A Travelogue by Anand Sankar from Kottayam, Kerala
There are places we travel to, and then there are places we return to through story, memory, and feeling long before we arrive. Aymanam, a small village tucked along the backwaters of Kottayam in Kerala, is one such place. For many across the world, the village was first encountered not on a map but in the pages of Arundhati Roy’s Booker Prize-winning Novel “The God of Small Things”, where it appears as the fictional Ayemenem – lush, lyrical, and full of quiet undercurrents.
Reading the book years ago, I remember feeling as though the landscape itself had a heartbeat. So when I finally journeyed to Aymanam, it felt less like travel and more like stepping into a remembered dream.
The Village Behind the Story
Aymanam is not a place that tries to impress. It simply is – slow, still, and serene. It sits along the banks of Vembanad Lake, surrounded by rubber plantations, old Syrian Christian homes, ponds overgrown with water plants, small shrines tucked beneath ancient trees, and lanes where the air is always heavy with the smell of earth and rain.
Arundhati Roy spent much of her childhood here, and it shows in her writing. The Meenachil River, described so vividly in the novel, flows nearby – calm on some days, restless on others, like memory itself.
Her words made the village immortal. The Booker Prize in 1997 transformed Aymanam from an ordinary Kerala village into a place literary lovers made pilgrimages to – looking for the house, the river, the shadows, and the silences they encountered in the book.
Aymanam Today: A Quiet Global Destination
While its fame comes from literature, Aymanam has grown carefully, thoughtfully, and sustainably. Under Kerala’s Responsible Tourism (RT) Mission, the village embraced community-centered travel:
- Staying with local families
- Eating freshly cooked homemade meals
- Learning traditional crafts
- Walking paddy fields at sunrise
- Listening to stories, not just seeing sights
This approach earned global recognition – including the WTM “One to Watch” Award in 2021 and a prestigious place in Condé Nast Traveler’s list of 30 Best Places to Visit in the World (2022).
Yet, it remains unhurried. Nothing feels commercial here. And that is its magic.
Kottayam – City of Letters
Just a short drive away is Kottayam, famously the first district in India to achieve 100% literacy – known rightly as the City of Letters.
Surrounded by rivers and wetlands, its landscapes bloom in pink lilies at Malarikkal during sunset – a sight so soft and surreal it appears painted.
A Walk-Through Memory and Reality
As I wandered through Aymanam:
- I sat by the Meenachil River, watching fishermen push their small boats through rippling reflections.
- I visited old churches and temples where rituals feel older than history.
- I watched Kalamezhuthu ritual art being created – a deity formed from colored powders, glowing under lamplight.
- At a homestay, I woke to the sound of rain on jackfruit leaves and the smell of appam cooking in the kitchen.
Everything felt both familiar and utterly new, as though the story and the place were slowly revealing themselves to one another.
Arundhati Roy’s Aymanam – and Her Mother’s Legacy
Arundhati Roy once said, “I grew up in this little village called Aymanam… it made me the writer I became.”
Her mother, Mary Roy, whose fight for Christian women’s inheritance rights changed Indian law, founded a school in Kottayam and shaped an entire generation of young thinkers. Their relationship, raw and fierce, is now the subject of Roy’s memoir Mother Mary Comes to Me – a story of love, rebellion, and survival.
In many ways, Aymanam is both landscape and character – not just in the novel, but in Roy’s life.
Why You Should Visit
Come to Aymanam not to look for Ayemenem, but to understand how stories grow from places.
Here, you can:
- Take a backwater cruise at dawn
- Explore Thekkedathu Mana, a heritage home in neighboring Kudamaloor
- Watch Thiruvathira dance during festival nights
- Visit St. Alphonsa’s birthplace
- See mural art at Pandavam Temple
- And simply sit still – letting the village speak in its own rhythm
Because Aymanam does not need to perform.
It only needs to be.
Where Literature Meets Life
For travelers, Aymanam is a journey into quiet beauty.
For readers, it is a journey into memory and meaning.
For those who seek stories – it is a place where the small things are never truly small.
And perhaps that is why people come here:
To be still, to listen, and to remember the God of Small Things.
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