Meet Bala

I met Bala in 2001 in Fort Cochin. He was my rickshaw driver.  Bala comes from a poor Brahmin family. His father is a reformed drunk turned milkman, his mother a house wife and he has a younger brother.

Now, 9 years later, all his family members, plus a sister-in-law and a small child, live in my home in Varkala. He relocated them in my house. He broke the door of my house while is was out of town one day and installed them there. He uses them as a human shield against me.

In 2002 he invited me to stay in his home, and I lived for 3 months in a small room in his house. Here i am standing in front of his house in Mattancherry, wearing my first saree.

I became a sensation in the neighborhood. People came to ask the family what I ate, did I shower?, how did they communicate with me?

We got along well and started a romantic relation. I enjoyed the exotic, adapted well and was thrilled by the experience. I could have been more perceptive, or suspicious about some signs of  strange, aggressive behavior between Bala and his family. But i saw only what i liked to see. Bala told me that as a teenager he had vowed  that he would do anything to get out of poverty and improve his life. I took that as a positive sign of good character. I had no idea that what he meant was that he had planned for me to pay for his success.

We traveled to Varkala, where I showed him the dream place that I found in 2001. He liked it immediately and offered to help me with the complications of buying properties in India. We agreed that I would send the money and he would buy the property for me. The 99 years lease was going to be my guarantee.

I should have asked second, third, more opinions. But it was hard to find someone that could speak English enough to answer my questions. And Bala was very prompt, always sending emails with details and status. I had no idea that he was a pathological liar. I did not see that he was following a path with determination, cool mind and remarkable discipline.

Bala planned to start a tourist resort in my property  but I had no real interest in having a business. I had just found the place of my dreams, I wanted to enjoy it. Yet I did not object to his idea after all he needed to make a living on his own.

Through the years I helped Bala creating the success of Asthamay Bungalows. I decorated tables, walls, rooms, designed furnitures, planted flowers, taught the cook Italian food, entertained guests and created an atmospheric of relaxed comfort and peace.

By the end of 2009 I had changed my mind about this paradise. Bala had turned it into a painful place to be  for me and i knew that his intention was to throw me out with any means possible, including violence.

In 2004, after the house was built, i started the garden. I spent hours in the morning planting cuttings that the neighbors gave me, shaping my beautiful plants and flower. Then renovated the three huts and helped Bala starting a resort.

In 2009 it looked beautiful and the resort was popular among travelers and it had regular faithful guests that came every year to enjoy the peace, the sea, the excellent cooking made by Kichu, our talented cook.

Asthamay Bungalows was on the tour guides! Great success... and that is when Bala put the finishing touch on his master plan.

Bala's plan started when we met in 2001 in Cochin. He was a rickshaw driver, with some english skills and lots of resources. We hang out together and enjoyed each others.

Asthamay

Asthamay was born in 2003. I decided to buy this beautiful place and asked my Indian partner, Balakrishna Bhat to help with the procedures.

I was back at work in San Francisco and every month i sent the money agreed for the purchase of the land. I trusted Bala because he had appeared to me sincere and dedicated. I used my western mentality, what else did i know at the time? I knew that he was a rickshaw driver, but he seemed capable, attached to me and very practical in all this matters. That was my first mistake.

He told me that as a foreigner i could not hold real estate in India, but he would help me and to make it all good, we would have an agreement, a legal document that would protect me. I have a lease for 99 years over the property called Asthamay ; in this document i am the real owner and Bala is just the title holder.

Sounded good to me, this was another mistake. I had no idea that the document had to be registered to have any legal validity. And Bala never registered it.

In 2004 i packed everything, quit my good job in San Francisco, said goodbye to me friends and moved to Asthamay.

i built a house, the house of my dreams...at least this is what i thought. this is the house:

Ever been in an Indian court?

I had never before in my life set foot into a court of law, if not for jury duty in San Francisco, my city. Now, since february 2010, i am the plaintiff in a series of court cases in Varkala (Kerala) in the town's First Class Magistrate Court. I have filed charges of domestic violence against the Indian man that i had been living with for 6 years.

it's a long story full of deception, betrayal, tourism, money, love, lies and abuse, and it all happened in God's Own Country.

Chapter 1 - Odayam and Asthamay

Chapter 2 - Balakrishna Bhat

Chapter 3 - And it seemed paradise

more later....

Chapter 1

I came to Varkala the first time in 2001 and i really loved the place. I run away from the Cliff with the shops and the restaurants with Buddha Bar music, and i found my ideal place.

This is what it looked like in 2001.

The place is Odayam Beach, 15 minutes North of the Varkala Cliff. There were just 3 huts and a half built house. No cars, no honking anything, just the sea and palm trees. I stayed for a week. Swimming, eating simple food, sleeping and walking around. I went back to my job in San Francisco and kept on dreaming about this place. I had a strong feeling about this place. I knew i would come back.