In God's Own Country

I love taking a break and leaving the city. Doesn’t happen too often, or as much as I would have liked, but whenever there is an opportunity I try and get away. However, I wouldn’t say an opportunity presented itself last week when I visited God’s Own Country. An elderly relative had passed away (he was well past his nineties) a few days earlier and then there was a wedding reception to attend.

A visit to Palakkad is never without its charms. With the south-west monsoon edging close, and after the first spells of the season’s rain, leaves glistened in green and flowers of different shapes and sizes and colours were abloom.

The first picture says it’s Kerala; the architecture is a give-away. Adding a bit of gravitas is my uncle with his Telly Savalas look. A view of the old and the new – tiled, conical roofs and new-age cars; a jack-fruit tree in my aunt’s garden; and a well-tended garden outside another uncle’s home.