Monsoon In Kerala

I am in Kerala, soaking in the monsoon.

Our ancestral home has a small but profound pool - a remnant of a much larger and probably centuries-old water body. There is a tile-roofed shed-like structure over the steps leading down into the water. Persistent rains have raised the water level and partially submerged the overhanging roof. Within the shed, water glimmers very darkly green, steps go down and appear to dissolve into the dim depths and shadowy fish flicker in and out of sight. One gets into the water, takes a deep breath and dives underneath the submerged part of the roof to rise up among floating masses of weeds in the open portion of the pool. And by Jove, swimming in the rain is some trip!

To travel by train anywhere in the western coast of India during the monsoon is a profoundly green experience, perhaps nowhere more so than the branch line from Shoranur to Nilambur in Kerala - it runs for 65 kilometers thru teak plantations and lush rice fields, densely green hillsides and homesteads and across turbulent rivers swollen with coffee-brown waters...