AMBADY

 

Sometime during the mid-seventies a young man called Raju Varghese from Kottayam reached Thekkady and entered a plot of land he had bought earlier. The place had a deserted look with no dwellings in sight. The man stood there in meditation  for a while and left. A few days later he returned to the place, this time a carpenter accompanying him. On a third similar visit the accompanying carpenter had his tool box with him but Raju was empty handed. Yes dear, ideas are not carried in suit cases. This young man’s head was full of aesthetic ideas. I refuse to call them business ideas. Not many at that time thought that Raju was there to script history. When Raju announced his intention of constructing a resort there, many termed it audacious. People cannot be blamed. Fifty years ago Thekkady was not a big tourist destination. But Raju was undeterred. He had decided. At that time only a visionary could have thought of the prospects of a resort at Thekkady. Fifty years down the line, we all agree that Raju was a visionary far ahead of his times.

Raju slowly transferred his ideas to the carpenter and he in turn gave them beautiful  expressions in wood. The duo was not in any hurry. But the two were uncompromising on one thing; that the out of the world ideas never lost their charm while getting shapes in wood. Yes, Ambady was being carved out of a man’s ideas and imaginations. The slim local population started appreciating Raju. Slowly Raju entered their hearts and became Rajuchayan, their darling. A few among them saw him as a God sent to transform their place. Finally Ambady came into being and started commercial operations in 1982. I am sceptical of myself using the term ‘commercial’ because Ambady never became a commercial venture. If I say that Ambady ‘is a home away from your home’, it is too clichéd but that is the truth. I have lost count of the number of times I have stayed at Ambady during the past forty years. The old saying ‘familiarity breeds contempt’ completely loses its meaning here. When life becomes a little fast or when there are tensions of  routine life, I take a break and flee to Ambady with my family, stay there for a day or two. Many are surprised as we seldom go out of our room during this stay. We enjoy every moment of an idle life inside the room talking, watching TV and sleeping. Yes, even inside the room you feel the unique ambience of Ambady. Many people wonder what kind of a tour is this. I tell them that this is not a tour for me ( though there is plenty of scope for that too). To me it’s a retreat into the sweet, quiet, peace, tranquil, sublime environment so unique to Ambady. A day or two here apparently doing nothing recharges me. It lifts my spirits. Every time I leave Ambady after a happy day or two, I leave with one new reason to come back at the earliest.

Ambady has never changed its fundamental character. The fact is that it cannot. It might have grown physically but the soul remains undisturbed. It has to. With no vanity in the air, this is the ideal place for the romantic. Yes, Ambady cannot change. A pure and strong idea so close to the nature cannot change. Rajuchayan’s idea alone was there in the beginning. It was pure, strong, beautiful, romantic and sublime. Such an idea never dies. It grows on its own strength of uniqueness.

Rajuchayan is no more. His son Tinku carries forward the Ambady tradition with elan. Recently Tinku and his wife Priya started a new restaurant in the Kumily town, a kilometre away from Ambadi. The name of the new venture is puzzling. 10.25 (Ten Twentyfive)! The inquisitive may read the Bible, 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 25.

So dear, let your next holiday destination be Ambady. You will fall in love with the place. Take it from me.

A BOOK THAT DISTURBED

 

It’s forty years since I read Anand’s “AALKKOOTTAM”. I don’t remember a word from the book now. But almost always I remember something special that happened to me in the aftermath of reading the book. I had felt mentally and physically exhausted by the time I read the last page. The devastating effect remained a mystery until I read a book by Prof Samuel Nellimukal (Former Head, Dept of Malayalam, CMS College, Kottayam), which narrates the history of CMS college since its inception. The book disturbed me no end such that its reading even changed some of my behavioural patterns for about a week, the time I took to complete it. It cemented my decades long belief that a book that does not disturb is not worth reading.

Here is the book “CMS COLLEGINTE CHARITHRAM”.

I was not very enthusiastic while beginning to read the book. But as I progressed through the book I realised that my perceptions are changing, many of my doubts are being cleared and most importantly I was getting honest and convincing answers for some of the questions haunting me for a very long time. Progressing through the pages a sort of reverence for the book started developing in me and I felt it difficult to keep it indiscriminately on the floor or even my study table. I felt as if I was reading the scriptures.

The incredible feats of the CMS missionaries are described in vivid details. I will not narrate any of those Godly acts here. But one or two things need special mention. How many of us can believe that slave trade was prevalent in Kerala during the nineteenth century? Yes, slavery was there in all its inhuman dimensions. Yet its abolition is not hailed the way Abraham Lincholn’s historic declaration is. The bizarre, uncivilised, inhuman dress code prescribed for the “lower cast (!) women” just  over a century ago was a crying shame. There are many more things like these.

I always had respect for the CMS missionaries for bringing out revolutionary social changes by imparting modern education to all without any discrimination. Yet I kept telling myself that after all these are the ones that committed the massacre at the Jallianwala Bhag. It was here that the book opened my eyes to a soothing reality that Gen (killer) Dyer and Rev Benjamin Bailey represented two mutually exclusive entities. The book contains a wealth of information of incidents and history spanning two centuries. At every stage one can feel the unbiased commitment of Prof Samuel, the pain he took, and the endurance against all odds. I sincerely believe that God specially chose him to write the book.

It is very unfortunate that the book did not receive the attention it deserved on the sheer strength of merit. That the CMS college ignored the book is nothing short of a crime. This book is for all. Yet may I make some humble suggestions.

All educational institutions of the CSI (schools and colleges) should have at least fifty copies each of this precious book in their libraries. Every parish (CSI) should have at least ten copies of the book. It certainly is worth including the book in the Sunday school syllabus.

I know that these are wishful thinking at this stage. Yet I am hopeful. If God selected Prof Samuel to write this book, certainly there should be a purpose. Let His purpose prevail.