Making Peace with a Truant River

The swelling waters of the Chalakudy river in Kerala have ruined the tranquil lives of the residents of the Moozhikulam Sala on its shore. But they are not giving up yet

- SHEVLIN SEBASTIAN

Imagine an extended Walden Pond set in the Kerala idyll and you have Moozhikulam Sala, a pastoral housing colony for city people 28 km from Kochi in Kerala. As a mixed metaphor, one of the first things to catch your eye at the entrance is that there is no gate. A few metres inside, stands a large banyan tree with overhanging branches. The mud paths abound in dry leaves. There is a good deal of vegetation: peanut, banana, fig, bamboo, sandalwood and cannonball trees. Because the Sala is right next to the Chalakudy river, a gentle breeze blows all the time. The calls of cicadas and the occasional cawing of a crow punctuate the silence.

The idea of the organic village was born to TR Premkumar, a former maths and physics teacher at a private college, after reading