Sunder Ramu Instagram – THINNAI. #shotoniphone The THINNAI. It’s a platform created mostly with a roof above it and a lot of times there is a clay pot of cool drinking water kept in the corner. Apart from the inmates of the house being to be able to use it to sit outside, it’s also open for travellers to rest on their journey. Some years back just before couch surfing became popular, I was backpacking through Europe and I stayed at hostels and in one of them, a friend I made suggested that I stay at people’s homes to experience travel completely differently. She put me on to a place to stay in Vienna and amazingly from there on I kept getting connected to different homes in different cities and countries, and the experience was life changing. You realise how little you need and how generous people can be. Every time I think of that trip and the concept of the Thinnai it warms me up inside thinking of how welcoming strangers were of me and how beautiful it was that we used to create space for others in our homes with the Thinnais that used to be built.