Varghese bought a boat and re-fashioned it into a houseboat using traditional material like undyed coir mesh and mat. Now a fleet of 11 such boats winds through the backwaters and introduces tourists to the history, geography and lifestyle of his home state. Children catching fish, women beating husk into coir and men selling illicit liquor pass them by. Two navigators, one escort and a cook, all old boatpeople, provide a whiff of the old magic. The escort reels out tales about the places as they parallel to a string of villages, dock, collect rations, shop, cook and eat traditional food. "Earlier, only rich, elderly Westerners came to peer through five star hotels and air-conditioned launches to see how the other half lives.