15 March 2011….The first obvious question is where is Kerala?  And to be honest, I had to look it up.  As it turns out, Kerala is the southern most state of India, virtually on the tip of the sub-continent, famous for its beaches, inland waterways and delicious local foods.  So when your biggest and fastest growing customer in India, invites you to a ‘Leadership Retreat’ in Kerala over a long weekend and says that spouses are invited we’re automatically in!      

Julie and I flew down to Mumbai (Bombay in the old language) on the Friday night, overnighted at a hotel at the airport and then caught the morning flight with our colleagues and other invitees for the two hour flight south to Trivandrum, the capital of the state of Kerala.  The full name of this city is Thiruvananthapuram but fortunately they shortened it to Trivandrum.  From there we met our private driver for the weekend who took us another half hour south to Kovalam Beach and our hotel which was built out on the rocky point overlooking the Indian Ocean.      

The team slaving away, as you do

The local women enjoying the local surf

So why were we here?  Our biggest customer in India, in fact our biggest customer in the region, uses our technology exclusively and with their dynamic team have created a hugely successful company.  And as part of that success they invited some of their key suppliers to a ‘Leadership Retreat’, this year in Kerala.  And so some of my colleagues and I found ourselves in Kerala for the long weekend, enjoying their generosity while gaining a better understanding of their business and their team.  The fact such a weekend would exist at all says a lot about this customer and the secret to their success.   

We were greeted at the hotel by beautiful painted elephants, open bar and a huge buffet lunch (very much a theme for the whole weekend).  Julie and I spent the afternoon down in the hotel’s private section of the local beach and enjoyed a walk along the public area with the hundreds of Indians enjoying a splash in the surf.        

Unique facilities at this public beach

 But conservative India, especially way down in these southern parts, is not the place for Indians to don their swimming gear and go for a splash.  Instead they just walked straight into the surf, for the girls in their full Sari, for the guys in their full clothes.  They squealed and jumped around the surf as if it was their first time (maybe it was) and enjoyed themselves as much as anyone we’ve seen in the surf.       

That night our driver drove in a convoy with other drivers as we invaded another private beach, enjoyed live music on the sand, the bar, the endless Indian buffet, the genuine warm hospitality of our generous hosts.  No short cuts at all.       

Enjoying the Indian buffet picnic

On Sunday the convoy of private cars took us about an hour further south, just near the tip of the sub-continent, to a place called Poovar.  It was here that some of Kerala’s most famous features are found – endless inland waterways, canals, lazy wide streams and channels that snake through these flat southern lands.  We caught a small boat about 20 minutes to an Island near the coast where a long afternoon of drinks, more delicious food, cultural music and dancing, a few local crafts like pottery making, basket weaving and the gravity-defying coconut tree climbing were all on display.  Great fun.       

The drive down there and back followed the coast and weaved its way through the many small villages the lined the road.  The narrow road was hopelessly crowded with every imaginable living beast and being with absolutely no apparent priority or right of way given to motorised vehicles.  We saw many Christian churches (indeed, the state of Kerala has the highest literacy rate in India and the lowest birth rate, said to be attributed to each other and the higher proportion of Christian population) and of course the very simple life style of these very modest people.  The only blight on this great cultural drive was the endless rubbish sprayed everywhere, absolutely piles of it, no effort to minimise it or clean it up, really kinda sad.  

Back at the hotel Julie and I spent the late afternoon walking down Kovalam Beach and climbing the old light house that sits out on the point.  This is a popular beach area with numerous restaurants and low cost hostels lining the beach.  It was a lively crowd, mostly Indians splashing in the surf fully dressed but also the usual crowd of huge white Russians and various other lounging Europeans.  Kovalam Beach had character and personality, plenty of interesting shops and people, a very good atmosphere.  If only we were staying longer….      

You can never have too much facilitating

  Our last night with the group in Kerala was truly memorable.  It was a beach party, Indian style.  And I mean with style.  The round tables were set down on the private beach, surrounded by magnificent Indian buffet, most of the food cooked freshly in front of us.  The Tandoori oven was producing chicken and fish and naan that just couldn’t be any better (no matter how many times I went back).   

But the beach party had two special features.  First was a huge stage, purpose built for the night with full set of flashing and strobing lights with a great sound system.  From this stage we were entertained by world class acts of dancing, singing and acrobatics by local artisans, great stuff.  If it hadn’t been for the other special feature this would have been top of the pops.  

Taking in a bit of the local culture via this elaborate costume and dance

How can Bondi compete with Kovalam?

The next morning we reluctantly checked out and transferred back to Trivandrum airport for our flights to Mumbai.  Back to the real world where Julie had to fly back to Bangkok to fulfil her hectic social commitments and I stayed on for another week of meetings in Mumbai and Delhi.   

 

Will we ever get back to Kerala?  I hope so because the place had so much to offer and we felt we only scratched the surface.  We definitely want to go back to the waterways (so much good kayaking ahead of us!), maybe stay on a houseboat, drive to the southern most point of the sub-continent to see the oceans collide, eat more beautiful food.  But if we don’t get back at least we have some great memories on this special occasion in this special place.