It isn't particularly encouraging to hear from a fellow passenger who lives in the city you've just landed, and the person who's come to pick you up, the same thing when you ask about what's there to do in Trivandrum: "Nothing… Really." Really?

It's a nice little city if you ask me, with fine-looking churches, government institutional buildings, wide sidewalks on either side of roads littered with good intentions, rather than gunk, which is more common in North Indian towns.