LONE WARRIOR

Four months after he lost his family in the Wayanad landslide, Kalathingal Noufal opened a restaurant in their memory. This is his story of heartbreak and hope

- BY ANJULY MATHAI/MEPPAD

We set out for Wayanad, a picturesque district in Kerala high on the Western Ghats, around evening from Kozhikode. As we traverse the nine hairpin bends up the winding road to Wayanad, the air grows cooler. The steep and verdant slopes are blanketed in mist. As dusk gathers, one can see pinpricks of light from Kozhikode. On a clear day, one can even identify the runway of the airport.

In fact, this road—known as the Thamarassery churam—is the main passage connecting Wayanad and the rest of Kerala. The people in the district depend on it even to transport emergency medical cases to Kozhikode, with Wayanad lacking advanced facilities. The 14km stretch is so narrow that traffic snarls can sometimes clog it for up to six hours.

At night, we reach Vythiri, one of the three sub-districts of Wayanad (along with Mananthavady and Sulthan Bathery). Passing a jumble of adventure parks which have just come up recently and rundown homestays with names like ‘Heaven Villa’ and ‘Paradise Retreat’, we reach our hotel. Early the next morning, we go to ‘After July 30’—the bakery-restaurant in the town of Meppadi owned by Kalathingal Noufal, who lost 11 members of his family, including his wife, three children and parents, in the devastating landslide in Wayanad on that date last year.

At first glance, ‘After July 30’ looks like any other bakery in Kerala—shelves stacked with biscuits and chips; glass cases showcasing carrot and plum cakes; tall tins of sweets and chocolates; a fridge with tubs of ice-cream in varied flavours like avocado, chikku and coconut. In a corner of the airy, well-lit space is the kitchen and right in front, a tea stall where someone brews fresh coffee and tea.