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The sun has finally
broken the dense, daunting nexus of clouds. It smiles down
uncertainly and then more openly at the sparkling rain-washed streets
of Kochi. Do the cheerful rays of sunshine known this absolutely
southern city of India as well as I do? I wonder. This typically
Keralite bustling harbour city way down along the Malabar coast of
peninsular India. Where it is routine to wait for the sun during the
rain-filled months of the mansoon.
Kochi-the name that
became Cochin with European influence and is now again the city’s
official name is not just Kerala’s capital city, but is capital
for the state in more ways than one. I am a regular witness of the
unique milieu that has developed because of a long, rich and
checquered past having co-evolved with the special traditions and
culture of the so called Cochin Malayalee. And it is this same
synergistic flavour that reflects in the socio-cultural and
architectural attributes of the city. Just as it is with so many
other places, Kochi must surely mean different things to different
people. A world-famous port, a business center, a glamorous mirror
to Kerala’s vivid multifaceted personality or a mere hometown.
To me, it is the latter and I belong to that huge bunch of
non-resident Malayalees who undertake a 3500 to Kochi for a vacation.
Kochi is a place I relate to with an immediacy that is startling. The
predominant whit of everybody’s clothing, fast efficient public
transport the well-read somewhat arrogant, vegetable hawker and the
temples. Beautiful, old quiet and cool, the temples of Kochi.
But then its not just
me-a mere sentimental Keralite who finds this mixed-up city
interesting. To many travellers this natural harbour with its famous
geographical hallmark-the underwater mudbanks of Malabar-is equally
interesting. For a host of reasons.
Kochi means mainland
Ernakulam, the island of Willingdon, Fort Cochin, Gundu, Bolgatty and
Mattanchery, which is why a large number of people traverse the
Arabian Sea backwaters everyday to and from work. No Venetian
gondolas here, but the glamour is there. In a grab more earthy more
matter-of-fact. It is a favourite pastime with me watching those
steamers coming and going with loads of people, against the backdrop
of the huge vessels docked at Cochin harbour. If often stand below a
now-familiar mango tree in Kochi’s Traffic Park for children,
looking out towards Bolgatty Island and the Bolgatty Palace Hotel in
the orange hues of a setting sun. that Traffic Park is fun for kids
because one most often finds things in working order and the place,
come evening, is full of kids of all ages.
There is now the Marine
Drive as one drives along the seaside from the Traffic Park. This is
new to me. What way-only a shopping center with nothing in common
with its world famous namesake in New York. My associations with this
place-cliched though they may seem-largely concern a shop called Pai
and Company. Paico is a bookstore where I, with my earlier voracious,
now tempered appetite for fiction, have spent many a delightful hour.
Paico forms part of the book-lovers Must Visit agenda. Broadway is a
street and by-lane composite of shops-a great majority being those
that sell gold, umbrellas and typical Malayalee cooking vessels. The
street ends in a huge fruit and vegetable market called the Chanda
Bazaar.
The Chanda Bazaar is a
place I discovered much later, thanks to a photographer husband’s
talent for sniffing out a photogenic frame. It must be seen for the
same reasons that one visits the Russell Market in Bangalore and the
Devraj Market in Mysore. An incredibly variety of fruits, vegetables
and scores of things set into small shops and laced with human faces
of every kind! I am most impressed with the wide variety of mangoes
and bananas that I see all around me. And all this expanse is on the
bank of canal where small, indigenous ferry-boats are busy carrying
stuff. Wherever you look, there are dark, wiry men-bare torso, white
lungi hitched up from the knee, lush moustache. It’s almost a
clone!
Kochi has thing about
it-these typified clones of people walking around but against a
backdrop of amazingly cosmopolitan architecture. South Indian Hindu
temples, numerous churches, Portuguese buildings, a Jewish synagogue
and the inevitable modern buildings. All those brick tile roofs. The
populace is not so cosmopolitan, after all. Jews are now a very, very
restricted part of Kochi society. Non-Malayalee service and business
people are not all that many. And yet there is something very
likeable about the place. I put this down to Kochi really being a
near perfect mirror-image of Kerala having within itself a little of
everything that makes Kerala the state that it is. From the totally
literate district of Ernakulam to the small fishing villages, from
the insular temple life to a somewhat fastpaced social scenario and
glamorous eat-out places, from the number of educational institution
to the highpowered cultural ethos, Kochi is every bit the prototype
Malayalee metropolis.
To me, a Delhi-Wallah by
need and necessity, Kochi is a place where distances are last on your
list of problems.
Each place is happily
within reach, in fact driving 20 kms westward from Central Ernakulam
one would be well within the Arabian Sea! Twenty kilometers is now
almost next-door in a city like Delhi! As a result there is much that
one can see in one day, although it would take much longer to really
learn to appreciate the sights of Kochi so to speak.
And among the many sights
are the temples. Theist and atheist must see these wondrously
peaceful places. Kerala temple architecture shows off its best at
the Errnakulam Temple and the Valanya Ambalam. The latter means
curved or crooked temple because it is situated along a bend in the
road. The outer walls of the actual building have those metal frames
which can be filled with lit lamps. The inner sanctum is always dark
and cool.
Kochi may be a generally
attractive city to me but it has a generous share of the places which
are of tourist interest, in the conventional sense. The oldest church
in India is that of St. Francis, here in Fort Cochin, which in its
turn is the oldest European settlement in India. Fairly ordinary at
the outset, St Francis’s church has the singular distinction of
having had Vasco da Gama’s grave, although his remains were
later taken to Lisbon.The church was
built in early 1500s.Then there is Jew Town in Mattanchery and the
Jewish synagogue, these are also worth a visit. More than 400 years
old, the synagogue owes much of its distinctiveness to the lovely
handipainted Chinese tiles that form the rather exquisite floor of
the building. This best maintained synagogue of India has a great
many artifacts of religious significance. The Mattanchery Palace and
the Hill Palace, the latter in Trippunithura, which was the seat of
the erstwhile royal family of Cochin could both be seen, specially
Hill Palace-a picturesque, charming place.
The beaches of Kochi may
be nothing to write home about, but the Chinese fishing nets and
fish-fry stalls cannot be missed. Kochi is today a metropolis to be
reckoned with, huge, beautiful houses, the inevitable Mahatma Gandhi
Road with its shops and eat-out places, those oceans of umbrellas as
the monsoon hits India. Cochin I’d say is a truly great place,
for it symbolizes Kerala.
FROM PORTUGAL
Close to five hundred
years have passed since a Portuguese navigator called Vasco Da Gama
landed on the shores of Kerala and soon Kochi was opened out for
trade with the Portuguese. Much water has flown under the bridge
since then, but some things have remained steadfast. The Church of
St. Francis for example. That, however would be a more tangible, more
visible influence of Portuguese culture on contemporary Kochi. It is
the more suitable, smaller influence that really reflects how
amenable human groups are to adaptation and change. The traditional
Kerala Hindu meal during weddings and other such celebrations known
as the sadya has amongst its must-be-there dishes, a stew. Bland and
milky, this stew is perhaps an antithesis to all that in South Indian
cuisine. But it is always there, a gift from the Portuguese.
So it is with Jews,
locally known as Black Jews, these people, long since settled in
Kochi, have also wrought changes. Jew Town and the Jewish Synagogue
speak of a rich heritage, but the small, ever-shrinking Jewish
population of Kochi has a certain melancholia about it. Jew Town is
an architectural medley of traditional Jewish and Kerala styles. The
inherent insularity of the group is now reflected in their small
numbers.
SOUTHERN SPICE
Spices mean so much to
the average Indian and to may social groups all over the world. And
the word spice is almost synonymous with Kerala. Walking down
Broadway in Kochi I pass many street vendors sitting with arrays of
various spices from the ordinary green cardamom and black pepper to
the more exotic nutmeg. The latter is called myristica in Latin,
jaipal in Hindi and jadikai in Malayalam. There are alive memories of
childhood afternoons spent munching jadikai and running around these
exquisite trees with scores of black pepper creepers on their trunks.
The child’s mind never registered the economic nuances of
having such stuff growing in one’s own backyard. Kerala is
still a vital role player in the world trade scenario for spices.
Coir too, is Kerala
itself. Fibre from the fruit of the coconut tree that has a
versatility of form and function is being realized more today than
ever before. Every fifth shop in Kochi is a coir products shop.
Baskets, carpets and lots of handicrafts. And now, mattresses and
unpholstery. Durable multi-faceted and reasonably priced, coir is a
popular product and a huge bustling industry of Kerala.
ONE FOR THE GOOD LIFE
Kochi has a real surprise
package for the tourist who is also a gourmet. Surprise because the
general ambience seems to hint at a somewhat narrow culinary
offering, but the actuals are that there is an incredible variety of
food and eating-out places to choose from.
First of course, the
traditionals: Woodlands and Dwaraka, along with most of the large
hotels, offer the usual Malayalee fare and popular South Indian fast
foods. And so, eating avail, stew, dosas and vadas, is common enough.
There are some good
restaurants for the Mughalai and China garden and Micro are some of
these which are popular and well frequented. Besides, there are a
large number of hotels along Marine Drive that offer such fare.
And what’s more,
Kochi has a healthy share of the potpourri kind of eating places that
provide all kinds of food. The Oven, Bimbi’s and a host of
others have a variety of eatables to offer, from baked stuff to
samosas (deep fried dumping), vegetarian and non vegetarian.
But then there are the
real hallmarks of eating out in Kochi. Like the 35 kinds of dosas
that are dished out on MG Road by a modest hawker whose clientele
ranges from the ordinary worker to the posh elite and whose work
begins after sundown and goes on till the wee hours. Or the great
seafood snaks along the seafront where delicious fish, lobster, crab
and the likes can be had at reasonable prices.
Eating out in Kochi can
be a holiday in itself, belying a cosmopolitan ethos that lurks
behind the apparent uniformity of this lovely city.
AROUND KOCHI
Alleppey, Thekkady,
Munnar, Trichur, Guruvayoor. All names of places well-known the world
over. For Kerala’s boat-races, natural beauty, tea estates,
temples and temples festivals and no journey to any of these places
from Kochi is more than a 100 kilometers. A busy time then, for the
average, enthusiastic tourist visiting Kochi.
Alleppey is perhaps
better known as the venue for the annual Nehru Cup snake boat race. A
much-publicized, widely-attended activity, this race is attractive
also because of the waterways on which it is held. Kerala’s
emerald beauty is perhaps at its best when viewed from these natural
waterways. The place is 81 kilometers south of Kochi.
Thekkady-base camp for
the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary and Tiger Reserve-nestles prettily in
the Western Ghats ands is amongst the best natural spots in India to
watch elephants go by. Munnar, too, is gorgeous in its scenic
beauty-home to much of Kerala’s tea and is the highest township
of Kerala.
Trichur, another global
name owing its international character to the Trichur Pooram-the
massive grand temple festival-is an 80 kilometer run northward from
Kochi. Perhaps best described as the cultural pulse of Kerala,
Trichur is where the three government academics of
learning-literature, visual arts and music and drama- are housed.
Trichur is close to Kalamandalam, another big name in the performing
arts-a traditional school of Kathakali. Kathakali is the old
dance-drama of Kerala, now appreciated the world over for its
intricacy, sophistication and grandeur. But the Pooram is the real
magnet as far as Trichur is concerned and, come April, the
Vadakkunnathan temple resounds with echoes of the panchavadyam, a
five instrument concert of Kerala, and fills up visually with
caparisoned elephants. Glorious fireworks and lakhs of observers.
Further up from Trichur is Guruvayoor, temple town par excellence.
Essentially a cluster of temples dedicated to Krishna who is known as
Guruvayoor Appan to the Malayalee, Guruvayoor is 30 kilometers north
of Trichur and must be visited for the mind boggling experience of
seeing so many devout humans thronging the gateway. And if you can
witness the typical Kerala wedding at the temple complex, you would
be watching what the conventional, conformist Malayalee believes is
his or her biggest achievement, a marital tie under the indulgent eye
of Guruvayoor Appan. All this must be seen to be believed.
Kochi is surrounded by
many such interesting places. Being Kerala even small riverside spots
and hill stations are extraordinary, pretty and picturesque. Remove
yourself for a few days from the mixed milieu of Kochi and the
feeling of fulfillment will arrive.
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