It was one of the finest mornings in late November. Our eldest cousin brother in the family, whom we affectionately called Kochachan, came home with an exciting news! It was the 30th day of demise of our aunt’s father a couple of days later. Normally a news like this wouldn’t have generated much of an interest among us kids in the family. Usually my dad would’ve represented our family and attended such events. But it was destined to be different this time.
The function was planned in a
resort named Orange County in Coorg, known as Scotland of India! The resort,
one of the finest in the country, was owned by aunt’s family. We were to have
an overnight trip on a train followed by a bus journey through one of the most
scenic routes in southern part of India. A day was planned at the resort and were
to return home shortly afterwards. Paying homage to a departed soul never was
so appealing!
Kochachan, along with my elder
brother and I started the trip from the railway station in our small town of
Changanacherry. It was a late evening train to Kannur, one of the northern
districts in Kerala. The night journey was quite uneventful. We reached Kannur
station as the sun was about to wake up. Got out of the station and crossed the
main road and found a tiny tea shop that welcomed us with piping hot black tea.
The lovely dawn was made even better with the aroma of the tea. As we had to
cover about three more hours by road, we soon found ourselves on a bus to
Madikeri, a famous hill station town in Coorg.
I remember falling asleep
again soon after the bus started. Couple of hours later, closer to 8 o’ clock,
my brother woke me up. The bus seemed to have stopped in the middle of a
forest. It was lush green all around us. We could also hear the sound of a
waterfall somewhere nearby, but couldn’t see it though. We got out of the bus
and was told that we have a 30 minutes stop there to have breakfast. I wondered
aloud about the prospect of finding food in the middle of that wilderness!
That’s when Kochachan pointed to something across the road.
We crossed the road and at a
short distance we could see smoke coming out of a mud chimney. It was an uneven
slope from the main road which we climbed down to see a little hut thatched
with palm leaves that has become quite dry with age. The driver of the bus was
heading to the hut and since there didn’t seem to be any other signs of a
restaurant we all followed him. Hunger had already started to do the job and I
could hear my tummy getting ready with an orchestra.
We were about to step into
the hut. That’s when my brother made an awesome discovery! A narrow country
road was seen next to the hut which led us to a small yet pretty waterfall the
sound of which we heard earlier. The early morning mist along with chirping of
birds and gorgeous butterflies covered with a riot of colours playing around us,
all painted the picture of exactly how Alice would’ve felt in Wonderland!
The clock was ticking and
since we only had a few minutes left, we headed back to the hut to have
breakfast. We literally had to bow our heads to get inside and were welcomed with
a few wooden benches and desks. On one corner we could see a live kitchen in
action. A couple of frying pans were placed on top of red bricks and fire from
the woods collected from the forest fuelled them. A lady was making fresh
pooris, an authentic Indian breakfast dish, in one of the pans and the other
one had some curry being boiled. The burning firewood seemed to provide more
light in the hut than the 60 Watts bulb that was hanging inside. This completed
the hotel.
Some of our fellow passengers
were just finishing the breakfast. As we sat down on the benches, the owner of
the hotel placed clean banana leaves in front of us that served as plates. I
was half expecting him to recite the menu with available items. Instead he came
over with a bowl of steaming pooris freshly made and served us three each. I
loved pooris and awaited the combination of bhaji a delicious dish made of
potatoes. Instead the guy came to us with a dish that was bright red in colour.
For a moment I thought it was some curry made of beetroot or so. But we were
served with the last thing I expected as a curry for poori. A fresh catch of
sardines cooked in grounded red chilly flavoured with locally available mint
leaves and a bunch of other secret ingredients.
We were all taken aback for a
moment as it was the first time in our lives we were greeted with this
combination of curry for pooris. Nevertheless hunger conquered all other
emotions and we dived into the breakfast served. ‘Heavenly’ would’ve been an
understatement! As we gulped down each portion of this strange breakfast combo,
we could feel our taste buds dancing around as though in a combination of
ballet and jazz.
The aroma and spices of curry
married to the freshness of poori accompanied with the relaxing sound of the waterfall
placed in a magical environment was the perfect setting for world’s best hotel!
It was indeed breakfast in paradise! A befitting prelude to our journey to the heart
of Coorg, a wonderland in itself.
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