I was walking down the lobby of Vasundhara Sarovar Premier, a resort in Alleppey, when I suddenly felt that I was being watched. I looked to the side, and a pair of eyes stared back at me. I gave a start, but the figure didn’t move at all. A life-size, three-dimensional statue of a...

My grandmother’s home, tucked away in a corner of Aliparamba, was where you would find me every summer break. When I think back now, there was never really much to do there — but as a child, curious and excitable, I would spend days on end occupied with this and that: sometimes climbing trees...

Columns of smoke rise up in the area around the Attukal Bhagavathy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala, on a certain day every February. The smell of sweet jaggery wafts through the air. Clay pots and brick stones are stacked along the pavement. The roads leading up to the temple are decked: tender...

Last month, I got an interesting phone call. It was from a friend in Kochi. “Would you want to celebrate the mouse god with me this Sunday?” my friend asked. “We have one?” I inquired incredulously. “Yes, he’s small, wears a yellow body suit, a red cape and goes by Dinkan!” I laughed out...

If you have been to Kerala, I am certain you have come across what the Malayalees call a thattukada or, their version of a roadside eatery. Come to think of it, thattukadas exist across India, albeit with slight variations from region to region. In Kerala for example, it consists of a large wooden shack,...

Sometime in the 15th century, fleets of ships from West Europe, laden with gold, would make their way to India’s west coast. Only to return home, laden with gold again, albeit a different kind. Sacks of pepper, considered so essential to European life, would fill up the containers of these vessels. In the olden...

In the early 19th century, it is said that the women of Southern Kerala had to adhere to a strange tax norm. They had to pay a tax if they wanted to cover their breasts! The appalling “breast tax” policy (mulakkaram) was especially earmarked for the lower caste women living in the erstwhile princely...