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| A fisherman is in a pensive mood at the Chinese fishing nets |
With a creak and a crank, the wooden planks see-saw upwards.
Behind me the five fishermen are heaving and pulling down ropes attached to
large rocks with cries of ‘
hejala’. The
nets rise, and with it the hopes of a catch. These are the
Cheena vala, the Chinese fishing nets of Kochi in action. The
eastern imports are huge spider like contraptions which are delicately balanced
– lowered or raised with simple human effort. I am here for the sunrise and a few
good photographs. The fishermen oblige but not without a small plea to help
their cause. One of them speaks English and Hindi and explains that it’s a bad
season and that they have families to support. He isn’t entirely wrong – in the
past 30 mins they have lowered the nets about 4 times and not caught a single
fish. In contrast, the fishermen who took their boats to deeper waters are
returning with a huge catch to sell right behind the
Cheena Vala. A quick look around and I notice that all the
fishermen operating the nets on the beach are considerably old. Obviously this
is a dying technique with no takers amongst the youth.
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| Hejala - the fishermen draw the nets up |
The younger generation has unfortunately turned Cochin into
a mini-Goa. Not that I dislike Goa, but unique is certainly superior to
popular. Sample this – the previous night I headed to the Kerala café, a street
restaurant near the nets. Reggae blasts from the speaker in the corner while
the Malyali waiter looks a bit
rasta
himself. Soon he joined by a long haired Caucasian male dressed in a white
lungi and white cotton shirt. The two keep thumping their fists together like
they just robbed the bank of Kerala. Seated around me are North Indians who
converse with the waiters in Hindi. It seems the Great South Indian guard that
held my admiration for so many years is down. An assimilation into the larger
Indian way you say- but like I mentioned, unique trumps popular.
Anyways, it was time for breakfast, but I wasn’t going to
get any at 7:30 in the morning. Most of our enterprising Mallus are struggling
into the morning. So I head back to my room to kill off an hour before I go to
the Kashi Art café down the street to experience some more of the new age
Kochi. As the name suggests, it’s a café-cum-art exhibition. With a nice airy Mediterranean
feel to it, the Kashi Art café runs art exhibitions in its premises. Besides, the
food ain’t too bad either. In fact, I soon realize that it’s pretty good as I
dig into the creamy cheese filling of my omlette. Regardless of the cosmopolitan infusion, Kochi
still retains a lot of its original character, thanks to some well supported
and preserved institutions by locals and government.
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| Murals at the river front |
Mattancherry is one such example. Home to the Dutch palace
and the old Jew town, it is a Malabar relic unlike any other. The Jews of
Kochi, now just 8 (5 families) are an endangered lot. Jews are believed to have
made their way to the Malabar Coast after the destruction of the temple of
Solomon and have had a significant presence here. However, all that remains is
a synagogue and remnants of the old Jew town, now filled with merchants selling
all sorts of Indian art. It’s the same old clash you would witness in most
tourist places in the country – the preservation of culture, of the past and of
antiquity often finds itself competing with a means of survival for some. The synagogue
is quite remarkable with its blue and white ceramic tiles on the floor and
chandeliers above. Also remarkable is its emptiness!
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| Jew street |
The Dutch palace is also worth a visit. It’s a museum today and
is testament to the extravagance of the former rulers of Kochi. But with every
step, I could feel the heat and humidity of Kochi suck the energy out of me. It
was just too tiring to go through the placards on Kochi’s history and stand
around to admire the murals. It was a quick 15 minute tour around the palace before
going back to Fort Kochi for Lunch and some rest. I needed it – I was about to
immerse myself into another dimension of the old culture.
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| Ethnic Indian work on sale in Jew town |
Most states in the country have their own art forms and
Kerala is no exception. In fact, the martial arts of Kalaripayttu and the dance of Kathakali
are quite famous across the country if not the world. As the last act of the
day, I head to the Kerala Kathakali centre for some martial arts and dance. Three fighters took control of the first hour
and amazed the audience with acrobatic somersaults, aerial kicks and a range of
attacks and blocks with and without weapons including the Urumi which evoked some shrieks from the audience. At the end the
announcer narrates a sad but familiar story – one of the dying art of Kalaripayttu. It’s not as famous as
other traditional art forms and obviously not as glamorous as Kung-fu or
Karate.
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| Kalaripayttu - fighters in action |
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| Layers of colour |
The next hour was the most interesting part of the evening –
No, not the Kathakali dance, but the
makeup session for the dancers that precedes it and yes, it takes an hour! For an entire sixty minutes, the dancers put on their own make-up for an
audience. Everyone looked on, absolutely astounded by this exotic display, as the dancers applied layer after layer of colour. I on the other hand, wondered how two men could sit there every day for an hour and dump colour on themselves, that too in public. More importantly, traditionally, Kathakali performers were male. It’s only in recent years that female
dancers have joined the troupe. So not only were they putting on make-up, one of
the dancers was to play the role of a woman. Weird place this – a macho martial
arts form is losing popularity, but men would rather colour themselves for an audience.
If this is God’s own country, then we all came out wrong I guess. Nonetheless,
it is still remarkable that locals go the distance to conserve their culture – I
guess the old guard is still around.
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| St. Francis Church |
Tips
- There are plenty of homestays in Fort Kochi including the
Vasco homestay where Vasco Da Gama is believed to have lived. They are the best
budget options here. I stayed at the Oy’s homestay which was just above the Oy’s
Café. However, some of them are just inns and not necessarily in a home.
- DO NOT miss the fish in Kochi
- St. Francis church (where Vasco Da Gama was once buried) and
the Santa Cruz basilica are good examples of Indo-Portuguese architecture. They
are close to each other and a visit wont take up much time.
- The Kerala Kathakali centre is your one stop destination for
all art forms of Kerala. They even have courses.
- Close to the Jew town is a spice market, just in case you
want the authentic stuff
