The azure sky above and the colorful attire of a bunch of bloggers challenge the monopoly of green during our plantation visit in Wayanad. We are touring a plantation that grows spices like pepper, areca nut, coffee, and fruits like coconut, banana and many more. The plants around are thirsty due to a rain-less month, and at 34 degree celsius, Wayanad is hitting a new high compared to the average of 30 degrees. We cross paddy fields that soon bow out to a serpentine incline leading to the Pranavam Home stay, perched on top of the plantation, offering a panoramic view of surroundings. We are greeted by Mrs. Rama and Mr. Ravindran with smiles that are warmer than the sun shining right above my head.
A bulbul is looking at us suspiciously, intermittently lodging a protest by flying from one tree to another, trying to warn us about her territory. But to our ears her protest is a song that only the blessed ones get to hear. We settle down on the chairs in veranda and discuss the plans to go for bamboo rafting in a stream nearby. I am not very keen to go for rafting and choose to chat with our host Mr. Ravindran. I am invited to the well decorated yet spartan home. The first thing I notice on entering the house is a painting of Mahatma Gandhi spinning his beloved Charkha. I wonder at Bapu Gandhi’s presence in a planter’s home in Wayanad, Kerala.
Finally I move my gaze from Bapu and hurl a question to the smiling gentleman and we then go back to the days of Raj, when the British ruled the Malabar region and, freedom movement was at its peak.
Mr. Ravindran’s father Shri KV Raman Menon (1900-1974), was an eminent Gandhian and one of the key figures in freedom struggle against British Raj in the Ponnani town of Malabar region. Mr. Menon’s contribution to the freedom struggle can be gauged from the fact that he was known as Ponnani Gandhi for his anti-Raj stand and principles of non violent struggle against the colonial power.
Mr. Ravindran inherited the Gandhian principles from his father and continues to live an austere life. His family does not eat or serve any kind of non vegetarian food, but the vegetarian food served at Pranavam Home stay is the best I have ever had in whole of Kerala.The couple is kind enough to agree to pose for a picture, and as they settle on the sofa in the middle of the room, I notice an empty chair on each side of the sofa, probably meant for their daughters when they come home.
We continue to chat and I ask him how long his family has owned the plantation in Wayanad, and I learn a few more things about Kerala society.
I learn that the plantation is actually owned by his wife and her sister as in Kerala some of the communities like the Nairs follow a matrilineal system of distribution of wealth.
Post retirement as a top executive from a tyre company, he moved to his wife’s family plantation and decided to build a small home stay to keep busy. I guess a 100+ acre plantation is just not big enough to keep an enterprising retired man like Mr. Ravindran and his wife Rama on their toes. When they started the Pranavam Homestay, tourism was in its nascent stage in Wayanad. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise and conscious efforts were made to make tourism as sustainable as possible in Wayanad, with minimum damage to the local ecology that supports the last few surviving patches of rainforest in India. Mr. Ravindran also actively participated in founding Wayanad Tourism Organization, a very well-organized and structured liaison group of, homestay, hotels and resort owners in Wayanad district with the sole aim to promote sustainable tourism in Wayanad district. Mr. Ravindran serves as General Secretary of the WTO, and is one of the key driving forces to help develop sustainable tourism in Wayanad.
As the husband and wife duo slowly worked towards developing their homestay, their two daughters got married and moved to foreign lands, one of them works for UN and another for a large commodities company in Middle East. So the empty nesters shower their love on the guests who stay with them, making friends for life. Their first guest was a Canadian lady called Nancy, and after that they have played host to countless travellers. A lot of them continue to write not just mails but also send letters and greeting cards to the wonderful couple. The house can pass for a library, with books on topics on various subjects that the guests are welcome to read.