Elephants of Kerala - A Playful tusker...

After a long hiatus, I'm back with more articles and pictures on Kerala....

When you talk about Kerala, the image of an elephant comes to our mind immediately...  I've been fortunate to have witnessed quite a few elephants coming to our home en-route to the temple nearby. They come to our home to take a break from the heat by cooling themselves with our well water...

 

 Elephants of Kerala - A Playful tusker spraying water :)

This picture above of the tusker elephant is of one such elephant which was going on its way to the Pooram festival in the Parakkotu Kavu temple nearby... This one was a playful tusker which was spraying water all around itself and the folks nearby. I was half drenched while taking this picture :)

Backwaters of Alleppey : Places in Kerala

Alappuzha (Alleppey in English) is a coastal town in Kerala. Alleppey is a popular tourist location in India, famous for the backwaters especially. One can find calm and peace amidst the palm fringed canals, shores bustling with people doing their normal day to day activities in the country side, mirrored lagoons, picturesque lakeside and long sandy beach...

People living on the banks using boats as means of transportation, vegetable vendors selling veggies in their boats, children going to their schools in boats these are common sights in Allapuzha.
The whole setting of the place is so beautiful that Lord Curzon called it the "Venice of the East".

For tourism, House boats are available for rent and people can hire the house boats for hours and even for days and go around the backwaters area. A typical house boat will have one/two bedrooms with attached bathrooms in them. There will be chefs cooking freshly caught fish for you in traditional coastal Kerala style and you can just enjoy the whole day cruising around. This makes Alleppey a popular honeymoon destination for the newly weds :)

Here, I present you couple of pictures of the beautiful backwaters of Alappuzha.....

Picture Source: Thanks to Neeraj for providing these beautiful pictures of Alleppey.

Pooram Pictures - 7 : Bhagavati Devi carried during Thiruvilwamala Thalappoli pooram....

During the Pooram festivals, as seen in my previous posts, the procession of caparisoned elephants and kuda mattam are very important happenings during a pooram. But, if you had noticed, the elephant in the center will be carrying a deity.

Here, I've captured a close up of the deity Bhagavati Devi which is carried in the Thiruvilwamala Thalappoli pooram festival.