10.5.11 – Lakes and doctors (Wayanad and Calicut, Kerala, India)

Family with Kuttan (right) and Stephen (left)

10.5.11 – Lakes and doctors (Wayanad and Calicut, Kerala, India)

The lake

Awakened by our faithful cockerel, it was time to move on back to Calicut, to prepare for Bincy’s wedding tomorrow.  Our car wound its way down the precipitous twisting road to Calicut, stopping briefly at a lake.  Hot though it was, we piled out of the car.  Crowded with Indian tourists, little children carried by their parents (we haven’t seen another push chair since we arrived), bright eyes staring at Molly, brown faces, black hair.  The children here are exceptionally beautiful.  The lake was calm, sheltered within a bowl in the surrounding mountains.  Pedalos and rowing boats with coloured sunshades moved slowly across its shining surface.  We walked round a shaded path under the trees, returned to let Molly swing in the little playpark, while Catriona and I looked at the little stalls, selling coconut ladles and spatulas, carved crocodiles, and Indian sweets of every description, mysterious to us in their cellophane wrappings. A little garden centre displayed flowers and plants in glowing profusion.

Molly at the swings

Lunch at a quiet restaurant, a fish tank which fascinated Molly, standing on a chair, her little hands spread across the glass, her eyes fastened on the sinuous silver fish meandering about on the other side of the thin pane.

Molly sleeping in transit

We re-entered Calicut with a sense of familiarity.  Even in this very different culture and environment, it’s surprising how quickly one settles down to a sense of the known.

Unfortunately, Catriona was beginning to succumb to the inevitability of ‘Dehli Belly’, the well known scourge of Western tourists in India.  Molly also had a little cough, although seemed bright, cheery and healthy in every other way.  I texted Bincy, and in no time, one of her fiancé Subhash’s friends, Daniel, volunteered to take the Millican team to the hospital for treatment.  They returned later, medicines in hand, to report on an efficient and professional health service.  Catriona had a range of pills and potions to take.  As a protective, Molly had antibiotics, although the doctor was not convinced that she did in fact have an infection.  The constant exposure to the drying effects of air conditioning seemed a more likely candidate.

We laid out our clothes for the wedding, got ready in every way we could think of, and went to bed.

Ghat Mountains