Kovalam, November 1, 2008
I resume the narrative after a long break due to various upheavals in my life, maybe partly also due to this trip. But not are not even halfway and it would be a shame to stop. Inevitably, over the past three months now since my return, the memory stick and begins to weave its thread with the current feelings. Not India in October and November, but India is now. Memory is not a deposit but a creative act, a process of cold fusion of the past for use and consumption of this.
From Kanyakumari to Kovalam travel is short. It will be because I recovered, but the atmosphere on the road I think begin to change. Compared to Tamil Nadu, we see that we are entering a state richer and more 'ordered'. In fact, Kerala is one of the last places on earth where the communist rule. Precisely since 1957. Democratically elected. Even with this history of the democratic community? you say. It 's true, you can never rest easy. Among other things, I understand that neither Berlusconi nor Veltroni have never mentioned among the examples of "misery and death." Perhaps because it has always been one of the richest and most developed in India (the literacy rate is close to 100%)? Today many say that the "Kerala model" is in crisis, but I'm known to be biased and I relax by observing that even the traffic is less chaotic and softening landscapes of hills covered with palm trees and banana plantations. Here and there, quietly, stands a few flag with hammer and sickle. In short, a paradise for hippies, here will find their perfect match without having to resort to the eternal but now unpresentable Fidel.
Before arriving in Kovalam is no time to take a break in one of the most beautiful architectural complexes in Kerala and probably the entire South India, the palace of the raja of Padmanabhapuram. Sekhar leaves me in front of the entrance to the building and I am instantly struck by the delicacy of the complex, a series of mostly wooden buildings in a style far from what we normally associate with tropical architecture. Rather, the presence of dark wood inlaid with sloping roofs and there and then reminds me of a cross between a Bavarian settlement and deformation of a Disney pagoda. Confused but happy I rely on solid leadership of Touring: "From here magnificent kings reigned over a large portion of Travancore of Kerala territory between the sixteenth and the eighteenth century." Then find out that in reality the Chinese and European influences are not strangers to the place, because the rulers of the time had close trade links with one or the other continent.
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