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PM plans holiday in Kerala

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who underwent knee replacement surgery on October 10 at Bombay's Breach Candy hospital, is coming to Kerala for a holiday.

According to highly placed sources, Vajpayee will spend a week from December 25 -- his 76th birthday -- to 30 at Kumarakam, a famous backwater resort on the banks of the Vembanadu lake in Kottayam district.

Vajpayee is likely to get ayurvedic care during his stay in Kumarakam. Physicians from the Coimbatore Arya Vaidya Pharmacy, who have treated several VIPs under the traditional system of Indian medicine, will take care of the prime minister.

Though the Coimbatore Arya Vaidya administration has not received official confirmation, senior doctors are thrilled at being called to tend to the VIP.

One doctor said since Vajpayee had gone through convalescence and post operation physiotherapy, he might not need any special treatment.

"Probably the prime minister is looking for rejuvenation, for which traditional medicine has several courses," the physician said.

The Prime Minister's Office has not confirmed where Vajpayee and his entourage will stay. The three major resorts at Kumarakam being considered are the Golden Tulip Kumarakam Resorts, Coconut Lagoon and Taj Garden Retreat.

According to the Malabar Quarterly Review (1903), Kumarakam was formed when the land from Thrikkunnappuzha in the south to Pallippuram in the north split into two following some natural calamity or a heavy flood. It is also said that in between the third and fourth centuries AD, the sea withdrew from certain parts of the shore, from Gokarnam in the north to Cape Comarin (Kanyakumari) in the south, due to the effects of a gigantic meteorite.

Interestingly, most of the Kumarakam area is black-soil land believed to have been formed by the meteoric dust and ashes, which entered the earth's atmosphere during that time.

A major attraction of Kumarakam is the bird sanctuary, spreading over 14 acres of land. Birds like egrets, darters, herons, teal, waterfowl, cuckoo, wild ducks etc, are seen in abundance. Migratory birds from northern Europe and Eurasia migrate to Kumarakam every summer to court, mate and lay eggs.

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