Day Six. Captivating Kerala. A Day Spent Sight-seeing in Fort Cochin

Wednesday, January 14, 2026:

A Day Spent Sight-seeing in Fort Cochin

Our full-day of sightseeing in Cochin began early as both of us were up by 7.00 am. We showered and got dressed and decided to go out for an early morning walk to the waterfront so as to see the Chinese Fishing Nets and the Fish Auction in action. In any case, breakfast at our B and B only began service at 8.30am. This gave us a good 45 minutes to explore on our own.

Visiting the Church of St. Francis:

As daily Mass was announced at 7.30 am at the historic Church of St. Francis, we decided to begin our walk in its direction as this would ensure that it was open and would enable us to peek inside. It was just a few minutes’ walk from our hotel. Already we could see Western white visitors on the streets, all struck by the same idea as ours—to get some sights in before the day progressed too far.

A large sign post in the church compound outside informed us that this was the first European church built in India. It dates back to 1500 (Vasco da Gama landed in Calicut from Portugal in 1498). It was built originally out of wood by the Franciscans but was later rebuilt in stone and roofed with tiles by 1516. It remained under Portuguese control until 1663 when the Dutch took it over and converted it into a Protestant Church. After the British took control of Cochin, it was declared an Anglican Church (in 1804) and after the exit of the British, it was then taken over by the Church of South India who continue to administer it.

In 1524, when Vasco da Gama died, he was first buried in this church. But once he was hailed as the great Father of Portuguese Colonization, his remains were transferred to the Monasterio de San Jeronimos in Belem, just outside of Lisbon in Portugal where I had been fortunate enough to see the grand marble mortuary monument under which he lies permanently at rest. The original gravestone that covered his grave in this church has been retained here and is now mounted on the wall just at the site where his remains once lay. There are also other Dutch grave monuments that date to the 1500s and 1600s and are scattered around the walls in the front of the church. Other more recent mortuary monuments (dating from the 1800s and the early 1900s) can be found all around the rest of the church.

It is quite a simple church really with a typical Anglican design. There are large stained glass windows and a beautiful teak timbered ceiling. But, by my reckoning, the most striking features are the old colonial punkah or canvas fans that hang along the sides of the church. They use an antiquated pulley system to keep them working manually—now, of course, there are electric ceiling fans—but it was quite evocative to me to imagine the use of the punkah during long church services in the sweltering heat of Cochin summers. After we surveyed the other features of the church (Baptismal font, ornamental lectern, etc), we left and walked towards the waterfront past Bastion House.

Exciting Activity at Cochin’s Waterfront:

We were right on time to see the Chinese fishing nets in action at the waterfront. These are found all over Cochin—a legacy, I believe, of Chinese fishermen who had once arrived on these shores and used these contraptions to survive. They are built on the concept of the pulley system with large round stones weighing down one side and rising up as the nets are lowered into the water. The nets are then pulled up as the weighed stones go down. When we were there, not much of a catch was to be found and after taking a few pictures, we walked towards the auction stands where the catch was being sold to the highest bidder. It was fun to see the process and even more fun to walk along the pathway to see the displays of fresh fish and shell fish that were quite attractively sorted and placed for sale to daily buyers. Fish does not get any fresher than this, I thought, as I took a few photographs.

Breakfast in our Hotel:

As our hotel tariff included breakfast, we found patrons seated at tables in the dining area as soon as we entered. Our manager asked if we’d like our eggs boiled, poached, scrambled, fried or in a plain or masala omelette. We opted for the last and it arrived with three slices of buttered toast and coffee. Indeed, it was a very filling breakfast and it fueled us well for the rest of the day. It was not long before we set off. Calling for an Uber to take us back to Jew Town as the first item on our agenda today was the tour of the Dutch Palace.

Visiting the Famous Dutch Palace of Mattancherry:

Dutch Palace is so-called because it was taken over by the Dutch after their conquest of Cochin. It had originally belonged to the princely rulers of Travancore, but the Dutch acquired it from them. It is a stucco and teak building with two major highlights. The teak timbered ceiling is beautifully carved and ornamental. These are evident is room after room and as they are beautifully polished and maintained, I simply could not stop taking pictures of them. The second huge highlight of this palace is a marvelous representation of the entire Ramayana, the Hindu ancient epic written in Sanskrit, created through frescoes on the walls. As you move from room to room, you are fully taken by the detail of these frescoes, done in mainly four colors: red, yellow, black and white. Many of them are in such a fine state of preservation that you would find it hard to believe that they are centuries old. While there is some deterioration, for the most part, it is just brilliant in its vividness.

Other than the ceiling and the frescoes, this building houses a museum that contains loads of memorabilia of the kings of Travancore—there are a series of portraits, oil-painted by local and British artists, as well as arms and armor, maps (created by Dutch cartographers that quite graphically portray the entire Malabar Coast), photographs, costumes and accessories of royalty as well as photographs of the British officials who took over the administration of the region at the time. It really was a most worthy visit because there is so much to see and all of it is quite well organized and really very cheap indeed (a ticket to visit costs a mere Rs. 5—just pennies literally). We also had lovely views of Jew Town and the back of the synagogue from the windows of the Palace as it was the rulers of Travancore who had first given the arriving Jews the space to build their synagogue on palace grounds. It was a fabulous first stop.

Off to See Jew Town and the Synagogue by Day:

It is only a short walk from the Dutch Palace to Jew Town and we made a quick bee line towards it. There is a large arching sign over the street that leads to Jew Town and today, with most of the Jewish community having left for Israel, their homes have been converted into housing for the non-Jewish population while the ground floor space has been converted into shops. En route, we stopped in a passage way that houses more shops and a little cafe to order a ginger-lemonade that was most refreshing.

By day, the shops were full of tourist merchandise and tourists too. Indeed, the place was crowded with tourists, mostly white, and many seemed to be European Jews. As we passed by the same shops we had seen by gas light last night, we were better able to admire the tourist produce inside. The cobbled street and the gas lamps continue to give the place a very antiquated look and as we moved towards the synagogue, we realized that it remains the biggest attraction in the area.

The Jewish Synagogue is the second oldest in India. It was built by the Baghdad Jews soon after they landed on Cochin’s shores. They were granted land close to the palace and the Shiva temple by the rajahs of Travancore and while it was once a most vigorous center of Jewish community life, today it is mostly a tourist site. We left our footwear outside and went pas the large Star of David in the courtyard to enter the synagogue which is hung over with colorful glass lantern lighting. The main Altar houses the Torah behind an embroidered curtain and the pulpit from which the rabbi addresses the congregation is also a prominent part of this structure. However, to my mind, the most remarkable part of this building is the flooring which is made entirely of blue and white tiles in the design that has come to be known as Delft (meaning, from Holland). However, these tiles turned out to be made in Canton, China, in the ancient past. And I also learned that the West in general and the Dutch in particular, learned to make these blue and white tiles from the Chinese. The floor is, surprisingly, not covered with carpets or rugs—the hundreds of people, who come into the place actually walk directly on them. I cannot even begin to imagine the very slow damage that is being done to them. In fact, apparently, when the late Queen Elizabeth II of England, visited the synagogue in 1965, she is said to have commented that it was a sin to walk upon so gorgeous a floor. I could fully commiserate with her feelings.

Having taken a slow spin around the room to take in the various visual details of it, we walked towards the exit—only to run into Bridget White Kumar, the cookbook author with whom we had made friends at breakfast yesterday. She too was on a visit to the synagogue, doing some sightseeing before returning to Bangalore where she lives.

Taking is some of the Art Biennale at Ishara House:

Walking out into the cool sunshine, we stopped for about half an hour to take in Ishara House—an old Jewish mansion that is an art gallery today. Since the Cochin Art Biennale was going on, this place is an important site and we decided to go in to see the exhibition of broken mirrors by an Italian artist called Michelangelo Pistoletti. There were two other artists whose work was also in the same house, but the series of rooms at the back housed an exhibition about the people of Gaza, their recent suffering and their tenacity in the face of war and persecution. It would have been easy to spend much more time in this one site, but we were keen to take in a few more as long as we were able to see something of the Art Biennale. But first, we decided to stop for a ferry ride.

A Water Taxi Ride to Wellington Island and Back:

Our relatives had told us yesterday that Mattancherry, the area is that covered by these tourists sites, is the only place in India that can boast a water taxi or water metro service—this is a ferry that travels across the river going from one bank to the next. They suggested we take a ride on it to go from Mattancherry station to Wellington Island station, across the river. And since we were keen on checking it out, we took their counsel.

Accordingly, we walked to the ferry terminal at Mattancherry and bought our tickets for just Rs. 30 each (per ride). We had a half hour wait in the terminal which was spotlessly clean, superbly lit and well planned. We were also able to use spotless rest rooms here. So, in every way, this was a great rest stop for us.

When the ferry arrived, we piled into it, only to find that there were very few people on it. It is a small vessel but very well manned. It was only a fifteen minute crossing but it was lovely to see the port of Cochin ahead of us with a cruise ship actually docked in it as Cochin is a popular cruise stop on international cruises between Dubai and the Far East.

Once on Wellington Island, we discovered that there was, in fact, not too much to do. We did not realize that there were a couple of art installations right outside the ferry terminal there—had we known this, we could have used our time waiting for the return ferry to Mattancherry, to go and check out these exhibits too. Instead, we sat waiting for another half hour for the return ferry to take us back to Mattancherry. The ferry ride back and forth was a cool opportunity to say that we had been on India’s only water taxi and found it to be super impressive.

This item ticked off our To Do List, we hailed an Uber that took us to the other side of Fort Cochin. By this point, we were feeling a bit peckish and were all set for lunch. In about fifteen minutes, we were at the Santa Cruz Basilica where we alighted and looked on Google for the place where we’d eat lunch.

Visiting the Basilica of Santa Cruz:

However, when passing by the main gate of the Basilica, we found it open and decided to nip inside for a swift visit. Who knows when it would close again and we did not want to lose the chance to see it. So in we went.

After St. Francis Church, the Santa Cruz Basilica is the most visited church in Cochin—it is also a Catholic church and so attracts a large crowd. The church is quite striking visually as it has lovely ornamental ironwork on the iron posts that hold up the upper tier. It also has arresting paintings in the Renaissance style by the Italian Jesuit Antonio Moscheni and these can be seen as soon as you enter the church on the two chapels on each side. We made a prayerful visit and moved on as we were starving by this time and lunch beckoned.

Lunch at Fusion Bay Restaurant:

It was Menaka who had recommended Fusion Bay Restaurant as a good place to have typically Keralite food and, going by her advice, we used Google maps to find that the place was only a few meters from the Basilica. Inside, we found it to be a really small place with only a few tables and covers. It was rather late and that explained why we were seated immediately.

The menu was indeed quite varied with Indian and Continental delicacies. We ordered the Duck Roast as I was very keen to try it—it is also one of the specialities of Syrian Christian Kerala. Sadly, it was all finished by the time we ordered it. We had no option but to settle for Prawn Curry and Chicken Stew which we ate with appams. Of course, as in the case of every meal we had eaten in this state, it was grand. There was really nothing to complain about. Service was good and attentive and the people are generally very kind and mild-mannered and eager to please. We finished our delectable meal, used the rest room again and decided to nip over to the Gelato place called Gelato Pillai that was actually right across the road. And there, in the cool, air-conditioned comfort of an ice-cream parlor, we ordered peanut butter, Alphonso mango and chocolate gelato—yes, we were able to sample three different scoops and they were all really good. It gave us a chance to take another seated break as we would be spending the rest of the afternoon on our feet as we perused the offerings of the Cochin Art Biennale.

Sampling the Offerings of the Cochin Art Biennale:

Cochin Biennale is now so well-known that it attracts artists and art-lovers from all over India for a a month of browsing and perusing of interesting art works from India and around the world. There are many venues—about12 scattered all over Cochin, with many of them in Fort Cochin itself. There are two venues that present the works of multiple artists—Aspinwall House and Pepper House. And so we made a bee line for Aspinwall House first.

bought our tickets at the ticket counter outside Aspinwall House (Rs. 100 for each of us for the entire day and valid at all the venues). As soon as I entered the main gate of Aspinwall, I remembered immediately that I had been here before and seen the Biennale a few years ago. Aspinwall House is also architecturally very interesting as it is one of those old colonial offices-cum-warehouses that were very much involved in the colonial Tea trade. Cochin was one of the most prosperous of the South Indian ports as it did business with various parts of the world. The beautifully laid out buildings that make up this complex still bear signs of the commercial activity of that period although the structures themselves are pure white, punctuated with balconies, a second story that offers another large balcony overlooking the river and rooms in which the artists’ offerings can be shown off at full advantage. We perused all of the work and found most of it to be highly avant-garde. So esoteric were most of the art exhibitions and installations and so huge the variety of media being used that I have to say I did not respond or connect with very many of them. Still, it was good to be able to see what modern Indian artists are doing and how they were able to interpret the venue and theme of the exhibition which this year is “For the Time Being”. This can be interpreted variously, of course, but in its simplest form it means that by the end of the one-month show, the original and initial exhibits could have changed completely.

After Aspinwall House, we walked for about fifteen minutes to get to Pepper House. As its name implies, it is a similar (if much smaller complex) that was once active in the trade—this time pepper and other spices. It is constructed around a verdant courtyard and here too, the visitor goes from one room to the next trying to figure out what each of the artists is trying to say. Messages were mixed like the media they used and the curatorial notes were very helpful in allowing us to interpret what was being portrayed This building took us about half an hour to go through as we really did not stop for too long anywhere. There was one more exhibition I was keen to see and that was a bit distant—the last exhibition of the famous Indian artist Vivaan Sundaram. Since the show closed at 7.00pm, we needed to hurry to catch his show too.

Another Uber took us to the Cube Art Space where we then spent the next half hour in the company of the late artist Vivaan Sundaram. This exhibition has been curated and created for one of the cities of the Middle East (Qatar, I believe) and it was from there that it had traveled to be presented here. It was a sample of the last work that he had done—and it contained photographs of his own surgery performed upon his own body by a group of surgeons after he was diagnosed with a terminal illness. It also featured paintings and sculpture and as one moved from one room to the next, you had absolutely no idea what awaited you. It was, to my mind, rather gruesome and I must admit I did not enjoy the experience at all.

This Cube Art Space also contained the work of other artists—so, on the whole, we saw the work of at least fifty artists in the space of a single afternoon. Needless to say, we were well and truly exhausted by the end of the day as we’d started super early and had covered a great deal of ground. We were so ready to return to our rooms for a rest, a drink and then a thought about where we would eat dinner.

Dinner at Kashi Restaurant:

We called an Uber and in about fifteen minutes, were back in the comfort of our room in our hotel. It was time for a nice cup of coffee which we brewed and, a little later, for a drink and a nibble on banana chips and nuts. While relaxing, we looked for a good place to eat nearby as we were too beat to go too far away. We found a place called Kashi, that was literally on the next street, raved about on Trip Advisor and that was where we chose to eat.

We were disappointed. In deed, it was the only meal on our entire trip that we really disliked. First of all, I was hoping to find an enclosed AC-ed space, only to find that it was located in an open-air garden, as it were, with just a make shift canopy covering the top. The place was ridden with mosquitoes which made seating very uncomfortable. It specialized in Continental food and we decided to take a break from typical Keralite food to eat something more familiar. We chose to have the Beef Sizzler as we both love sizzlers and as beef is not available in Maharashtra. Well, we were sorely disappointed. Portion-size was small compared to all other sizzlers we’ve ever ordered. Normally, it makes a very substantial meal for two as it comes with the protein of choice and a host of grilled vegetables plus potatoes (either chipped or mashed). We asked for our steak to be done medium-rare but it was more like rare and the center was barely cooked at all—not very pleasant eating. The accompaniments were very sparse—yes, there were mashed potatoes but the portion size was much smaller than usual. Other veg hardly filled the spot. The dish was accompanied by a mushroom-mustard sauce which happened to be absolutely tasteless—no flavor at all—neither of mushrooms nor of mustard. Just a bland off-white disappointing sludge. I asked for mustard to be brought in a little cup for me and this made the steak palatable. We asked for barbecue sauce or steak sauce and there was none available. Overall, a thoroughly disheartening experience. Oh well…service was good, but it was with relief that we paid the bill and returned to ur hotel. I guess the moral of the story is ‘when in Kerala, eat Keralite food’.

And on that somewhat dreary note, we walked for about five minutes to return to our hotel and bed down for the night for a much-deserved rest after what had been a truly stimulating day.

Until tomorrow, see ya’…

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...