Monday, November 7

The rain continued last night and this morning I read in the New Indian Express that parts of Kerala now have a yellow alert flood warning, and that all of Kerala will experience a further five days of thunder, lightning, and torrential rain.

Oh good, I say to myself. I look up and the sky has turned bright blue and the temperature has risen dramatically. I decide to walk to Lighthouse Beach and back before the weather turns again. All the way to the beach I have an accompanying soundtrack of gurgling and splashing. Open drains run down one side of every road, designed to catch rainwater and carry it down hill to prevent flooding.

In the past they got clogged with the detritus from people treating them as rubbish bins. Now, after several years of official campaigning and clean-up sessions, they mostly flow freely. They bubble and gurgle and their sounds change every few metres.

I stop to photograph one point halfway round the big pond where a mini waterfall draws loud attention to itself in a relaxed, pleasant way.