Home away from home

Houseboats, (kettuvalloms of yore), gliding over the backwaters, the pristine beauty of the thick greenery of the mountains, serene ambience of ayurvedic resorts kerala which promise you healthy therapies, and the many streets and buildings where you can feel history --- Kerala allures visitors with all these and more charming elements.

There are many who came to Kerala for a visit or for official /personal purposes, fell in love with this land and then made it their homeland. You can name a lot of foreigners including the great architect Laurie Baker, Kathakali artiste Louba Schild and mural painter Annie.

Laurie Baker, the British-born architect renowned for his skill to create cost-effective, eco-friendly homes, married a Keralite and settled in Thiruvananthapuram. There are many buildings which stand in testimony of his contributions to this land including the Indian Coffee House near Thiruvananthapuram railway station and Centre for Development Studies building in Thiruvananthapuram.

Louba Schild came to Kerala from France when she was 22 to learn Kathakali. She fell in love with this land so much that it became her homeland and she began Vijnana Kala Vedi Cultural Centre, a centre for learning Kerala art forms, near Chengannur.

Annie is a connoisseur who fell in love with the mural paintings of this land, and decided to stay back here to learn mural paintings. There are many other foreigners who settled in Kerala and they all made the land more beautiful with their contributions and their love for various elements of this land.