Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass ...
Its about learning to dance in the rain!!!
There are many things in life that will catch your eye
but only a few will catch your heart... Pursue those

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Sunday, August 25, 2013

A tale of Yatra to Lanka....



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!



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.