Destination Kochi

Hmm.. 4 days of stay at Kochi isn't just enough to write all these things. So thanks for all the Google crawling :)

Kochi, the Queen of Arabian Sea and the Commercial Capital of Kerala, turned about to be much more better than what I initially expected to be. After a 4 day hurried visit and lots of heavy research on all the links, the above link got you to... here is a quick review on the city and some of its surroundings.

Disclaimer : Wrong Statistical Quotes/Data, Improper guidance, pixelated images and all the confusions are strictly not because of me. It's upto you to find who the real person is, to have already uploaded all of them. And if you are one of those persons.. wait.. wait.. plz.. why do you want to go legal?? lets talk (pesi theethukalaamey) !!

History

'Cochin' was supposed to be the original name until the Government decided to re-christen it to 'Kochi'. The origin of the names in both the cases has been confusing and troublesome, so lets get straight into it. Might have been from a Malayalam word 'Kochazhi' meaning 'Small Sea' or a 'Lagoon'. Might have been from Sanskrit word 'Go Shree' meaning 'Holy Cow'. Interestingly there is a Venkatesa Perumal Koil at Cochin, which I visited during this trip (one of the best temples I have ever been to, an off-beat style compared to the usual Kerala style temples) with an official URL www.gosripuram.org . This area within Cochin itself is called GoSripuram and remain housed by the Konkani speaking gowda Saraswat Brahmin community. More interestingly we can also derive this way - "Gomanthak", "Srimanth" and "Puram", which means the settlement (Puram) of the wealthy people (Srimanth) from Goa (Gomanthak). Another possibility can be from Chinese root - Kochi derived from the word Kaci meaning Harbour. The chinese influence is obvious by the vast amounts of 'Chinese fishing Nets' found here, the only other place this can be found outside China.

If you are already tired of these etymological roots, there is a Japan township in Hiroshima called Kochi. But I'm stopping here.

Cochin has a very well formed natural Harbour, on effect of a heavy flood that hit the city on 14th Century. The Arabs, British, Chinese, Dutch, Italians and Portugese have traded with Cochin before our independence. This enabled travellers like Vasco da Gama to visit this city. During the 16th century The Portuguese ruled Cochin. The Dutch invasion happened on 17th Century. Tippu Sultan bailed out Cochin from the Dutch, before the entire nation fell to the British Invadors. The English developed this into a major Harbour and created the Wellingdon Island. The Willingdon Island houses the Cochin Port and the Naval Airport. Even today Cochin has the closest parallel running Runway (Naval Airport's), Rail Track(Harbour Terminus, very scarcely used) and Roadway.

Geography

Situated on the Southwest Coast of India close to the Western Ghats, the city lies on the sea mouth of seven major rivers. The mainland Ernakulam, the Cochin Sea Port , the Fort Kochi and many other small places nearby (remember GoSripuram !?!.. similar other places like that) form the entire Kochi. Most of the city lies at the Sea level and total area includes 87.5 square km (approx. 14 times smaller than Chennai).

Knowing that you are getting impatient, I'm skipping the Physics, Chemistry and Biology of Cochin. You are asking Maths??... I always hate it.

City Infrastructure

The residential area of Kochi is concentrated in and around Ernakulam. Ernakulam is supposed to be the best cosmopoliton city of Kerala, outsmarting Trivandrum. You name it, you have it !! Sometimes you may even feel having certain facilities that can't be that much easily found in Chennai. The best example is the tall-rise buildings. Most of the residential complexes itself rise upto 15 to 17 storeys. (For real estate freaks, you get deluxe apartments starting from 13 lakhs at the heart of city).

The M.G.Road at Ernakulam, lives in par to our Mount Road. Reebok, Nike, Louis Philippe, Indian Terrain, John Players, Crocodile, Basics showrooms to Multi-storied Clothing malls, dozens of Jewellery Shop, Olympus to Kodak, Citibank, HDFC, HSBC, Standard Chartered, ICICI to Lord Krishna Bank, Emirates, Singapore and Malaysian Airlines, Srilankan Airlines, Oman Air to Jet and Paramount, an Air Hostess training institute... Shoppers paradise this road is :) The city also has a Taj and Le Meridian Hotel, in addition to Taj Malabar Beach Resort.

Transportation

Ernakulam has 2 railway station for convenience. Journey from Chennai Central will take approx 12 hours (Will prove to be very tedious if you don't book tickets well in advance. Ha Ha... I speak out of experience, RAC travel). Airport is way outside the city - 30kms. The state run public transports aren't recommended. Local buses within the city are fully private. They are good looking, except that none of them has route numbers. This will be a total let down if you don't know Malayalam. Don't even expect Hindi or English writings on the Bus. Autos are not that cheaper compared to other Keralite towns. But, certainly not as bad as Chennai :)

People

Very disciplined. They mind their own work, but will not hesitate to help if you ask them. Most of them understand Tamil but speak only in Malayalam. Even autowalas and bus conductors understand fair Tamil sustainable enough to manage. Its tough for you to identify their religion, as they seem to follow both Hinduism and Christianity. Can you believe if I say the 'Janda Melam' artists perform at the Church ?? They do.. and i watched it live. They don't fight for standing in long queues (at Temples), nobody comes and peeps inbetween. They are organized in their own way. Education is making the difference, coz Ernakulam was the first state to achieve 100% literacy within Kerala.

LifeStyle

The entire state follow the early rising habit. Temples open around 4.30 or 5 in the morning. (Guruvayoor temple opens at 2.30 itself). There is not much of fast-forward living. However traffic isn't that much leaner. Considering the way the city develops, and going by the current rate, traffic will get worst in 2 or 3 years unless they broaden the roads. Weather conditions are hot and humid, though not killers. We can survive an entire day even without the fan running (experienced because of a whole day power cut). Also they don't freak out heavily. Hotels and restaurants mostly looks deserted. After buying your Cloths/Jewels/anything, you realize you were the only one who stayed for more than an hour at the shop, and there's nobody around other than the shop-keepers. In one word - 'peaceful'.

Places of Interest

Temples, Temples and more Temples. Not just Ernakulam, all surrounding districts also have some famous temples. So I'm giving a separate section for this.

Backwaters - the sunset cruise is worth the money, but enjoyable may be once or twice when you spend time with family/friends.

Fort Kochi Beach - walk through the beach during sunset with the chinese fishing nets and sailing ships in the background. There are still Dutch/Portuguese style bungalows making the place even more enjoyable. Beach resorts are also available in plenty. This beach closely resembles the Pondichery beach, for the remains of foreign styled buildings and tourists and the rock lined sea coast. After eating groundnuts, taking a walk along the concrete platform I finally stood on the coast waiting for the waters of the Arabain Sea to touch my feet, for the second time in life :)

Chinese Fishing Nets - They are unique to Cochin, and unique to everyone outside China. But you have just got to watch it. There's nothing more.

There are couple of Palaces, lots of Churches and Backwaters. I didnt find time to check them out.

Temples

Being a Theist, Atheist or Agnostic has nothing to do with the temples of Kerala. More than the divinity and spirituality, there is something else that will make you always satisfied with temples of Kerala. The silence, the cleanliness, the atmosphere, the discipline and the tradition is what making it ultra special. Lakhs of rupees, marble flooring, imported Chandelier lights will not get nearer to this lifestyle, and thats were most of our Modern day temple fails. Stone flooring, Open spaces and natural lighting (agal vilakku with nei thiri) does the trick.

None of the temples collect even a single pie as entrance fee. No special darshan on money's sake. Everyone stands in the same queue. The system works as a system, without anyone breaking it. I salute.

4 days outside homeland, and it turned out to be 'memorable'. Certain deeds mentioned above made me dumb-struck. I was all planned to blast Chennai off once i step in here. The train arrived on time exactly, while the morning sun was rising. I took an auto to reach home. Cool air, traffic less road, slow life. This is how I want my Chennai to be always. 10 years of growing and all those learning, fun and experience I had during these days will not make me a traitor to my own city. Cool air, traffic less road, slow life again. This is how I want my Chennai to be always., I'm loving what I'm seeing in front of my eyes, I want this forever, I want to pause this frame and I pause.