You are now in “God’s Own Country”. An enchanting experience the moment you enter the tropical skies of kerala and look down with awe at the emerald trip of land, caressed by the waves of the Arabian Sea.

After touch down, you will be surprised to discover that the land beneath the lush green foliage has unlimited feast for your eyes to relish. Extend your tryst with this spectacular geographical wonder and experience its rich cultural heritage and enterprising denizens who are epitomes of hospitality, which adds vibrancy to its diverse and bountiful natural wealth. Visitors are given fullest value of money and time they spend in Kerala, which offers some of the best gateways when it comes to diversity.

This land has some pristine hill stations in India with entire Western Ghats dotted with evergreens; fragrance of tea and coffee plantations .The Wilder side of Kerala has in store some of the best wildlife sanctuaries and national parks in the country with a variety of plant and animal life unique to kerala.

Glistening brooks and cascades that interstice the hills finally roll down to coastal plains where they laze through verdant stretches of paddy fields, coconut trees and feeds.

Location:

Kerala is one of the smallest states in the Indian Union and is lying at the southernmost tip of India with an area of 38.855 Sq Km, which accounts to just 1.3 percent of the total area of India .It stretches along the coast of the Arabian Sea and is separated from the rest of the subcontinent by the steep Western Ghats.

The breadth of the state varies from 32kms in the extreme north and south to over 120 kms in the middle.

Kerala is the only state, which also claims 100 percent literacy.

Kerala is bordered by neighbouring states namely Tamilnadu and Karnataka.

The State consists of 14 districts and the commercial hub of kerala is Cochin, which is closer to the central part of the state.

 History

The legend says long ago in the mists of times as it were, Lord Vishnu descended from the heavens in his incarnations as “Parasuram”. After saying the evil kings 21 times over to repeal their Force from earth, he did penance for waging the terrible war and threw his axe in to sea. The area where the axe landed from shaft to blade rose from the sea as KERALA .a land of plenty and prosperity.

Sea trade started with the Phoenicians and in 1000bc kerala was visited by King Solomon’s ships that travelled to “ophir”, in all probability the modern poovar, South of Trivandrum. Then followed the Galleys of other far off countries like Greece, Rome, Arabia, and China. A fresh wave of trading history started with the Europeans. As a result The Portuguese were forced out of the area. By 1795, however the Dutch too

Had to move out, for the British traders had become the strongest power in India by that time. In all this period of prosperity and strife, the region’s identity existed as the Malabar Coast and Cochin and Travancore. It was only in 1956 that it gained recognition as an independent sate Kerala.

Climate

Kerala has tropical climate. The state does not have a continuous dry spell as in the rest of India. It is summer time from April to June. The maximum temperature remains about 33 degree centigrade. Monsoon touches the state in June and remains there till September. Winter is from October to January and temperatures   drop a bit. The weather is never too chilly in Kerala. The maximum temperature never rises above 32 degree and the minimum does not go below 20 degrees.

People & Language

As the case of rest of South India, majority of this state are also Dravidians. Hinduism is the Principal religion with considerable percentage of Christians and Muslims and Kerala is the only state with a Jewish settlement that has a synagogue in Cochin.

Christianity has a long history in this state, as it is believed that the first missionary from Europe landed on the coast of Kerala in the first millennium.

Kerala has hundred percent literacy and this has resulted in high standard of living and health awareness among the people, making life comparable to those of developed countries. Here child mortality is the lowest among other Indian states.

The women in the state enjoys high social statue mainly due to the historical matrilineal system, where by Ancestral property etc is transferred to females. Higher education and equal opportunities have further strengthened women’s status in Kerala’s society.

Malayalam is the official language of Kerala .It belongs to the Dravidian languages category. The language is rich in literature and has a close resemblance to Tamil, another language of Dravidian origin.

English is widely spoken in Kerala.

Dance and Theatre

With about 35 different types of tribal people in Kerala, tribal dances like elelakkaradi, paniyarkali and mankali still survive. Of over 50 folk dances in Kerala, the popular ones are Kaliyattom, Kolam Thullal, kolkali, Velakali and kaikottikali. All these are performed in accompaniment of songs and drumming and often in colourful ornamental costumes. From these arose Kerala's classical dances like koothu, kathakali, mohiniattom and  patokom.

Kathakali uses vivid and eloquent mudras (hand signs). A visually powerful art form, the Kathakali dance dramas are based on stories from the two great Indian epics - the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. It is said to have evolved from a rivalry between two princely families. One had written a story cycle revolving around the life of Krishna, called Krishnattam, the other around the life of Rama called Ramattam. Thullal is a solo dance, a kind of a one man ballad opera, presented simply and laced with wit and humour. Ottam Thullal is said to have originated with the Poet Kunjan Nambiar. Mohiniattom which literally means "the dance of the enchantress", is sensuous and lyrical. Dancers display grace as well as passion. The chavittu natakam originated with the  portuguese missionaries as an alternative to kathakali. Patterned on the lines of European opera and ballet, it tells the stories of christian saints and heroes. Not only do the dancers sing and recite, they literally stomp their feet on the wooden dance floor.

Cuisine

Kerala has a distinctive cuisine, very unusual and different from the rest of India. Cooking in Kerala is all about discoveries, aromas and colours. Kerala cuisine is very hot and spicy and offers several gastronomic opportunities to those willing to experiment with the local cuisine. Rice, or rather unpolished rice, is the main food of the Keralite. Aside from the boiled product eaten as a staple, there is also a wide range of snacks and breakfast fare made of the cereal.

Pounded into flour, it gives shape to the bamboo formed puttu, the round spongy vattayappam, the lacy edged palappam, the pancake-like kallappam, the sweet uniappam, the idiappam that looks like fine noodles, and the stuffed ball called kozhikotta. And then, there is the pathiri, chapatti-like bread that can be made into a plain thin one called vatipathiri, a box type pettipathiri and a sweet cake-Chattipathiri. Pathiris are also stuffed with beef, chicken or mutton and fried, or steamed when filled with fish.