In Ezhikkara, water decides how life unfolds. The village lies north of Kochi in Kerala's Ernakulam district, within the backwaters of the Periyar basin. Canals cut through low-lying land, linking its fields and neighbourhoods to wider waterways. Boats often serve where roads stop and many homes stand close to the water, their walls stained by years of monsoon rain and salt.

Ezhikkara still practises pokkali, a centuries-old system that alternates between rice and prawn farming. During the monsoon, farmers grow salt-tolerant rice in flooded fields. After the harvest, they open embankments to let in tidal water, allowing prawns to grow in the same plots. This natural rotation restores soil, sustains small livelihoods and keeps the ecosystem balanced without chemical input. Farmers regulate the water's flow to maintain the right salt levels for each season.

Homes and fields seem to float between land and tide, quietly directed by the movement of water. Each season redraws the landscape, altering its pace, colour and sound. Ezhikkara survives by adapting rather than expanding—proof that in Kerala's wetlands, progress means living with the tide instead of against it.