The Milky Way Falls

a poem by Ramesh T A

(On a brief stay in Courtallam)

The milk white misty clouds pressing the mountain tops
Among the vast range of fertile fields and rich grown trees
Stood as a great sight for the travellers to see in wonder
And appreciate the season as the best one of the year.
People travelling on the highways across the fertile lands
Reached the water falls to take bath day and night there
Till they get the satisfaction they longed for round the year,
For which how long how many daily sheets had they torn!

The tall broad giant mountain stood formidable for the view and the
Pressing clouds profusely poured forceful water from head to foot,
Where people with craze drenched themselves in the thick drops of the
Thudding water eagerly vying with one another to go to the centre of the falls!

The pleasure of enjoying a cool bath gave what a comfort!
A life without such a pleasure is not worth living indeed!
The cool drizzle of the place is quite enjoyable at least a week
To forget the tensions and trials of business and life in the whole year!

That Milky Way perhaps comes in slow motion as mists to melt into a water fall there,
A place, where heaven itself has descended for man to enjoy and aim for that heaven,
The destination of life for the morally good and decent men to reach one day!
That is why perhaps men are hurrying there without fail in the season every year
To enjoy that pleasure and to have a glimpse of that heaven there!

Yes! That place is Courtallam, a poor man’s paradise in Tamil Nadu!
It’s like the mini-paradise, Kodaikanal and the main paradise, Kashmir;
That paradise is the gateway to the great Everest Mountain
And this paradise is the gateway to the Indian Ocean!
They say the Milky Way falls on Everest and runs as rivers like Ganga to the Ocean!
So, Courtallam may be the tributary of the Milky Way to remind all of that in season!

The crystal clear Ganga may purify the sins of even the dead men,
But the Courtallam water of many herbals makes sane many an insane man!
The five water falls there give unforgettable experience in life!
The Main Falls, the Old Falls and the Five Falls are where rush is always more;
If the Main Falls is the dinosaur, then the Old Falls is the mammoth,
Whose broad black stone hill gives the thrill of Spielberg’s Jurassic Park!

Even fish and scorpions fall during an hour’s bath in the Old Falls!
The forceful falls water produces milky foam while running out to the fields
And the thrill of chill water makes one leap high in excitement!
After the bath, hunger pinches one to eat food stomach full till one is tired;
What a sound sleep then puts one to rest after a sumptuous feast!

Professionals’ prediction or the parrots’ prediction of one’s future is the pass time there,
Which everybody likes to hear in the stay there in the evenings!
More than all, cards is the best entertainment for everyone in group there,
In which old and young participate without a difference in jollity!

Then a long walk after taking booze friends enjoy life in fun before dinner
And after which again card play boisterously goes on till the night sleep.
And there ends all the games and all pack off from there
The next day hoping to meet again in the next year!