On the first day at Thiruvananathapuram(earlier called Trivandrum), in Kerala, India my escort took me to the pure vegetarian hotel by the name Arya Nivas.

It was on the road going straight from the railway station. It had rooms for stay too.Just opposite was a theatre showing some malayalam film.

I went up the marble steps to the first floor past the entrance and the reception with some flowers and images of some Gods.

We were ushered in to the restaurant.
The atmosphere was warm and pure.
We were immediately shown a reserved table.

The waiter immediately attended to us and on being told that I was looking for traditional kerala style food suggested the thali.
I immediately agreed to the suggestion.

We were served water in steel glasses and then "adrak" (ginger) water.

The aromatic food came in a metallic thali with banana leaves on which were placed many small bowls.

It was kerala style food with many dishes like avial,chutneys,pickles and papadam.

There were kerala style chapatis and parothas.

It was followed by red par boiled rice,white rice and pulao.

There were  a few varieties of sweet payasams and the tangy "imli" rasam.

I had a hearty meal and relished the kerala vegetarian food.

After that I used to go there occasionaly and have different types of vegetarian dishes.

Sometimes I took the breakfast comprising of idlis,vadas,pongal,coconut chutney,garlic chutney and chilly chutneys.

There was another vegetarian restaurant on the MG Road almost opposite the secretariat,the Arul Nivas,but it was not of the same class as the Arya Nivas,had cheaper food  and catered to people  from all around.

There was yet another one near the Connemara market but I did not visit it and got some breakfast once or twice in the mornings.

It was much later that the Swagath restaurant with a much better ambience and quality came up in the Hotel Comfort Inn, opposite the secretariat.

It also came up with a chinese style singaporean restaurant the Buddha's Delight with some items imported from Singapore.

It also started a gujarati style restaurant.

There was Ammas pure veg near the two cinema halls on the road going left from the railway station and this was later run by some hotel group from Chennai. There was another one further down the road slightly inside just before the end of the road before the MG Road.

It was good to have these vegetarian restaurants in Thiruvananathapuram.