Like everyone else now in quarantine, we look at photos from past trips from time to time. The other day, they mentioned India again and thought: how lucky our butter was to be born in Kerala, whose name itself means “land of coconuts”.
Kerala is called the country where “God personally lives” for a reason. Picturesque coastlines, lush vegetation and juicy colors play hide-and-seek with the fog of green mountains and plains with national parks and tea plantations spread over their territory.
Countless ancient temples, including the richest Hindu temple Padmanabhaswamy, in whose treasury chests with tons of gold coins, bars, jewelry, diamonds and bags of rubies were recently discovered. And where is the more modest Lokanarkavu temple – to this day, actors come to it for the blessing of the goddess Durga before their debut.
Here, the time and place of excursions are coordinated in such a way as not to disturb the herds of elephants wandering to the watering hole, or not to disturb the midday rest of the tigers. Here, the poor are happy to give you the last thing, and the wealthy, on the contrary, are stingy to the point of impossibility. On the way to the store, you will be shamelessly and discreetly asked about your family secrets, and at the same time they will introduce you to the whole family, call the chickens by name, and tell the story of every crack in the old boat.
People in Kerala are constantly busy and at the same time in no hurry. At the dawn of Masale, it took us almost two years of negotiations with Kerala farmers to convince them of a mutually beneficial collaboration. Although, to tell the truth, we periodically doubt the sincerity of the old friendship. Transporting coconut oil from the place of its production and bottling to the port on the other side of the island is more expensive than traveling halfway around the world to Ukraine. This attitude to business partially explains the gold deposits in the old Kerala temples))
But the fact is that it is impossible to give up Kerala coconut oil. After all, the aroma of each opened jar brings us back to our first trip to India and the sunset on the coast. As the shadows lengthen, the sky blends colors, smoothly transitioning from pale blue to sapphire, then emerald, and night falls on the island…
India, we miss you. And we hope for new meetings.
