Scouring Kerala’s Capital City of Trivandrum—A Medley of Museums:

Sunday, July 26, 2026

Scouring Kerala’s Capital City of Trivandrum—A Medley of Museums:

We awoke once again, after a very good night’s sleep in Rama’s Garden Hotel, showered, dressed and went down for breakfast. Both of us had the Western Breakfast (omlettes with buttered toast and jam, coffee or tea and fresh fruit—bananas and papaya). Nothing about this hotel was displeasing. We enjoyed every aspect of it, not least the excellent service we received from the staff. We decided to devote the day to touring the city of Trivandrum and enjoyed ourselves scouring a few museums that offered abundant fascination.

Seeking the counsel of Receptionist Honey, we decided to go to the Puthe Maliga Palace Museum first—it would open at 10am and stay open till 5.00pm.Accordingly, we walked to the end of our quiet hotel lane and found an auto rickshaw to take us there. Most rickshaws do not ply by meter (unlike Bombay) and one is required to negotiate a rate before getting inside. We used Uber to help us figure out the going rate and then took the local rickshaw drivers’ vehicles at Uber prices—which, we thought, were very fair. About ten minutes later, we were deposited at the gates of the Museum and made our way inside.

Touring the Puthe Maliga Palace Museum:

Once inside the museum complex, we were led towards the ticket kiosk and then asked to wait for a guide in whose company we’d be allowed inside. There were about a dozen other people with us in our tour group. The guide spoke in three languages: Malayalam (regional language of Kerala), Hindi and English. We began initially with the lower floor (or ground floor) after depositing our footwear on provided stands. The Palace was the abode of the former Travancore kingly dynasty and the complex is composed of several beautiful structures, some in a better state of repair than others. They are all of uniform color (white stucco walls with red Mangalore tiled roofs). I loved the traditional architectural lines of these buildings and took pictures outside. To take pictures inside, you need to buy a ticket for Rs. 500. We did not do that, but we enjoyed the interiors with their carved details.

Indeed, there are dozens of rooms in the main palace building with gorgeous carved teak ceilings, very interesting floors that gleam and shine but made of an organic mixture of materials containing mustard oil, etc. The Palace is renowned for 172 decorative carved horses that encircles the exterior and for the carved rosewood details on its many solid doors and windows. Of course, there are decorative items inside such as European pottery and ceramics, Belgian glass, glorious Czech chandeliers, an entire art gallery devoted to royal portraiture with aristocratic heads of the Travancore dynasty depicted by such famous European portraitists as Roerich. Another gallery is devoted entirely to arms and armor from past centuries. There is beautiful carved furniture in Victorian style, palanquins and elephant howdahs. It was certainly worth touring the palace to see the wealth of the Travancore maharajas laid out for our viewing pleasure.

Visiting the Napier Museum:

The next item on our agenda was the Napier Museum which I remembered fondly from visiting Trivandrum in my 20s. I was determined to visit it again, not least because I remember seeing, for the first time in my life, a collection of works by Raja Ravi Varma, an aristocrat from the same Travancore dynasty. It had been my first introduction to his work and I had remained deeply struck by it. I believed that the collection was still housed at the Napier Museum; and so, by making inquiries, we discovered that we would need another auto rickshaw to get there—a distance of five kilometers The sun was really hot by this point (it was almost mid-day) and walking on the unshaded streets was quite uncomfortable.

The Napier Museum is located in a vast complex of Victorian gardens that comprise the Government Botanical Gardens and the Zoo. One of the reasons that I probably remember it so well is because it is a strikingly beautiful building whose style defies categorization. Suffice it to say that a combination of red and pink brick work, rather decoratively applied to the façade plus other details such as carved, conical wooden windows and red tiled roofs give it a most dignified and distinctive appearance. It is further accentuated by a large fountain in the front and sprawling gardens that radiate from its main entrance.

Inside, the decoration on walls, floor and ceiling is just as spectacular. There are balcony-like protrusions that stick out of the top where a combination of paint, carving, stucco, etc. combine to create a confection of visual delights that enchanted me. It is a small museum and restricted to just one floor, but there are clear sections within it: Chola bronzes, granite Hindu sculpture, marble figurines, carved ivory objects, a massive wooden Temple car that would have participated in several significant public processions over the years. It was all quite wonderful, but I kept wondering where the Ravi Varma paintings were to be found.

An inquiry at the entrance led me to discover than since the past 40 years, Ravi Varma has grown enormously in stature as one of India’s best contemporary painters. As such, his collection is now housed in a building entirely dedicated to it. This, fortunately, was within the same complex and involved a short five-minute walk. This objective became the most exciting and productive aspect of our day.

Visiting the Art Gallery Containing Raja Ravi Varma’s Paintings:

There is a separate ticket to enter the Ravi Varma Gallery and this we bought easily as we were pretty much the only visitors in the museum. A total of about twenty other visitors were present through the length of our stay of over an hour.

So here’s a word about Raj Ravi Varma. He was born in 1848 into the royal family of the Travancore dynasty of maharajas in Killimanoor Palace in the city of Trivandrum. As his penchant for painting was noticed very early in life, his uncle suggested that he receive training. Accordingly, while in his late teens, he received instruction in the Western painting tradition from the Dutch painter, Theodore Jensen. He soon began to paint portraits of the Travancore royal family in the new European tradition and, upon finding that his work was much admired, he submitted four of his paintings to art competitions in Chennai and Vienna, Austria, respectively—in both places he won prizes. It was not long before Ravi Varma was invited by the royal families of other Indian states to paint their own portraits. He ended up traveling extensively across India to undertake commissioned works, mainly for princely families. In course of time, he made his way to Chicago where, at the same time, the Indian Hindu philosopher, Swami Vivekananda, was also making a mark (in 1893). Both received high acclaim in the USA. While portrait-painting remained Ravi Varma’s bread and butter, he did indulge in the painting of a number of subjects purely for pleasure, The end result is a gigantic oeuvre that includes religious deities, spiritual and mythological narratives, still lives, landscapes and, of course, portraiture—both of prominent people and the common man. Ravi Varma’s style is distinctive because it is realistic in the extreme, characterized by an exuberance of color, unfailing eye for composition and proportion and the ability to pull the viewer into a long-ago world that is both accurate and authentic. Towards the end of his life, he returned to Trivandrum where he continued to remain an active creative artist. India’s Viceroy Lord Curzon, in 1904, described him as the Lord of Paintings and presented him with the Kaiser-e-Hind gold medal. Raiv Varma, whose work and style exemplified Victorian traditions of painting, died soon after the Queen Empress did—in 1906.

As I have personally loved Ravi Varma’s work ever since I was first introduced to it in my 20s, on my first visit to Trivandrum with my parents, I found the visit to this gallery to be the best part of my day. It takes about half an hour to see replicas of the paintings in the initial rooms before one moves further into the gallery to see the actual original oil paintings themselves. These have brief but adequate curatorial notes that take us through the various phases of his achievement. There is also a second floor that takes another half hour to see. Photography is permitted and I found myself wanting to preserve most of his work for posterity—hence I kept clicking quite enthusiastically. I thoroughly enjoyed the visit to this gallery which was probably the highlight of my stay in Trivandrum (as I had expected it to be).’

Sadya Lunch at Mother’s Veg. Plaza:

By this point in time, we were ready for a sit-down and lunch as we had been on our feet for hours. Suggestions on the internet had led me to a place called Mother’s Veg. Plaza which touted the best Sadya Lunch in the city. Sadya is a traditional Keralite meal, served at festive times (usually Onam, the Keralite harvest festival) on a banana leaf. Our Receptionist Honey, at our hotel, had confirmed that this place offers the best Sadya in the city.

Accordingly, we ordered an Uber rickshaw to get to the venue which we found to be filled to bursting. It took a chaotic wait of at least 25 minutes inside a hot, crowded, noisy, large hall before we were able to bag the seats of patrons who were just finishing their meal. At just Rs. 225 per head, this is a very good value for money. It is also very well touted on all social media—which explains the mainly tourist crowd.

Once we sat down, we had a variety of items plonked down on our individual banana leaves. There was a variety of chutneys followed by a mound of thick boiled rice. Equally thick daal was poured over it, with a spoonful of ghee. Then came a number of different vegetable preparations, all traditional and all known to the diners. I have to say that nothing was very tasty or delicious and both of us began to wonder what all the fuss was about. Finally, our meal ended with a number of little bowls containing butter milk and sambar as the servers came around with two types of dessert—payassam (one made of sago or tapioca, the other made with pineapple). These were the tastiest parts of our meal. As there were other diners hovering over us, ready to grab out seats, we could not really linger over our meal, I need to point out that we were the only two people in the entire establishment who asked for spoons—everyone else used their fingers to attack their mound of rice with gusto.

With our bill having been cleared right at the beginning, we merely thanked our servers and left. It is a pity that the crowds made the entire experience highly impersonal. With lunch done and another item ticked off our Wish List, we called another Uber rick and returned to the Botanical Garden for our afternoon visit to the Zoo.

Visiting the Trivandrum Zoo:

Although I always love to visit a zoo, we might have given this one a pass but for a very important reason. It is this zoo that inspired a Booker-Prize winning novel that was later made into a film and a successful stage play (and we have read the book and seen the film and the play). The novel is ‘Life of Pi’ and the author is Yaan Martel whose father served as zoo-keeper at this zoo while he was a child. His novel is largely inspired by the zoo and its animal residents.

So, with this knowledge, we bought our tickets and entered the zoo. There is a golf buggy cart available but it operates at specific times and we were too late for the previous one and too early for the next. Hence, we opted to use our own two (awfully tired) feet to see the zoo, Honey had told us that the zoo boasts a rare white Royal Bengal Tiger and we hoped very much that we would catch a glimpse of it (if not of the original Richard Parker—the name Martel gave the tiger in his novel).

There is nothing else very special about this zoo. Our recently refurbished Bombay Zoo is infinitely better. However, towards the very end of our visit, we did see the white tiger and he is indeed a magnificent creature. He happened to be having a drink and taking a bath in the little stream of water that runs through his enclosure. He offered himself for a few photo ops and both Llew and I excitedly clicked and were rewarded for our efforts.

And once we had seen this attraction, we were ready to call it a day. We were both quite tired by this point and looked forward to sitting down somewhere. It was about 4.30 pm at this time and we realized that we’d be in time for the 5.00 pm Mass at the Church of St. Anne Forane. This was significant as today is a Sunday and it happens to be St. Anne’s Feast. So that was our next port of call.

Mass at the Church of St. Anne Forane:

Once again, Uber came to our rescue as we found our way into the church. However, while there was a large statue of St. Anne with the young Mary by her side, outside the church, we realized that the church website had given us wrong information. We were supposed to have arrived for an English Mass at 5.00 pm. As it turned out, there was no Mass at 5.00pm; it was scheduled at 6.00 pm and it was not going to be in English but Malayalam. Hence, we paid a prayerful visit to the church (one that was profusely decorated for the Feast Day with an abundance of fresh gladioli) and left.

Another Uber rickshaw took us back to our hotel which we reached at about 5.30 pm. As soon as we reached our room, we threw ourselves on our bed as we were so exhausted. About twenty minutes later, we brewed ourselves a cup of coffee and enjoyed it with a bunch of biscuits that we happened to be carrying. With this snack in us, we settled down to do our packing as we would be leaving the hotel early, the next morning. A little later, as we were too tired to get out for dinner, we requested Honey to use his Zomato account to order us Chicken Tikka Sandwiches from Subway. He readily obliged and after sharing a foot-long sub that was not even remotely tasty, we were ready to call it a night. We set our alarms for 6.00 am and fell asleep.

Until tomorrow, cheerio…