A friend from the north of India is finally on a Kerala tour organised by KTDC and staying in some quaint heritage properties (though staff of government properties tend to behave like gov servants in India forgetting this is the service industry).
She has been occasionally giving me a commentary of her road trip from Trivandrum to Kumarakom to Thekkady and Munnar. I tell her my dream life is/was in a hill station as the wife of a planter or estate manager, and my dream job was to teach in a school in the hills. Memories from former trips help form such fantasies.
Our post-wedding trip in 1999 was to Thekkady Vandiperiyar (where my Aussie bro in law's parents lived) where we stayed at his home as well as one night at KTDC Aranya Nivas in the Periyar Reserve. We skipped the boating - in times when the northie tourist influx hadnt begun to Kerala - and visited people instead. The next time we went with the kids, the queue was so long we had to come away, ditto Eravikulam National Park.
Bro-in-law had a brother who was an estate manager and lived in a small cottage. I simply loved the ambience of the place with its small vegetable garden and hens.
The other dream was inspired by a trip to Dehra dun where I met an MCCian and her husband who taught in the local international school. That again looked like the stuff of dreams.
Guess it is not everyone's cup of tea and people say life in the hills can get very boring. But for a quiet person who likes her own company and thoughts, I dont think I will miss city life much.
These thoughts were triggered by a Time article on what actually makes us happy.
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