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In an idyllic backwater retreat, a few kilometres away from Thrissur, a bunch of 40 odd men and women of different ages gathered over a weekend last month. Some started their day with yoga, some made breakfast, some played board games, some settled down on the sofa with a book and some for a deep conversation. In between, when rains came lashing down, they rushed outside to soak in the shower and gathered inside once more at sundown with someone strumming the guitar and others singing along.
In what looked like a mini summer break, nothing seemed amiss - except for what was absent - their clothes. That's right, cocooned in a resort among the dense foliage were a bunch of humans all naked as a jaybird.
These folks, who call themselves 'Kerala Naturists' like to go au naturel every now and then - is only a tiny fraction of India's colossal nudist community that has embraced the practice of 'social nudism' also called 'naturism', a lifestyle of being clothes-free in social and sometimes public settings as an act of reclaiming their bodies and celebrating their natural self.
"We usually gather once a month over a weekend or a public holiday. Since we're a hidden community, we meet in a remote area in the woods or the riverside, in someone's house or an eco-resort. People come from not just around Kerala but nearby cities like Chennai and Bangalore," says *Sadhna, a 26-year-old from Thrissur, who grew up in a home where bodies weren't a thing to be hidden and nudity wasn't a shame.
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"Since childhood I liked running around the house nude. I felt more free and relaxed. As I grew older, clothes felt like a mask, something that defined rich and poor. Going nude in adulthood with fellow nudists, liberated me. I felt more confident about who I am, my body and not what society expects of me."
boxcontentWhy people like being bare
* Bonding with the natural world
* To bask in the joy & benefits of taking in direct sun and fresh air
* For a breakdown of social barriers. They believe that with shedding of clothes people shed all pretences and judgement associated with what one wears
* Personal liberty