The road that branches off the Thiruvalla-Kozhencherry State Highway towards Kumbanad in Pathanamthitta district in Kerala wears an air of permanent stillness.The heavy flow of vehicles and chatter of the highway quickly give way to an uncanny stillness. Behind ornate gates stand sprawling houses shaded by towering trees, their balconies empty, windows closed, and courtyards overrun by weeds.On gates, compound walls and electricity poles, weather beaten flex boards announcing deaths ripple in the wind. Elsewhere in central Travancore, they merely announce deaths. But in Kumbanad, they seem to chronicle something far larger. Together, they tell the story of a village slowly outliving the generation that built it.“You won’t believe this, but among all these houses in this entire neighbourhood, there is only one child, a three-year-old one. Now and then, the young boy comes out onto the terrace and calls out, ‘Appacha’, to me. That is one of the greatest joys of my life these days,“ says Brigadier (retired) Varghese Jacob, an octogenarian.Like the countless parents in Kumbanad, Varghese too returned home after retirement while his children built their lives elsewhere. His two sons are living away from their hometown.