To the Munnar House

after a week or so of traveling around kerala with ashok's dad and cousin, we landed back up at my aunt's house in alwaye (aluva). my cousin aruna akka's kids, maanasa and her little brother.

the next day, we were supposed to leave for munnar (moo-nahr), the hill station where my mom and her siblings grew up.  unfortunately, ashok had a bout of traveler's diarrhea, so we had to wait a day before we left.  after a full day of rest, we rented a minivan (driver included) and headed to munnar which is roughly 3 hours east of Aluva.  our traveling companions consisted of my mom's eldest brother and his wife (annan mama and anni aunty), my mom, my brother anil, ashok, and myself.  anil, ashok, and i wanted to get out of the car to see the view from this bridge.  

yeah, we could have stood here for hours...

continuing our ascent...

anil took this pic of two cockroaches fighting?  mating?

we finally arrived in munnar and went straight to the house that my mom and her 12 siblings shared.  here she is with my uncle. 

i walked around the back and saw this window.

this is one of the ladies that lives there now.  she actually remembered some of the people my mom and uncle knew!

old school kitchen

the view from the house.  it must have been far less developed than even this.

we're walking from the house to the bridge the 'kids' would cross every day on their way to and from school.

Punnani (Yes, that's what I said!)

in addition to being a slang reference to the female genitalia, it's also a town in kerala we visited. i just googled the word and here's what the urban dictionary says:

"Well, originally the word "punany" or "punani" was used in India--it's in the kama sutra--to describe the female sex organ.  Indian laborers were used to build roads in Jamaica and the Caribbean during the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, so a lot of Indian slang made its way into the Jamaican vernacular.  There are literally thousands of Jamaican dancehall records glorifying the punany...probably rivaled only by ganja songs.  Ganja is also an Indian-based word."

don't you just love how the definition starts with "well"?  okay, back to the story.  our visit to punnani was pretty amazing.  we were visiting ashok's aunt (his mom's sister) who has alzheimer's.  she's in her late 70s, and her husband is in his 90s! 

so sweet

getting reoriented

90 something and spry!

goodbye...

Life is Hard, Please Recycle

when ashok's dad saw this tribal woman, all he said was, "life is hard."  indeed.

krishna recycled