Quiet champions of the south

It was Salman Rushdie who observed many years ago that south India not only felt but functioned like another country. After a recent 10-day coast-to-coast journey in Kochi, then Chennai to Puducherry along the scenic East Coast Road — taking in the splendid 10-acre Dakshina Chitra “living” museum and the rock-cut temples of Mahabalipuram — Mr Rushdie’s insight holds unshakably true.

There is a degree of civility, efficiency, cleanliness and cultural ease here that has all but vanished in the squalid, chaotic and rootless urban agglomerations of the Hindi heartland. Above the cash counter at a large highway eatery serving vegetarian