oh -that reminds me of my adventure motorcycling days - this was the 4th one in India -- from Bombay down south to Kanyakumari (the extreme southern tip of India) and back -- this was before my Bombay - Ladakh (extreme northern tip) and Calcutta to Arunachal. If any of you are motorbikers, I recommend it.
From Bombay to Kerala me and my Indian biking buddies went through 4 states -- and each one of those spoke a completely different language, with different scripts!
Above Maharashtra, so Marathi
Below Kannada in Karnataka
Below Malayalam in Kerala
Below Tamil
My Indian friends told me that after the second state they didn't have any common language to communicate with the locals - and these guys were multi-lingual!
anyway, to Kerala
We took a break on the backwaters
And the ancient synagogues in Kochi
definitely worth visiting - southern india is magical.