Kerala: Mangoes, Veeshu, Bananas, Jackfruit

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The southeastern coastal state of Kerala is known for its tropical landscape and laidback atmosphere, so when the opportunity came to spend a week there with my friend Emma, I didn’t hesitate to join her. Our itinerary was seven days long: traveling by train, we would reach the village of our friend Mini in time for the Keralan New Year, Veeshu. After spending a few days in the village, we were to visit some Americans volunteering around the city of Cochin.

The train journey, one way, was a long and tiresome 26 hours. Being the cheap ladies Emma and I are, we booked tickets in second class ‘sleeper’, wherein you share a small compartment with 5 other travelers. During waking hours, three people share a long seat and at night we each have a bed mat that pulls down from the wall. Oh—and in this class. no air conditioning. Comparatively, this arrangement was much cheaper at around 16 USD each for the roundtrip ticket. Traveling on the trains in the crowded sleeper class also affords one the chance to meet more Indians from all walks of life—students returning from holiday, families going to a relative’s wedding, and of course the prostitutes and peddlers.

Arriving in Mini’s village near the town of Shoranur, I felt as if I had been transported to a tropical jungle. Everywhere I looked I saw mainly two things: the lush, green vegetation, and the hammer and sickle of the Communist Party. Kerala is famous for having elected the first Communist government in 1957, and the Party continues to be a major player in statewide politics. Keralans are known for their radicalism (relative to the rest of India) and also for having one of the highest literacy rates in the country—some put it at near 100%. What I noticed were the many newspapers, and the numerous newspaper reading stalls in each village we traveled through.

Emma commented a few times on the trip that since she has been in India, she has celebrated New Year about five times. Indeed, because so many ethnic and faith groups have different calendars which may be solar or lunar, there are many opportunities to ring in the new year. For Veeshu in Kerala, we began by waking at around 3 in the morning to witness the New Year puja; according to legend, the first thing you see in the new year can determine the course of the coming year. So, Emma and I auspiciously were in the gaze of the gods for our first sighting.

Throughout the day of Veeshu youngsters in the neighborhood were lighting firecrackers and sparklers. I couldn’t believe it, but many of the ‘crackers’ the kids used were homemade, and basically gunpowder wrapped in a leaf which they set fire to. Another part of the celebration is the afternoon meal, which was laid out traditionally on a banana leaf. Some of the food we enjoyed included tamarind and coconut chutney, and the best mango curry I have ever had.

That is another thing I need to mention about my time in Kerala—I have never been fed better. Most of this is a tribute to Mini’s mother’s skills, but it is also the nature of Keralan cooking, which features coconuts, mangos, bananas, and the jackfruit. Jackfruit is a large, starchy fruit that grows on trees everywhere in tropical areas like Kerala. It is used to make thin, fried chips and also can be mashed to be like mashed potatoes. The bananas, which grow everywhere, varied in size from large to small and the smaller ones were sweet and slightly tart. Mangoes are in season now, and at every opportunity I had I ate some of this delicious fruit. Overall, it was an amazing eating experience!

After two days in the village, we took a three hour train to the port city of Cochin. Cochin is fairly a large town for Kerala, with about 4 million residents, and was an important city for the spice trade between India and Europe. Europeans arrived in the Cochin area in the early 1500’s, and eventually many English, Dutch, and Portuguese came to make homes there. Even to this day the older parts of Cochin have a very European feel to them. Cochin is also where many Jews came to make their home, although presently their population is very small. The Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama traveled to Cochin several times in the sixteenth century, and died there in 1524. His remains stayed in St. Francis Church until the Portuguese requested that they be returned to Lisbon.

Cochin reminded me a lot of Boston, with its seaside shipping atmosphere and smell of the sea. Lining the shoreline of the city are massive Chinese fishing nets that are thought to have been introduced to the Indians by traders from the court of Kublai Khan. It takes several people to operate the nets, which are mechanized by levers and weights. For lunch, we picked out four fish that had just been caught and had one of the restaurants prepare them.

We walked extensively through the old city, where the spice traders continue to flourish and the city’s European heritage is still felt. The area near the city’s synagogue is called ‘Jew Town’, and on storefronts the Star of David can be found among the Hindu deities. We visited the Dutch Palace, which is where the governor of Cochin used to make his home and now is a museum. Inside this palace were some amazing murals that illustrated stories from the Indian epic ‘Ramayana’, although many of them were badly damaged. Near to the Palace, we visited the local Jain temple, although at the time we arrived it was closed. Our day in Cochin ended viewing the sun set and playing around on the beach, which hits the Arabian Sea. Although the sky was full of clouds, the views were still amazing.

Besides visiting the city, we spent time with some Americans in the Cochin area who are volunteers sent by the Lutheran Church in Kerala for a year. While when I first came to India I was excited to meet other Americans here, yet now I have mixed feelings about it. I think that this stems from the fact that I came here equipped with historical knowledge of South India and an eagerness to understand the culture, and when I meet other foreigners who are not as much into India as I am, it is disappointing. However, the volunteers from the Church are doing a great service to the poorer areas of Kerala, such as teaching English, and they are proud of their work.

We happened to be in Kerala for Easter Sunday, and as the state has the largest Christian population of the Indian states, I was eager to see how it would be celebrated here. We attended mass in a small village town of one of the American volunteers and the service was conducted in Malayalam, which is the Keralan language. What was remarkable about this service was that at two hours, it was longer than I was used to. When I mentioned the length to her, our American friend laughed and said that the Good Friday service lasted four hours. This brings me to another point about Southern India—these people take their religion seriously. No matter if they are Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Jain, or of an indigenous faith, religion here is an integral part of daily life. It was also interesting to note the peculiarities of Christianity here, which reveals the influence of local culture. I’ve taken some pictures that in a small way illustrate Christianity, South Indian-style.

There are so many sites that I was not able to see on this trip—for example, the hill stations in the tea plantation areas that offer opportunities for hiking and swimming in waterfalls. I also have heard of the magnificent beaches in the southern coastal areas, and I’d like to go the city that is on the southernmost tip of India, Kanniyakumari. At the tip of India, three bodies of water meet: the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and the Indian Ocean, which makes for some amazing waves. When I visit India in the future, coming to Kerala again will definitely be on my agenda.

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