American writer bags award for feature on Kerala

Stephanie Pearson, the US journalist who won one of the national tourism awards, was honoured for her account on Kerala — a snapshot on the southern state’s rollicking palm-fringed beaches, gorgeous topography, serene spirituality and hospitality.She won the award for the “Best Foreign Journalist for India’ category at the awards announced last week. Her piece, The Green Heaven, appeared in January 2015 issue of the Outside magazine was based on her experiences during a three-week Onam sojourn. It will now be anthologized in The Best American Travel Writing, to be published by Random House in October. “She travelled more than 1,000km by car, train, kettuvallam (houseboat), foot and kayak reporting a story about the wonderfully diverse wildlife, culture and spirituality of Kerala,” a tourism department statement said.“…..Kerala, a laid-back tropical paradise where you can paddle hidden backwaters, trek the rugged Western Ghats, look for tigers, indulge in Ayurvedic treatments and chill out on unspoilt beaches. Just leave your manic Western self behind,” she wrote.While in Kerala, she was struck by how integrated the dense population is with its surrounding wilderness, which is one of the key themes of the story. She was also struck by how Kerala’s diverse spirituality touches every aspect of the culture.Particularly fascinating is her account of the secular Onam festival, which commemorates the return of the legendary king Mahabali, ‘who is said to have given every Keralan—whether Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jew, Jain, or other—equal rights and total prosperity.’  “Over the centuries, Mahabali has morphed into an Indian version of Santa Claus, and you’ll find him everywhere—on billboards hawking new cars and in the flesh twirling parasols in parades,” wrote the journalist, who has toured all continents except Antarctica.Her experiences have appeared in top publications such as National Geographic, Lonely Planet, Discovery and some books.She also gives a vivid account of the traditional Onam meal, sadya, which she savoured, as having “26 vegetarian servings like ash gourd, masala curry, sambar, papadams, mango pickles, and pressed rice flakes with jaggery, which were served on a banana leaf and eaten by hand”. Another interesting account in the write-up is the Aranmula Boat Race, a 700-year-old, a nearly one-mile contest that starts at the Aranmula Temple on the River Pamba. “The race, in which 120-foot-long palliyodams, or snake boats, from 48 villages go head-to-head in front of thousands of spectators, has the pomp and circumstance of the Olympics and seems a fitting end to the celebration. The race is mayhem…..If this raucous festival is an accurate representation of life in the state famously known as God’s Own Country, then, I decide, God must thrive on chaos and likes to have fun.”She was both amazed and impressed by Kerala, ‘roughly the size of Maryland and Delaware combined, having a population of 35mn — about the same number of people in the entire country of Canada. Despite the masses, Kerala is intensely beautiful.”The article delves into the entire facets of Kerala’s life – its picturesque and rich in biodiversity Western Ghats, one of India’s seven Unesco Natural World Heritage sites, the picturesque backwaters, medicinal herbs, Ayurvedic hospitals, spices, flowers, hill stations. “As the epicentre of the world’s spice trade, Kerala has also endured as a largely independent, multicultural society for centuries. It’s a mind-boggling amalgam of cultures and beliefs,” she notes. “Kerala also has affordable universal health care, the lowest infant mortality rate in India, and an average life expectancy of 73, seven years higher than the national average. In almost every quality-of-life indicator, Kerala is off the charts. And in a state where there are 2,200 people per square mile, my Western notions of rugged individualism and wide-open spaces may need a little adjusting.”“Small villages line the canals and are surrounded by a chlorophyll heaven of rice paddies, banana leaves, and gardens of spinach, long beans, and curry. Lavender houses, indigo pet peacocks, women in brightly coloured saris, and men in plaid dhotis pop out of the foliage in brilliant relief. This is the land of Arundhati Roy, who spent part of her childhood in the village of Aymanam, where she set her haunting novel The God of Small Things.”“…. the vibe is local and chill, and guests like Paul McCartney come to tuck into thatch-roofed bungalows for yoga and Ayurvedic treatments. Western-style sports like surfing and stand-up paddle boarding are just starting to take root farther south, near the cliff-edged beaches of Varkala and the more developed Kovalam.”