I’m not an animal person. I have a phobia of dogs and I hateee cats so you can say I surprised my own self when the one day I had allocated to spend exploring the Trivandrum/Kovalam area, I decided to spend it at the Trivandrum zoo (also known as Thiruvananthapuram Zoo). Maybe I just needed to do something different.

Funny thing is I rather enjoyed myself. I must point out that South India takes much more care of their national heritage than their Northern fellows. I thought the zoo was extremely well-kept and maintained. It was nice to see locals with their families visiting the zoo. I was truly in love with a father who patiently showed his son (about 4 – years old) all the animals and slowly got him to repeat all the names. I observed another couple doing the same with their daughter. Education is highly regarded in the South and what better place to start than the zoo! There was a cheer from me and the family when the little girl got peacock right!

Here are some of the local residents of the Trivandrum zoo, apparently author Yann Martel found the inspiration for his book Life of Pi here and almost all the characters are based on the animals living here!

And then here are the special kind that roam freely on the streets – The men of Kerala! 😛

“I know zoos are no longer in people’s good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both.” – Yann Martel, Life of Pi