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Published: October 16th 2008
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Sreelatha taught me about Kerala, where the people speak Malayalam and the word for friend is suhruth. Kerala is a promise of friendship on a crowded bus. Kerala is a lake of damned echoes in the tea hills where red dirt roads wind off to nowhere. Kerala is a small girl in plaid kissing a goat on the roadside. Stella surrounded by tea says I am beautiful but on the cliffs above the ocean where I danced under palm leaves in the rain, was beauty and all that is Kerala.
Our holiday in Kerala started with a 13 hour bus ride to Fort Kochi (Fort Cochin). Kochi is not a city, but rather an area that encompasses three districts: the city of Kochi, Ernakulam, and Mattancherry. They were all different settlements at one point, but have since been combined and are collectively referred to as Kochi. Fort Kochi was a Portuguese settlement built in the early 1500s. Upon our exiting the bus in Ernakulam we were welcomed by the typical “yes ma’am, where you go ma’am?” but we had it in our heads that we would walk the short distance to a hotel that our guidebook said was near by.
Following the ever trusty Lonely Planet we wandered from the tiny bus station, the calls of the autos behind us, carrying our heavy bags and not at all prepared for what the next nine days would bring.
Five hotels later… and about ten kilometers carrying a ridiculously heavy bag (Leslie and I thought we would be smart and put both of our stuff in one bag… but never again), we ended up staying in Ernakulam, in a tiny pink walled hotel called the Maple Regency. With no real goal but to explore Fort Cochin we walked a short distance to the shoreline and hopped a ferry across the channel to the area known as Fort Kochi. One of the first things we saw were the Chinese fishing nets. They are nets suspended by long flexible poles and some sort of counter weight system is used to lower and balance them in the water and then to raise them again. They were selling fish and crustaceans right off the nets. People were buying the fish and having it prepared for them right on the spot. The name Cochin was actually introduced when the Chinese began trade with Kochi and built
their fishing nets in the 1300s. Apparently the word “cochin” means something along the lines of “like China” because something about this harbor town reminded the Chinese traders of home. The only thing to do at the waterfront was to look at the nets and go shopping at the never-ending harbor bizarre. Locally made dolls hung next to jewelry and rows of smooth wooden elephants. I purchased a pair of Punjabi pants from Justin Timberlake… The young entrepreneur bore no resemblance to the famous singer, though his name was Justin and he sang the cheesy lyrics from the infamous boy band NSYNC pretty well. While Rachel and I haggled with him over two pairs of pants, he continued to use his one line, “you’re breaking my heart”. In the end we left his heart in pieces and made off with the pants at a scandalously low price. From here we walked to a charming coffee shop that had teapots hanging from the ceiling. There was one particular cat shaped teapot that reminded me of my mom and made me homesick. The table we sat at was made out of a tree root and was possibly the coolest table I have
ever seen. The chocolate cake was delicious. The next stop was St. Francis church. A national monument, St. Francis is the oldest European church in India, first built as a wooden structure in 1503 it was rebuilt a decade later into the stone structure we were able to walk through. At one point in history Vasco de Gama’s resting place was in St. Francis and we were able to view his sarcophagus though it now lays empty.
That evening Leslie and I wandered down through an old neighborhood and were able to take in some interesting sights of the local life. The men in Kerala wear something called a mundu or a dhoti. It looks like a long skirt and the two ends can be pulled up and tucked in the waist so the length is above their knees. I have never seen men play with their clothing as much as the men in Kerala play with their mundus. What we got to see of the town though was slightly moving. Its appearance was a worn torn town with Portuguese and British colonial buildings crumbling in the hot air. On a bridge, above a rank smelling creek with stained
wooden boats floating on the black surface, there was the word “shadows” written in white paint and a few words in Malayalam. A few yards away were a pair of painted white angel wings that gave the whole scene of devastated buildings an eerie feel. As the sun went down the shadows of the tall buildings made the streets considerably dark so we trucked it back to, Greenix Village, a cultural center where we were to watch various performances of Mohiniyattam, Kalaripayattu, Bharathanatyam, Kathakali, and Theyyam. Mohiniyattam is a seduction dance and its element is air. The word literally means “dance of the enchantress”. It was performed by a beautiful woman in cream and gold dress with traditional golden mango ornaments and bells around her ankles. Kalaripayattu is the name of the traditional martial art form of Kerala. Bharathanatyam is the fire dance. It began as a traditional temple dance performed by the devadasis or temple wives. These women were not married to men, but rather to deities and their duties were to keep the temples and dance for the gods. Indian dance was originally created for the eyes of the gods only. This dance is performed to Karnatic music,
which is usually a rapid vocal solo sung by a man. When you hear how fast he sings and how fast the feet of the dancer move then you will know why it is the fire dance. This is the dance that I am currently learning, but this particular performance was danced by a man, which was really interesting to see. The Kathakali performance is more of a story telling that uses the aid of hand gestures and strong facial expressions. There are nine different facial expressions and 24 hand gestures used in Kathakali drama. The particular story we saw was that of a scene in Ramayana where Rama is being seduced by the demon sister of Ravana in disguise as a beautiful woman and it ended with him cutting her nose off. Both dancers in the Kathakali performance were men, but one was dressed as a woman and this is very typical in Kathakali. The final dance was the most fun. Theyyam is the word for a corrupt god, so the dance depicting this corrupt god was hysterical. It involved a man in a ridiculous demon-monkey costume running around on stage to some of the sweetest percussion music. The
traditional instruments used were two chendas or Kerala drums and the elathalams or cymbals. Theyyam is a ritual dance that was once very important to tribal life in the villages.
That evening we caught the ferry back and I stayed in for the night while the others went out for dinner. It was going to be an early morning and a long car ride in close quarters with everyone. I needed to get my alone time. No sooner had everyone left when I heard a knock at my door. I opened it a crack and there was a small girl standing outside grinning. Her arms were behind her back and she was shuffling around in that silly way kids do when they are unsure. She couldn’t stop smiling at me and her brothers were hiding down the hall giggling. She asked my name and when I told her she held out her hand. I shook it and she said thank you and ran away. It was a good ending to my stay in Kochi.
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