Thoughts through the Lanes and bylanes of Cochin

After completing my education in the seventies, I left the city of Cochin, which thanks to its quietude, was like an old damsel, sitting all by herself, waiting for something to happen. I return to the same City, after 40years, having lived in some of the sober Cities, pensioners’ paradise, fast cities, historical Cities, and thukkamunji (Tamil word :) (Sleepy town) cities, etc. Mattancherry, which was a hub of hill produce, with the aroma of spices, with the majestic Kochi Synagogue overlooking a dainty road, fishing industry at Kochangadi, was now deserted. Was Pompeii disappointed when he visited the devastated Rome? I had a couple of Jewish friends, especially Leslie Benjamin, and Simon, Ernakulam Station master’s son. I have also visited S Koder, an elderly Jew, who was well known. Unlike Sherlock of Merchant of Venice, Koder’s munificence will echo in Fort Kochi (also known as Dutch Kochi). Even though Portuguese constructed the Palace at Anavathil, the Dutch who subsequently came, and displaced the Portuguese named the Palace as ‘Dutch Palace’. The Palace is a replica of Portuguese architecture, with fleet of steps abutting the Palace in symmetry, and one end touching the parapet wall of the Palace and an archway as the door entrance, with its high rooms, etc. The murals depicting Ramayana and Mahabharata, in Tanjore style adorns the walls. You can see similar houses in Fort Kochi built by the Portuguese during their early occupation in the 15th century. The Dutch Governor’s house was where the present Bishop’s Residence stands adjoining the St John De’ Britto School. One of the Governors Van Rheed, compiled an encyclopedia of Kerala herbs with the help of three Scholars, and this publication was published from Holland as Hortus Malabaricus, the first book on the various famous herbs which are widely used as Ayurvedic medicines. There is a Dutch cemetery near-by which is a historical national monument. Near the flame of the forest standing adjoining to the Parade Maiden is the St Francis Church, and visible in front of the church is a cenotaph inscribed, ‘Vasco-da-Gama was buried here’.

In the chronicle of every City, there appears a period of transition. Cochin is a mosaic of Castes, Creeds and religions. Jews were given sanctuary here. The first disciple of Christ, converted natives to Christanity. Islam came here even before the world was aware of it; Tamil Brahmins, Gowda Saraswats, Namboodiris, Nairs, Menons, Naidus, Chettiyars, Mudaliyars, Iranians, Kutch Muslims, made this their home. Gujaratis, Jains and Marwaris, Marathis, Biharis, came here as businessmen. Not only they brought their families, they also imported their cultures, which went for a fusion with the existing culture, and a new transformed culture cemented the people of different regions, different languages and castes. There was lot of inter-mingling with the people of foreign origin, as a result of which there is sizable Anglo-Indian population in the City. It is a cosmopolitan city, which welcomes any visitor with the slogan, “adithi devo bhava”. The visitor gets absolved with the sinews of its culture. That is Cochin for you, which breathes history. In the ancient days, the Dhows, caravans, ships with masts which runs more on wind than machines, carrying cargo landed in Muziris (the present day Kodungallur), the first trade emporium in the World, and carried pepper and spices to the Arab world. The Sea route was well known to the Arab travelers, Phoenicians, Romans, who came here to trade and left their imprints and indelible marks. It was never their aim to colonize. But the European powers that came subsequently, though their mission was trade, through cunning strategies and uncanny plots annexed many smaller Kingdoms and imposed their rule. Cochin’s culture changed, its rural canopy gave way to imposing concrete jungles, and waste lands became houses, villas, high domed apartments. Flats which were align to Kerala culture became land marks, and the gentle people of Kochi, who used to walk nonchalantly had to do acrobatics to cross even narrow roads, as traffic congest the Roads leaving little space for the pedestrians to cross. The broadest Road in Cochin was Broadway, which compared to today’s standards is the narrowest road. 70 feet Road or MG Road as it is called today was considered as a wonder by Cochinites. The beautiful Ernakulam water line became monstrous with high tall flats. Fine Arts Hall, TDM Hall, Durbar Hall, and other auditoriums, which lifted the musician’s raga to an enchanting climax, the Anantharama Dikshiteer’s solo rendering of Narayaneeyam, and Yesudas’s Gana mala reverberated, and Kathakali artists performed on a daily basis at the Sea India foundation.

In Kerala generally, and Tamil proliferated areas specifically, the Tamil Brahmins converged, set up agraharams, padashalas, temples, brought in priests, vocalists, dance and cultural forms and rooted it firmly in the psyche of their areas of domination. Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar and Semmungudi who popularized Swati thirunal kirtanas were great practitioners of Carnatic music and were responsible for its development widely. Sir C P Ramaswamy Iyer, the last Diwan of Trvanacore, was responsible for bringing a number of Mylapore tamilians and their settlements are concentrated around Sri Padmanabhaswami temple and Pazhayangadi areas of Trivandrum. The Enipadikal (Ladder) by Thakazhy Sivashankaran Pillay (who wrote Chemeen) has illustrated CP’s rule and his traits more correctly than anybody else. L K Ananthakrishna Iyer was a great anthropologist who wrote two volumes, “Kerala Caste and Tribes”, which is an authoritative book on the various castes, tribes, sub castes, etc. The Tamil Brahmins is said to have migrated to Palaghat in the 14th century. They dispersed to various locations in the district and set up around 96 Agraharams of which 18 are within the precincts of Palaghat Town. They stay put in agraharams which are unique line houses, and Brahmin clans stay as a group. The Tamil Brahmins or Vedic Brahmins adhere strictly to the Tamil Brahmin culture. The Kalpathy Rathotsavam (Car festival) conducted in the last week of Tamil month of Aippasi and concludes on the last day of the Tamil month, is perhaps the biggest festival in Malabar in the erstwhile Madras presidency (in November). This festival closely synchronizes with the festival celebrated at Mayiladuri in Tanjore district.

The Cochin, I lived and stayed during the mid 20th century was the original historic Cochin where European powers vied with each other, to wrest Kingdoms, establish their supremacy, plunder black gold through barter, and slowly annex the provinces to establish their colonies. Today, it is disquiet, having lost its importance to Kochi which was Ernakulam, on the other side of the Channel. The Island of Wellingdon is a man-made island, and Sir Robert Bristow precisely did that, and the ‘Queen of the Arabian Sea’ was declared open to the world roaming steamers with S.S. Padma, the first vessel to anchor at Cochin port arrived in 1929. In the year 1930, with the arrival of ‘Coxeth Hall’, Cochin port was launched. Most of the Cochinites, who studied in St Albert’s and Maharaja, are used to take the boats as the travel for college students was free. The boats overloaded with students and office-goers to Wellingdon Island would start at 8 a.m., touch Embarkation jetty, where office-goers will get down, and as many who alighted, will get in. Around 8.45 a.m. the Boat would touch the Ernakulam ferry jetty, and a 5 minutes walk would take us to Maharaja’s. I had changed classes from the History bloc to the Economic bloc to Hindi bloc to English bloc, hour after hour, day after day. Long years of study in one College, in the College known for its formidable history, with past students in various high of life, gives you satisfaction that you were also part of the great alma mater. After Matriculation, most of the boys went and studied typing and shorthand at Gopalakrishna masters’ Typing institute at New Road. There was an enclosed room, where accountancy was taught between 6 pm to 9 pm at one hour intervals. The aim of this training is to pack off to Bombay, and get a Stenographers post. Godrej mama, Srabhai Iyengar, DunlopRaju, Bank Vaidyar, Brooke bond Vaithi, all started their careers as Stenographers and ended up as General Managers. Bombay was an outlet for a positive job for which Education in casserole form was a must. Graduation plus short-hand, typing and accountancy. Sridhar talkies at Ernakulam Shanmukham Road(named after Sir Shamukam Chettty, last Diwan of Kochi and the first Finance Minister of independent India, who presented the first budget for Rs 6 Cr), when newly built screened Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra and Richard Burton as Mark Antony. Chameen also was screened here. Nadhi which was a sensational hit with its ‘Aluwapuzha pinnayam ozhiki’ comes back to memory. Zaina theatre at Fort Kochi, will broadcast old Malayalam songs between 9 am and 10 am. We used to flock to the theatre to listen to them. Star Talkies screened English movies and Hindi latest cinemas. Today, Star Talkies has become history. Mohammed Rafi, the famous Hindi singer, whom Cochin people loved, came and sang at Coronation Club in 1961. It was a historic event. Cochin College had not become a full fledged College. The Gujarati School had classes upto ten only. The rice crispers ’ghatiya’ dokra, made by the Gujarati sweetmeat shopwallah opposite to Gujarati School, with masala chilly, and half cup masala tea, was often frequented by Cochinites and the smell that emanated from the shop threw an open invitation to people to visit the hotel. These were long long ago. I left Cochin. Went places in search of greener pastures.

January 2010, I am back in Cochin, which is a suburb of Kochi, and all the important offices are in Ernakulam, Palarivattam, Vyttila, Edapalli, while Cochin which was the mainland has become subsiverant to the growing metropolis of Greater Kochi which is centered on Ernakulam. Kochi became just a structure of Greater Kochi while Ernakulam was its super structure. Cochin breathes History while Ernakulam which was full of swamps, dumping grounds grew to become a major metropolis, over powering its more popular Cochin Town which illuminated in the pages of distinct history. Ernakulam became a glowing town, while in Cochin it was black out. Conclave of agraharams are still there, Thekkamadam, 10 Rooms, 40 Rooms, Iyengar madam, Shasthanagar, Thekkamadam, Vadakkamadam, Thoppu, Madapalli madam, with shades of white and grey typified the Brahmin domination of yore. They are landmarks, pieces of history web into ebb and flow of the history of the Brahmins of the 20th century. Newspaper Harihara mama, Cherpu mama are no more, so also Chandramoli mama, who was the first President of Brahmins Welfare Association, his two sons, Cheenu and Seetharaman, my intimate friends. Kolapathi (A man with height) Venkatraman of Indianbank was GM somewhere, while Sattunatha mama, Mani, Hindi master, Guruji who taught us ‘Rudram’ on a daily basis at Thekkemadam, had all left for heavenly abode. The past beckons me pulling the strings of memory; the mamis of Thekkamadam clad in Kancheepuram best, golden and diamonds glittering away, fragrance of lowers on their plait filling the air waiting for the distribution of plantain leaf(on which food is served) during Thekkamadom Sasthaprathi. After Thekkamadom Sasthaprathi, Parur Sasthaprathi comes, and later Noorni Sasthaprathi. It is a confluence of Brhamins from all over the State at these places. Like the trade mark, Ambalapuzha payasam, each Sasthaprathis have specialities based on the venues. The Sita Kalyanam is conducted at Madapalli madam. The sadya would be impressive. During the evenings, there will be concerts from famous musicians during the Rama Navami. These are occasions, Kochinites will never miss.

Tamil Brahmins have merged themselves with the spirit of Kerala and relish Malyali traditions, rituals and celebrate Malayalam festivals. Vishu and Onam are celebrated by Tamil Brahmins with gaiety; thiruvathira, unique to Kerala is celebrated with thiruvathira kali and has a separate dance form. The Navaratri festival has the disply of dolls in decorated wooden steps (bommaikolu). Young maidens and mamis come and sing kirtanas, bhajans, and part-take sweet meats, which have varied menus during the nine days. Sraswathi pooja and the ninth day programme is something to cherish. The Tamil Brahmins speak a dialect which is different from classical Tamil. It is a mixture of anglicanized Malayalam. The Trichur Brahmins will speak the language with a musical overtone. The Pazhayannur Bhagavati Temple and Pallirakkavu temple where Bhagavatis’ are the presiding deities have a charm of their own. The thalapalli celebrated during end December will see the entire Cochin people at the Anavathil temple ground.

Gopu has gone to Chennai, as he is serving in a nationalized Bank, Vaithy is in America, Suresh has gone to Bangalore to be with his daughter, Kasturi is somewhere in Tamilnadu, Raman has settled in his Village, while Raja died in a fatal rail accident. Prabhu, our neighbour has sold his house and settled in Edapalli, Mani mama’s daughter has returned from Dubai and is in Elamakara. Narayana Mama is still in his old house at Lalan Road, while Sabasen is busy with his press and astrology. Seshadri mama’s house is locked, perhaps he has gone to his daughter’s house at Coimbatore. Hari anna has left lock, stock and barrel and is staying in some old age home at the outskirts of Coimbatore. There are many youngsters, whom I do not know. Times goes on. As ever.

I remember that on a few occasions legends mingle with mortals. But often, legends are far from truth. That is man, trying to mould his destiny. More often, he leaves behind tales to be told and retold. But today’s generation, do they have the time? They are busy with Laptop and Blackburry. Kochi is as old as it was. Old never gets old. Only we get older to drink the tankard of joy of the past, the buried past of which we were a part, parcel. .