Gill Charlton

We had the incredible honour of taking around our hero and idol Ms. Gill Charlton of 'The Telegraph" on a Fort Cochin Heritage Walk and a Kochi City Tour.

Just like her engaging writing and the best information she offers to her readers and travellers about a city or a country she introduces, she was highly observant and had a splendid memory. She could even recollect the remotest corners of our town from a visit 15 years ago.

Thank you Gill for finding us and deciding to spend your day in our historic Cochin with us. It was a learning experience which we thoroughly enjoyed. 

Civet Coffee

Coorg Consolidated Commodities have started manufacturing the world's most expensive Coffee. Though India is the third largest producer of Coffee in the world, this new start up is the first one to try making coffee from the excrement of a cat which the world considers as the best coffee.
Civet loves the ripe coffee berries and feast on them. It actually eats only the fleshy part and sends out the nuts covered in its digestive enzymes as Civet excretion. These are picked by farmers and processed. The enzymes give the nut the special flavour the rich world has fallen in love with.
Civet coffee is priced between ₹20000-₹25000 for a kilo at present.
CCC is selling it locally at Mahindra's Madagiri resort in coorg. The area comes under the Nilgiri-Coorg circuit of Karnataka tourism.

Vishu

Yellow themed prosperity festival, which marks the beginning of the year, is one of the dearest and favourite festivals in Kerala. Everyone wakes up early and bows before the preset bowl of abundance which has all the summer harvest produce - Mangoes, jackfruit, flowers, kumkum and the idol of lovely Krishna. An auspicious way of starting the new year, Vishu also denotes the summer equinox.

In the 9th Century, the Travancore King convened a meeting of the scholars and set the calendar with few changes and started anew. So in Kerala, unlike the rest of the country, the new year starts in Chingam, the malayalam month, which falls in August - September in the Onam days.

The festival is a great way to connect with the past when life was more nature bound, the typical phrases and the entertainment involved in these days are great nostalgic reminders of the days and the people who went by.

Fort Cochin Carnival

Tourists taking pictures at Veli while waiting for the start.

 The Cochin Carnival started with the Portuguese. We do not know  how the tradition survived during the Calvinist Dutch period when most of the Catholics were sent out of the Fort. After the Independence, the Carnival is taken over and kept alive by our local enthusiasts who are doing a wonderful job in the last few years.

The excitement, the thrill, the crowd has not changed over the years. We always wanted to be at Fort Cochin on the New Year Day to be part of the spirit.

Cochin is one in spirit when it comes the Carnival. This year we have seen unprecedented crowd both during the New Year Eve and also on the Carnival Day. Yes, the spirit of Cochin is spreading.

Participants refreshing themselves just before the start.

The crowds thronged the street when the carnival procession passed by.

The floats were interesting and innovative in their themes and installation.

Kochi Muziris Biennale 2014

As Historians and those who share the history of Fort Cochin with many who visit Fort Cochin everyday, Kochi Muziris Biennale is a pleasant surprise and joy for us. The event has put Kochi back in the lime light as it was when it was termed as "Emporium of the world" by travellers in the early centuries. KMB foundation has made Kochi the art emporium which everyone is talking about and visiting. The first few days so so many artists, writers, scholars and many visitors at the venue and all of them are just happy as we are about the way Kochi has become the platform for the contemplations on history and finding a new language to express it.

Wonderful effort KMB foundation. Congratulations team KMB. We love our Biennale.

World Tourism Day 2014

Kerala remains the most literate state. Our effort to educate everyone in the state started very early. Fort Cochin Heritage Walkers, infront of Santa Cruz High School, which was started in the year 1888 at #FortCochin. 

Our first walk on the world Tourism Day of 2014 was a learning experience for us indeed. We got a lot of helpful tips and advice from our walkers who were very enthusiastic travellers who have explored our country  very well and has travelled abroad and has been part of many heritage walks in different parts of the world. 

We gladly acknowledge their good heart and experience they shared with us happily.

Banana Fry

If we go around South of India, we pretty much see the same variety of food with some variations in the type of rice and oil used. Otherwise a thaali will have rice, sambar, the vegetable curry and fry, the chutnies, pickles, Rasam, the payasam deserts etc. Maybe at the far end of Andhhra Pradesh they have this dry fruit delicacies and other non-vegetarian varieties that came with the Mughals.

At our Fort Cochin, though, generally, the food remain the same with some additions in the spices and its quality there is a definite influence of the European settlement in certain things. But in certain things only as the colonial life was pretty much restricted to their area of settlement in the early years.

Banana Fry is one that transcends the barrier. The nendran variety of Banana, dipped in flour and fried in Coconut oil, with a dash of cinnamon if you like it. One has to eat it to believe it.