Living the Konkani Way of Life

More than just the beaches, forts, mountains and ancient temples, Konkan also offers a unique way to spend your vacation through agro-tourism. Here, you can live on a farm and participate in all the activities related to farming and fishing while enjoying the beauty of nature and indulging in typical local cuisine. Viren Merchant describes his experience.

- Viren Merchant

It’s 6 am, Monday. And while the view from my balcony in Mumbai would have been of two-wheelers, rickshaws and cars finding their way to wherever their owners were going and of vendors setting up their vegetable and fruit stalls in the market nearby, today I am greeted by the sight of cloud-covered hills in the distance, leaves on trees rustling softly in the gentle breeze, a couple of cows munching their fodder, a hen scurrying away after her chicks and smoke rising from a fire set up to boil water for my bath. I am in a tiny village in Konkan.

It’s a vacation but of a different kind, part of a agro-tourism project that will enable me to experience undiluted rural life – living in a small cottage, eating the same food as the villagers do and participating in all the regular activities of a Konkani household, including joining the fishermen on their daily trip out on the sea to catch fish and helping the women mend the nets and tending to their kitchen gardens. Konkan, in particular, has been found to be very suitable for the agro-tourism initiative, given the fact that the region has an abundance of natural beauty with coastal destinations that attract tourists from far and wide.