Snapshots from the Countryside

I usually take off during the last week of December and travel with my family. This year we visited my mother-in-law’s home which is in a remote village in the south of India called Seepalakottai. In is situated in the Cumbum valley, in the Kerala – TamilNadu border. It is breathtakingly beautiful place and I thought I will share some pictures with you.

The house itself is a relic. It must be atleast a 100 years old. It is open to the sky in the center and rooms are built around the open courtyard

It has so many rooms, granaries, store rooms – in my 10 years of marriage I have still not explored it fully. I took this picture from the open courtyard at the center and shot the entrance.

If you step out of the house you will feel that you are surrounded by hills and mountains. Wherever you go, whichever direction you look, you will find them in the horizon.

Coconuts and bananas are the most widely cultivated crops. Here is a view of a coconut farm.

 

This is a stream which flows right in the middle of the farm and divides it into two. It is called kattu-atthu-thanni, meaning ‘water from the forest streams’. All the rainwater from the surrounding hills flows as a shallow long stream across several villages.

This is the massive well that provides water for the farm. Coconut trees typically require large quantities of water. This one must atleast be a 1000 square feet. Most children in the village learn swimming in such wells. A dried bottle-gaud is tied around them as lifejackets and they are thrown into these wells. That’s how they are trained

Here are a few cows and cranes enjoying their afternoon meal

Little boys who live in the farm along with their pet puppies

They helped me locate this hen and her chicks

This is a special type of sheep called Semmariyadu. They have this unique characteristic of imitating their peers. If one sheep does something the whole herd will imitate. Hence these are tended in large herds by a single sheperd because it is easy to control them. All he has to do is make one sheep listen to him and all the rest will follow suit.

This is a village goddess

This is an enterance to a temple belonging to a community called Nadars

This is a lotus pond outside an ancient Shiva temple in the neighbouring village

I hope you liked the pictures. I wish you a very happy and successful 2008.