of IITans from Bombay. This application offers its members a book sharing platform, minus the hustle and worry if your book will reach safely or get lost because of some careless delivery guy. Your book is completely safe with them and you can even track your book.Their first delivery is free after which they charge Rs 25 for every delivery which is alright to pay in exchange for a book. But they are currently operating only in Mumbai.

Ms Apoorva Mandhani, a law student from Pune, who is really excited about this online book exchange activity has already done her part. She has sent a book to a person who is a complete stranger to her. She has sent 'A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption' authored by Ms Laura Hillenbrand. Though she hasn’t read the book herself, she said that she did some research going through book reviews to select the best book possible. To her, the whole idea of selecting a book for a stranger was exciting and she is hopeful that the person likes the book. 

"I also sent a small hand-written note along with the book.  It reminded me of the days we used to have pen pals. Well, the feeling is mutual and we hope everyone in the chain finds a pen pal from the most unassuming of places," said Apoorva.

However, the activity isn't completely free from criticism. Mr Nikhil George, an engineering student from Thiruvananthapuram is of the opinion that this is "scam." He compares this to a pyramid scheme and opines that this is impractical and is akin to cheating people. "Thirteen levels deep, you’ve already surpassed the entire human population on earth. But usually such pyramid schemes fizzle out long before hitting such numbers. One reason being is that at some point, your friend circle is going to overlap and get saturated. The second reason being that your scheme will run out of people who are interested in participating," he says in his blogpost.

He explains it as a geometric progression of the number of people and says that as the progression progresses (excuse my pun) the people at the bottom of the pyramid are simply left without people who will share books with them or just run out of people in general, and thus as the chain expands the people who join later in the chain are left out and don’t benefit from the activity.

But not all think in the manner Nikhil does. Many book lovers simply turn around and say, "We love books more than anything. We do not see this as a scam or an act of cheating, it is just that it involves a bit of luck. Those who buy lotteries do not always, or hardly, get the prize."

The activity, apart from giving and getting books, involves thrill, a thrill in sending books to complete strangers like what the Apoorvas enjoy, a thrill also in getting books as gifts from strangers or friends. It also helps in making new friends. Completely worth a try!