Bharati Motwani's article on the backwaters of Kerala invites readers to experience the pristine backwaters of Kerala along with its often unseen or missed elements that add to its immaculate beauty.

In the article titled 'Still Life' that featured in the July edition of one of India's leading travel magazine 'India Today's Travel Plus' Ms. Motwani introduces the mesmerizing backwaters of Kerala through a conversation that she had with a native lady who unravels before her some of the traditional healthy lifestyles, simple aspirations, faith etc. Following her experience on the backwaters of Kerala, Ms. Motwani strongly feels that the backwaters are there to be relished, but there are aspects of life in and around it that further hikes the level of interest and excitement from a visitor's point of view.

In her observations on the backwater life, Ms. Motwani invites the readers' attention to Lake Vembanad and its surrounding region called Kuttanad as a typical example of Kerala's unique backwater life. According to Ms. Motwani the largest inland water body in Kerala, Vembanad and the region of Kuttanad presents a unique experience in terms of the physical setting and the life that was shaped up in accordance to it. The region of Kuttanad with a predominance of rice cultivation is one of the rice bowls of Kerala. Crisscrossed by canals, dotted by islets, lined by towering coconut trees, and country boats of varying sizes, Kuttanad is an experience that could vary according to one's level of interest.

Ms. Motwani seems to have lost on words when she describes the backwater during dusk. She feels that, may be the eminent writer Arundhathi Roy could come up with appropriate expressions to do justice to the kind of feeling generated as one witness the immaculate painting that unfolds on an enormous canvas during sun set. Ms. Motwani is also awe struck at the kind of all enveloping green, the wet and the fecund terrain, which according to her is irrepressibly alive. She is also captivated by the dwellings of the people of the region; whether it is the stately tharavad made of red laterite and Burma teak or the simple thatched hut made of coconut fronds and bamboo.

While scanning her eyes over the landscape of Kuttanad, Ms. Motwani also adds to her list of amusements some of the daily chores carried out in the backwaters like harvesting of shells for lime, and the rearing of ducks. Often fanning out like Japanese fans, the ducks often take the privilege of creating traffic jams on the backwaters.

As one glides over the backwaters, ones eyes open-up to a feast of sights like the young boys sitting on tree trunks and throwing their fishing lines into the water; boats carrying schoolgirls with nylon ribbons keeping their glistening oily hair intact; old women sitting by the sides of the backwater and chatting; men setting off for work wearing their spotless mundus; men involved in construction of boats etc. And as one takes in these wonderful sights of daily life of backwater


life at Kuttanad, Ms. Motwani feels that it is a strange surreal feeling to float silently into a world so far removed from your own. And she feels the region as a sun-shot watery world where every perception is intense and alive.

Courtesy: India Today- Travel Plus, July 2006 issue.