Backwaters of Kerala

As you sail down through the canal in the backwaters through sleepy hamlets, you can witness the life of the folks living along the edge of the canal. The houses, small and compact, had tiled roofs. Each house was enclosed with neat little fence, made from coconut leaves, a small garden and a patch for vegetables.
The women folks come to the canal for washing utensils and cloths. In some places the canal was so narrow that I could spy into the living rooms of the houses.
For people living on the banks, the canal was their only mode transportation- it was their life line. I saw children going to school in small boats very much like kids packed in a rickshaw in a metropolitan city. I spotted a grocery and a vegetable vendor boat. A 'general store' boat was selling plastics wares, soaps, knives and ropes.
A government owned boat would pick up passenger and office goers, moving diagonally from one bank to the other. It was indeed fascinating to see the life style of people living in the backwaters of Kerala-very different yet similar to our own lifestyles.