Travel Diaries: A Rainy Walk Through Asramam Maidan

20 July 2025

“മുറ്റത്തെ മുല്ലയ്‌ക്ക് മണമില്ല (Muttathe Mullaykku Manamilla)” is a popular saying in my mother tongue, Malayalam. Its literal translation is “The jasmine in one’s garden has no scent.” It implies that we often lose respect for or take for granted things and people that are too familiar to us. A popular English proverb with a similar meaning is “Familiarity breeds contempt.”

The main reason I added familiar places like ‘Asramam Maidan’ to my very long India trip itinerary was to break this negative bias. 

Asramam Maidan

For context: “Asramam Maidan is an urban park at the heart of my hometown, Kollam in Kerala, India. A large, open area with lush, green trees surrounding it, this ground is one of the green lungs of the city.

It regularly hosts cultural and sports events and is the main training hub of all the driving school operators in Kollam. It has a 2.3 km walkway constructed around it, facilitated for jogging and running.” 

Fun fact: “Did you know that Asramam Maidan was used as an aerodrome during the British colonial period? It was in use until the commissioning and development of the Trivandrum airport. Now it has two large helipads.”

I’ve been to this park scores of times with my family, mainly for evening walks or to attend cultural events. In those visits, I always appreciated the clean air, the lush green trees, and the calm ambience of the park. However, I never observed it with the keen eyes of a tourist.

So, on 20th July, a Sunday, when my sibling told me he was on his way to Asramam to get a haircut, I hitchhiked with him. 😅  In my opinion, we must never waste an opportunity to irritate our siblings, especially when it comes with free benefits like reducing our travel expenses and carbon footprint. In Kerala, we call this sneaky act of securing free benefits at the expense of others “ഓസ്സ് (Auss)”. 

If hitchhiking isn’t an option, these travel instructions will help you get there. 

How to Reach Asramam by Public Transport?

• From Kollam Railway Station, board a bus to Chinnakada Private Stand. Then board an Asramam or Ilamballoor-bound private bus and get down at the Asramam Maidan stop. 
• From the Kollam KSRTC Stand, Asramam Maidan is situated at a walkable distance of approximately 1.5 km, or you can take an auto.

Encounter With Strays

When we reached the Asramam Maidan road, it was congested due to the long queue of cars that had arrived for a wedding function at the Younus Convention Centre. My brother dropped me near the popular Kallu Soda shop. 

As soon as he drove off, an Indian pariah dog, brown with black stripes, started barking ferociously at me. I wondered why he looked so pissed off. I quickly crossed the road to avoid a mishap, but it continued glaring and barking at me in full throttle. 

Just then, another stray, this time a black and white one, trotted towards my side. The second dog didn’t bark at all, but was staring at me and continued walking straight towards me, as if expecting to be petted. I was already unnerved and didn’t know what to do. Luckily, the uncles and chetanmar(brothers), sitting on the nearby benches, intervened and shooed it away.

You wouldn’t believe it, but it happened a third time. Again, a pariah dog, this time fully brown with occasional furless patches on its body, approached me. However, an uncle sitting on the nearby bench assured me, “It’s okay, Moley(daughter). Keep walking. It won’t hurt you,” and that’s just what I did.

I wondered what was wrong. The dogs seemed agitated. Were they hungry or irritated? Or was it because of the rainy weather (Karkidakamasam)? 

Just then, I realized I was wearing a black-and-white (zebra) animal print top. “God, did I just walk away from a territorial dispute with an angry dog? Don’t tell me they mistook me for a fellow stray, or an enemy dog from a rival gang!” I wondered for a second. Soon, I chuckled and shook my head no. “No way.  Dogs are smarter than that.” 

Anyway, I was so grateful for everyone who stepped in to help me. The only reason I feel safe in my lone walks and solo trips is because of the kind humans on the streets.   

Rainy Paths

Like I said, I have visited this ground many times in the past for my evening walks. The trees and the fresh breeze here are a stress-buster for me. Usually, this place is filled with people from all walks of life, either attending their driving classes, taking their driving tests on the ground, or enjoying a leisurely walk like me. 

But this time, the rainy weather had deterred most of them. So, I mentally cheered for those iron-willed people who did show up for their driving classes. I watched them drive the heavy vehicles and four-wheelers with L boards with awe, ‘coz I don’t drive. I hope someday I will overcome my inhibitions and strike it off my to-do list. 

One of my favorite things to do in parks or grounds like this is to stand under a thick tree and stare at the sky through its leaves. Like Phunsukh Wangdu says in the 3 Idiots movie, here’s the demo:

Unfortunately, that’s a risky game on sunny days, because there are crows on most trees, and if you’re not careful, you might end up getting splashed by their excrement. 

Maybe because it was a rainy day, the trees were devoid of crows, and hence the risky splashes. I could stroll and stare at leisure, even under the densest trees. 

I must say, Asramam Maidan in its rain-drenched avatar looked even more pristine and beautiful. Though the main ground looked wrecked by rain, the wet cobbled pathways, the tree leaves drizzling with raindrops, the half tree-trunk-shaped benches too damp to sit on, and of course, the intellectually scintillating Ashtashilpa or Eight sculptures and wall engravings were not just a treat to my eyes, but to my heart and soul as well. 

The Eight Sculptures 

Asramam Maidan is also a heritage walkway. In 2020, Kerala Lalitha Kala Akademi Kollam, in association with DTPC, conducted ‘Ashtashilpa’, a ten-day sculpture camp at Kollam Asramam grounds. As part of this, ashtashilpa or eight concrete-based sculptures were constructed by Malayali sculptors, based on the eight directions of Ashtamudi Lake. According to Wikipedia, these sculptures and their respective sculptors are:

• Kuravanum Kurathiyum by Guruprasad Ayyappan (Kollam)
• Mother and Child by KV Jyothilal (Kollam)
• Winter Morning by V. Satheesan (Thiruvananthapuram)
• Two Horses by KRT Tinu (Kannur)
• One of Us by Pramod Gopalakrishnan (Thrissur)
• Peache Ki Or by Sanu Ramakrishnan (Vaikkam)
• Imagining Human by Giri Vasudevan (Idukki)
• From The Margin by Schenley (Collam)

I was able to identify a few of them at the Maidan. Perhaps you can help me with the rest? 

Please refer to my photo album ‘Sculptures at Asramam Maidan’ to see the images of the sculptures.

The Wall Engravings

In addition to the sculptures, Asramam Maidan also has numerous wall engravings that depict historical and cultural events important to Kollam, like Quilon Lahala 1809, Inauguration of the Kollam Harbour in AD 825, Strength testing of Punalur Hanging Bridge using elephants, Seethakali, native to Perinad,  Scenes from Old Cashew Processing unit, etc. 

Return Journey

Before long, I got a call from my brother, asking if I was done with my walk. Soon, he picked me up in his car, and we had tender coconut from the roadside stall. He showed me a house with bougainvilleas in bloom, and asked: “Beautiful, isn’t it?”

But soon, heavy rains fell, forcing my brother and me to hurry to the car, and all the stray dogs to huddle under a blue tarpaulin shed. I chuckled as we settled into our seats. 

“Nature, don’t tell me you were waiting for me to finish my walk before pouring down the rain. Having fun, are you?” Being imaginative and delusionally optimistic is how I’ve managed to survive three decades in this world. 

Have you ever felt your hometown looks so much more alluring in the rain, or is it just me? I’d love to hear how your native place changes in the rain: muddy or magical?

Author’s Notes

~ All content, including images, on this blog is the intellectual property of the author. © 2025 Lirio Marchito. All rights reserved.

~ This blog is part of a series exploring my travels through my hometown, Kollam, a beautiful district in Kerala, India. You can read more posts from this series here: Kollam | Kerala | India.