The Lowlands of Kerala

Kerala is a long and narrow state of India, stretching from South of Mangalore, to nearly the tip of India. It goes inland to the tea plantations in the mountains (gats). We spent about a week in Kochi, in the middle of the state. We actually stayed in Fort Kochin. There's not a whole lot to see here, although it is a relaxing place if you stay away from the famous Chinese fishing nets. Sadly, nearly all our time her was spent in an internet cafe downloading software to fix my computer. We've since purchased "WiFi on a stick"; that is, a USB stick that uses cell phone technology to get wireless internet (made by !dea, if you're interested). With this, we get unlimited wireless thoughout India for month -- for only $10! (Plus the cost of the stick.) We spent that much at the Fort Cohin internet cafe in one week.


After finally fixing the computer, we decided to go a little further south, to Kollam. Our original plan was to head to the beaches in Varkala, but we decided that Kollam was a better, as it's easy to do a backwaters tour from here (pictures of that trip are forthcoming). We found a quiet (though overpriced) guest house, Valiyavila Family Estates, on a peninsula in the lake. It was extremely relaxing. Although the service was lacking and slower than molasses (one pot of tea took a half hour to be delivered), we did meet the star of their show, Vivek; he was by far the best staff member. Vivek was friendly, outgoing, and a pleasure to talk to. If he was there full time, and in charge, that place would be 100% better. Sadly, the full-time person they do have, Joseph, is standoffish, bordering on rude.

Although Valiyavila left some things to be desired, we did enjoy the quiet and relaxing hammocks. It was also a great place to photograph fishermen, some of whom fished at night.

Sorting fish by candlelight

Tadashi photographing the night fishermen

The hotel recommended one of the best drivers we've ever had, Sudhi, who was recently voted "Best Tourist-Friendly Auto Driver" in the state of Kerala. Kollam isn't much of a tourist destination unless you're there planning a trip into the backwaters, but it was great for our purposes. Sudhi grew up in Kollam and has lived there all his life. He took us to the usual tourist places, but when we told him that we were photographers, he made sure to tell us about all the festivals. When we told him we wanted to visit schools, he took us to some. When we told him we wanted to interview people, he found us four people to talk to. When we missed the last ferry to our hotel, he interrupted his dinner to take us to the "country boat". Whatever we needed, Sudhi delivered. What more could you ask for?

One of the tourist places Sudhi took us to was a matchstick factory. Have you ever wondered how matches were made? I certainly hadn't, but it was really cool to see. The wooden sticks are whittled by locals and sold to the factory. Before the sticks can be made into matches, the wood must be prepped for being "tipped" by first being scorched.

Scorched matches waiting to be "tipped"

The process of putting on the flammable tip was a lot like print-making, but with highly flammable material. The material had the same consistency as latex paint. You wouldn't want to paint with this stuff, though.
Finally, the matches are finished and ready for drying.
The match boxes are made elsewhere, but they are painted and finished in the match factory; the men make the matches, and the women finish the boxes. First, the boxes are painted; to do so, they all fitted tightly into a large frame.

Next, the logo is pasted on by the women workers. These ladies are paid by the box, and the are FAST. You can see the glue on her right.

Boxes are dried in the sun.Finally, the matches are pulled out of their holsters and put into boxes in groups of 50. I wish I could put a video of this one (I couldn't even get a decent picture) because these ladies are even faster than the other ones.

I really liked Kollam, because the people were very open, considerate and outgoing. While Tadashi and I were walking through the market, the laborers asked us to take their picture! Talk about a role reversal. They wouldn't demand "Money!" or ask "Baksheesh?" afterwards; they would just thank us for taking their photo. Amazing! No frenzy would ensue, either. It was pure fun.

That's a 50 pound bag of rice on his head -- with no cushion

More riceCarrying bales of tea leaves

As I said before, Sudhi also took us to some schools. At the first one we went to, the headmistress was out for the day, so we couldn't talk to any teachers. While we were there, lunch time hit, and all the kids who had seen us come, came running to the office we were in. Upon leaving the office, a few kids asked, "One photo?" so we obliged. Why not? They're cute!

Little did we know the insanity that was to come. This was the craziest photo-frenzy that had ever ensued. (Actually, it turned out to be the second-craziest; THE craziest was at another school later that day.) The "one photo" turned into an insane crush of children.
As soon as I lifted the camera to take a picture of a few children, others would crush into the photo ( "photo bombers", as Jenny F. calls them). The picture below was meant to be just the two little girls, but as soon as the camera came to my face, all those boys suddently showed up. A photo like this:very quickly turned into this:
There were repeat offenders, too. These two were notorious bombers and would block my way to force me into taking a photo.But that quickly became:
Which quickly became:
It was so intense that lunches where knocked over and no one seemed to care.

Can you imagine the next school being even worse? We walked into the courtyard at recess time, and were immediately surrounded by children, all wanting to (oddly) shake our hands. I was surrounded by a circle 6 children deep. At one point, two boys whose hand I was shaking kept a tight hold and started jumping up and down while singing in Malayalum. It was so bad that I needed a rescue hand to pull me out of the crush. (I do not exaggerate!)

The one interview we were able to "conduct" at this school was useless because we couldn't hear a thing -- the kids were too loud. Let me try to give you a picture: imagine Brittany Spears going to a junior high without her body guard. That was us (we're both Brittany in this scenario). We had to wait until recess ended before we could leave, or else we would indeed have needed a body guard. As we left, the kids were all looking out of the windows above and as I waved goodbye, all the yelling was nearly deafening. I felt like Brittany waving goodbye to a crowd in the coliseum.

We don't have any pictures of this because we couldn't get to our cameras. Even if we did have our cameras readily available, I don't think we would have wanted to see that mess. However, Tadashi managed to escape before me, so he does have a video of the end. We'll have to figure out how to post that.