Travels along the Indian coast on a bicycle

Five years of research and planning. A bicycle. And the entire Indian coastline. This past year, I disappeared into a metaphorical cave to write it all down, and on August 15th, I’m coming out to share it. My first travel memoir hits Kindle – a story of cycling the coasts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, part joy, part discovery, part hard-won grit. Book one of four. You could pre-order it now on Amazon: https://amzn.in/d/09hGULsX

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About the Book

He set out before dawn on a bicycle, chasing the narrow seam where land meets sea.Dr. Ayyappan R. Nair—scientist, son, and a cyclist—returns from years in the United States to a Kerala rearranged by time. When the pandemic stills everything, quiet rides around Thiruvananthapuram grow into an obsession: to follow India’s coastline, lighthouse to lighthouse, and learn what the edge of a nation can teach about survival, history, and the self. His Kerala coastal ride—hundreds of kilometers, past 20 lighthouses—was featured in The Hindu, The National, and Mathrubhumi.The Roads Along the Sea follows the first leg of that journey—from Kerala’s Malabar shore past India’s southernmost tip, up the Coromandel coast along the Bay of Bengal. Lighthouses become sentinels of time, marking vanishing ports and shifting rivers. In fishing villages and storied harbors—Anchuthengu, Kollam, Kodungallur, Fort Kochi in Kerala, and onward through Kanyakumari, Rameswaram, Dhanushkodi’s ghost town, the Danish outpost of Tharangambadi, Mahabalipuram’s shore temples, and Chennai’s Marina—temples, mosques, churches, and synagogues stand shoulder to shoulder, remnants of centuries of trade and fragile coexistence.Through encounters with fishermen, ferry operators, and strangers offering shelter, a coastline emerges that resists easy stories—reshaped by trade, climate, and politics, yet held together by quiet human resourcefulness. With every kilometre, the outward ride turns inward, until the author learns that meaning comes from moving with change, not against it.This book is written from a traveller’s perspective, and so it carries not just historical fact but also the voices and impressions of the times in which these journeys were made—some unverifiable, yet true to what was seen and felt along the way. The narrative makes this distinction clear throughout. For readers seeking rigorous historical scholarship, some brilliant historians and authors have done exemplary work documenting India’s past, and this book refers to some of their work in the appendix.The first of a planned four-book journey around India’s entire coast, this volume includes a free QR-linked companion: interactive route maps, photographs, place histories, and curated reading lists—extending the book beyond its pages.The book will be available on Amazon. If you read it, I’d be grateful if you could share your review with friends and family. This is the first of four travel memoirs.