God’s own country

Kerala, located in the South of India is known as God’s own country. One visit to this majestic place and you’ll know why it’s named so. Kerala is famous for its backwaters and a cruise on the backwaters on a houseboat is something that cannot be missed. On a recent visit to Kerala (my first visit, and definitely not the last) I got to have this experience first hand.
We rented a houseboat for a day and I was baffled when the guy told me that the boat would come to pick us up at our hotel at 10:30 in the morning, I understood this when I reached my hotel.

Apparently most of the hotels in the quaint little village of Kumarkom are facing the backwaters and they all have a jetty for this very purpose. Out of sheer excitement I was ready with my small bag and waiting near the jetty since 10 in the morning, but nothing could prepare me for the sight when the majestic looking boat slowly made its way towards the jetty. I stood motionless for a full minute with my jaw open, when they said a boat I wasn’t really expecting it to be this huge.

Anyways, once my husband and I boarded the boat I took off for a tour. There was an open living room and a dining space fully furnished with a large sofa and comfortable chairs and a dining table and equipped with a swanky flat screen TV and a DVD player. Inside there were two air conditioned bedrooms decorated in the typical hotel style with attached bathrooms that had a shower and toiletries for the guests. And at the other end of the boat was the kitchen. There was a crew of four, two chefs, one person to do the serving and one person that I would call the captain of the boat.

Once we settled down after the tour we were served fresh coconut water and I sprawled out on a chair with my drink feeling like a queen. We were still not quite far away from the village so we came across dozens of other boats like ours who had just picked up their passengers. It was only after half an hour or so that we were considerably away from civilization that I started admiring the beauty. It really was something I’d never seen before, the calm water that sometimes is covered in a carpet of green giving it an illusion of land is tranquilizing after a while. The further we went, the better it got. On both sides there were rice paddies and coconut trees, and every once in a while I saw men sitting at the edge with their ancient looking fishing rods and drinking what I presumed to be toddy(a local alcoholic drink). We cruised by small clusters of houses every now and then where we could see people washing their clothes or doing their everyday chores and waving every time a boat passes by.

At lunchtime the boat was anchored and we were served an amazing variety of local dishes on a banana leaf. The fish, marinated in spices and shallow fried was the best I’d ever had. After lunch however, we seemed to sail deeper into one of the numerous canals, and there was nothing around except for the water as far as the eye could see. On rare occasions we would come across a tiny cottage located in the middle of nowhere that could only be reached by a boat. How people lived here I cannot tell, even the simplest of things would be so hard for those people, for e.g., getting grocery or vegetables. I don’t know how many miles away they would have to go in their tiny boats to get groceries, and yet the people living there had the broadest smiles I’ve ever seen.

The surroundings had an effect on me in an almost spiritual way I suppose. At that moment I believed that if ever god could be found, he would be found at a place like this. The peace was so immense that in that very moment I was ready to give up all that I ever had if I could come and stay at a place of such beauty forever.

Linus Orakles
http://www.authorclub.info/