To DO or NOT DO in Kerala

• DO NOT take list of things to do while visiting this laid back place. Because, my friends, there is actually nothing to do here. And that is where the whole fun starts. The most interesting experience of my trip was the experience of time. Well, you must be wondering what the hell that is. Let me explain.There is this thing called ‘time’ that we city people don’t have or don’t enjoy. For us our lives revolve around lists of things to do, then spending the whole day doing those things and then spending the night wondering what we did the whole day. In all this thinking and doing we lose time to be with ourselves, to enjoy small things in life, to appreciate people who love you, to read a good book, to call parents and tell them you think of them, to write a blog that you have been meaning to write for a long time, to enjoy cooking something special for someone special, to hold hands just for the sake of holding hands, to discuss random stuff and to be ‘just be’.This is when you need to take a long weekend off and go to a place like Kerala! As the great poet in me says ‘You do it best when you do nothing at all” (inspired by a similar sounding song by Ronan Keating).

• DO carry lot of books to read. Even for our 5 days trip 2 books were not enough. This is linked to point number 1. There is so much time to read, laze around, day dream that books become your best companions. In fact Fort Kochi where we stayed for 2 nights can be called ‘readers’ paradise’. It has some amazing cafes like Teapot, Kashi Art Café which are meant to enjoy a good book with a good cup of coffee or tea and some good snacks. You can spend hours and not realise it.

• DO come with a big appetite. It has some amazing cuisine to offer. I cannot remember any other place where I enjoyed eating so much. The fish dishes are just amazing with wonderful flavours and spices. Then there are prawns, crabs, tapioca and appams. What else do you need in life? We would end up ordering 6-7 dishes among the 2 of us and manage to finish all.

• DO come with a smile. Chat with people around you. They love a good conversation and almost all of them speak English so don’t worry if you do not know Malayalam.

If Kerala is God’s own country then God surely is a lucky guy!

Kerala as seen through my eyes

The land of lungis

The first thing you notice when you land in Kerala is men in lungis-almost all men in lungis. Some in pure white with a thin border, some in this pale orange colour, and some in printed ones. I wonder if there is a community/caste/social class thing to it! Someone on facebook recently posted a video calling Kerala the ‘Land of Lungis’ and I totally agree with that. It’s actually fun watching them fold their lungi till knee length and tying it around the waist. 

Green Kerala Clean Kerala

Green green and green everywhere. With small, medium and large water bodies- canals, lake and sea. Nature has been kind to the state. But its citizens have been equally kind to nature.

If there is one place in India that has impressed me with cleanliness, it’s Kerala. It doesn’t look like part of our country. I saw families carrying chips wrappers and looking for a dustbin. Children drinking frooti and not throwing it on the road. Men not urinating on the walls. No garbage dumps un-beautifying the villages. NO stagnant water post monsoon. I DID NOT see all this. Amazing experience for an Indian to have in India.

I feel this strong civic sense has a lot to do with the fact that almost every person (men and women) is educated. Kerala has the highest literacy rates in Asia (almost 100%). Education gives you discipline- a strong sense of what’s right and what’s not.

There is a very strong and visible sense of pride amongst people for their region. It’s obvious when they talk about it to tourists like us “sir, now you are in God’s own country. Just relax and have a good time”. Or in the signage boards you see all around you “Smile! You are in God’s own country”. This was quite a nice change from the attitude of people in Delhi where no one is a Delhite- they are Punjabis, Bengalis, Tamils and so on.

Smile! You are in God’s own country

People in Kerala smile a lot. They look so happy, contented and satisfied (could be due to all the toddy men drink…more on this later). Of course I have theory for this too. I feel it’s because families are much smaller than in other parts of the country. Which means you don’t have a large population fighting/competing for limited resources. They are well fed, well-educated and well –off. And that is the real beauty of this place.

Toddy and men

Oh they love their toddy. Every man (I felt) loves to have this drink made from cocunut in the evening. You can see toddy shacks all over the state. In fact if you go for an evening walk you will find a lot of men swaying while walking and you would know there is a toddy shack nearby.

I had heard so much about it on my way to Kerala that I was dying to see what a toddy shack looks like. As a woman I couldn’t go to one (they don’t think too highly of women who drink toddy and thus I couldn’t risk my reputation by visiting oneJ) I had to settle for a picture of a shack close to my hotel.

Coconuts and its many uses

Once in Kerala, you will find coconuts everywhere- on trees, in your food (coconut milk, grated coconut, coconut oil), on people’s hair (coconut oil), as a drink (coconut water), in houses (coconut decorations). Don’t think they have left out any possible use of this fruit.