As a kid with a sweet tooth I looked forward to trips to my hometown in Kerala, Kanjirapally, not just to meet my cousins and for the river baths but also for the temptations of Kunjus – a bakery and, at that time, a 70-year-old institution. It was an overnight train ride to Kottayam from Madras, and then a winding, 45-minute drive to the town. Kanjirapally is on the Western Ghats, and sits at what is almost the absolute centre of Kerala. As we drew near, the urban atmosphere of Kottayam would give way to rubber estates, and we would catch glimpses of gracious homes surrounded by guava and other fruit trees. But it was only the sight of Kunjus, my personal landmark, that would alert me that we were home.
The lure of spices has long attracted traders from West Asia and Europe to Kerala. In the annals of Pliny the Elder, the 1st century Roman chronicler, it is said that the Keralan port of Muziris – today known as Kodungallur – could be reached in 40 days from the Egyptian coast, depending on the strength of the monsoon winds. It is believed that St Thomas the Apostle reached Kerala's shores in 52 AD on a merchant vessel plying between Alexandria and Malabar. St Thomas established seven Christian communities under the East Syrian order, and the present-day Syrian Christians in Kanjirapally are said to have descended from these original groups. Christianity here has the flavour of antiquity. The old church Pazhyapally, in Kanjirapally, was established in 1449.