State of Serenity: An Escape To Kerala

When work is done in bustling Mumbai, escape to tropical Kerala.

- Sharon Mcdonnell

Kerala proves a perfect place to recover from the frenzy of Mumbai, India’s financial and movie capital. This coconut palm-choked tropical state on India’s southwest tip — whose name means “land of coconuts” — brims with backwaters, misty mountains, tea and spice plantations, golden-sand beaches, wildlife sanctuaries and rice paddies. That’s not all: Authentic traditions like Kathakali dance, Theyyam trance rituals, Ayurveda and some of India’s most colorful festivals abound in a fascinating amalgam of varied cultures.

Unlike the rest of India, here Christians comprise a significant minority (19 percent of Kerala), from Catholics to Syrian Christians, who believe the apostle St. Thomas converted their ancestors in the first century (a shock to Portuguese conquerors, who found Christianity had arrived more than 1,000 years earlier). About 56 percent are Hindu, and 25 percent are Muslim. One of India’s most progressive states, with a literacy rate exceeding 95 percent and a life expectancy better than the national average, Kerala formed in 1956 by combining the states of Kochi, Malabar and Travancore.

Kochi (called Cochin in the colonial era), the state’s second-biggest city, boasts the ultimate fusion thanks to its importance as a seaport in the spice trade for pepper (called “black gold”), cardamom, turmeric, ginger and cloves. The iconic photo of Kochi shows Chinese fishing nets, huge cantilevered nets silhouetted against the sky in Fort Cochin, the oldest part of Kochi, a throwback to 15th-century Chinese traders but found statewide. India’s oldest European-built church, St. Francis Church of 1503, marks the original burial site of Vasco da Gama, who discovered the sea route to India for Portugal in 1498, landing in Kerala.