I am staying with the family of my friend Raj, whom I met in Dharamsala. He came down for Christmas, and brought a group of friends with him. His family is Catholic, and there is a small christmas tree in the living room. This area is very heavily Christian. Christianity here dates back to the first Century. The legend has it that the Apostle Thomas brought it here. The original Syrian Christians here still conduct their services in a dialect of Aramaic.

Most of the houses here have brightly colored stars on their porches for the holidays. At night they become lanterns, and make it feel like Christmas, even if it is close to 90 degrees.
On Friday we went for a tour of the are, which included several churches. One of the churches dates from 355 A.D! Raj’s father owns a small piece of land which was a coffee plantation, and we made a stop there. He grows his own coffee — which I have happily tasted. Also on the same plot of land are pepper vines, papaya trees, banana tress, ginger and tumeric. At the house there is a passionfruit vine, a ‘butter fruit’ tree, guava tree, coconut trees and more papayas.
Pineapples are also in season now, and cost 10 rupees each. I plan to eat myself sick on them.