“The British came, and they took, and they stole everything from India and they made us slaves. But they gave us one thing – education. And we eventually started thinking – and that’s what made us free eventually. They couldn’t keep up what they were doing forever,” George, the manager of our resort explained to me.
The British we met here in India also educated us as well as entertained us, made for great conversation and became our friends. Because they were a different generation and had never personally colonized anyplace or anyone, we felt comfortable with our association.
We spent the last several days’ worth of meals with our four fifty-something year-old British friends we met here at Keraleeyam. Malcolm, Liz, Tim and Janina met each other for the first time only last week in nearby Cochin where they were staying at the same hotel. It turned out that both couples had plans to come to Alleppey on the same day. So, they shared a taxi and parted ways on our street. Malcolm and Liz moved into the bungalow next to ours while Tim and Janina checked in to the resort down the way.
Two days later, Tim and Janina were unhappy with their choice and decided to move over to Keralayeeam – encouraged by their newfound friends.
We met Malcolm and Liz at dinner the night before Tim and Janina made their move. The conversation started between our tables. The next night, we all sat together for dinner. The following night, Tim and Janina came on the scene. These are interesting people with professional backgrounds leading engaged, fascinating lives.
Malcolm and Liz retired, sold their house in Devon at the peak of the market, bought a condo, and set aside their nice profit to be their travel fund for the next fifteen years – hopefully elongated by wise investments. They bought a camper van and use it to travel Europe in the summers. Last year, they traveled for five months solid. Currently, they’re on a multi-month tour of India. They each have one moderate sized backpack to their names as they travel.
Malcolm’s theory is that they should spend and go while they’re young enough to really do it. He figures in another fifteen or twenty years, this kind of travel will be unappealing because it will be too difficult. So, why not get it all in now?
Tim is a recently retired journalist and Jenina is a still very much working journalistic photographer. She and Tim planned a five-week trip through Southern India, but Jenina had to cut it short to get back to London to finish some photo editing related to a book project in which she’s involved. Tim decided to stay the additional two weeks and will train-hop his way around India – spending more time on trains that we can possibly imagine. Why? Because he likes it and he can.
People like this know a lot about many things and have fantastic insights and opinions.
But my favorite is something very simple, genius and also disturbing. India’s time zone is a half-hour off from the rest of the world’s time zones. I’ve always thought it was odd, but assumed it was India being different.
Tim explained that in fact, India’s time was implemented by the British because with the half-hour adjustment, the British were able to make it so that if a watch set to India time is turned upside-down, it shows the time in London. It was a way for British colonialists to keep track of time at home.
We shared all our meals with the group for the three days they were here. We had long, multi-hour meals with lively, fascinating discussions. It made us feel more at home here.
Ironically, both couples again had the same plans for their next destination – departing again on the same day, different trains. I am sure they have reconvened already.
Today we’re sad that our friends left. We’ve had our eyes open on the “new blood” to see if there’s anyone of interest – but so far, it’s not looking good.
We have noticed that we have met people in the places where everyone eats together. At the Farmhouse resort in Nagarkot, Nepal we made friends and got into interesting discussions each of the nights we were there. Coincidentally, a buffet dinner is served at a single meal-time.
At our very first stop of the trip in Alanya, Turkey, we also made friends. Gene and Christina from Russia became regular dinner companions. Again, meals were served buffet-style within two-hour windows.
Here at Keraleeyam, the restaurant serves dinner from 7:30 to 9:00 each night. You order ahead at either lunch or breakfast and tell them what time within the window you plan to come to dinner. So, although they aren’t buffet-style meals, people tend to show up at the same place at the same time.
We figure that as people come and go, we may well make more friends over vegetable-coconut curry.
In the meantime, I’ll just have to go back to conversing with George who is a very articulate person. Similar to Tim’s enlightening tidbit about the time zone and the watches, George explained to me that at one time, the workers of Kerala were controlled by tapioca, or taro root.
“At the end of the day, they fed them tapioca, which made them sleepy. They were full, they felt happy, they went home and went to sleep right away. They never did anything at night and so they were easy to control. Then they got up in the morning and went to work again. And it went like this.”
Group meals are powerful.
PS: The Internet issue of yesterday seems to have settled down. The security password is in place and George came to us today and told us how nice we are, and that our “smiling faces everyday make me love my job.” We take this as a sign that things are all good.
Sent from my iPad
