Christmas carol service at St. Francis Church

The notice announcing the Carol Service was put up outside the church weeks earlier. For hundreds of tourists who visit our historic church everyday, the advance notice was very helpful.

This year's Christmas carol service was conducted at St. Francis church yesterday on 17th December, 2017 at 6pm.

Beautifully printed Carol Service notes, with songs and readings markers.

The service was lead by Rev. N.K Prasad, the resident Chaplain and the message was delivered by Rev. Dr. David Joy.

The choir which was the soul of the evening included both the junior and senior members of the CSI church.

The carol service at this historic church was attended by not only the parishioners but also all the history enthusiasts and the tourists who were in town. The first ever catholic Christmas in India was celebrated in this very church in the first decade of 1500's.

The occasion marked the beginning of the Christmas celebration in the erstwhile fort in its true spirit.

Beautiful evening, wonderful memory when our old church came back to life again. 

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.

Onam

'Chingam' is the most graceful month of our Malayalam Calendar. Naturally, its the first of the months in the year. The month is marked with harvests and blessings of nature symbolises the prosperity, joy and harmony with everyone irrespective of religion celebrating our state festival of Onam.

 The beginning of the festival is marked with Chamayam on the day of Attham in the royal town of Thripunithura where our Kochi Kings used to set about in a procession to the nearby temple of Maha Bali at Thrikkakara.

 The tradition is still maintained with the local authorities celebrating the Chamayam and its procession with all its pomp and glory.

Tenth day from Attham is our Onam, the greatest festival of our Kerala where we believe our greatest King Maha Bali comes to visit his people once more. The King was very popular and his administration is considered to be the ideal of all the world. 

 Uthraadam is the day before Onam, where everyone is busy buying things for preparing for Onam, the next day and its Sadya feast. No matter what, a Malayalee is duty bound to celebrate Onam with a sumptuous vegetarian Sadya. On Uthraadam day everyone is in a rush, The Thripunithura streets are so crowded with shoppers that we wont believe the quietness of the streets on Thiru Onam morning.

The main temple event on the day of Onam is at the Maha Bali temple at Thrikkakara where the activities start very early with the warm welcoming of the King followed by a feast for everyone who visit the temple. This year too, the festival was grand and we didn't missed visiting the temple. 

Vishu

Medam is the first month of our Malayalam Calendar. It falls on the fourteenth of April of this year. The day is celebrated as Vishu in our state. A happy day to welcome the new year with "Vishu Kani" the first sight of the most auspicious and the most blessed of sight to start the new year with. Usually an image of Krishna decorated with flowers and lights along with the fruits of the land and the season symbolising prosperity and blessings is arranged at homes. The Golden Blossoms of Indian Laburnum is mandatory among the flowers for the Kani. The Golden shower is the bloom of the season and can be seen on every "Konna tree" everywhere. It gives a gleaming gold feel to the sight.

Then there is the "Kai Neetam" the gift of money and silver which usually elders give to the younger ones. At noon, there will be a mouth watering vegetarian feast similar to Onam. In the evening the Vishu Padakam (Fire Crackers) marks the beginning of the new year.

A tradition, a festival. The day is happy and joyful, everyone greets each other wearing new dress. Vishu Kodi.

This year, it coincided with Good Friday. The occasion turned out to be the mark of Kerala's Cultural and religious harmony. The memes and the picture messages that went around on the Social Media speaks for  Kerala's encompassing spiritual and philosophical attitude.

Happy Vishu. May the new year bring the best for everyone.

IITTM Nellore

When the Professor from IITTM, Nellore called asking us to take around their latest postgraduate batch in tourism for a heritage walk around Fort Kochi, we were delighted. Ofcourse,  being an Alumini, it is always a pleasure to reunite with the faculty and students once again. But the most interesting aspect of these academic tours are the intense curiosity and eagerness of the students to know more about a destination they are visiting. There is always something new we learn on the tour with students, like how to present a theme in a new way especially when the students in the group are from all over India.

Thank You IITTM and students, we wish you the very best and hope to see you back here as dashing professionals.

PS: In the background in the picture, we can see a mother and son whom we met at Paradesi Synagogoe. She was from America and was visiting her son who is working in Delhi and both of them had decided to come on a tour to Kerala.  Our students were quick to spot his adopted famous Indian head wobble which he gladly acknowledged as a fond local influence.

The whistle

The Ikka (brother) of the fish stall near the Promenade at Fort Cochin whistles beautifully and never fails to attract everyone who walk by his stall. Here Mrs Lou Potts, a teacher from England, was so kind to pose with him for a picture. She specifically asked me to print a copy of this picture for him. Thank You, Lou, just as you promised hope to see you next year.