Wayanad Tribal Tourism

Wayanad has always been a pleasant surprise. Natural and beautiful, a delight of the tourists. The more we try to learn about Wayanad the more curious we become about the original inhabitants of the hill country. Few centuries ago there were no one except them. It was Tipu’s soldiers who came down the hills from Mysore making way for his march to conquer the coast and its harbours. Then came the British who knew how to work the hill, magnificent plantations came up, labourers from all over the south found a means of bread and settled. Within a few years, Wayanad became a fashionable European settlement. Few of the names of the hills and the places were changed but mostly the old ways and names remained. By the turn of the 20th century, came the flood of local migration, centuries long tribal heritage of the place was lost for ever.

Enchanting Wayanad always had the tourism potential; it was realized early became operational with policy change when the tourism focus shifted from south to North Kerala. Besides the natural beauty what captivated the tourists were its original people. At last an enterprise had come up celebrating the heritage, tradition and lives of the tribes of Wayanad.

A charitable trust formed with the leadership of Sub-collector and 13 tribal leaders has formed a tribal heritage centre “ Enna OOru” formally making a platform to interact, experience the tribal way of life including 10 tribal huts for the visitors to stay in. The centre has shops to sell tribal products of medicine, art, crafts etc. a cafeteria to taste tribal foods, space to hold events and performances in tribal culture.

It is a beginning in a way. Let us hope, the tribes themselves could set up their own enterprise and truly change the face of Wayanad tourism. 

 

Innovation during Pandemic

Tourism is one of the worst hit industries during these pandemic era. Many entrepreneurs have gone bankrupt and many careers have been thrown under the bus. 

Inspite of everything Aveda Resorts & Spa at Kumarakom, in Alleppey district of Kerala has found a way to do something that would generate some income to maintain the property, atleast. By June, they knew the lock down is here to stay and the hotels will not be allowed to open anytime soon.  So they decided to turn their awesome 150 metre long swimming pool into a fish farm. 

They bought around 16,000, two months old Pearl Spot ( Local favourite) baby fishes and farmed them in the pool.

Pearl Spot usually take around eight months to reach their full growth/size and the team at Aveda is hoping to harvest them in November and looking forward to sell them both in the local and UAE market. 

The reality of Pandemic is shock and panic which drove many to destruction, the team at Aveda Resort and Spa has found a way to stay afloat. Congratulations Team Aveda, you guys are very inspiring.  

The link:

Aveda Boutique Resort & Spa

Charles Allan

Allan Charles 1940-2020

Charles Allen, a master of British Indian and South Asian history passed away at his home in England on August 16^th , 2020, after struggling with cancer for a long time...Read More

Onam

On this day of our harvest festival, Onam, when every one used to be  blessed with a bountiful harvest and were filled with the happiness of prosperity and contentment, we remember our Great King, Mahabali, who ensured justice & fairness, equality, honesty, work & bread for  all  and wish you a very happy Onam in the age old tradition of our forefathers who lived and died here, in our Kerala! 

May the panic and anxiety of the pandemic do not cast a shadow on our celebrations, let us make the best with what we have and hopefully look forward for a better year to come. 

Picture: picnewposts.blogspot.com

Pandemic and Monetary relief in Tourism

 With the devastating pandemic attack the world tourism sank like the sugar cube in our cup of tea. Lock down and the fear of infection forced people not to travel at all forcing the tourism stakeholders to shut down their enterprises and lay off the employees.

The 20 lakh crore stimulus package announced by the central government in February did not consider tourism for any sort of support though the authorities had mentioned that more package are coming and  some indirect benefits are available to those tourism companies which fall under the MSME category with a 100 crore turn over and 25 crore in outstanding. They can avail an emergency credit to the amount of 20% of their outstanding with a four year tenor and an year of moratorium in repayment. 

Almost six months after that, the Kerala state government announced yesterday Rs. 455 crore Relief package to the Tourism industry. The State Level Bankers Committee has agreed to disperse 355 crores of loans to small and large stakeholders in the Tourism Industry at 50% of the prevalent interest rate. Government has decided to pay the remaining 50% of the interest to the bank on behalf of the Tourism industry as a subsidy from the Government's Plan Fund. 

Under the Relief program nearly 2500 small enterprises will get 1-3 lakhs and big enterprises will get 5-25 lakhs with a moratorium of 6 months for repayment. 

Apart from the enterprises, the Tourism Employees Support Scheme with an outlay of Rs.100 Crore will provide tourism employees who come around  to 50,000 in number  a personal loan between 20-30 thousand through the Kerala Bank at an interest rate of 9% of which 6% will be paid by the Government itself. The personal loan will have a moratorium of 4 months on repayment. The employees will have to submit their application through the Tourism Deputy Director of their respective districts. 

Kerala tourism revenue accounted for the year 2019 was Rs. 45,000 crores but in this pandemic year the industry has suffered a loss of Rs. 20,000 crore with an uncertain tourism season coming up from September to February. 

 

The invitation to guest lecture at the tourism colleges is something BTGS enjoys very much and consider it as a duty to share the tourism working experience with the Tourism Students. After the closing of the semester in November in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh,  BTGS is now available at Kochi for consultation and tours. All our Historical & Cultural tourists and enthusiasts are welcome.

While BTGS is thankful for the enquiries that have come our way in the past few months, we apologize for the inconvenience caused to our tourists by not being available. BTGS extends a special note of gratitude to Mr. Adrian Whittle, from England and Mr. Amir Broshi from Israel, for taking our freshly designed 'Weaving Trail' (Chennai-Tirupati-Venkatgiri-Srikalahasti-Nellore) which was still in experimental stage while they chose to visit . Thank you Sirs for your patience and unbound cooperation.  

Meydad Eliyahu & Tom Landau, we missed taking you around while you were here in Kochi. 

Malabar River Festival

Picture courtesy: Kerala Toursim 

During July 26-28, District Tourism Promotion Council of Kozhikode (Calicut) and Madras Fun Tools along with Indian Kayaking and Canoeing Association (IKCA) and International Canoe Federation (ICA) organized the seventh edition of the "MALABAR RIVER FESTIVAL". 

The tourism enthusiasts and stakeholders are delighted to watch the interest and the attention the adventure tourism event is gaining in the state during the monsoon when the tourism chips are down. While wishing the event a grand success we hope it will develop interlinked tourism services and facilities in the destination which will provide job opportunity for many. 

Malabar River Festival

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Muchilottu Devi

Perinchellore was an old town famous for its scholarly Brahmans who were very good in the knowledge of Vedas, grammar, literature, astrology, medicine etc.. Scholars from all over came to Perinchellore to debate with the Brahmans there to test their own erudition. One such family in Perinchellore was Rayaramangalam. It so happened with them that the latest generation had no male heirs to continue their family lineage. They prayed to their family goddess by offering special Puja. Soon they got a daughter but not a son. Sensing a divine intervention the parents accepted her gratefully and named DeviKanya. They brought her up giving her the best they had including education. 

The girl grew up to be a scholar, naturally,  and her erudition spread among the scholarly circle of  the area in spite of being a girl. It was the custom at that time for the Brahman girls to be married off at the age of 12. Devi's parents proposed her the marriage and she agreed but on one condition. She will marry the man who will defeat her in a scholarly debate. Her parents had to agree and the marriage day was fixed. 

Many scholars came from far and wide both young and old. For two days nobody could defeat Devi. This was a blow to the Scholars of Perinchellore to be defeated and that too by a girl. For her parents she was a divine child but for others she was a mere girl who has to be shown her place in the world. So on the third day they deliberately guided the debate to the topic of Rasas which are the human feelings. They asked her which is the most significant of the Rasas to which Devi correctly replied as Sringara or erotic love. Then the scholars asked which is the most painful of the Rasas. Devi had no hesitation in saying it is the pain of child birth experienced by women. 

The Brahman scholars were enraged. They asked how can a virgin know all these feelings without experiencing it. They felt she is not a kanya (Virgin) and proclaimed the punishment due to such a woman for the innocent Devi. She was outclassed and expelled from the community. 

Though heartbroken, her parents could not do anything against the decision of the community. Devi walked away from her house, her village and went straight to the temple at EachiKulangara and entered into a deep meditative prayer of forty days. At the end of it she woke up with the realization that she had to leave her body to prove her innocence. At the Brahma Muhurtham, that is thirty six minutes before sun rise she prayed her final prayer and went to a place called Karivellore and made herself  a pyre and jumped into the fire after taking off one of her anklet and leaving it near the pyre. 

Alas! The fire was not enough to burn her body completely as it lost its flame midway. After a while a coconut tree climber from the lower caste was passing by carrying some dry fronds and Devi called out to him asking him to put the dry palm leaves into her fire. The man was frightened by the terrific site, he ran away without looking back. 

Next came that way a man from the Muchilottu community. Another lower caste community who deal in oil which was more important than electricity in those days. Devi asked him to pour the oil  that he was carrying in a pot into her pyre. Though terrified the man sensed a certain divinity in the stoic Devi and poured oil into the fire hoping it would put off the fire. Instead the fire was set ablaze again and the Devi disappeared into it after blessing him. From then on the Devi has been deified as the Goddess of the Muchillottu community and celebrated as Theyyam every year to this day.

Thank you

Spirituality and comparative religion along with history and culture are the thoughts I discuss the most on my tours. Naturally, as Kerala was devastated by flood and our lives got disrupted and unsettled, there comes a question, how did our spirituality help us to deal with the situation.
Well, our spirituality, in the first place, was not about prosperity and happiness. It is a state of being, where one is perfectly at terms with the present, good or bad, and also aware that things could change any moment.
As the flood would decide Some of us had to restart our lives from the scratch, rebuilding the house to buying the kitchen utensils to beds and et al .
Yes indeed, the disaster and its impact was beyond our scope of imagination. Still, we survived.
Thank you my friends for all your good wishes and prayers.
At the moment, I am at a tourism college on a brief teaching assignment, on east coast in a small village.

New Academic Year 2018

Every year our Monsoon arrives unfailingly on 1st of June. That's the day our Schools re-open after the two months of Summer vacation. All our memories about the first day at School are wet. 

Surprisingly, this year, it was sunny and bright. Our monsoon had arrived two weeks early. 

For all those  thousands of children who are starting their school for the first time in their life, "We Wish you a successful student life. May you have the blessing to learn well and work hard." 

For our teachers, " May you continue to be the ultimate Inspiration to all your students, this academic year too. "

May we all live up to the great learning tradition of our Country and be the worthy successors of those great sages who gave us the Wisdom to see and live this life the best possible way.