Recently I visited the seaside town on Tranquebar (also known as Tarangambadi – the land of the singing waves) on the south east coast of India. The town was a Danish Port from 1620 – 1845 and was the home of India’s first printing press. If you are ever in the South East of India, I’d suggest a visit to this very small but delightful community.

The community is a mix of Christian, Muslim and Hindi families and mosques, temples and churches happily co-exist alongside one another. The buildings are often brightly painted and there are some beautifully restored buildings from the Danish colonial period. Goats wander the streets untethered and the doorways are decorated with intricately chalked mandalas.

 Most people in the town make their living from fishing. Early each morning the long, brightly coloured boats chug out and return with baskets and nets brimming with fish. We went down to the fish market and joined the daily haggle for catch while sipping on green coconut juice.

I was lucky enough to tag along on a visit to the Tranquebar Craft and Resource Centre with Marc Tarmo, of Coffee Ideas who was leading a workshop in making Paella with a group of local women .Tranquebar was very badly affected by the 2004 and since then a number of aid agencies have been with the community to help rebuild the town.  The Tranquebar Craft and Resource Centre has been created to promote the local crafts through developing skills and sales networks.

A fun few hours was spent preparing the ingredients and cooking the paella. The local women looked sceptical when the meal was finally served – there’d been not a hint of a chilly during the preparation. None the less smiles spread across their faces as they ate, and Marc’s home Valencian paella was given the thumbs up.

If paella ever takes off in Tranquebar, I’ll have the privilege of claiming a place at it’s first sitting!