Tag Archives: Cochin

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GaGa over LuLu

No, not the Lady! As a matter of fact, no celebrity was necessary to bring out the crowds for the grand opening of the LuLu Mall in Cochin, Kerala. Touted as the largest mall in Asia, LuLu opened on 10 March.

On a Sunday afternoon, in a wild and crazy moment, Aswathi, Megha and I decided to go see what it was like. Hey … we did wait a week! But, clearly, we needed to wait a LOT longer!

LuLu has shops on five floors with a total size of 3,900,000 square feet. It has a cinema complex, a 5,000 sq ft ice skating rink, a food court that includes a dozen a half ‘kitchens’ plus three fine dining establishments and parking for 4,800 cars. All of the parking spaces were taken when we got there!! Ha, ha … no wait, I’m not kidding!

It took us about five hours to get in and get out. We were probably in the mall a total of 45 minutes. Most of our time was spent sitting in the car waiting for the traffic to move so we could just get to the corner to make the turn. Aswathi pointed out that many of the cars had license plates that identified them as coming from outside of Kochi.

The entire experience was really just too funny! We kept saying things like, “Aswathi, we’ll just get out here and walk the rest of the way. When we come out, we’ll easily find you because you’ll still be right here.”

When we finally made the turn at the corner, we ended up in another long line which led to the parking garage. We got behind a car that had a sticker on it identifying it as a new purchase. There was a little rise in the road as we entered the LuLu complex and the (presumably) new driver kept stalling the car to the point where three security guards rushed up and began pushing on the back of the car so it wouldn’t roll backwards into ours. We would have moved out of the way, except there was nowhere to move to!

LuLu Celebrate

LuLu Celebrate

About an hour later, we finally pulled into the parking garage, wondering why we were still doing this, but really, where else were we going to go at that point. Once you’re in a queue like that, there’s just no chance of getting out of it, so you just go with the flow!

So the big to-do at LuLu is their hypermarket, which is a huge grocery on two floors. But we plowed our way through the crowds in the opposite direction, as it was at capacity when we came up the escalator and found ourselves deposited directly in front of it. The five of us (Aswathi’s daughter and her mother were also with us) grabbed hands and wove our way through the crowds. I led the way and felt like a salmon desperately trying to swim upstream.

At this point, I can’t really tell you what the hypermarket has, but I can tell you that all of the grapes vanished on opening day and none of them were actually sold! It seems that everyone was taking a taste … but they were just taking one grape … what would that hurt? Well, apparently there were so many people taking ‘just one’ that all of the grapes disappeared pretty quickly.

I doubt much got sold on the opening weekend, except perhaps in the hypermarket. The weekend we were there, although it was very crowded, the shops were fairly empty. People were just looking around; doing some window shopping and taking lots of photos. And in the midst of the chaos and charm of the largest mall in Asia, we saw a number of young lads (early 20s perhaps) wearing sunglasses and ‘striking a pose’ in front of signs like Marks & Spencer. Seriously! And this particular shop wasn’t even open yet!

Crowds inside

! Crowds inside

We did stop on the top floor at the ‘food court’ to have a quick coffee, but they were pretty nearly out of everything and all Aswathi and Megha managed to bring back to the table we were desperately trying to hang on to, were two diet cokes, a juice drink and a Sprite.

Glass ceiling

Glass ceiling

When we left it was about 8:30 p.m. and traffic was still pouring – well, really, creeping (very, very slowly) – into the lanes for the parking garage. I said, “Well, that was fun!” to which Megha replied, “I’ll come back in about six months.”

Outside - a changing wall display

Outside – a changing wall display

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A Biennale comes to Cochin

I’ve been fortunate to be here for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India’s first. Although it kicked off before my arrival on 12/12/12, it lasted until 13/03/13 and so I got to see for myself what all the fuss was about.

A little history

Biennale is Italian for “every other year” and is commonly used in the art world to describe an ‘international manifestation of contemporary art.’ It purportedly stems from the Biennale di Venezia first held in 1895. The Venice Biennale includes contemporary art, film, dance and architecture (this one held in even years).

The Kochi-Muziris Biennale was set up mostly around Fort Kochi. It was established to support the more modern Kochi, but at the same time, not letting go of the past and the historical values and significance of its mythical predecessor, the ancient port of Muziris.

The Kochi-Muziris Biennale

When I heard about this, I asked around the office to see who might have a bit of information and was told to begin the journey at the Kashi Art Café, also a gallery.

The Kashi is a fabulous, warm and inviting converted house, off of a small street in Fort Kochi. The gallery serves as the entry point to this unique place, which is a combination of indoor and outdoor space, with a tree growing through the roof in one room and an open, partially walled-in area in the back. The space is not large, but the atmosphere has vast dimensions. The menu is light, with breakfast and lunch options and some fabulous desserts. The food is organic and flavorful and the ambience encourages you to linger. In addition to their wonderful omelets, they have brown bread that they bake on the premises, and the masala tea is the best I’ve had anywhere in the city. (I asked if they sold loaves of bread separately, but alas, they do not.)

Omelette - YUM

Omelette – YUM

At the Kashi we found out where to go for tickets and more information. So we headed out to the Aspinwall House to begin the official journey.

Overlooking the sea, the Aspinwall House was established in 1867 as a business that traded in coconut oil, pepper, timber, lemon grass oil, ginger, turmeric, spices, hides and later in coir, coffee, tea and rubber. Today, it is a large heritage property supporting numerous artists and exhibits for the Biennale.

There were nearly 80 artists with work presented at a variety of venues including current gallery spaces and halls, with additional site-specific installations in public buildings and outdoor spaces. In some places, they used areas that were unused or barren. We were able to visit only about 10 of the spaces, but we got a really good feel for the variety of the work, which was vast.

The art at the Biennale was diverse and interesting. Some of it made you pause and reflect …

The room was dark, along the back wall ‘pockets’ of wood holding various seeds and herbs were lined up in rows. If you closed your eyes, the jumble of scents was intense. Around a corner of the large room, there were video art displays, soft blue light emanating from open books with blank pages. Messages came and went (courtesy of the video above), some with photographs, some with quotes like:

if we could separate each glance from the next
then could we separate our perception
of what each consecutive glance is seeing

or …

if a crime continues to occur regardless
of the enormous evidence available
then is the crime invisible or the evidence invisible
or are both visible but not seen?

The constant flow of messages made you want to stick around and see what was next. At the other end, was a story told in books, video and art about a crime against a young African man and the questions that surrounded his demise. The entire room was intriguing and thought-provoking, although in some regards, also disturbing.

But what is art if not something that makes you feel?

As with a lot of modern art, you have to ask yourself, “What does this invoke within me?” It doesn’t matter that you don’t understand it. You might find it interesting, disturbing, beautiful, humdrum, absurd, comical, amazing. You might feel a sense of loss, wonder, sadness, awe, enlightenment. You could even feel cynical, angry, happy, or it might even make you weep or laugh aloud. It could take your breath away or leave you completely puzzled. If you have no reaction whatsoever, the artist clearly missed the mark.

People react differently based on what they see in the piece, or what they don’t see. A reaction could be based upon a long-ago memory not quite present, but only sensed. One of our group had to leave that dark room that many of us found fascinating because she felt a certain dread.

Who can really tell what will move us? I remember standing outside Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Família in Barcelona with Jennifer, one of my traveling companions. As both of us stared at this amazing sacred place, we turned to each other and both of us were weeping.

While the art of the Biennale didn’t bring me to tears, some of it evoked strong reactions.

All-in-all, it was a really great (albeit hot!) day. And from my point of view, congratulations must go out to the organizers of this amazing event!

Here are some additional photos:

The Perfect World

The Perfect World, by Uttam Duniya

Butterflies with no shoes (inset)

Butterflies with no shoes (inset)

I know nothing of the end (inset)

I know nothing of the end (inset), by Sudarshan Shetty

 

Birds on the wall (outside Kashi)
Birds on the wall (outside Kashi)

 

The book
The book
Carved swan

Carved swan, by Sudarshan Shetty

Megha at hanging wood

Megha at hanging wood

Painted tree near the Chinese Fishing Nets

Painted tree near the Chinese Fishing Nets

 

 

 

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Moving week

After moving from the Le Meridien (no more rooms available) to the Holiday Inn (in retrospect, a nicer hotel, but no Starwood points 8-), I moved into my flat this week.

It’s located on the backwaters with Bolgatty Island the only piece of land separating me from the sea. I can see the Port of Cochin from my balcony and the massive ships that come in regularly. One such ‘cargo carrier’ moves back and forth all day and night from the Port to the North side of Bolgatty island on the backwater side. It’s carrying containers that have been off-loaded from ships that can’t travel the more shallow waters of the backwater. Now that there’s a new road that connects Bolgatty Island with the city, the containers can be lifted from the carrier to trucks that will take them to their final destinations.

Barge carrying containers

Barge carrying containers

Behind my building is a bird sanctuary, so lots of green, but I can only see a portion of it from the ladies health club on the 14th floor. Next to the sanctuary is the fisheries department and the National Institute of Oceanography.

Indian Pond Heron

Indian Pond Heron

The flat is not in the building I originally looked at last August, as none were available. While this one is on the same road, the other was closer to shops and within walking distance of restaurants and markets. There’s a walkway out front that runs by the water that should be completed in the next month or so. It will connect the walkway that started in front of the previous building, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to walk down to the shopping area at some point. I’ve been told that it would be unsafe for me to walk along the road, and so, I’m trusting my colleagues’ instincts and use my driver when I have a need to go somewhere.

The building I’m in is fairly new and the space is pretty large. It has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a half bath off the dining room for guests and a half bath off the laundry room for the help. I have a washer, but no dryer, only lines strung across the laundry room (Val would feel right at home).

As colleagues arrived this week from the US, it took me until Friday to find the time to go shopping for some of the things that weren’t included in the furnished flat. Things I needed were towels (I had one), dishes, flatware, kitchen knives and other cooking utensils, frying and sauté pans (a couple of pots were left), glasses, coffee pot, tea kettle and hairdryer. To be honest, the two biggest things were the hairdryer and coffee pot, although I’ve been drinking mostly tea since I’ve been here. And, it’s a good thing I had my hair cut really short, so it didn’t look too terrible!

I also bought some food, so now I can start packing my lunch and actually having breakfast before heading off to work.

Technology has been a real issue, as I don’t have internet connectivity, so therefore, no WiFi at my flat. I met with an internet provider this week and they are starting to work on that. Fingers crossed!

So, I’m settling in, and will be figuring out ways to put my own personal touches on the place. I need to buy a Kerala cookbook so I can begin my training in the fine art of India food.

Sunset view

Sunset view

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Upon arrival: Remembered first impressions of India

My flight from Singapore to the Cochin International Airport was an hour late and I arrived after 11:00 pm. I gathered my checked baggage … oh, my, I can hear you saying, “You actually checked baggage?” Yes, for my six months to a year, I needed to take too many liquids over three ounces. So, I decided since I was checking one bag, I’d go ahead and check two. So I didn’t carry much onto the plane this time, which was really nice! I can now see why people check bags! Except of course, when you get on the other end and have to wait … and wait … and wait! But arrive they did, for which I was truly grateful. (You all know how bad my baggage karma is!).

My driver was waiting and even though I got into the car totally exhausted, I spent the time looking through the darkness getting glimpses of things along the roadways I had forgotten.

For example, I was reminded of the buildings with rows of small lights draped over them, similar to Christmas lights, but not limited just to December.

I saw people, including children, walking at this very late hour, very close to the road, their backs to the oncoming traffic, completely oblivious and totally unconcerned about the cars passing very close by.

I remembered the billboards, all different sizes and shapes; really large ones with faces of people looming out of the night sky. And smaller rectangular ones, all colorful with messages in interesting and beautifully written languages that I couldn’t even begin to grasp the meaning of. Signage here overwhelms the senses, blocks the views and hangs from fences, poles and even trees. The environment is colored by flowers, greenery and overwhelmed with signs vying for your attention! There’s certainly no such thing as Post no bills here.

Fairly organized signs

Fairly organized signs

I recalled a time in the US when many more billboards and signs dotted the landscape, grabbing your attention and clouding the beauty of the land. It made me realize how grateful I am to Lady Bird Johnson for her Beautification Campaign.

I got to the hotel after midnight and went to bed about 2:30 am. I didn’t wake until 1:00 pm and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked at the clock and it read 1300. So, it was a really good thing I came on the weekend.

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Onam celebration

A big festival and holiday scheduled for 29 August had everyone excited and many people at the office planning vacations.

Onam is a popular harvest festival of Kerala, which honors the annual homecoming of a legendary king, Mahabali. Ten days of revelry, including carnivals, floral decorations, games and traditional banquets, mark the festival, which falls on the first month of the Malayalam calendar.

At our office celebration, everyone dressed in native apparel with most of the women wearing typical crème colored saris banded in gold, blue or green.

Activities included competitions, performances of the ‘thiruvathirakali’ dance form, ‘athapookalam’ (a customary arrangement of flower petals on the floor or ground) and someone in typical king attire (very authentic looking and colorful).

The King

The King

The pookalam reminds me of mandalas as the flower petals are arranged in circular patterns and designs using many colors. They are typically arranged in an entry way or outside near the door to a shop. They are meant as a welcome for the return of the king.

A pookalam competition was held with the winner displaying a beautiful design with a snake boat in the center. Offerings are also presented at the top of the design.

Winning pooklam

Winning pooklam

A tug of war was held and was very funny and enjoyable to watch. The judge was so intense! It took an amazing amount of time to get everything set up properly, with the exact center of the rope above the exact center of the ground; the teams standing at the precise locations, all under the scrutiny of the judge. Standing around in the beating sun and pressing heat for the few minutes it took for the ‘war’ to be won would have been exigent if not for the laughter and faces of the participants and those watching. After several ‘wars’ were waged, the winning team won bunches of bananas. One of our visiting colleagues from London commented that he would have an easier time as a manager if his UK team would get this excited over a bunch of bananas as a reward.

To the victors

To the victors

There was also a pin the tail on the donkey-type of game, where participants were blindfolded, spun in a circle and had to place a bindi on a poster of a person, as close to the ‘third eye’ as possible. That winner received a very large bag of dried bananas … are you seeing a theme here?

Following the dancing and competitions, we attended a celebratory lunch banquet with Kerala rice, sambar, a variety of curries and other great tasting food all served on a large banana leaf. No silverware was available, although they asked me and my UK colleague if we wanted some, but we said no … we want to go native. I always did like eating with my hands!

The entire day was fun-filled and entertaining, with work in between events. I’m leaving on Saturday night, so I’ll miss the actual day of Onam, but our work events gave me a slice of the celebratory flavor and excitement surrounding this popular Kerala holiday.

 

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Our Kochi (Cochin) tour

Weekend with Tracy’s parents: 26 July – 30 July 2012

We had a great weekend with Tracy’s parents, who arrived on Thursday night (26 July) from Singapore. Bevin arranged for a couple of wonderful outings, including dinner on Friday night at a Kerala restaurant in Dream (a boutique hotel) and a site-seeing tour throughout Kochi on Saturday.

Kochi’s colonial name is Cochin and I haven’t quite figured out when to use which, since it seems to be used interchangeably. When I asked Bevin, he told me that the Indian name is Kochi and the English name is Cochin, so I keep thinking it’s kind of like Mumbai and Bombay.

Cochin is situated on the southwest coast of the Indian peninsula and is the commercial and industrial capital of the state of Kerala, hailed as ‘God’s Own Country.‘

According to http://www.cochin.org/ “This lovely seaside city is flanked by the Western Ghats on the east and the Arabian Sea on the west. Its proximity to the equator, the sea and the mountains provide a rich experience of a moderate equatorial climate.”

It goes on to speak of the “unfathomable diversity and beauty of Kerala, rated in the top three tourist destinations by the World Travel & Tourism Council and featured in National Geographic Traveler’s ’50 greatest places of a lifetime’.”

On our tour of Cochin, we saw the Chinese fishing nets, a seafood market on the water, Jew Town, the Dutch Palace (a museum), St. Francis church in Fort Kochi (the oldest church built by Europeans in India and where Vasco da Gama, who died in Kochi, was originally buried before his remains were taken back to Portugal much later) and Santa Cruz Basilica (originally built by the Portuguese in 1505, destroyed by the British in 1795 and rebuilt in 1905).

Fishing nets

Chinese fishing nets

We had a lovely lunch at the Old Harbour Hotel, in the heart of ancient Fort Kochi. A 300 year-old building that was the first hotel of old Cochin and reopened as a boutique hotel. The food is all organic and was excellent.

We’ve had the same driver, Majesh, during our stay in Kochi, which has made things very nice for us as he knows the city very well and he seems to be looking out for us. As part of our tour, and I’m assuming to help support the Kerala economy and the artisans within the city, Majesh took us to a shop that housed 14 families of craftsmen making Kerala-specific products from cashmere shawls to jewelry, clothing and wood products. The cooperative of sorts is subsidized by the government in an effort to support artists. So, we did our bit for the Kerala economy and picked up a few items.

We decided to return to Dream on Saturday night after touring Kochi for the day to have dinner at Mainland China. Touted as authentic Chinese cuisine, the restaurant was lovely and I quite enjoyed the change (although Tracy and her parents – her father is Cantonese – said it wasn’t really authentic).

Tomorrow we’re off to Alleppey and a houseboat ‘cruise.’