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It’s that time of the year again when the revered monsoon rains have deigned to visit our country. If you’re looking to refresh your spirits with some much needed travel, India is the perfect place to do so, even for Indians. The rains have their own way of imposing their shadowy charm on the Indian landscape, and there are plenty of holiday destinations within the country where you can experience the magic of the monsoons. Coastal regions are cited as the ideal setting for a monsoon vacation in India, and what could possibly be more fitting than a monsoon vacation in Kerala? The South Indian monsoons are indisputably one of the most beautiful natural transformations to witness. Almost overnight, it seems, the rains wash away the pallid dust of the summer and give way to a thriving outcrop of living, breathing greenery. Kerala being widely renowned as the perfect destination to witness the onset of the monsoon rains, it is no surprise that the popularity of Kerala tours tends to increase manifold along with the coming of the rainy season, or rainy seasons. Yes, that is right. Unlike the rest of the country, Kerala receives the bounty of rainfall twice a year owing to its unique geographic positioning between the Western Ghats lying to the east, and the Arabian Sea to the west. The first monsoon of the year arrives in the month of June, or Edavappathy, when mapped on the Malyalam calendar. It is also known as the Southwest Monsoon, much like what is experienced by the areas north of Kerala, such as Goa and the coastal regions of Karnataka and Maharashtra. The Southwest Monsoon brings with it what is by far the most rainfall that Kerala witnesses in the year, which is about eighty percent of the annual measure. The second onslaught of rain that Kerala is subjected to occurs around the month of October, and is known to continue well into the subsequent month of November. Mapped on the Malayalam calendar this is the month of Thulam, after which the rains find themselves christened ‘Thulavarsham’. Thulam being the month and ‘varsha’ meaning rain. The sources of this second rainfall are rainclouds that travel from all way east, from the Bay of Bengal, and resiliently force themselves through the Palakkad Gap in the Western Ghats. The rains in turn facilitate a host of activities which attract tourists to Kerala like sugar attracts ants. Ayurveda, a staple of Kerala’s culture and history, is best performed in the cool, dust free atmosphere of the monsoons. The monsoons also feed the innumerable rivers and backwaters of Kerala that snake their way from town to town, spawning several comparisons between Kerala and the European city of Venice, in Italy. Perhaps the most charming characteristic of the monsoons in Kerala is the fact they are not incessant. The sun often decides to peek through the clouds, providing tourists and residents alike with much needed respite.
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Ninad Chaudhari works as a Web UI Designer / Developer with Cox & Kings. In his spare time, Ninad is an ardent photographer and loves to travel across India. His albums are replete with amazing pictures of his tour to Kerala.
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