A Pen Please, outside of Thurvoor

You know how you get when it's so hot you just don't want to leave the house?  I mean you have a fan that whirls at 4 or 5. You even have air conditioning when the electricity doesn't go off. You still have a good book, in this case a Tarquin Hall Indian mystery, and there's always a sudoku to do, a fisherman to watch, and then there's lunch and dinner. These are activities to be savored. 

But leaving the house is an activity, an exercise, and exercise is a must. But where to go when all the paths lead to a large lake, a canal, an inundated rice field, a tiger prawn pond?

The one road out of the jungle crosses the railroad tracks, passes a candy/hardware store and 5 km later you are in Thurvoor. Thurvoor is a Hindu temple with six rows of oil lamps on the outside of the temple.  It must be magnificant in the evening or on festival days when the thousands of oil lamps are all lit. But today the devoted are lounging or reciting devotions in the shade.  It's too hot for the locals.

Thurvoor is a city proper but it's a transit town to Fort Kochi to the north and Allupazhai to the south.  There are lots of small busines:  an internet store when there is electricity, a bakery which we sample of course, a tire shop, a grocery store. It's a good size town and has the essential traffic and school children. But it's a pit stop of 30 minutes tops for us.

But it is an outing and we get out of the cabin. We walk home with our umbrella open to protect us from the intense sunrays. We wave at the passengers on the train. We cross the tracks and hear "pen."  Turning around are two ginghamed dressed young girls with two pony tails apiece tied up with matching ribbons.  Each has her own bike. "Pen please," says Anu. 

"Why yes, I do believe I have one."  As we give her a pen, Anu says, "for her too?"
Gobiley is not as certain about her English but her smiles has us scrambling for another pen. Anu and Gobiley live in our neighborhood. As our cabins have been rented for years to foreigners, the local kids have been asking for pens and trying out their English. Anu is 12, Gobiley 13. Each of our answers are met with polite comments and then they roll backwards and giggle as they prepare the next question.  

And we thought we were going to stay in our cool cabin today and miss out on this activity?  No chance.