The lost boat from India

Kuttanad has wooden snakes competing in boat races. They are long, narrow ships rowed by dozens of deep dark men wanting to win the Nehru Trophy. They create an unparalleled excitement among the local spectators and increasingly so among foreign tourists.

For me and the Dutch a drinking water engineer, they organized one extra time of that boat race. Yes, they did that. In 1980.

Well, was it really for us two? We were delegated by the Dutch government who had in mind sending millions of guilders for the construction of the three large drinking water projects. We had to find out the soundness of the submitted plans and the social needs of safe drinking water in this South Indian state of Kerala.

Each of us received two miniature snake boats. One, presented by the local engineers who smelled money, was made of black mahogany wood with rowers carved out of white ivory. I received that boat with mixed feelings. The other boat was made of cheap wood and had the text: ‘Presented by the People of Kuttanad’. I took to it immediately.

On our journey back home, it appeared that the mahogany boat fitted well in my suitecase, but the People’s boat was too long. The only available solution was to keep it as hand luggage.

At Kochi Airport I had to explain how I got that long snake boat. Security officers remained busy assessing the danger, worried as they were about the sharp yellow point it had. We found out that point could be removed and I had to put in my main suitcase. Thus the problem was solved and we departed.

In Mumbai I spent a night at the house of my colleague Dr Pillai and his family. Next evening Pillai walked me, through the homeless families that peacefully prepared for the night on the pavement of his street, to a taxi. The taxi took me to Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.

Once in the Swissair plane above the Indian Ocean I reflected on our mission in Kerala, the bad drinking conditions, the local poverty and the boat race they nevertheless held for us. But, hey, where was my People’s boat? It was lost. Where did I leave it? I could not remember.

It was three years later that I made a stopover in Mumbai again and visited Dr Pillai in his rather well-to-do neighborhood. We discussed life and the world at his balony, with the homeless families peacefully murmuring on the pavement.

Back inside, Pillai went up to a cupboard and came back with something I recognized. It was the Kuttanad boat. It still had ‘Presented by the People of Kuttanad’ painted on it. I was stunned.

‘Yes’, Pillai said, ‘you left the boat by mistake at the back seat of the taxi. The driver was from nearby here, remembered my street, asked around among the pavement dwellers and brought the boat back to me. Some people in India are unreliable, others have a good heart.’

From that journey I brought the boat safe and sound back to Holland and still have it.

Snake Boat Race 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ASLLcLb9LY