| Turquoise
waters curl onto palm-fringed beaches, rice boats
glide by on emerald canals, gentle hills break
the gradient of paddy fields, ancient palatial
houses nurse their secrets .... You are
in Kerala - God's own country - the land that the
sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu, Parshuram, is
said to have axed out of the sea.
The
people too can trace their lineage back to over
5000 years ago to the Austrics, ancestors to the
Aborigines of Australia, and the Negrito, tribal
hunters who lived in harmony with nature, living
off the land that gave them everything.
Then
came the Dravidians, the Arabs and the Jews,
followed by the Dutch, Portuguese Spanish and the
British - each community weaving its own beliefs
and culture into the tapestry of the land.
The
Kerala of today is a fusion of the lives of these
people, lived out amongst its hills and its
beaches, taking on the colour of the sea -
eternally changing, yet never the same.
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