ROMANCE AND REALITY IN COCHIN – LAND OF SPICES AND COCONUT PALMS
INTRODUCTION
Cochin and the Chinese Fishing nets have been on my bucket list since working in India thirty years ago. For whatever reason, flying down south to Kerala was always that little bit too far out of the way.
But today, I sail in through green waters of the Arabian Sea, (not quite like those seafaring traders in sailing ships in search of spices from hundreds of years ago, but on MV ‘Silver Wind’). I’m simply an interested tourist with just four hours to explore with the assistance of a local guide.
Squawking birds circle over the Chinese fishing nets swinging out from the palm-fringed entrance on both sides of the harbour. Put down my knife and fork and grab for the camera . . . but alas, for the second time on this cruise, opening my camera in the heat, it frosts up.
ROMANCE AND REALITY IN COCHIN – LAND OF SPICES AND COCONUT PALMS
The ‘romance’ of a fantastical past, and . . .
The ‘reality’ of life lived in the 21st century in Cochin . . .
Are two ‘very different’ things.
THE ROMANCE OF A FANTASTICAL PAST
Jewish Traders came to these shores in search of teak and spices a millennium before Christ. It was here that they secured teak to build the Second Temple.
Visions of Babylonian, Assyrian, and Arab traders conjure up such colourful images of protocols and relationships for me.
And . . .
I can only start to imagine what happened when Portuguese Vasco da Gama and his Caucasian crew landed much later, in the 15th century, to trade with dhoti-clad, bare-chested Rajas and Kings of that time. The fragrant spices were more valuable than gold in the markets of Genoa and Venice.
St Thomas brought Christianity in the first century, with Franciscans and other missionaries arriving fifteen hundred years later bringing education and knowledge. How did they go about their work of conversion?
Then . . .
There’s a life and story of its own about the Dutch and British East India Companies and their forms of subjugation of local people that carries little romance, but I’m open to understanding more.
REALITY OF LIFE LIVED IN THE 21ST CENTURY
The world’s very best spices still grow in abundance in the fertile soils of the Western Ghat mountain ranges in the east. I have no doubt that peaceful backwaters, cuisine, colour, and scenery of Kerala remain legendary, but
the reality in 21st century Cochin, (in the few glimpses possible in just a three-hour shore visit from the ship), is not of a romantic nature.
On a visit to the Dutch Palace in Mattancherry built by the Portuguese, the reality is that I am not permitted to photograph the still so colourful original murals depicting scenes from the Ramayana. lol
Regrettably, this otherwise compelling story describing Hindu culture is far too complex to digest in the limited time available, (despite the efforts of Ajit our earnest local guide). On learning he’d travelled five hours on a train from his home in the south to give of his knowledge, I felt sorry for him at our apparent disinterest in the oppressive heat inside the ‘museum’.
Human reality is evident in the inequity and poverty brought to life on our visit to an outdoor laundry. Here we speak to one poor woman standing barefooted in the heat lifting a ten kilo iron fired by burning coconut husk all day long to earn a few rupees.
The first church in all of Asia here in Cochin Fort now retains little semblance of anything Christian in its stripped-bare ‘low-church’ existence. The only reality in visiting the 500 year-old St Francis Church is seeing the cloth punkahs overhead that were pulled from outside by a coolie using cords to keep Anglo-Indians in British India cool during the hot weather. Romantic? No!
Centuries ago, the Jewish community played prominent roles in the spice trade on this ‘Malabar Spice coast’. Jew Town, as its known today has just eight surviving Jewish residents, and a synagogue. It’s transformed into a few streets of shopkeepers and warehouses fragrant with bags of ginger and other spices.
Fragrance of another kind assaults my nostrils in the littered area around the hugely popular Chinese fishing nets at the entrance of the harbour. This Cochin attraction pulls the tourist throngs but the nets pull up not much more than hyacinth weeds.
Bhupen, a good friend of Indian descent in Sydney writes much more romanticly of his many weeks’ stay in Cochin and Kerala:
I kiss this red earth where Gandhi walked,
Krishna danced, Mother Teresa swept
And Buddha thought
Orange smiles here are infectious.
Worshipping places abound. Jostles included
Is Yoga yellow? It started here. Meditation too attracting throngs
Ayurveda and spices
Bhupen’s not certain if yoga is yellow. I have no doubt though that there is no yellow as intense as in the allamanda flowers on vines draped over houses and fences.
The captions under the photos tell more of the ‘story’.ebook photos
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