There is a quay in Alappuzha, a storm-battered relic that stares at the sea rather forlornly, a reminder of all that this small and lovely town was once upon a time. A few years ago, you could walk some distance out to the Arabian Sea, on the wooden boards of the quay, and see the blue waters through the gaps. The waves would then tell you a story, of the resplendent Venice of the East that was once the entry town to Kerala, much before Kochi became the harbour of choice.

It's difficult to imagine that Alappuzha misses its past, for, though commerce flourishes here, it's startlingly untouched by modernity. When a rice mill came up in 1980, it called for a major celebration. And when a railway track was laid in the early nineties, it was considered an astounding event! Everything about this town reinforces that old world feeling - the colonial era government houses, grand and graceful despite the years, the canals, green and coated with weeds, filled with boats carrying hay or bananas.

The sea, Alappuzha's enduring motif, remains beautiful and dangerous in equal measure, often lashing angrily as it did during the tsunami of December 2004, or quietly lapping against the pure white sands, its waters bountiful with catch for the fisherfolk. The Malayali writer Thakazhi Sivasankaran Pillai immortalised the contradiction in his award-winning novel Chemmeen; the sea that blesses can also take everything away. But, it's impossible to call the sea moody while walking on the beach on a winter afternoon, the white lighthouse standing tall against the clear blue skies.

The canals throw up another study in contrasts. Boatmen row past the weeds with amazing grace even as traffic hurtles above their heads on modern bridges with names such as Iron Bridge, Stone Bridge or even a Palace Bridge! As vehicles whiz past, the canal reflects a myriad colours in the tiny space that the water hyacinth has not-so-generously left for the sunlight to seep in - that of the water lily, of a bird's wings, or the brilliant hues of the tropical sky. These are the interior canals, where tourists aren't given the luxury of enjoying boat rides. But in August, during Onam, another canal resounding with the hurrays of the Nehru Trophy boat race - one of the most celebrated events in Kerala - more than make up.

For all its small town appearance, Alappuzha has an impressive history. The port was built by Raja Kesava Das, the dewan of Travancore, in the 18th century. An enduring contribution came from the Darraigh Smaile and Company, whose founder James Darraigh, an Irish man, introduced the coir industry to the town. The story about how they brought technicians "Bannerjee and Mukherjee" from Bengal to teach locals the art of spinning yarn from coir now enjoys a legendary status here. Today, rubber plantations may be more important than coir factories, but the tradition continues: among the fisherfolk, you'll find the women working on coir and magically moulding it into ropes or mats. Many a tale has been spun around this yarn, and like the story of Alappuzha itself, each tale is to be relished and remembered.