After a very long time I traveled by train recently. What I loved most was the all too familiar scenery whizzing past. How many times had I travelled this same route in the past! Kerala countryside is beautiful. Period. The coconut trees, the rivers and backwaters, all add to its infinite charm.

Once upon a time lantana camara could be seen growing profusely on either side of the railway tracks, but now they seem to have almost disappeared. I couldn’t see much of them. On the other hand, Mexican sunflower shrubs with their pretty bright yellow flowers dotted the scenery that flashed past much more than before.

The vattayila trees ( Macaranga peltata) trees seemed by far the most prolific. The leaves of the Vattayila tree are used for steaming rice cakes filled with a jaggery and grated fresh coconut mix. The leaves are also used to steam a different kind of rice cake, made of soaked rice ground with ripe jackfruit, jaggery and grated fresh coconut.

Hmm… We do seem to use a lot of fresh coconut. Don’t we? Our vegetables all have grated coconut added to it, many curry bases are either ground fresh coconut or coconut milk. Coconut is kera. Is it any wonder then that our state is called Kerala/Keralam?

Apart from the plentiful trees and bushes that sped past, what caught my attention was the many new houses along the way. In the backyard of one a dog slept, its limbs stretched out luxuriously. On the doorstep of another, a cat sat licking its paws. Washed clothes were hung out to dry in most all of them. In fact one of them had ingeniously used the bars of the gate as a wash line, perhaps to take advantage of the sunlight that fell directly on it.

A cow was tethered to a tree and raised its head to stare soulfully at the train speeding past. I saw an egret standing still in a pool of stagnant water, waiting for the right opportunity to catch the tiny fish darting below. A krishna parunthu (Brahminy Kite) spread its wings wide and flew in circles over a spot in the backwaters. I wondered what had caught its eye in the water below.

In between I dipped into the book I am reading now. Cutting of Stone by Abraham Verghese. It is a wonderful book, whatever I have read of it. I am sure the rest of it will not disappoint me in any way. The author has ensconced himself as one of my favourites after the first book of his that I read, The Covent of Water.

Suffice to say, time just flew. Soon it was time to alight. Journeys of course, are not forever. There are destinations all along the running train’s path, and when our own arrives, we gotta get off, bidding farewell to the sights and sounds. That’s what we did, the L&M and I. The train then moved on. It had places to go and people to pick up and drop and no time to dawdle.

©️ Shail Mohan 2025