Art in Kochi

After the last excursions into the mountains, we are now drawn to the sea. 550 km from Bangalore on the south-western coast lies Kochi. In the 14th century the city was called 'Queen of Arabian Sea', it was an important trading center for spices.

You can clearly see the influences of the Dutch, Portuguese and British: The cityscape of Fort Kochi - the old town - is very different from typical Indian cities.

Friday at 4:00 AM the alarm clock rings, at 4:45 AM the driver picks us up. With very small eyes we make our way to the airport. Because they don't exactly make the process of taking off easy, we have no waiting time at all and arrive at the gate on time for check-in. An hour and a half later we are rudely awakened - we have landed.
 
From the airport it's another hour to the hotel. I still have to work today, but I enjoy the view of the sea and the dolphins that are swimming in the sea right in front of our room window. And with my dear colleagues, the working day passes quickly.

At sunset we get on a boat and take a small tour through the backwaters in front of Fort Kochi. From the boat we see fishing nets on the shores. This kind of fishing was apparently taken over by the Chinese.

Afterwards, we enjoy a cocktail and dinner before heading to bed early.

The next morning we take the regular ferry from our hotel to Fort Kochi. The trip costs just 15 cents for both of us.

Then we stroll through the city. We walk through the commercial district with many small department stores. Here, they still traditionally trade with rice, potatoes, onions and spices and load them in big sacks onto trucks. It smells of anise and other spices. Amazed, we soak up the new impressions.

After some time we reach the Dutch Palace. Special here are the detailed old wall drawings showing Brahma's history. From there we continue to the Jewish quarter with many small stores.

Slowly, the heat slays us. The sun is burning and at the same time it is very humid. We sit down in a backyard and drink a freshly squeezed pineapple juice. A small cat watches us from its shady place under a banana plant.

Refreshed, we then take the tuktuk first to the homestay where we will be with friends in two weeks. We want to see if it looks good. A homestay can be sometimes very good and sometimes rather dirty, so we wanted to take a quick look. It all is very inviting and we are already looking forward to check in here with Bine and Markus.

We drive on, to the fort. A short stroll along the beach promenade is followed by a stop at a cozy café. Under a fig tree we enjoy a tuna sandwich and a French toast.

Another short visit to the fort, then we take the ferry back to the hotel. Around 5:00 PM we arrive, sweaty and tired. Swimming in the pool quickly cheers us up again.

In the sunset we enjoy cocktails on the terrace. A ship arrives, with lots of young doctors celebrating the end of a congress. Their DJ has packed a hit or two and we happily join sining 'Bella ciao' and German classic 'Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht'. We really didn't expect these songs here.

On Sunday we have a late breakfast. We were "stopped" by a few dolphins cavorting in the water in front of our window - we could hardly tear ourselves away from watching them.

With a full belly we drive back to Fort Kochi. Today, we want to visit the Biennale. It takes place every year in March to early April and is quite famous in India. National and international artists exhibit here, paintings, sculptures and short films. The exhibition rooms are distributed in the old town, in old warehouses and mansions.

Many of the artworks focus on poverty or war. We don't fully understand all of the pictures or films and a few we find rather disturbing.

One film impresses us very much: The Camp. Here, a camera is pointed at a slum in Mumbai. The days pass by in fast motion. Heavy rains fall on the camp, then the sun shines again, the camera pans from the camp into a bird's eye view and shows that right after the slum there are luxurious high-rise buildings. "We build your houses with our stone, we sew your clothes with yarn spun with our spindles. We have nothing to eat, no roof over our heads, no water to drink. This is not fair, this is not right." The song is sung in Hindi, with an English translation interspersed.
As beautiful as India is, there is still a lot of social injustice here and we are part of it too.

The heat finally drives away the depressed mood and lets exhaustion arise. By tuktuk we go to a small fish restaurant and share a fish curry.

In the evening we fly back to Bangalore. What an impressive weekend!