Snapshots of Kerala

Never thought I will be in Gods own country last October!!!

O what a marvelous place it is to unwind and relax on the houseboats meandering on the backwaters of Alleppy....

Here is an account of what the city of Kochi is like,its history ,etc. I like to go prepared and when I read this article, I thought the writer was writing about utopia. and thats what it is.......

KOCHI
Once upon a lagoon
By Anil Nair

Seasoned travellers would agree that landing in the old Kochi airport’s tabletop aircraft-carrier-like island-runway always used to feel like a precursor to the excitement of being in Kerala’s most cosmopolitan city. That used to be quite a while ago. The civilian airport is now on the outskirts of mainland urbania but it must be said Kochi still welcomes visitors with traditional warmth and contemporary gumption. Constructed with the sloping roof typical of traditional Kerala homes, the terminal has become an apt metaphor to the city that lies beyond — a self-assured juxtaposition of both the past and the present. The beautiful highway to bustling Ernakulam confirms this enjoyable contradiction

Till recently, Kochi was Cochin, and only half as frenetic. It was a lagoon that made Kochi a cherished destination as far back as the early-16th century and it is the same lagoon that makes Kochi one of the nation’s busiest ports now. Once upon a time what we see today was little more than a fishing hamlet. It was an eponymous flood that transformed Kochi’s destiny by turning it into a natural harbour. The rich (pun intended) aroma of spices and sandalwood drew the Europeans here and they soon wrested the profitable spice trade from Arab merchants. Political ambition propelled business. Soon enough, the Portuguese, the first Europeans to land in Kochi, were even appointing the Thampuran, the Raja of Cochin. The crown could only be had with the blessings of Lisbon and later, thanks to the Dutch invaders of Holland. The Portuguese and the Dutch eventually had to make way for the British East India Company, which effected supreme control through colonisation. It is to Kochi’s credit that the city welcomed, endured, survived and eventually, triumphed over all those who were lured by these undoubtedly bewitching shores. Four centuries ago, Niccolo dei Conti advised fellow-Florentines to make their money in Canton but spend it in Kochi. In today’s Kochi, you can do both.

The other defining element in assimilating this clean city (for, like the rest of Kerala, there is an unmistakable tidiness about Kochi that should not be taken for granted), is the symbiotic relationship between land and water that one witnesses here. The best way to discover it is to take a cruise along the kayal from Ernakulam to Perumbalam and back, which should take about two hours. Cast off at sunrise and the silence, unbroken but for bird caw, resembles the world at the beginning of time.

The Vembanad kayal is home to thousands of fisherfolk. You can see them gliding along in their graceful canoes, wide nets trailing. In the shallows, they can be seen beating the water with palm-leaf switches and then gathering the stunned fish by the armfuls. On the return leg, proceed to the harbour mouth to just wet your keel in the ocean. Between Fort Kochi and Vypeen, the gentle breeze tousles the surface of the water, hinting at what lies beyond.

This article appears in Outlook Traveller Getaways’ Kerala With Lakshadweep.