Kerala follows me around ...?
I do not travel to INDIA but paradoxically enough once every two months, Manolo the driver from Bristows Bungalow, the only hotel facing the ocean in Fort Cochin, waits for me at the arrival hall at Terminal 3, usually a Qatar Airways flight from Doha.
In the last five months I have been there three times and I cant wait to go back there again.
at each time, I spend time and share bread (excellent Malayalee cuisine) with two of my good friends . RN and PPM.
From them I have learned a lot about Orthodox Syrian Christians, one of the oldest group of christians in the world. I am impressed with them, of their spiritual and social worldview.
Once I was at the home of RN, I mentioned to him that recently I had been to pray (I said kaddish, the jewish prayer for the dead) at the tomb of JOB, in the mountains near Salalah in Oman. His devout wife knew whole heap of things about JOB (I am notoriously ignorant of the Hebrew Bible let alone the Christian one) and pointed out the chapter where the life and times of JOB were described. A young priest sang beautifully in Hebrew the Cohanic blessing (blessing of Aaron) when I visited him at the Coonan Curushu Church in Mattancherry..
In short, I am impressed with the Orthodox Syrian Christians of Cochin.
And very grateful for the friendships of RN and PPM.
This morning, I was passing through the duty free area of the Siem Reap Airport in Cambodia. I chatted with the two Khmer women attending to the perfume section. I noticed a professional looking man coming towards us and he turned out to be Ranjit Thomas.
When people say they are from India, my first question is, are you from Nagaland? When they object, I ask, isnt Nagaland in India. then they would say I am from the middle of India.
We had a lovely conversation with this native of Bhopal in the central part of India (same place where the manager of Bristow's Bungalow, Rajesh, hails from)
Do you know my friend Rajesh, i kidded him
He said, seriously, there might be so many Rajesh, perhaps many in each street..
We talked about Pali and the sared Buddhist texts which has influenced the languages of South East Asia. Srey in Khmer comes from Sri and there are thousands of examples. But the script, has nothing to do with North India or Hindi, but it is from Tamil in the south. Buddhist scholars had travelled to Tanjore and other famous Buddhist teaching centres (yes at one time, people thought India might become Buddhist!)
Then he said, while he was born and brought up in the north, his parents are from Kerala and they are the Orthodox Syrian Christians. What a great coincidence and we talked about Aramaic and the scriptures used until recently in Syrian Orthodox churches in Kerala.
Ranjit had worked with Dufry company which owns the Duty free store at Siem Reap Airport, and was posted to be on board the Norwegian Cruise ships , thus taking him to the islands in the caribbean as well as through the wonderful cities of Europe which he loved. When this job became available he applied and got it and is now getting used to living in Cambodia.
We talked about the origins of "Indian" restaurants usually run by Bangladeshis or Pakistanis all over the world. In the tourist town of Siem Reap there are 21 'Indian" restaurants. European tourists all have had som experience with Indian cuisine and when they get tired of Hamburgers and Spaghetti joints which are ubiquitous in Siem Reap, they could safely handle this modern version of British imagination of what Indian food might have tasted like.
Regarding the duty free store he is managing, he is grateful for the chinese invasion now taking place as more than half the tourists to Siem Reap now are from China and they are far more interested in getting a bargain on Clarins or A french perfume .. than spending money on Khmer souveniers.
A pleasant conversation and I look forward to my next dinner with my two good friends in Cochin, PPM and RN.
I do not travel to INDIA but paradoxically enough once every two months, Manolo the driver from Bristows Bungalow, the only hotel facing the ocean in Fort Cochin, waits for me at the arrival hall at Terminal 3, usually a Qatar Airways flight from Doha.
In the last five months I have been there three times and I cant wait to go back there again.
at each time, I spend time and share bread (excellent Malayalee cuisine) with two of my good friends . RN and PPM.
From them I have learned a lot about Orthodox Syrian Christians, one of the oldest group of christians in the world. I am impressed with them, of their spiritual and social worldview.
Once I was at the home of RN, I mentioned to him that recently I had been to pray (I said kaddish, the jewish prayer for the dead) at the tomb of JOB, in the mountains near Salalah in Oman. His devout wife knew whole heap of things about JOB (I am notoriously ignorant of the Hebrew Bible let alone the Christian one) and pointed out the chapter where the life and times of JOB were described. A young priest sang beautifully in Hebrew the Cohanic blessing (blessing of Aaron) when I visited him at the Coonan Curushu Church in Mattancherry..
In short, I am impressed with the Orthodox Syrian Christians of Cochin.
And very grateful for the friendships of RN and PPM.
This morning, I was passing through the duty free area of the Siem Reap Airport in Cambodia. I chatted with the two Khmer women attending to the perfume section. I noticed a professional looking man coming towards us and he turned out to be Ranjit Thomas.
We had a lovely conversation with this native of Bhopal in the central part of India (same place where the manager of Bristow's Bungalow, Rajesh, hails from)
Do you know my friend Rajesh, i kidded him
He said, seriously, there might be so many Rajesh, perhaps many in each street..
We talked about Pali and the sared Buddhist texts which has influenced the languages of South East Asia. Srey in Khmer comes from Sri and there are thousands of examples. But the script, has nothing to do with North India or Hindi, but it is from Tamil in the south. Buddhist scholars had travelled to Tanjore and other famous Buddhist teaching centres (yes at one time, people thought India might become Buddhist!)
Then he said, while he was born and brought up in the north, his parents are from Kerala and they are the Orthodox Syrian Christians. What a great coincidence and we talked about Aramaic and the scriptures used until recently in Syrian Orthodox churches in Kerala.
Ranjit had worked with Dufry company which owns the Duty free store at Siem Reap Airport, and was posted to be on board the Norwegian Cruise ships , thus taking him to the islands in the caribbean as well as through the wonderful cities of Europe which he loved. When this job became available he applied and got it and is now getting used to living in Cambodia.
We talked about the origins of "Indian" restaurants usually run by Bangladeshis or Pakistanis all over the world. In the tourist town of Siem Reap there are 21 'Indian" restaurants. European tourists all have had som experience with Indian cuisine and when they get tired of Hamburgers and Spaghetti joints which are ubiquitous in Siem Reap, they could safely handle this modern version of British imagination of what Indian food might have tasted like.
Regarding the duty free store he is managing, he is grateful for the chinese invasion now taking place as more than half the tourists to Siem Reap now are from China and they are far more interested in getting a bargain on Clarins or A french perfume .. than spending money on Khmer souveniers.
A pleasant conversation and I look forward to my next dinner with my two good friends in Cochin, PPM and RN.
