A studio visit to Nijeena’s and lunch with Wilson

We have come to North Paravur to visit our friend Nijeena who is a printmaker.

She has built the most amazing studio in her back garden where she runs SALT, Space for Art, Learning and Teaching…with workshops for artists and children.

She is the next artist to feature in the Shed gallery so Charlie was keen to talk to her about all her work. 

In the late afternoon she said let’s go to watch the sunset at Cherai beach! I’d hadn’t realised we were so close! So we drove through the backwaters and just about made it before the sun went down!

Although we’ve stayed at Cherai beach a few times, we’ve always been further north on Vypin Island and not in the centre which comes to life at night with sparkling lights adorning all the buildings…or have they just not got round to taking down the Christmas decorations! 

We ate dinner at an amazing restaurant called Tropical Trip Resto bar, a manmade tropical environment made out of concrete, but so realistic with a waterfall and stream running through the centre full of huge fish! 

The following day we set off to have lunch with our poet friend Wilson in Kuzhur. 

It’s right out in the sticks and Google maps kept changing the route! Maybe we did actually go round in circles! 

It was so lovely to see him at his Temple of Poetry…it  must be six years since we last visited, after the terrible floods in Kerala washed his house away. We were treated to best Thali ever, cooked by his friend Shiju who  runs a catering business.

Since we last visited Wilson’s garden has flourished, his house now seems to be hidden in the middle of a banana grove and the tree I planted is huge! 

We felt so relaxed, his place is an oasis of calm nestling in the Kerala countryside of paddy fields, palms and banana trees! 

Government College of Fine Art Thrissur

On our first visit to the Kochi Muziris Biennale  2013 we saw a poster for a printmaking exhibition at the Government College of Fine Art in Thrissur. 

Charlie made contact with the college via an art student he had met and two years later, exactly ten years ago he was invited to give a talk to students. 

We have become close friends with Kavitha Balakrishnan who runs an innovative  degree  course in art history and have visited the college every time we’ve been back in Kerala. 

As always the students are so enthusiastic and interesting to talk to!  

On the first day Charlie worked with the students on a project involving matchboxes and Surrealism and the day after he talked to the students about the online Shed Gallery that he curates. 

The students will exhibit their project in the Shed Gallery in April. 

A night in the forest

We were invited by Rajesh, one of Kavitha’s students at the Gov College of Fine Art to stay over night at his forest farm up in the hills near Peechy dam.

Rajesh is an architect with a flourishing business in Mumbai, but he decided to return to his home town to take a degree in art history! 

First he took us see the dream house he designed 20 years ago. Called the Christmas tree house after a Christmas tree 🌲 he planted in the garden! 

An amazing place, with an open part of the roof to let rain in to a central pool inside.

Rajesh is an inveterate collector! Cupboards filled with a cacophony of objects collected over the years, and a very interesting art collection. The garden had nutmeg trees and pepper vines, so we came away ladened with spices! 

Then we went up to ‘the farm’.  It’s such a beautifully peaceful environment, tucked away in the hills, surrounded by coconut 🥥 and cashew trees, and pepper vines climbing up all the trees. His land extends right down to the river. 

Across the valley the forest hills rise up in the mist and there are wild elephants and ‘ peacocks 🦚 dancing on the stones ’, and even the odd tiger 🐅. 

We walked down to a tiny house he has built below the main house, and got some coconuts for breakfast. When Baby arrived he took the husks off with a special tool outside the back door.

Rajesh rents the house out as a homestay and Baby looks after all the guests. Baby is Christian and trains the local choir at his church…he sang us a carol! 

On our way back to college we drove down to look at Peechy dam and the river that flows to his land. 

We stopped at the Indian Coffee house on the dual carriageway for breakfast and afterwards he took us next door to see a wood carver, hidden away in his little workshop. The guy wanted to give us a gift and said I could choose anything from his shop…it was somewhat overwhelming… but I spotted a roughly carved elephant. He insisted on giving us three, and Charlie is thrilled because he can use it in his Jose Saramago elephant project! 

The Barn Villa

Thrissur

We left Varkala for Thrissur by train, passing by the vast lakes of Kerala. The vegetation is just so beautiful…palm trees, banana trees, flocks of egrets, bright green paddy fields. So much better than driving down the highway which is currently chockablock with road works.

There is something magical about Indian trains with the song of the chai wallahs constantly walking up and down the length of all the twenty carriages selling every kind of drink or snack you can imagine. 

A minute after we had boarded the train we were eating biriani for lunch! 

We came out of the wrong entrance of the station, as we were so far at the back of the train, and found ourselves in the mayhem of the rickshaws but eventually found Kavitha and Rajesh who had come to meet us.

It was lovely to see them again and they whisked us back through all the mad Thrissur traffic to their spacious house on the edge of town for tea, toast and jackfruit cake! 

We are very happy to be back in Thrissur…there are very few European tourists but everyone smiles at us and asks where we are from! 

On Saturday we went into town to explore. First we walked around the a Skywalk, an overhead air conditioned walkway that goes right round a massive roundabout…so we could look down on the hustle and bustle of the traffic that is so typical of India! Underneath nestle all the vegetable markets.

Thrissur is centred around the  Vadakkunnathan  temple , set in a huge park and circular road both called The Round. 

We set off in a rickshaw to meet Kavitha at The Women’s Food Court…but the driver couldn’t find it so we went round and round The Round …but he didn’t charge us extra…he said it was his mistake! 

Fish fry and amazing gooseberry and ginger juice for lunch! 

On Sunday we went back to The Round to meet up with two art students, Jinesh and Sneha, who had offered to show us the temple and the elephants. The park is full of huge banyan trees, with a circular concrete around each one, perfect to sit in the shade and eat ice creams! 

Then we wandered towards the elephant enclosure, while they showed us their sketch books…they had been drawing the elephants the day before! Jinesh rang the manager and wangled the opportunity for us to go inside.

Such beautiful animals, unadorned, smaller with a pink face and calm, the other huge and aggressive, waving his bamboo shoot lunch in the air. We kept our distance. 

Later we went for a walk by the paddy fields to watch the sunset…Charlie chatted to some kids that were fishing and they let him have a go! 

A perfect ending to an incredible day! 

Varkala vibes

A decade to the day and we arrived back in Varkala…everyone said it had changed but we wanted to see for ourselves! We walked along North Cliff in the searing heat toward Black beach which has changed behind recognition with new developments. The weight of all the little shops (each selling identical dresses and shirts ) is contributing to the erosions of these spectacular red laterite cliffs.  

Jickys Nest is an oasis from the madness and mayhem of the crowds of young Indian boys who swarm in by early evening on their bikes, filling the place with a rowdy atmosphere while jostling their way down the red sandy pathways of the cliff. 

The locals resent this invasion which developed after the pandemic as the visitors just look and buy and eat nothing. 

We are peacefully tucked away in the peacock 🦚 room at Jicky’s, surrounded by tall trees, bird song, with a pheasant and a pair of mongooses for company! 

There is a Veg restaurant a stone’s throw away where we have explored a multitude of delicious dishes breakfast, noon and night! It’s managed single-handedly by a delightful Nepalese guy who says he’ll be retreating back to Kathmandu in March to escape the heat.

I’ve looked down at the beach in envy at the sea, but stone steps down are too hazardous and the waves and undercurrents 🌊 are too strong. We visited the temple and walked down to a beach that still has that ramshackle feel that we remember! 

But I’ve been able to swim every morning in a beautiful pool nearby. The day before yesterday an outline of a beautiful mural of goddesses nestling in a lily pond has appeared at the pool! Today I chatted to the artist and he invited us to his little studio on the hill down to Papanasam beach!

Marari beach bums

Leaving Kochi after 12 days to drive down to Marari beach I was suddenly aware how it was really the first time we were seeing Kerala’s lush greenery, so refreshing! 

Our next home stay is so peaceful…right by the beach with our own little sandy garden! Our host cooked us a delicious dinner that we ate in the light of a full wolf moon! 

Early next morning I walked down to the beach with a pink moon just setting, to watch the fishermen bring in their catch. The men in this small community all help with the fishing and each woman seems to have a patch of beach with sun beds or chairs! Didi, Bincy’s cousin knocked on the door to ask if I wanted a sun bed … she wanted to make sure I didn’t go with someone else!

We went for a long walk round the block to try to find Marari Nest where we stayed eight years ago!

We met Sebastian, another homestay host who is also an artist. 

He’s created three dimensional murals on every wall of his house, but has now developed an allergy to concrete dust and can’t work. It turns out he is the cousin of Jiju where we stayed before. 

I chatted to his wife who is desperate to go and work as a care assistant in UK to support the family. It made me realise how hard life is for this close knit community, outside the two or three months of tourism. 

But at the same time having Malayali friends who have come to work in care homes near us in England I also know what a pittance they earn, and how difficult it is to find a room to live in. The whole situation makes me feel very sad! 

We bumped into Denise, our Irish neighbour from Kochi and spent lazy afternoons alternating between Fisherman cafe and Ecstasy cafe aka Faulty Towers sharing travellers tales.