Last week a guest stood at the end of our jetty at 6:40 in the morning, coffee going cold in her hand, and said, "I keep waiting for the noise to start."...

The first thing almost every guest says when the boat cuts its engine is some version of this: "It's so quiet." Then they stand there on the jetty...

The power went off again last night, right in the middle of dinner. One long brownout, the kind that makes the fridge sigh and the fans give up. Nobody at...

A guest asked me last week if he could help haul the morning fish delivery off the boat. He'd never held a wet rope in his life, and the boatman was too...

Somebody asked me last week, while we were waiting for the boat, whether a homestay is just a hotel with a friendlier owner. Fair question. I said no, but...

The smell hits me before I'm fully awake. Mustard seeds crackling in coconut oil, coming up the stairs from the homestay kitchen. That's the first thing...

The 6 p.m. boat is the one that gets me. Right when the light turns the colour of strong tea and every other houseboat on Vembanad Lake is idling back...

Most guests hear the boat engine cut and then, for a second, they just sit there. Nobody talks. There's no traffic out here, only water lapping the wall...

The walk down to the jetty takes four minutes if I don't stop to talk. I always stop to talk. By the time I reach the water, the light has gone the colour...