In Kerala: Journey from Potta to Trivandrum: Nine Hours Traveling Cattle Class in a State Transport Bus

Friday, July 24, 2026

Journey from Potta to Trivandrum: Nine Hours Traveling Cattle Class in a State Transport Bus

Today was the day our Retreat ended. After the daily rude awakening, followed by prayer (which I skipped so that I could do my packing) and the hour-long lecture (which I also skipped because frankly, I’d had enough), we had our last breakfast in the communal hall. The next session was touted as very important and so we attended it. It would be the last session we would attend—Praise and Worship for half an hour followed by an hour-long lecture. The rest of the morning plodded along in the main Vincentian Hall. It was supposed to be an Anointing Session, but we could not wait for it.

We had a bus scheduled to leave at 12. 15 pm from Challakudy Bus Depot (according to the website of the Kerala State Transport Corporation—KSTC) –so we had requested Joy from the Reception Desk to order us a Taxi at 11. 45 am. We said our last goodbyes to our friends, old and new, and left to return to our room for last-minute packing and to bring our bags down. We were off to spend the next 3 days in southern Kerala while the rest of our group would be returning to Bombay.

A Most Unusual Journey by Bus:

Our taxi did arrive on time at 11. 45 am and off we went to Challakudy Bus Depot hoping to catch the 12. 15 pm bus from there to Trivandrum. Imagine our irritation when we discovered that all the information on the website is outdated or incorrect. There were no buses to Trivandrum from Challakuddy—they went along some bypass and did not stop at the bus deport there! With great language difficultly, we were informed that we would need to take a bus to Ammangeli. This was a half hour run and the bus was expected to call in to Challakudy in a half hour. This left us enough time to pick up a few dry snacks (vadas) and get a fruit juice for lunch at a shabby snack stall before the bus arrived and we boarded it. We were quite the objects of curiosity on the bus as it was obvious no one had ever seen passengers like us using such a pedestrian form of transport. We had expected to get an AC bus with reclining seats, free WIFI. etc. Well, let me tell you, it was an ancient vehicle used as commuter transport. No one going long-distance took those buses. A lady on the bus asked me (in sign language) where we were from and I told her New York because if I had said Bombay, she’d have thought that was an alien planet. And so, paying Rs. 25 per seat, we arrived at Ammangeli.

At Ammangeli, we were told that the AC bus to Trivandrum would arrive at 3.00 pm. It was not even 1.00 pm then and we did not wish to wait for another two hours in that one-horse town with nowhere to go and nothing to do. Hence, we opted to take another state transport bus that was equally pedestrian as the one we’d taken earlier—only this time, we’d be on the bus for nine hours!!!! After waiting for anther half an hour, our bus arrived. We climbed on to it, stashed our baggage in front near the driver’s seat and settled down into two seats far away from each other. Believe me, we were squeezed into seats so narrow it would be hard to accommodate anyone more than 100 pounds in weight. Using sign language again and making many requests, I managed to get us seats together at the very start of the ride. We stayed in that position until night fell and we arrived at our destination—the capital city of Kerala, Trivandrum.

En route, we passed through the entire coastal rib of Kerala. As we are in the monsoon season, everything is clean, green and fresh. We passed by the city of Allepey where we caught fabulous glimpses of the last of the backwaters filled with river craft for which Kerala is famed. We also passed glitzy gold and diamond showrooms and we realized that no matter now dusty the town or how tiny, there are gold shops galore to tempt the buyer. Kerala is obviously a far more wealthy state than West Bengal through which we had driven in May and which is decrepit, to say the least.

We also passed through the town called Kollam and only when we were passing through its obvious prosperity did it occur to me that it was the city formerly known as Quilon. I was excited as my cousin’s late husband had hailed from that town and I was very familiar with the name. Anyway…passengers came and went and as we made our way closer to Trivandrum, the bus became like a commuter van with dozens of folks getting on and off and many standees crowding the gangway. At many stops, we had left our seats to stretch our limbs (Llew even used a restroom at one stop but it was not something I was even interested in doing as I could just imagine how ghastly it would be). So I basically did not use the toilet until we eventually got to our hotel!

And get to our hotel, we did. Upon arrival at Trivandrum, we called for an Uber car and we were deposited at our hotel, ‘Ramas Garden’, where we reached at about 10.00 pm. We had called the hotel and told them that we would be checking in later than notified. We found a lovely Receptionist called Harnik (Honey) waiting for us and within minutes, he gave us our room key on the first floor and saw us into our rooms. It was not even fifteen minutes later that we used the bathroom, brushed and flossed our teeth and fell asleep in the amazingly comfortable bed.

And so that was our big adventure story of our trip to Kerala. Yes, it is true that you can only see India by bus and you can only mingle with the common people when you choose this form of transport. We found everyone extraordinarily kind and gracious towards us—almost protective. The people of the South of India are so refined, so cultured, so extraordinarily nice. It made all the discomfort of the trip worth it.

Until tomorrow…cheerio.

Potta, Kerala: Getting Accustomed to the Regimen of a Well-Orchestrated Retreat

Monday-Thursday, July 20-23, 2026

Getting Accustomed to the Regimen of a Well-Orchestrated Retreat

For the next few days, this was the tenor of our lives. Early morning wake-up calls (at 5.30 am) were punishing, to say the least. A loudspeaker would blare out a hymn that never failed to wake me up with a terrible start, my heart palpitating unpleasantly until it settled down. Half an hour later, (at 6.am), there was black coffee served to all—a way of waking up participants (in case the blaring alarm hymn had been inadequate). At 7.00 am, the entire group gathered for Praise and Worship, a spirited singing session with a full band in attendance. These musicians are part of the Music Ministry, and they did an excellent job getting the congregation to sing loudly with them. The Charismatics do not do anything quietly—their worship is all about sound and fury. They also punctuate their singing with actions (the raising of arms, the rhythmic clapping, the swaying from side to side, etc.). It soon became routine for us, but initially, it was all a bit overwhelming to watch. Praise and Worship was followed by an hour-long lecture by which time my stomach was rumbling so fiercely as to make it impossible to focus on what was being said.

At 8.30 am, we trooped into the Dining Hall for breakfast. It was always tasty with a different kind of ‘bread’ served daily—one day appams, another day Malabar parotta, another day idiyappam (string hoppers)—always with sambar or curry. There was also always a hard-boiled egg (for those who needed protein with every meal). This was followed by a choice of tea or coffee.

Post-breakfast, there were more lectures, more healing sessions and at 3.00 pm daily, there was the Divine Mercy Chaplet that was recited by the entire congregation. Lunch followed with more lectures or praying sessions interspersed until tea-time. Post-Tea, there were more lectures until dinner. There was always Mass at 7.00 pm (most often said by Fr. Augustin which unfailingly included a 40-60 minute homily). I have to say that I found it tedious in the extreme and I often wondered how much more of it I could take. I suppose what kept me going was the fervor and devotion of everyone else around me. They were completely fixated on the altar, on the words of the speaker, on the notes emanating from the keyboard or the guitar. None of them seemed to find the sessions too lengthy, too repetitive or too boring. Their devotion was truly inspirational.

In the midst of the sessions, Llew and I found the time, one afternoon, to explore the vast premises of the Center. We took a walk down to a river along whose bank the Center has been constructed. There are structures through which the 14 Stations of the Way of the Cross are spelled out in plaster of Paris sculpture. The entire facility is thick with greenery and tropical vegetation. We could smell ripe jackfruit on the trees and see other fruit plantations and orchards all around us (mango, cashew, banana, coconut). It is a perfect setting for quiet contemplation and meditation on the various lessons we were taught through the talks. Sadly, there was no time given for any of these activities—probably because, from experience, they realize that people will simply sit around and chat because they were craving relief from the spiritual overdose. I often wished I could slip out and sit under a tree and listen to the wind rustling its branches or watch cheeky squirrels scampering along to the top. But there was never any opportunity to enjoy this. Meal-time offered some respite from the spiritual treadmill when we could actually chat with each other as we enjoyed our food. It was during these times that we laughed about the more humorous speakers and the badly-needed comic relief that they brought.

On one of the days, there was a mandatory fast (except for those with heath issues who were unable to maintain a fast). This was held to support the youth and children who would be attending their Confessions that day. After breakfast, there was no food served until tea-time. I have to say that I did not really feel hungry (as breakfast was hearty) but by tea-time, I was ready for a snack. And dinner that night was a feast! There was vegetable biryani, fried chicken, chicken curry, two vegetables and even chocolate for dessert!

The penultimate day—the second-last day—was the most powerful. It was the day devoted to Iner Healing and it was conducted by Fr. Joseph Edattu who is based at a similar Divine Retreat Center in Ramsgate, Kent, UK. He is a terrific speaker and the examples he used to teach were so perfectly apt that I took most counsel from his words. He conducted a session in which people were asked to surrender all their petitions, woes, worries, etc.to the Lord. The place was darkened, all electric lights switched off, the only light coming from a few candles on the altar. The monstrance was exposed throughout this nearly 90 minute session when people lost all their inhibitions and cried aloud in anguish that was heartrending to hear. It made me realize how much emotional, financial, physical hardship people endure on a daily basis and how difficult it is for them to carry their burdens. At the end of the session that included music, singing, chanting, call and response measures from the priest at the altar, people were told to come forward to let the congregation know if they had experienced any healing at that session. Eric, who was a member of our group, a retired sea captain, who had lost his sight and was near-blind, went up to the altar and gave his ‘testimony’. He reported that during the healing session, he felt a strong sensation near his eyes and when he opened them, he found that he could see all the colors and patterns of the altar clearly—something he had been unable to do when he had arrived for the Retreat.

Spiritual and Tourism in Kerala: Five Day Retreat at the Divine Retreat Center in Potta

Sunday, July 19, 2026

Arrival in Potta and First Day of Retreat

Llew and I had been persuaded to sign up for a 5-day Retreat in Pota, Kerala, several months ago, by our friends, Anand and Jean Prabhu. We did not know what to expect, but since scores of Bombay Catholics have undertaken this Retreat and have spoken eloquently about it, we decided to make this the year we would make the Retreat. As always, I saw this trip as an opportunity to fill in the blanks of the places we had not covered in Kerala in January this year (when we had traveled to Cochin so that I could present a paper at the International Anglo-Indian Reunion Conference). So, this time round, we made plans to visit Trivandrum (capital of Kerala), Kovalam Beach (which is highly reputed and only an hour away) and Kanya Kumari, the southernmost tip of the Indian Peninsula and which involved crossing state lines from Kerala into Tamil Nadu.

Accordingly, we left our home at 6.30 am to arrive at the Bombay Airport in record time (20 minutes) for our 9.30 am Akasa Airlines flight to Cochin. Our friends Anand and Jean and Gloria were there too and at the departure gate, we met them, after we’d bought ourselves a coffee and settled down to board our flight.

Our flight was very comfortable indeed. We were presented with a meal on board (we had chosen our breakfast meals—I had a Chicken Salad Croissant and Llew picked a Thai Chicken Salad with coffee) and feeling ready to face the day, we arrived at Cochin. At the airport, we also connected with Eric and Rowena D’Souza who were also part of our Retreat group. Anand made arrangements for us to take two taxis that took us, in two groups, to Potta, where the Divine Retreat Center is located. We entered the gates at abut 1.00 pm and were ready to have lunch.

We had the first of the communal lunches we would have in a great big dining hall. We also met Nimmi Moniz at this point. She too would be a part of our group for the next five days. All the members of our group had opted for AC rooms (non-AC was also available at cheaper rates) and special meals (for which we also paid more). The meals were substantial and delicious, based on the typical South Indian staples of Kerala (rice, sambhar, rasam, vegetables sauted with coconut and a non-vegetarian curry--we had chicken, pork and fish curries and Kerala’s famous fried beef). In the evening, in addition to rice, lovely soft chapattis were also served.

Right after lunch, we joined in the first of the many lectures/talks that we attended. These were either preached by lay preachers or by priests who are based in various parts of the world. The Director of the Divine Retreat Center is Fr. Augustin Vallooran and he played a very prominent role throughout the five days of our Retreat. This was my first introduction to the power, faith and devotion of the speakers who have the capacity to speak for a whole hour at a time without looking at a single note. They have the particular facility of being able to quote the Bibe effortlessly down to the last chapter and verse. I have to tell you that, overall, I was quite floored by their talents even as I wondered how I could possibly sit through five whole days of hour-long lectures, often preceded by half an hour of Praise and Worship sessions that involved a great deal of loud music and zippy singing. I need to state, at this stage, that the Retreat is conducted in the traditions of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. And, if you are unfamiliar with their culture or religious practices, they will take some getting used to. There is a lot of very loud expressions of faith (frequent utterances of “Hallelujah, Praise the Lord and Thank you Lord”), repetitive hymns that become almost like a chant or a mantra and speakers who evoke the power of the Holy Spirit to effect conversion, healing, revelation, etc.

Tea Break followed and we were treated to a choice or tea or coffee with biscuits, after which more Praise and Worship sessions and more lectures followed. Finally, it was time for Dinner which was also delicious and substantial (and definitely a far cry from the reputedly thick boiled rice and watery daal meals of years gone by). As the Retreats have been conducted for over thirty years, the Center has made many improvements in the living conditions of the participants. After dinner, there was more opportunity for Adoration with the Blessed Sacrament in the many chapels that are scattered all over the vast premises but both Llew and I were simply too wiped out by dinner time to do any more religious activity.

I should add that there were about 3000 people at the Retreat from various parts of India and around the world. While we were attending the Couples Retreat, there was also a Youth Retreat and a Childrens’ Retreat going on, at the same time.

And, on that note, our first day of Retreat came to an end.

Until tomorrow, cheerio…