I wrote this in 2008! On my recent visit in March 2015, it was as
true as it was before:
The Malayalee Memory or is it everywhere they
are
In the course of one day in Cochin, I was
greeted by a similar refrain: I remember your face, you have been here before. Perfect
strangers!
I can understand the people at the hotel
recognizing a guest who has come to the same hotel more than once, but perfect
strangers.
Now in Cochin, I use the same adage I use in
Cuba, I am not interested in getting to know people who want to know me in the
street.
But with a difference! In Cuba, the people who
want to know you want to get a dollar out of you, whereas in Cochin, they may
be interested in you, for more than just a monetary gain
A banana seller, the pharmacists, the chai maker
at the vegetarian restaurant, I can understand, there have been some contact in
the past with them, perhaps even more than casually. Bur perfect strangers?
An auto rickshaw driver in front of the hotel:
you have stayed at this hotel before; I have seen you in the street?
My usual patent answer, no you have mistaken me
for someone else. This is my first time.
Then a waiter at one of the newly constructed
“café” near the vypeen ferry comes rushing out: I remember your face, I never
forget any faces. As usual my pat answer, you can’t remember me, I have never
been here before.
I greet two
or three shopkeepers along the road to the synagogue. I greet them since their
greeting is genuine, since they are friends with the cobbler and the tailor
(Versace of Cochin). In fact the cobbler will duplicate my shoes!
I went to see a friend of mine, and one of the
clerks accompanied me: once again, I have seen you, even though it was two
years ago that I had gone to the same office.
Booksellers recognized me, that I take it to be
an honour. Bought: Amitav Ghosh’s latest book; Naipaul’s authorized biography;
the French translation of Kamala Das My story and another French translation of
a Kottayam writer, C Radhakrishnan…
Without asking, he gives me a 10 per cent
discount. (IDIOM bookstore)
The “antique’ dealer on the left as you go
towards the synagogue, his shop girl, says hello and when I asked for the price
of a Mezuzah on sale (these items are becoming a rarity, and very soon un
obtainable), he called for the owner, who came over and greeted me like an old
friend, and offered a price, 30 per cent cheaper than the one he had given me,
one year and half ago. You are a regular customer, so I give you my best price;
I agree with him, the price was very good...
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| HANUKKIA FOR SALE IN COCHIN 2008 |
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| THEY ARE NOW IN THE HOUSE AMONG THE UMONHON INDIANS OF NEBRASKA ALONG WITH NATS FROM BURMA (NATS ARE MUCH LIKE BHUTAS OF THE TULA PEOPLE) |
The place is crawling with tourists, I can’t say
I have a distinct face, but it has something to do with their memory, or is it
the fact that I have been here before, or is it the survival acumen that makes
their memory sharper?
I had written the above five years ago... and on
this visit made me realize that Malayalees are the friendliest INDIANS of India...
especially the Malayalees of Fort Cochin...
I also recognized their identity as a Linguistic
identity, not a religious one (In South Dakota they would say: I am a Lutheran
Christian). It is the language and many times the only one they speak well, and
it is theirs, not imposed upon them, ancestrally theirs.
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| NX JACOB IN 2004. HE DIED A YEAR AGO AGED 91 |
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| THE POST CARD SELLER IN 2008 |
Along the Jew Street, I was once again greeted
by the Shoemaker and the postcard seller. It is amazing that in this very busy
tourist town, they remember my face, but then again, I may be one of the very
few tourists who had traveled to Cochin, around 15 times in 15 years!
I like this familiarity and it endears Fort
Cochin to me...
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| NX SHOP NOW RUN BY HIS SON |
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| THE FRIENDLY COBBLER OF JEW TOWN |
