Rest...or else!

Try to imagine a frantic pace through India – even now I can see that India and frantic pace just don’t go together. We hurl ourselves out of bed in the morning, ready to tick the requisite monuments off our list and ask the appropriate questions of the guide so we can piece together all of Indian history and politics in one trip. We get back in the car and pronounce sagely on the tidbits we have gleaned and then frantically drive to the next place. Over the course of four weeks we have found fresh insights on the Moghul dynasty, we have critiqued and found solutions to the ongoing Indo-Pakistani conflict and deplored the results of – pick one – Partition, Hindu/Muslim violence, especially in Gujarat where we have never been, Nehru/Gandhi policies following Independence and the list goes on. I hope our Indian hosts were listening and if, by chance they were, I also hope they would take our car debates in the spirit in which they were meant, an intense interest and curiosity about India and an attempt to piece together so very many contradictions, our heads were spinning.


Now try to imagine all that frenetic activity coming to a crashing, screaming halt on a soft bed of water hyacinth in the backwaters of Kerala, and you will have the houseboats at Alleppey. There is only one thing to do at Alleppey and that is to sit and watch the world go by. You can’t even have a conversation with someone (a relief after so much thinking) because Giddesh, Babu and Jonesay – captain, butler and cook – have limited English and speak Malayalam. They travel a well worn path with tourists – they know the job and they just do it. It’s like going to a dude ranch – you get on the horse, you ask no questions, your horse follows the horse in front and you just enjoy the scenery. But what lovely scenery the Keralan backwaters hold. Will let the pictures tell the tale.