Paati, my hubby’s Grandma must be 80+ and most of her time
is spent in cozy neat room in her son’s place. But the most surprising thing
about her is every time we visit her, she quizzes me about latest happenings
and current affairs. She is one wonderful lady who is very curious about
everything around her even at this age.
As we discussed further our discussion took a deviation to
Tamilians in Sri Lanka. Totally biased, I tried to put off the discussion
saying I am not so curious about that island which has nothing else other than
sea to see in it and that’s exactly when Paati took me on a tour to Sri Lanka…
As they say “Enthusiasm is contagious”, Paati’s knowledge,
her enthusiasm with a country which has mythological relevance and now
politically linked! This indulged me so much that I started traveling as she
spoke about it…
We started our discussion about Lanka from a World heritage
site Sigirya. As if the details of the place which is a lion shaped 200 meter
high rock, on top of which was the palace built by King kasyapa dating back to
477AD not enough to surprise me, Paati told that this was the place much before
that a parking spot for King Ravana’s Plane “Pushpaka Vimana”. Totally amazed,
I googled to get a glimpse of it and started to transport myself to that
amazing place!
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She mocked at me as I was totally amazed by Michelangelo’s
work in Sistine Chapel and had no knowledge about the great paintings of Unknown
artist in Dambula which was much older than that of the Michelangelo’s!!!
According to dear Paati, Sri lanka the Emerald Island had
become so breathtakingly green because of the piece of Sanjeevani
Parvatha(Mountain of medicinal herbs) which had fallen on this island in one of
the stories in great hindu epic Ramayana.
No wonder there is divine intervention in such a beauty….isnt
it???
And the best part of enjoying lanka according to Paati’s
Knowledge was to take a train route to Kandy form Colombo and it would be like
travelling into the world of greenery and struggling hard to remember the
different shades of green there!!!
She just couldn’t control her excitement mentioning the
beautiful orchids in Royal botanical garden and culturally rich Kandy which
also host the great temple of Buddha’s tooth relic
Kandy Dace show
As we spoke, she served a cup of hot tea to energize our
discussion and there she was reminded of Sri Lanka being one of the top Tea
Exporting countries and the beauty of Tea plantation all around the beautiful
hill station Nuwara elliya. Who can stop themselves from imagining dancing in
Tea Plantaion?
As I imagined myself dancing in beautiful greenery and
roaming around in culturally rich places, I felt like the sculptures mocking at
me for being so ignorant of the place which is like heaven on earth.
And then I decide my next trip would be to this EMERALD
ISLAND….
And nothing can stop me
And there I had typed http://www.yatra.com and dialed Yatra… “Hello Yatra….” and was
attended by a very friendly customer support Travel manager, what could be more
interesting when they told me they can offer a discount on 3rd
traveler with me, if I wish to take anyone as I have been a loyal customer of
Yatra!!!
Hurray, It was all set Me, Hubby and yes I know who the 3rd
traveler with me would be… Thank you Yatra… you really do create happy travellers
PS: This post is a document of my experience with a gratitude to Yatra(http://www.yatra.com) for it has been part of most of my memorable trips!!! And my entry to this contest in Indiblogger.
