We moved onwards to the quaint seaside port of Fort Cochin, where you can easily spot the diverse history of colonization from the Portuguese, Dutch and British with its mix of old houses, buildings and churches lining the leafy streets.
The Portuguese brought Catholicism to this region of India, in fact, the world famous Portuguese explorer, Vasco de Gama, died in this city on Dec. 24, 1524 and was once buried in the St. Francis Catholic Church here (his remains were later moved to Portugal). Gama was important for opening up trade routes between Europe and India. Interestingly, not only does Kerala have a large Catholic community, it also has a successful long-running Communist state government. In the Kerala cities, you often see Communist Party India (CPI) ads with Lenin and Marx sandwiched next to Catholic church ad posters with Jesus and the cross.
Fort Cochin is probably most known for its pre-colonial Chinese Fishing Nets, which are most photogenic during sunset. Thought to be introduced by Chinese traders in early 14th century, these structures comprise wooden beams with an outstretched net suspended over the sea and large stones suspended from ropes as counterweights at the other end. The fishermen walk up and down the beam to lower and raise the net in the water. With their extremely simple and almost graceful design, we found the nets to be quite a contrast to the modern 21st century shipping industry cranes sitting directly across the harbour.
No visit to Fort Cochin is complete without seeing a Kathakali performance, the Keralan classical dance drama. Kathakali utilizes a combination of the five elements of fine art, including facial expression, dance movement, hand gesture, song and instruments. We found it to be almost as interesting to watch the artists apply their complex makeup (which takes about an hour) before the actual performance begins. The first phase of the makeup is applied by the artists themselves and second phase is applied by fellow artists. We can’t recall which of the 101 Kathakali classical stories was performed that evening, we were more entranced with the eye- and ear-popping visual auditory show.
Quote: “It didn’t matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings.” from the book: “The God of Small Things” by Arundhati Roy. (Highly recommended read for travellers to Kerala.)
