Pallakad

   The youngest present was Anita, a youth worker who supervises the children's care. She told us, that not only orphans live there, or children put up for adoption, but also children with a difficult home situation are taken care of. It was also explained that very few children still go abroad for adoption, about one a year. There are strict rules from the Indian government these days.

   Anita showed us around and introduced us to the children. Because of the summer holidays, there were not many children present. The children were aged between 4 and 17. We explained to them that we were from the Netherlands and why we were visiting. The older children could manage quite well in English, but Anita acted as interpreter for the little ones. After the youngest had treated us to a song neatly in tune, we were able to look around the grounds some more. In the garden was a playground. Next door to the orphanage was a convent housing some 30 sisters. Sister Rose could remember Prakash from his own visits to the home.

At the end of our visit, we were kindly invited for "tea". We were given a hefty glass of homemade lemonade and a plate of Tapioca to taste and a fat banana for dessert. In conclusion, Jaklien had the opportunity to practise her hobby of taking selfies some more.

Malampuzha Dam

   Our taxi driver had patiently waited for us and brought us to the Malampuzha Dam a little further down the road. Near the dam was a shelter for snakes found in the area. Many people are afraid of snakes, but they are actually very useful animals as they feed on rats and mice, among other things. The population of rats and mice needs to be controlled in India because these animals can cause a lot of damage to crops. This has led to famines in India in the not so distant past.

   At the bottom of the Malampuzha dam is a beautifully landscaped garden that also looks a bit like an amusement park. It was still quite a walk, through the Japanese garden over a long row of stepping stones, via the statue of Yakshi to the dam, up the steps and then across the dam. The water at the back of the dam was extremely low. However, the dam will quickly fill up again in over a month, when the monsoon season arrives. Fortunately, there were some clouds and the temperature had dropped to around 35 degrees, nice and cool.

   Everywhere we walk we are stared at, especially by children who have never met a white person before. Regularly,  we are asked for selfies. By the family in the photo, we were asked to take a family photo. Simon thought he should take the photo, but no, we had to pose together with the whole family on the dam. This was not the first time this happened, and it probably won't be the last. We feel like movie stars sometimes.

Fort Pallakad

   After a good night's sleep, we took a rickshaw ride to Pallakad Fort the next morning after breakfast -and thus before the worst of the heat. The Fort has a long history of many conquests by various rulers. Given how quickly the Fort changed hands, you may wonder how effective it was. The Fort has eight bastions and a surviving moat. Although the water was low, the moat was teeming with life. As many as dozens of turtles were swimming around, eating mosses and aquatic plants from the stones.

   As we had already seen at other historical sites, a temple was made in the fort here. Hard to tell if it was always there, or only built in at a later date. But upon entering, we had to pass the watchful eyes of the gods. After a second gate, we reached the courtyard, which still contains, among other things, the old palace, now used as the office of the local land registry.

   The walls of the fort are more than a metre thick, to withstand cannonballs. Now it seemed more like the walls were used by young couples to frolic secretly from outside unseen and hidden behind an umbrella. Occasionally, a head peeked out from behind the umbrella to see who was nearby.

   Next to the Fort is a park, which we also visited. The first part houses a playground, where children could play in the shade of the trees. But as we walked further, we came to a sculpture garden with several sculptures. Armed with a few bottles of water, we enjoyed the beautiful surroundings. Agreat way to spend the morning.

Hindu Temples

   We spent the hottest part of the day in the air conditioning of our hotel room, and later of a restaurant where we ate. A little research on the internet, gave us tips for a few temples in Palakkad, which would be worth visiting. So we called another taxi and criss-crossed the city to see a few.

   Sree Visalakshi Sametha sree Viswanathaswamy Temple, is a large temple complex in an old part of the city, where we were kindly welcomed, allowed to look around and even take photos.

   Vadakanthara Sree Thirupuraikkal Bhagvathi Temple, also a large complex, where the shrines of the various gods have copper roofs. Simon did have to take off his t-shirt here and then walk around in bare torso. Nearby were two more smaller temples. First of all, the Sree Siva Temple. In the vestibule, some ladies were singing. They told us to wait a while until the temple would open. And that Simon, in his trousers, was not allowed inside. Only in a dhoti are men allowed to enter the temple. My Indian kurta was accepted though, so while Simon waited in the vestibule, I was allowed in.

   Sree Shasta Temple, only one street away, was already closed. But our taxi driver knew of another temple. He raced through the city of Pallakad to get us to the Sree manappullikavu Bhagavathy Temple on time. He succeeded, and we had all of 5 minutes to look inside the temple before the doors would be closed. We had only just left the building, when the doors closed with a mighty crash.

  In the consecutive temples we had received a bindi, Jaklien was sprayed with holy water, we were given  blessed flowers and we ate payasam. After the final visit, we were again addressed with the question: "Where are you from?" This time, the enquirer was a kindly lady. After a short coversation, we were invited to accompany her and her two children, to her house. It was quite nearby, she assured us. We accepted her invitation, and walked with her and her 17 year old twins. The house turned out to be less close than suggested, but the walk through the sultry evenong air was quite pleasant.

   Apparently, she and the twins lived with her brother, who welcomed us to his home. We weer offerd a drink of curd with ginger and curryleaves ("very good for digestion"). The lady, I'm ashamed to admit I did not remember her name, was a teacher, and her brother an astrologer. He had already trained many wersten students. After about half an hour (our taxidriver was still waiting for us) we got up and left. But we had to promise them to return for a nice homecooked lunch before we left for the Netherlands.