Sightseeing in Cochin—The Art Biennale, Dutch Palace and Jew Town

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Cochin

Sightseeing in Cochin—the Art Biennale, Dutch Palace and Jew Town

Namaste from Cochin!

Having spent two entire days attending academic presentations at the South and Central Asia Fulbright Conference, I felt serious intellectual saturation and was ready for some R & R today. At any rate, since we were off the hook from lunch-time onwards, I did not feel too guilty about getting away from the sessions right after breakfast to see as much as I could of a city that offers to much to the visitor.

I awoke at 5.00 and began blogging but stopped at about 6.00 to send a text to my cousin Blossom who, together with her daughter Menaka, had visited Cochin last month especially for the Kochi Art Biennale (which is simply Italian for a bi-annual event). I was pleased that my visit to Cochin, almost a month later, would still occur while the Biennale was on and it was with great interest that I planned to attend it. Blossom called me from Chennai to tell me what I should not miss and I was on the phone with her for nearly an hour. Speaking to other attendees at the conference, who had arrived in Cochin earlier and had already visited the venue/s, I found out exactly where to go, how to get there and at what time I should reach to catch the guided tours that are given twice a day.

  So after a quick shower, I raced down to the Latest Recipe Restaurant at Le Meriden Hotel and loaded up on carbs—for a change. I had a big bowl of muesli with mango yogurt, a pain au chocolate and a carrot and walnut muffin together with decaf coffee (I carried an instant sachet with me). There was not much time to lose as my guided tour was scheduled to begin at 11.00 am—so I hurried off to the lobby and called for my Uber. It would take 20 minutes to get there—which left me time to chat to Ray, who has his Fulbright grant with attachment to IIT, Bombay, and is not far away from me on the Powai campus where he offered to give me a tour.

  I had a wonderful Uber driver who managed to get me to Fort Kochi where the Art Biennale is being held in less than half an hour. So here was how I viewed the show.

The Kochi Art Biennale:

The Kochi Art Biennale is held bi-annually, i.e. once in two years—and this is the fourth time it is being held.  Each time it is curated by one person—this year that person happened to be an artist herself named Anita Dube.  She chooses a theme for the show and then selects the exhibits from among the wide variety of artists who approach her to have their works featured. From what I could gather, this year the theme was human suffering—through natural and man-made disasters (wars, famine, floods, etc). As you can imagine, this made the general tone of the show extremely dark. There was not one uplifting exhibit to be seen among the dozens I viewed. I had to wonder whether this city is completely joyless and whether all of India wishes to portray itself as this exceedingly unhappy kind of place. 

I was dropped off at Aspinwall House which is a misnomer because it is not a single building or ‘house’ but rather a complex: it is a vast compound that contains several buildings. It seems that it used to be a trading godown while under the control of the Portuguese. It then passed on to Dutch control. They built the warehouses, bungalows and other structures to support their trade in coconut products, coir, etc. One building is called the Coir Godown.  Ultimately, it fell in the hands of the British. I am not sure what the complex is used for today—apart from large-scale exhibitions of this kind. 

     I bought a ticket for Rs. 100 from the main building which was beautifully shaded by cashew and mango trees. The tour would be beginning in ten minutes. This gave me a chance to wander to the Kerala Tourism Development Board stall where a man gave me some brochures. I then made my way to the spot where the tour would begin. It was given by a very young girl whose name was Anchal. I am not sure what her background was as she did not introduce herself or tell us what her role in the show was. I am not sure also what training she has to be giving such tours. She was competent and knew her way around the complex—the tour was restricted to the buildings of Aspinwall House and didn’t go beyond. There are a number of venues scattered around Fort Kochi where several other exhibits were part of the show...but the tour did not go to these places. Patrons were given a map and with it, you could find your own way around. I decided early in the game to restrict myself only to Aspinwall House and the nearby Pepper House as I did want to see a few other places after lunch. 

Anchal took us from one place to another and explained what we were seeing. There were a lot of works by Indians, but for some inexplicable reason there were also a lot of works by Lebanese, Iranian and African artists. As you can imagine, their own national histories of post-colonial and revolution suffering have resulted in works that run the gamut in terms of medium but were all uniformly depressing. There was a whole room devoted to Gond Art based on wood cuts that told a legend quite effectively. There were two installations by Sue Williamson of South Africa that really stood out: one featured fishing nets filled with glass bottles, each of which represented African slaves that had been shipped off from Nigeria to Havana, Cuba, to work on the sugarcane plantations. The huge installation was set up in a hangar-like space that lent itself well to the scale of her work. Each net was also constructed around a recirculating fountain so that water dripped into basins (each representing a slave hip) in which bottles had fallen. As each bottle represented a human slave, their place in the water suggested death by drowning. On each bottle, the names of the slaves had been etched—each represented a real human being whose life was destroyed by the institution of slavery. Thick chains (an obvious symbol) held the installation together. Each basin represented a slave ship. I thought it was very cleverly done but the entire idea of the renouncing of slavery is old hat (at least for those of us coming from the USA where this theme has been relentlessly flogged). Another installation by Williamson featured linen cloths representing real Keralite women and linen T-shirts representing real Keralite men who had been shipped off to Africa by the Portuguese as indentured laborers from the 1860s onwards. These people were not slaves—but until they paid off their sea passages by work, they were virtually owned by the master who had shipped them away. 

     There were a lot of other interesting installations that used found household objects that had been washed ashore after the devastating floods that had hit the state of Kerala last year in August.There were also video installations as well as sound and dimly lit installations, one of which reminded me very much of the work of Cornelia Parker whose work I adore and which I have seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Breathless) and the Tate Modern (Thirty Pieces of Silver) in London. Her work, however, is much more light-hearted. This one featured a Hall with mikes hanging from the ceiling, rods with pages speared through them containing the words of incarcerated human beings who described how they were tortured while imprisoned and how they saw themselves through the worst of their torment. Like I said, all very dark and very disturbing.

The work of a rickshaw driver from Calcutta that included collage and hand embroidery was especially interesting and caught the attention of a lot of people. He is self-taught in embroidery and I have to say that his way of assembling a variety of techniques and media together on the same canvas was quite impressive indeed. 

We trooped from one building to the next and I have to say that what I really adored were the buildings themselves with their gorgeous winding teak staircases, wooden hammered ceilings and white washed walls. They are well maintained and are being given a new lease on life with these arty events that are drawing a lot of interest from residents and visitors alike. The tour took 90 minutes (not 2 hours as Blossom told me it would).

When it was done, I started to walk towards Pepper House but then I saw a buggy (a little golf cart) with two people in it and I knew it was headed there as a couple from my conference had told me to look out for this free amenity. I asked if I could join in and was gladly accommodated. Five minutes later, I was at Pepper House which turned out to be a pepper-trading warehouse in colonial times. As we all know, Kerala is noted for its spice trade and made the Portuguese masters of Europe. This red tiled roofed collection of L-shaped buildings was where the pepper was stocked, weighed, taxed and then shipped off to the far corners of the earth. 

I walked though the exhibits here too—they included all sorts of media (paintings, sculpture, video, installations) but it was the architecture of these beautiful old structures that caught my eye as none of the art works really spoke to me.

There was a cafe at Pepper House (there was also a sea-facing one at Aspinwall House but I was not hungry at all then) but I was not tempted to eat cake or have a coffee at lunch time. Instead I decided to look for an auto rickshaw that would take me to my next port of call—the Dutch Palace. I was lucky to find one right outside Pepper House and was at my destination in ten minutes for Rs. 50.

Exploring the Dutch Palace:

On my last visit to Cochin, ten years ago, I had not visited the Dutch Palace (no time)—so I was quite determined to see it his time round—especially as Lonely Planet had informed me that the palace contains the best murals in the entire country. This was not to be sneezed at—and so I went.

The original name of this palace was Mattancherry Palace—because it happens to be in a neighborhood of Cochin called Mattancherry. It was erected by the Portuguese in the early 1500s which explains the beautiful wooden carved and decorated ceilings of which I had seen many in the palaces of Lisbon and Sintra.  However, the vast palace soon fell to ruin and was refurbished by the Dutch who succeeded the Portuguese in Cochin and who lavished a great deal of effort and money to bring it up to snuff. The end result is a glorious building that has been converted into a Museum that offers insight into the Travancore royal family based in Cochin and their connections with the British Royal family. There is much to read in the vast number of text and pictorial exhibits that detail the history through the chronology of the Cochin royal family. There are numerous oils portraits of the Rajas from the late 1800s to the 1960s—apparently done by local Indian artists, all of whom have remained anonymous—sadly. I saw a vast amount of royal costumes and clothing worn by native Malayalees before the advent of the strict British Victorians who insisted that Keralite women cover their shoulders—they used to wear sarees that began above their chests. (The missionaries had done the same in Polynesia as I had discovered when traveling through the Hawaiian islands). There were also arms and armor including an ivory-hilted sword that also features in a portrait of the Raja (Raja Varma) in whose hand the sword is held. 

     But the most outstanding part of the palace are, of course, the murals, which is what I went there to see. Just amazing. They featured the entire story of the Ramayana done with such close attention to detail in a very traditional color palate that is based on reds and oranges with slight touches of black. The manner in which the beard of the king, for instance, is executed, the clothing, the features, so much of it is jaw-dropping and is so well executed and superbly preserved. They are strict about their No Photography rule inside the palace, so I was not able to take the kind of pictures I would have liked.    

Off to Jew Town for Lunch:

I stepped out of the palace compound and was in the process of buying a magnet when I discovered that I was literally one street away from Jew Town where Cochin’s most famous synagogue is located. However, by this time, I was pretty hungry (it was about 3.00 pm) and I decided to look for something to eat.  The freshly grilled seafood is very well reputed here on the Cochin waterfront and was recommended to me by a friend. I, therefore, started walking towards Jew Town (which had been empty the last time I had visited it as it was then the Sabbath and with respect to the Jews who live in the area, everything closes down). The streets were lined with all manner of souvenir shops and cotton clothing boutiques and I was happy to find that the Ginger Museum (a vast antiques store) actually had a cafe that sat on the waterfront. It was the perfect spot to have my lunch and I chose the ginger grilled prawns that were served with appams and a rather bland curry plus a serving of steamed vegetables and a variety of condiments. The grilled prawns were really superb and the ginger flavored sauce in which they were cooked really made them special. I enjoyed them immensely and with three appams found myself feeling really full. I also had a ginger lassi to wash everything down. 

Without wanting to waste too much time as it was about 4.30 pm by then I walked towards the synagogue that I had also visited before. This time the place was very crowded with a big school group and there was a guide who was providing some information in English.  Attached to the synagogue is a small museum that tells the story of the settlement of Cochin’s Jews in this part of India in the 700s and the building of the synagogue not long after when the local King gave them shelter and told them they could build a house of worship close to his palace. The Torah is concealed behind a silk curtain, there are chandeliers that are hundreds of years old on the ceiling and blue and white ceramic tiles that were made in China—which are so delicate and so old that visitors are now told to leave their footwear outside for fear of damaging them.

     I was just leaving the synagogue when I bumped into Vithal Prabhu, one of the Fulbrighters who was also doing the tourist rounds. He told me that he had rented a car and offered me a ride back to the hotel (which I gratefully accepted) provided I was ready to make one stop at a temple. It turned out that he is a Gaud Saraswat Brahmin and they have a special temple in Cochin that he wished to visit. I was very happy to accompany him and, as in most of the old buildings I had seen today (including the wonderful Dutch Palace), I really loved the red topped roof and the teak railings that run around the narrow balcony of the top floor. Our visit to the temple did not take long as we basically just encircled it and then returned to the car.

     The drive back to our hotel took about 40 minutes which left me time when I got home to do some blogging, check my email and call my Dad.

  

A Variety Entertainment Program and Dinner On Conclusion of the Conference:

And so we came to the last evening of our conference. It was to be preceded by  variety entertainment that was provided by the participants themselves—so if you had any kind of talent and were willing to perform, you had to let the Fulbright Office in New Delhi know—they were coordinating the entire proceedings and they would schedule the item. 

Booze was flowing freely—I had a wine spritzer and then Thums up— as passed hors d’oeuvres also made the rounds. Then we settled down to watch the entertainment and, believe me, it was far better than one might have expected.  There was someone who sang two Carnatic classical songs for us—one was Gandhi’s favorite bhajan; there was a girl who sang a song from a Bollywood film; there was a violinist who played two short classical pieces, one by Elgar (I did not get the composer of the second one); there was a husband and wife team (Kelly and Jed Forman) who simply scintillated by showing us so many amazing examples of Modern dance—many of which I had not even heard (such as  Breaking—as opposed to break dancing)—hip hop,   Midwestern something...truly mind-boggling (and it remained my favorite part of the evening); there was a Latino who did some rap that she composed herself with some feminist themes to it; someone did a variety of Indian-style Dances including Bharat Natyam fusion with Bollywood and raas garba; someone who played a Kazakhstan instrument called the Dobra. They were so wonderful. The entertainment was emceed by two of the graduate student Fulbrighters, Quinn and Kayla who also did a grand job.

     After much applause and the last speech was given by Adam Grotsky to thank everyone, we adjourned to the adjoining buffet tables to take our pick of another wonderful variety of foods. I had three pani puris (yes, they were being prepared in front of us), and a couple of salads. That was all as I had been overeating too much.  However, I did not pass up on dessert—how could it? There was ras malai and it was very good together with pineapple upside down cake that was served with butterscotch ice-cream. So as you can imagine, everyone overate. You’d have to be a hermit to resist all that great food. They had certainly fed us well and looked after our every creature comfort and we were all sorry that we would soon be going back to our regular lives.

     I too said my goodbyes and thank-yours to a few people and then off I went up to my room where I finished the packing of my case as I have a taxi coming at 9.30 am tomorrow to take me and my Fulbrighter friend Michelle to Munnar where we shall spend the next thee days. 

I did a bit more reading (I am really enjoying Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman which is becoming really scary and thrilling now) and then I went to bed at about midnight after feeling a deep sense of gratitude again for the incredible opportunity offered to me by Fulbright and for the efficacy of the conference.

Until tomorrow...