BY THE SEA: Holiday makers along the beach.
INTRIGUING: The St Francis Church.
FISHING BUDDIES: Fishermen of Kochi: (From left) Shajin, Franklin, Shammad and Peter.
FISH SELLER: An elderly trader selling fish at the market.
SARAH COHEN: Kochi her Promised Land.
CHINESE fishing net resemblance of 14th century China; an oldest Jewish Synagogue in the Common-wealth; a Dutch Palace; a Portuguese St Francis Church; an old nostalgia India; serene Backwaters; aromatic spices in every breath you take; colourful people and cultures – it’s all in Kochi, the Queen of Arabian Sea in the state also known as God’s own country – Kerala, India.
The sights, sounds, smell, taste and touch of Kochi (formerly known as Cochin), a city of 600,000 people, were not how I associated with India before I stepped foot on it one early Sunday morning – courtesy of Malaysian Airlines.
Shine Aroor, our tourist guide, also a part-time history lecturer in a college attached to Kerala University, introduced Kerala, the world’s first democratically elected communist government voted in by the people in 1957, as a place in India with the lowest crime rate, the lowest accident rate and the highest literacy in India.
“This is the only place in India where there is not a single beggar. Smoking and begging are not allowed in public places,” he said.
He was equally proud to add that people were so cultured that even if you smoked at home, you needed permission from the other family members.
But people drink – they queue up to buy liquor and it’s common to see policemen using breathalyzers on cyclists anytime of the day at busy traffic light junctions.
Formerly known as Cochin, the city is strategically positioned with the Western Gates on the east and the Arabian Sea on the west, thus making it a real enticing destination for travellers, traders and seafarers with its reputation of being a significant spice-trading centre.
To appreciate Kochi, getting into its colourful and rich history is the first step. We set foot on Fort Kochi where successive waves of immigration by the Arabs, British, Chinese, Dutch and Portugese had left indelible marks.
Dutch, Portuguese and British
Kochi has its share of museums which lead visitors through the backroads of history into fascinating worlds where stories of kings and queens, conquests, valour and love come alive.
One such building is the Mattancherry Palace, built by the Portuguese and presented to Veera Kerala Varma (1537-65), Raja of Kochi in 1555, to pacify him for a blunder they committed which angered the king.
The Palace underwent major renovations and repairs under the Dutch, thus it is also known as Dutch Palace.
A tour of the Palace, declared a centrally-protected monument in 1951 and established as a museum in 1985, was like a walk through a story book. Artifacts and exhibits arranged chronologically tell the history of Kochi which easily engages the visitors.
It has preserved objects used by the royal family such as clothes, jewellery, ivory palanquin, royal umbrellas, howdah, coins, stamps and drawings and an array of portrait gallery of the Kochin Rajas.
Shine (the tourist guide) taught us how to enjoy the three dimensional portrait gallery. By fixing your eyes on one portrait at a time while walking through the gallery, you will find the eyes of the portrait following you.
Soon enough, without a camera, all that these Rajas of Kochi royal family impressed on our minds – the amazing effects of lights and ambience – were enough for us to remember for a long time.
The Portuguese arrived during the time of legendary explorer Vasco Da Gama in 1498 and they were welcomed by the kings of Kochi and allowed to establish industries and factories there.
The Portuguese were invaded by the Dutch who took control of the palace. Later, the palace came under British East India Company.
The palace was constructed in traditional Kerala Nallukettu style but the typical Portuguese architecture is seen in the two arches by the museum’s entrance and the windows. The floor is made of a combination of charcoal, burnt coconut shells, lime, plant juices and egg whites.
Since photography is prohibited inside the museum, be prepared to observe carefully and register the display items in your minds – or like me, pen them down.
Sounds intriguing
A church, a burial ground – that sounds quite intriguing. St Francis Church, it is.
Vasco da Gama, the first European to discover a route to India, who died in 1524, was buried in St Francis Church. Although his remains were shipped to Lisbon after 14 years, the gravestone still remains.
The church was built in 1503 by Portuguese traders. When the Dutch arrived in 1663, they reconditioned and converted it into their government church.
It is a landmark of history and church architecture of India – many churches in Kochi were later built with St Francis Church in mind.
Chinese connection
They are called Chinese Fishing Nets – these relics hacked back to the years of Kochi’s foreign trade.
Legend has it that the Chinese Fishing Nets were introduced in Fort Kochi by the Chinese explorer, Zheng He.
They were brought from the court of emperor Kublai Khan and have been in operation there since that time.
Made of teak and operated with stone weights, these nets are lowered in the waters and hauled up with the catches. They are 20 of them, each more than 10m high and stretching up to 20m.
These fishing nets have been made obsolete by the “take-over” of modern fishing methods. Conservaionists have made efforts to bring them under a heritage label.
There are whole communities of fishermen whose livelihood depends on the daily catch they get from these heritage structures.
Shajin who has been fishing for 30 years, said: “Times are bad. We can fetch about 5-6kg a day. December is the best harvest month.”
Along the coast, there are many stalls selling fish, crabs and prawns with many signs that read: You buy, I cook.
Then came the Jews
Sarah Cohen is the eldest of the eight remaining members of the Paradesi Jews in Kochi. (Paradesi means foreigner).
Her shop – Sarah’s Hand Embroidery – is located in Jew Town. It is estimated that at one point, the Jewish community numbered 25,000 people.
The 90-year-old lives near the Pardesi Synagogue, one of the oldest in the world, built in 1568, when Jewish spice traders set up their businesses in this small outpost of the Jewish world.
A series of large oil paintings in the Synagogue tell the history of the Jews in Kochi. The first painting depicts King Solomon’s merchant ship greeting Indian leaders and trading peacocks, ivory, spices and teak wood.
The inscriptions under the paintings say the Book of Esther in the Old Testament of the Bible contains the first written mention of Jews in India.
The Jews tried to blend into India in their settlement with a dialect called Judeo-Malayalam – a mix of Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Hebrew.
Most of the Jews have left, seeking their final home in Israel in the 1950’s but for Cohen, this is her Promised Land.
She said: “I can’t leave a place where my heart lies? I am an Indian and this is my place. I have many precious memories here.”
The Synagogue – with colourful sparkling Belgian chandeliers, scrolls of the Old Testament, green and red candle-holders that swing from the ceiling beams and floor intricately patterned with blue and white tiles from Canton China in the 15th century has not been a place of worship as it needs a quorum of 10 men to start a worship service.
Cohen said despite the shortage of a place to worship, she has never skipped her prayers.
Legend has it that if you look hard enough into the tiles, you will find your own story in one of the blue and white squares because the pictures on the tiles change from time to time, telling the story of the Kochi Jews.
For security concerns after 2008 Mumbai attack, we have to leave all our belongings, including cameras and phones with the security in attendance by the side of the synagogue.
Cohen seemed very comfortable and at ease with curious visitors popping by her 300-year-old shop which also doubles up as a home, and asking her questions, or merely wanting to take a photograph with her.
As I parted with her, she said: “This is my home. I like the people.”
Her words echo the story of a lost community.
It is decidedly a charming heritage walk in Fort Kochi with traces of India, Portugal, China, Dutch and Britain found in every nook and cranny.
It is a sense of a wonderful presence of mutual religious and cultural tolerance, spiced up by the rich spices at every corner of the street.
The Hindu prayers, conch shells and bells of the temple next door, the Hebrew prayers and shofar (Jewish horn) are heard in the temple courtyard and streets beyond.
It is not strange for mosques and churches to stand side by side in Kochi city.
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