And thus begins the story of Kerala, the land of coconut palms (kera), backwaters and lagoons; joyous temple festivals, classical kathakali and ayurvedic healing. In this anthology, writers as diverse as Arundhati Roy, Ramachandra Guha, O.V. Vijayan, Vaikkom Mohammad Basheer and Kamala Das combine to bring alive the languid beauty and charged social and political ethos of this tiny state that has been listed as one of the top fifty holiday destinations in the world. Shashi Tharoor writes of indolent summer vacations spent in his grandmother’s house in a small village in southern Kerala; Alexander Frater captures in mesmerizing prose the spectacle of the dark monsoon clouds as they rush towards the coast, heralding the arrival of the south-west monsoon in India; Pankaj Mishra describes his experience in a ‘no-Indians please’ seaside hotel in Kovalam. Salman Rushdie’s evocation of life in Cochin, with its mixed Jewish and Portuguese legacies, brings alive the historical roots of the ancient port city, while Dalrymple, walking the narrow streets of contemporary Kochi, is surprised by the discovery of a living church of St. Thomas - the first known Christian visitor to these parts.At the other end of the spectrum are Father Alphonse and his band of villagers in idyllic Mayyazhi, Mukundan’s Mahe, where French and Malayali influences fight for dominance.