Kerala: Living in South India for a month

We lived in Kerala for a month. It was a wonderful experience living in a place for long term and having a home in a place where you don't know anyone. By end of the month we had met a lot of nice people, had wonderful experiences, and made a lot of sweet memories.
We wanted to stay somewhere in Kerala for a month, and after looking up a few options we picked a cottage in Allapuzha/Allepey, which is a small town that is famous for backwaters of Kerala. We had a cottage home with a small kitchen, living/bed room, bathroom, and a veranda. The house was surrounded by huge trees and bushes with a lot of birds visiting and living there. We could hear those birds waking up every morning. There was a farmers market that was open during the week which had fresh vegetables, fruits, eggs, poultry, fish, meat, and all grains. Very soon we started visiting the same shops and the people in the market started to recognise us. They were happy to see Nora and were eager to interact with her and talk with her. We think Nora also enjoyed those interactions a lot. The hosts where we stayed arranged for a milkman to deliver milk every morning. He used to come and deliver freshly milked cow milk with his big bright smile. Whether there was rain or sun, he was there every single day to deliver milk. It was a wonderful way to start the day - with a big bright smile and fresh milk.

We are glad that we got to experience the culture of South India not just as a tourist but also by living there for a short period. One thing we observed was how seamless the people of different religions were integrated as a community. Walking for 10 minutes on the streets, we could see a mosque, a church, and a Hindu temple. Religion is part of everyday life in Kerala.
Men and women on the streets were freely walking, sometimes hand in hand without inhibitions, contrary to what we get to hear about India. The other thing that was interesting was that the Communist Party is one of the major parties in Kerala. In fact, Kerala was the first state in India that had a democratically elected a communist party to govern them. Now two communist parties, Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI(M) has a big presence in the region. We could see party flags, party gatherings on the streets, and events with a lot of Marxist symbols on them. Staying in Europe and U.S.A, seeing communism so publicly and being accepted along side other parties was interesting to watch for both of us.

During the past years, we both also traveled a bit in other states of South India -- Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. We found people of Kerala to be very nice, respectful, and in comparison very calm in their demeanour. It showed in people's behaviour on the streets, in shops, on public transportation, at tourist locations, and everywhere else you meet them. They showed interest in us and shared about their lives with us. In comparison to other South Indian states, food was less spicy in Kerala. And they use coconut oil as their base cooking oil. Bananas were a big part of the fruits sold in Kerala. There were 10s of varieties of bananas with colours ranging from yellow, green, purple, red to size ranging from 2-3 cms to as large as 15-20 cms. Some of them were used for eating raw, and others for cooking. Fried banana was a delicacy of this region, and we enjoyed it whenever we had the opportunity.

During our stay in Kerala, we did a few touristy things about which we already blogged -- temple to see elephants, beaches, Fort Kochi, Backwaters and other places.

If you are ever planning to explore a calm and beautiful part of India, we definitely recommend Kerala in South India.