The energy was different at Cardamom County today. The delighted squeals of children replaced the semi-usual morning chatter of monkeys outside my room. Infants, toddlers and their pre-teen brothers and sisters outnumbered the adults at the buffet line at least 2:1. The splashes in the pool were made not by raindrops but by curious children, the plasticky click of ping-pong balls filled the recreation area, and each unexplored nook of the property made a perfect hiding place for games of hide-and-seek. It’s a virtual summer camp around here! Parents followed their young ones, not even feigning a chase, patiently flicking their billowing saris over their shoulders. I felt like I was reliving family field day at my primary school all over again, but in an alternate cultural and physical context.

Sung once wondered aloud why a family with children might come to Cardamom County, his basis for questioning being that the main attraction in the area is the Periyar Tiger Reserve. Short of imagining the children as tiger bait, it is natural to wonder whether trekking and safaris are really the most appropriate activities for children. But with all the excitement they seem to be having around the resort, why not? They are thrilled to discover the butterfly garden, and explore the organic farm, if only to imagine it as the wild forest that the older guests commonly come here to explore. They are capable of imagining here the kinds of adventures that most adults have forgotten how to dream up. After all, isn’t this what we love about them? Their capacity for pure enjoyment, unburdened by expectation and responsibility, unspoiled by disappointment and dismissal, unbridled by logic and pragmatism – this is what makes Cardamom County a paradise for them, a limitless playground.

They’ve gone now, piled into their family-sized minivans, and with them they took their fairytales. Cardamom County is real again, no Narnia, nor Neverland. But as they left, I asked for a picture of one of the beautiful infants, jingling with bangles and glowing with eyes that shined through the kohl (eye makeup sometimes seen on babies in India, North and West Arica and the Middle East). And as I snapped a photo of this baby, her eager young relatives poured out of their minivan to join in the portrait, smiling with the same enthusiasm with which they transformed the resort grounds into a wonderland.

I like the weekends at Cardamom County.