Of rain and goats

Date: July 5, 2009
Location: Adimali (30 km West from Munnar, Kerala State, India) Arafia Tourist Home

I wake up and I hear the pitter patter, pitter patter of rain. I close my eyes and go back to my dream land beneath the covers. At 7:30, tap, tap, tap on the door.

"Morning!" I hear Shahul's voice.
"Yes! We are getting up!" I am now eager to start the day of adventures with our Indian brothers. I want to breathe in deeply, inhale feel, and devour every moment of our friendship, time together, profoundly because I know our paths will not cross together for long.

We begin our day together with tea--Tetly tea. Joseph Iype and his wife join us. Sonu says, "We should weave some plans to meet again." We study the map and even though his town of Mannarkkard was never in OUR plans, it is in the master plan of destiny and it becomes one of the main destinations on our return journey to Bangalore. We agree to be in Mannarkkard on July 24th until July 28th when we will catch a train to Bangalore.

"Let's enjoy the moments together we have in Munnar," I say.
"Let's go to town and enjoy breakfast!" Steve adds, taking the last sip of his tea.
"Ok, we take some photographs first," Sonu suggests.
I take a photograph of Steve with his Indian brothers. Joseph and his wife join in (owners of the cottage). It feels like a family reunion.

We put on our rain pants and jackets and hop on the back of Sonu and Shahul's motorcycles. We go carefully down the dirt muddy hill through the tea plantations. I cling onto Sonu's small frame. We cross a small bridge going through a monster mud puddle. At the paved road, we turn left. We swerve and dart around rick-shaws. We park the motorcycles outside of a hotel. Hotel does NOT mean a place to stay. It means a place to eat. Inside, we sit on plastic chairs and order porota and chickpeas in curry sauce. Porota is a circle shaped doughy bread. Sonu and Shahul laugh at us as we struggle to break apart the bread with only our right hands. I explain to them that in America, if you would eat with your fingers in a restaurant, everyone would stare at you! Indians think it is strange that you would need a fork to eat with. Even though the rain has not stopped, we still climb on the motorcycles. Just five minutes out of town, we are zooming past tea plantations. We go eight kilometers outside of Munnar to the entrance of a National Park. In the National Park, we walk in the clouds where we see a remarkable type of mountain goat that can climb up mountain rock. They are nearly extinct and can only be seen in two places in the world (Munnar, India and New Zealand).

The rain pounds with strength on the pavement, each drop bouncing up and sticking to my shoes.
"What we do next?" Shahul asks.
We all look at one another. Nobody wants to offend the other.
"As you wish," Sonu says, smiling.
"No! As you wish," I respond. A moment of silence passes as we try to read each others minds.
"We can go back to town and have tea!" Steve suggests. Eagerly, we all affirm. Even though we are all Young adventurous spirits, the rain begins to soak through our clothes. We are content to return to town and share cup after cup of tea together.

Coffee and tea are my favorite beverages and they are a great second ingredient to friendship- the first ingredient being love.

Sonu and Shahul-- it is hard to part ways. It is hard to see you go one way on your motorcycles towards Mannarkkad while we go another way towards Kochi. Even harder will be in August when we depart for America and you stay in India. The ocean will separate us, but bigger than the ocean is the blessing to have met you, to become your brother and your sister.

We pedal out of Munnar. Even though the rain is heavy and cold in the mountain air, we feel the warmth of our brotherhood and our memories with you.

We travel thirty kilometers downhill. Our brakes, soaking wet, only slow us down when we grip them. They do not stop us. It is already nearly five o'clock. We stop in this quaint town outlined by mountains and waterfalls.

Sonu once told me while riding the motorcycle together that on Earth we actually have three lives; our life in our mother's womb, our life while being awake, and our life while dreaming in our sleep. I am going to my world of dreams...

W