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British Mensa Travel Special Interest Group |
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Norfolk of India Kerala is on the south west coast of India, near Goa – the Malabar coast, the spice coast. Remember that India is not a country but a sub-continent and the different areas are as different from each other as, say, Scotland and Greece. In Kerala, we saw no poverty. Some people live in what we consider to be fairly primitive housing, but this is merely their normal way of life. One must not hold this in comparison with Western housing. This is an area of full education with access to medical treatment, birth control, adequate food and clothing etc. This is nothing like the North with its slums and beggars. The people are proud, dignified, welcoming and keen to meet people from other countries. They seem to spend their life washing. Those who live by the waterways bathe fully dressed and wash their clothes in the river. Their cooking pots sparkle like mirrors. There is hardly any crime and I feel much safer than in any Western city. The area around Cochin is flat and riddled with waterways (like Norfolk). Cochin has always been a thriving port and its trade – spices, tea, coffee as well as imports – has always attracted people from other nations, whose influences are still visible – Chinese fishing nets, Portuguese architecture etc. The Jews were first welcomed in the 14th century, their numbers being swelled by refugees from the Inquisition in the late 15th century. For hundreds of years, there was a huge Jewish community in Cochin, recently dwindled to a mere 14 people. We stayed in a number of private homes, very opulent houses, mostly on plantations. The owners / managers are all highly educated people who receive paying guests less for the income than for the contact it gives them with people from the outside world, their own lives being limited by location. Our every need was meticulously catered for by the many servants. Incongruously, we were served tea from porcelain crockery, with tablecloth, napkins and all the frills – at the top of a mountain – by a “tea wallah”. In the evening, it is customary to have a drink with the host, often in the garden. One evening, its was raining and the message came: “The master says drinks outside inside at 7 o’clock.” The calf and cockerel wandered inside our bedroom. One driver told us not to eat the samosas from the roadside stall as they were cooked in engine oil; we discovered that he had merely misinterpreted the word hydrogenated. These people are intent on pleasing you and nothing is too much trouble. One meets the odd elephant with its ‘mahoot’ walking along the road and groups of monkeys come to scrounge whatever food you are carrying. The whole area is a paradise for those with an interest in flora and fauna. We spent 24 hours on a houseboat – a converted riceboat with a deck (lounge / diner), bedroom, bathroom and immaculate kitchen. This was the most peaceful trip in the world, except that we moored overnight near a temple and were woken at 5am by high decibel hymns. We were just
outside Mumbai / Bombay on our last evening and the Mensa local secretary,
Mirav Sanghavi, and his lovely wife made the long journey out of town
to meet us. They are a charming couple and have a very active group in
town and he gave me several copies of their Mensa journal, which is lively
and interesting and free from pretentious waffle. Bearing in mind that
the English and Indian sense of humour is not always the same, I was surprised
by the very English flavour of the articles. Our thanks and good wishes
to them both. We travelled with a company called Colours of India and
this is the only travel company whom I would unreservedly recommend. They
had personally stayed in every location and checked every detail. If anyone
is thinking of visiting India, or merely wants to wade through my photos,
I would be happy to hear from them. First published in VISA issue 50 (March 2003) |