Ernakulam is yet another dirty city with not much appeal but I hold out hope that I will have time to see "Old Cochin". The morning quickly gets taken up with Shoba's agenda - and once again I am prevailed upon to traipse along, keep her company and give her counsel. Mathen pops by to take her to an astrologer. This gives me 30 minutes peace to write my blog and rest. She is back in no time - wonder what the astrologer said!
Another gentleman appears - "Jacob" - whom she apparently met on the internet. He is in his late fifties and fancies himself as a wheeler deale
r. It has been arranged that he take Shoba to view a flat she might be interested in buying. It looks like so many 3 bedroom flats I have seen in Hong Kong (which is an interesting observation in itself) and shows promise, but the price is too high and Shoba wants Jacob to negotiate further.
Next, Babu insists that we pop into a very stylish shop called FABINDIA full of clothes, furniture, linens and jewellery laid out for Westerners. Products are good but more expensive than we came across in the Khadi shop - there is a etter range and there are more large sizes. I am tempted but resist. Anyway I have plenty of clothes by now!
As time slips by, I realise that my hope of seeing old Cochin, is a dream. I will need to be by myself or with another like-minded foreigner. I suppose this is because of its colonial connotations.
We lunch in the Bharat Hotel BTH - I am told this is a Brahmin establishment - on Gandhi Square - very fine veg only buffet! Lo and behold who should be there but the owner of Sarovaram Mr Krishnan. We shake his hand (withered right arm) and I tell him how much I
admire his hotel. Apparently he owns this one too! Nice chap to know - most unassuming and gentle, and a lovely benign smile.
We are joined by "Amja" another random friend of Babu's. She arrives when we have finished lunch but we stay a bit longer to keep her company. She has left work early and travelled 30
kms to meet up with us. She then accompanies us the rest of the day. This is difficult for me as I am dropping with fatigue and need to lie down and sleep.
Babu has built me up as a coach and a good person to talk to and I am flagging. To do her credit Amja is well versed in personal development and knows all about NLP so we jump into some interesting conversations very quickly. She tells me about her work empowering farmers for two years in the field, during which time she and her technical assistant helped them make huge changes in their economic viability. She is inspiring and we talk for over an hour.
She also has a soft side and it transpires she has managed to end an abusive marriage but she now lives with her parents and her daughter. Though she has remarried, this does not seem to have fixed the problem. She has had a good promotion in her job and now works in the main office of the Vegetable and Fruits Promotion Council. Babu praises her for her skills and
experience and urges her to greater things. She looks at me with a tired look as if to say, it’s all a bit to much right now. She is another of Babu's admirers!
Soon our afternoon break is over, it is time to leave. We load up the car and head off on the 120 kms journey to Shoba's mother's home in Pandalam! Uggh! I promptly fall asleep in the back seat.
When I wake up (with a crick in my neck) it's dark - we are bumping along the usual succession of rough broken roads through unidentifiable towns all presenting pretty much the same high street chaos.
We are approaching Pandalam. Good news! The bad news is that it is past 9 o'clock in the evening. Shoba and I are meant to be attending Christmas Eve Mass with her mother and sister-in-law at the local Catholic Church in their hamlet of Utavadu - which starts at …… 9 pm! So now we are late!
For the first time since arriving in India, I am sitting on the edge of my seat,
tense and irritated at Babu's slow driving. My eyes nearly pop out of my head when he decides to pull over and get some petrol just-in-case on the way! I am champing at the bit and totally powerless. I am imagining the church service being maybe 90 minutes long but as the time goes by we are now 45 minutes late! It will be over before we get there! I am controlling my wild desire to jump into the front seat and drive myself except I have no idea where we are going!
Eventually we arrive at our destination at 9.50 pm and I literally leap out of the car before it has stopped moving. Quick Quick! We run up the stairs to the church. At first glance, I know there is something not quite right, then within the next few seconds I take in the vestments, the layout of the altar, the seating arrangements, the general décor... This is no ordinary Catholic church. Shoba's mum is seated by the door waiting for us and embraces us warmly delighted to see us, Shoba marches in and finds us a place half way up the nave. Someone pulls over a plastic chair and so I am "up" and she is sitting "down" on the floor with everyone else. I have to say this makes me distinctly uncomfortable! And it is HOT! I am wearing the same clothes I have had on all day, my duppatta covers my head to give me privacy and avoid the stares, all the same I feel that I stick out like a sore thumb.
The service lasts 3.5 hours. It is a Melangara Catholic (what they call Syrian Christian) community. The rite is a combination of the Catholic tradition and the Greek orthodox so lots of walking around and incense swinging and everything done three times. Plus some Cyrillic chanting. On one of our walks round the church with the candles, the celebrant lights a fire in a deeply dug trench in the shape of a cross - he burns old palms from Palm Sunday - it feels like part of the Easter ritual. They have decorated some shrubs with fairy lights and they have a huge nativity scene. Everyone says Happy Christmas in English! I don’t think there is a local word for it.
After Mass, we are exhausted but still have to go to Shoba's mother's home where she has prepared a LOT of food. Oh dear! It is still hot and I am beyond fatigue but do sit and eat a brief meal, sweating away.
Finally Babu and I take our leave - we still have to go and check in at the hotel in Pandalam some 8 kms away. My room is the last AC room available in the place - a lovely large room with a huge double bed all for ME and blissfully cool. Babu has agreed to take a NON AC room. Did I mention that he is a saint?
I shower and crash out, it is 2 am!
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