Trip to vyasa tapovanam…

My seventh semester exams got over yesterday.. So we have to start our main project work, since our final semester is goin to be short. Dilip is doing the mechanical of our project. He is worried about that part because of the design of our ‘omni wheel’. Omni wheel is a revolutionary wheel design, which has a specialty of movement in all directions from a standstill.. It is a wheel with wheels.. We know the details, but we don’t have the skill or capacity to do something like that alone. After all we are electronics engineers.. .

He was invited by his uncle from Wadakkancherry (a place in Thrissur district, around 30mins drive from Thrissur town, towards Shornur). He told that they have a facility in there for having wood work and he can help us in making an omni wheel.

So we decided go and check out the facilities over there. And we don’t have any other choice currently, due to the lack of time as well as the closing of our previous lathe service provider. The trip schedule was fixed – starting from Ernakulam South railway station by 6.30 and reach there by 9.30 and balance depending upon the work over there.We were prepared for a two-day trip, since we weren’t sure about the time, required over there.

We took the intercity express, reached thrissur, took a bus to Wadakkancherry. The actual destination is a place called parlikaadu, which is just before the Wadakkancherry. It’s a remote village, unpolluted by any of the modern factors (We didn’t even have the range for our mobile phone over there!!), lots of greenery, rubber trees, bamboos, and the only noise is from the railway line passing over there.

Pic: Thats Dilip and we took this shot when we started walking.

There is an Ashram in Parlikaadu, and a trust under the guidance of Dilip’s grandfather, dedicated to spirituality and intellectual growth. They are providing a great help to society over there. They even have a college in that remote place.

For the construction purposes, they have started a lathe, so that they can reduce the cost of production. And we were there to use these facilities. The workers were so skilled, that they even started working on a prototype, after simply listening to some description. They didn’t even see a sketch about that wheel!!.

Pic: In search for a bit of range for his mob, from the highest point he can reach

By the time, the work is being done over there; we were simply wandering for some range for our mobile phones. It’s been a long time, I was not able to check my mail or orkut scraps due to the lack of my mobile’s range. We also visited some parts of that ashram. We were described about the new spiritual centre which is being constructed over there. Its interior is still under construction, but I was able to see the mural paintings over there, – largest of its kind in Kerala. Its size is around 200 sq.metres. Since its being hidden till the inaugural function, taking pictures was not possible. Otherwise I would have put one or more pics over here.

Pic: Thats our prototype in wood

The prototype was ready by afternoon. We found out the defects and recommended the changes and they told that the work will be completed by next week. So we decided to return today itself. We reached Wadakkancherry railway station by 2.30pm. My phone was busy getting missed-call alerts and pending messages. Again world at our finger tips..

We also met a celebrity over there. Famous malayalam film actress KPAC Lalitha was over there to get aboard the train. We were astonished to see her in that remote place.

Pic: We two in train, during our returning trip

Reached back Ernakulam at 5 pm. It was a great day for us. A long trip after the busy exams, spend some time away from the busy city life, got some nostalgic feelings about my our home place, as well as we were again into our project work mood, which was not there for last few weeks, hoping that it will get completed soon..