It was evening of the 7th August and we received word that Shri Karunanidhi, the patriarch of DMK, had passed away at the age of 94.
Tension gripped the city, shops started downing their shutters, office goers started rushing back home. There was apprehension that the grief stricken supporters could start rioting under provocation.
We were advised that moving out on 08.08 to Munnar may not be possible as a bandh could be declared and any provocation by the present state or central government could result in getting marooned in Madurai (a DMK stronghold) for more than a couple of days.
For those not familiar with TN politics, this state has no national party in power, either one of two dominant local parties the DMK or the AIDMK, have been ruling the state for the past five odd decades. These regional parties are so strong that they are influential players in National politics despite not having any presence outside the state. The grass root workers are also highly emotional and have been known to immolate themselves in grief over their leader’s demise.
Under such conditions, we took an informed decision to leave Madurai immediately for Munnar, Kerala.
After packing and grabbing a bite at the nearest fast food joint “Prashant”, a Madurai version of Mumbai’s Udipi hotel or Bengaluru’s Darshini, we departed after saying goodbye to our hostess.
We could sense the difference in atmosphere, groups were converging at the nukkads (street corner) – women were conspicuous by their absence, pandals were being erected, loud speakers were blaring out mournful songs and the “Kalaiganar’s” speeches. The police were out in force at every major crossing.
For us, it was reminiscent of a scene from a hollywood movie (I cannot recollect the name) a colored couple are stuck in a town in the deep south (USA) at night and are accosted by a white policeman. It was very tense and also unwarranted as the events proved during the night and the day after. But this we were unaware, and the next two and a half hours we kept looking at the car’s GPS and cross checking with google aunty.
Since all the road signs were in Tamil, Revathi and I wondered if we would know when we had crossed into Kerala, our safe haven that night. Akshay remarked that we would know that we were in Kerala as soon as the highway turns terrible, sure enough the minute we crossed the TN forest Check-post into Kerala, we ran into the first series of potholes that would be our faithful companions till we crossed back into TN four days later.
If the roads in TN were heavenly, the roads in Kerala were diabolical not really what one expects in “Gods own Country”. We were lucky that we had a respite from the rains, during our drive through the ghats, the rains resumed as soon as we reached Club Mahindra at Munnar. At that time, we were blissfully unaware of the havoc that the rain gods were planning on unleashing in “Gods own Country”.
We reached Club Mahindra just past midnight and true to their reputation, with the efficiency that I have come to expect and take for granted, the staff arranged for accommodation for us at short notice.
God bless the staff at Club Mahindra – they seem to be getting better everytime we visit them.
Walkabout with Anil 