There are more name associated with this place:
Anchupeedika(5 shops)... wow that used to be old name of this place..
"Manandtoddy" this was the name that was given by the Brits.. Man and Toddy... man really they did had a sense of humor... :)
Manamthodi that used to be it's name coz everybody felt it touched the sky....
One of the main cities(metro... :)...) after Kalpetta and Sulthan Bathery in Wayanad. Wayanad was also special coz it never had a place by it's own name like other districts in Kerala... Wayilnaad(Land of Fields) gave way to Wayanad..just for the sake of pronouncing it easily...
About 105 kilometers from Kozhikode, situated in Mountains not "in" actually "on" mountains... The travel used to be fun.. I said about my first travel which I slept mostly.. So never get to know much about it.. but the others journeys were a class apart...So the journey will be coming soon in posts.. now I will stick on to this topic ok...
Mananthavady was well connected at that time to almost all places in northern Kerala...And names of places were so different...Vellamunda,Padinjaaratara(It's a dam site)
4th Mile : important Junction.. Two ways, one way leading to Kalpetta, and the other to Vadakara, Vellamunda, Padinjaarathara....This places are perfect from the travelogue point of view... There are some more names that wud make things more different..
ThottilPaalam, Adivaram, Nedumpoil(all main stops down the ghats on different sides Vadakara, Kozhikode, Kannur respectively).. Each Ghat roads were different.. Road towards Vadakara is steepest of all.... 12 hairpin bends.. Kozhikode route was beautiful of all with 11 hairpin bends and superb scenes... And last but not least Kannur route with 9 hairpin bends was thru dense forest.. each and every route are unique in special ways...
KSRTC Fast passenger used to be our one way out of this place to Calicut.There were other bus services too...Reliance and Kairali.. Jyo can give you all the details as he used to be our Bus timetable back then. KSRTC bus was considered slow and the private buses were like Jets.. and specially when they drive on the Ghat roads its better to hold on tight to the iron bar attached to the seat.. Competition from other buses was the main reason.. I still remember how they(Private Operators) negotiate an hairpin bend.. On the way down they will be in top gear when they near the bend they suddenly shifts the gear to 1st or 2nd and with huge effort on breaking they manage to turn the bus.. First timers will definitely have their stomach in their mouth.... we got quite used to that, hey not to having stomach in mouth but to the reckless driving..
Apart from travel Mananthavady had some special places.....Here are some of them which used to be our fav hangouts during our first year...
Famous STD Booth: These used to be the main hangout place during the evenings.. everybody getting connected to family.. and of course each other... I met Linu, Dipu here... They used to be the part time operators .. :)... One particular instance that happened here I can't forget and the hero was Jyothish... He called his parents and we were planning to go for a movie.. He told his father that we are going to a movie and his father asked one thing... Do anybody remember that.. Sandeep?? Umesh?? "Pava petta perude cinema aayrikyum(it must be a poor people movie)".. and what does that sentence mean.. Movie about people who dont have enough money to buy clothes.. ha ha ha.. we laughed a lot chatting abt that....
The STD Booth was on the ground floor of Haksons Hotel. Haksons and Riveira were the class hotels in those days and we can't afford to go there frequently.. but we went there occasionally may be in the beginning of each month as our pocket moneys arrived.. Specially loved the "Chicken Parts" served in Riveira...Coffee House was another food destination.. but it was not in the picture at that time...We were starting to exploring places... And a time came no place was left unvisited...
Guys I missed one most important thing ... Kabani... the only river in Kerala that flows towards West... I learned swimming in this gr8 river... And it was Renju who helped me.. he almost killed me teaching swimming Tell you what he did... He took me to the middle of the river where the depth was almost 12-15 feet...he pushed me down and then stood on my shoulders... Really that was hell.. but I came out acing in the swimming test... thanks for that dude even though I had mouthful of bad words at that time... Saturdays and Sundays were the fav time for swimming...
There are lot of stories about Kabani and you will find them very soon.. Signing off as of now...
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da.. U Missed some more places.........
1)Thonichal -- How could u miss this place?
2)NarrowKadavu... :-)
3)ErumaTheruvu....
4)Panamaram
to name a few.....
It's quite obvious dear that I will miss some places.. and for thonichaal.. it's not forgotten... it has a page for itself in my coming blogs.. how can I just shorten it in a para...
Thyonichal metro politan city aanadei..
Nee ellaam marannu.
Hey you forgot the other hotel name it was some thing like Grace. we used to eat chicken parts from there.