My friends and I had been looking for one around town for an aftenoon, and finally I found it a week later driving away towards another town: a coir mat, the ideal support to make my salutations to the sun on. The small motorbike was actually part of a ‘caravan’ carrying people and mats from the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu.  So loaded it was uncanny, this one had either the most efficient engine or the best pilot because it made it to the top of the hill first and stopped there to wait for the others.

The supply chain here certainly seemed frail. I imagine the sale of those coir mats would be quite successful if they were available in all the tourist-oriented yoga schools of the Ghats. But double-deck lorries of supplies would just not be a reasonable solution in the hill stations. Are they even a solution in cities? The traffic jams, the asthma, the accidents, the noise they generate… are they really worth the goods they carry?

I mean these coir mats look lovely. Will I order an industrial one once I get home or will I wait for the chance to find one during my journey ? Green logistics certainly have bright days ahead of them. The more we buy online the more obscure the fabrication and supply chain becomes. So it may be hard to find a coir mat in Thekkady but it is nothing compared to the adventure of getting it there.