Dr. Abraham Verghese's new book the "Covenant of Water" takes you to a Kerala of the early 20th century, a beautiful expanse of land and water together. The story of three generations of St. Thomas Christians beginning with Big Amachi and Apachen and the Scottish surgeon Digby Kilgour. A fiction that talks about a condition the family members had with water, carried forward from generation to generation that leads to a series of incidents and situations that occurs in the family.
The Story takes you through the finer details of the life of people of Kerala during an era during the reign of the Travancore Kingdom. The socio economic strata, poverty, the cast system and and even the relationship between men and women, husband and wife prevailed in a patriarchy custom. The deep depiction of characters and their outlook about life and how it has been formed has been intensely narrated, to an extent where they still happen to be at nook and corners of our mind, and at times makes us think about them a lot.
As a tour operator based out of Kerala, our fondness for history of our land, and its people over generations, the book was a fascinating read for us, as we could closely relate to this fictional story, parts of it we might have already heard through our grandmothers from childhood. "Seeing is believing", and when you visit places similar to that of the author's imagination, it gives you a completely new dimension to the story. For example, visiting the historic Champakulam church near the backwaters of Alleppey in a country canoe can give you a whole new level of imagination about what kind of a journey our "Big Amachi" had from her little home to the Church on her wedding day. The same way, the present day plantation bungalow homestays in the foothills of the Western Ghats, located in Pala and Kanjirapally will give you an idea of how could have been the Rubber plantation bungalow of Chandy in the mountains. A guide in Fort Kochi could tell you stories of a life during the 1900s like that of Dr. Rune Orqvist.
The prime idea about building a Kerala tour based on the book "the covenant of water is about putting life to the book. Visiting a land that you imagined from a book can bring in multiple new layers and dimensions and bring life to the characters from that same book. I might have a different level of imagination for this book as I have been to all these places, I have had and see "Big Amachis" in my family, the little thing like that of "Erachi Olathiyathi" (Beef preparation), the cuisine, the attire of the people, the topography of the land, the water bodies, the farms, the plantations, everything enhances about how to connect more to the characters of the book. Emotions are universal and that is the prime connect anybody might have with the book and the Characters.
Being from Kerala, we would be more than happy to take you to places narrated in the book. India is a country of high contrast, diverse from top to bottom, a person who has been to Delhi might find Kerala as something part of a different country itself and we can take you through a journey through the topography of Kerala connecting the Covenant of water. A topography of a tiny strip of land merged between the Western Ghats (one among the eight bio hotspots in the world), and the the Arabian sea. The backwaters, rivers, lagoons and canals take you to a mesmerising water world merged between the mountains and the sea. You can get in touch with us by email at hello@greenearthtrails.com or could instantly connect with us over whatsapp at wa.me/919400946800 You can have a look at our listed Kerala holiday programs
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