About one year ago today Crist, Milo and I fairly stumbled out of the Cochin Airport after traveling from Ithaca, New York*** and were whisked to view one of Kerala’s endemic sporting events, the snake boat races. Backwaters villages compete with one another in what traditionally commemorated the carrying of idols to the state’s many magnificent temples.

We had missed the fabled Nehru Trophy Race last year by a few days, but had arrived in time to see one of the other many races that occur every year around the Kerala harvest festival of Onam. The snake boats vary in size but the largest are over 50 meters long and slightly more than 1 meter wide with a high curved stern that represents the raised hood of a snake.  It isn’t only the length and shape of the boat itself that is impressive.  These races are almost certainly (someone please correct me if I am wrong) the sporting event with the largest number of members in a single team:  manned (or “womanned”, as the case may be) by over a 100 oarsmen who row in unison to the fast rhythm of `vanchipattu’ or boatmen’s song.  The boats are decorated for the races with flower garlands, adding an air of festivity to the shouts, songs and splashes.

Yesterday (as you can see in the photo above) we had seating in a covered pavilion Continue reading →