Cochin. I have never taken time to write about this one great place on the whole earth that made me who i am today. It always used to bother me, a feel that i neglected it for pretty long time but today, here i am to write about it or her. I must represent it as her as every great poets did, the beauty and charm of this small patch of earth on the banks of the vast lake and then the great Arabian Sea..The great poets they all called her the "Queen of Arabian Sea"..Nothing wrong i could find, she was as graceful as a belly dancer who sways away the young hearts with their sensual hip shakes..Those who reach her would fall for her and there are many who lost in to nowhere loving her..
Shes got her lot of disadvantages and drawbacks which usualy happens when a country girl develop in to a figure of modernity..she might have lost her virginity somewhere sometime but never did her charm fade completely..years makes a women gain wrinkles..she might also have experienced it..but then this
is the goodwill of being neoteric it has a million ideas to disguise anything..Mumbai is called a "mayanagri" cos of its illusory demeanor, where a thousands had grown in to celebrities and a numerous ones drunk dope and died in the slums and drains..Cochin is no different, its the mayanagri of at least the state. People reach her searching of Money, fame and Power, a few succeeds and the rest as i said earlier get lost in love with her and wrote poems..they end up their lives reciting the words they used to praise her.
Traffic, potholed roads and pollution can wait. but her real beauty resided just on the sides of the beach, The old Cochin or fort Cochin. The romantic bitch that attracted everyone to her lust. I can only pick up the memory from my age 10 when i last visited this place while i was a child on a school vacation..people spoke a very different slang of the language and all ran like madmen..everyone seemed busy and occupied. But i still remember the first time i got down at the north railway station with that goosebumpy thrill. that was the first station i saw this crowded in my life..people talking laughing..some trying to get in to the train squeezing before allowing the ones who wants to step out of it..Men in untidy curled-up dothis and red shirts pulling two wheeler carts carrying giant trunks and bags.. I spotted a good number of western-dressed locals in there..i turned back and watched everything and fed my brain while my mom hurriedly pulled my hands to the entrance in the intention to escape from the hasty rush of humans coming and going in and out of the station.
An ambassador car was waiting for us outside, it was my uncle. I read the boards on the shops and soon feel asleep..all i remember then is the house painted in green with lots of flowers and closely built other houses which at least dont have a hands gap..i being living in amid a big compound of land surrounding a forest of mango tress, jack-fruit tress,,plantain, sandal, neem, bael tree and etc i find it awful to have a life so congested like this..i wondered how the kids played mini-kitchen in here..It was a colony, the urban part of Cochin was having the residential areas whic were separated as different colony's or streets..ours was customs colony where the majority of the residents were customs officers, including my grandpa..while we were entering, he was coming out with his white n white uniform with the white officers hat..i asked my mom why the police in Cochin are wearing white and she told me its a department that handles only the customs, i didn't understood so she said that it is related to ports/ships and sea transport. The houses were all modern but the space was very less. Our neighbors children played in a small squire of a varandha..while i at home played in a vast area of back and front and side yards..
We were taken in the car to a lot of places, my habit then was to fell asleep ones we start travelling..i was woken up when we reached somewhere, i didnt know where it was but one thing i noticed first on opening my eyes was this..french street lamps lined in an impressive array..it looked old enough to call it an antique..but it was well preserved..i stood up on the floor paved by neatly cut small rock bricks..the place was slightly crowded with ice-cream vendors, toy shops and modern beach dress stalls and glittering bags and ornaments..i spotted a number of white couples in shorts and bras wearing sunglasses and on other side a few back locals..i fasten my eyes to myself and felt relived..i am not black but at the same time not as white as the other ones.. :) :)..i think that was the first time i saw white people with my eyes in real..
The beach was also crowded, but there were English people lying on the benches..we played in the beach for some time and then took a walk through the old streets which still bear proudly the remnants of the Europeans foot marks carved deeply on the stones..I looked up and down, here and there with those astonished big eyes..the whole place was lined up with bungalows and mansions build by Portuguese, dutch and the English in the colonial period which still possessed the pride of their royalty..and the most interesting thing is this that a few have people living in it and they would allow you to pay a visit inside but my mom was feeling unsafe and insecure..she might have thought that they still keep the old rifles and guns.. ;) We then went to see the precolonial Chinese fishing nets which is outstretched in to the sea..to watch the men pull the ropes and raise a net full of fishes bouncing in unison for life..and the fishermen were pleased and laughed mercilessly..The one glorious moment was to watch the sunset, a mix of blood red and orange..everything else before me transformed into black,silhouette and dark..the poles of the net in an arched triangle, herd of birds winging back to their nests, fishermen sacking up their things to wind up for the day and a few foreigner couples walk hand in hand mumbling and laughing to each other..it was as glorious a sight as the one you would expect in heaven..
An invisible tie was knotted by her on me while i leave that day which drew my destiny on to her after a very long gap of time. Things changed a little but i must admit, one thing about her is this peculiarity that she was aging like a rich wine..better and better through ages..a part of its attraction now was the sky high sky scrapers(obviously not that big like metropolitan cities) and shopping malls and branded coffee shops..and i could make this out that the number of young people roosted in here grown higher than the height of the buildings..the traffic of tourists increased and the number of 5 star hotels and resorts multiplied..what ever changes occurred, her heart was still untouched..fort Cochin remained the same..i was glad and thankful to god..history's should be preserved and untouched..so that generations to come would know things like this really exist..
Poverty was a blessing at that time..as we didnt had enough money, i remember me and ann used to walk a lot to find shops that sold cheap and good stuffs..This is another attraction of this place there are expensive things for the high end people on one side at the same time moderate and cheap things available on the other side for middle class people.. The roads were littered damp and muddy..we jumped all the way to save our foot from getting dirty..it was covered in an arch of tree-ceiling which only allowed dots of sunlight to the ground..it was cold under there..the roads were all covered with the fallen leaves changed colors in to pale green yellow and then decayed in the mud..we reached the kappalpalli (ship church)..as it was a day out allowed by our warden after yelling on the knees we only had a limited time..we stood on our knees on the entrance and gave a quick prayer..The normal natives of Cochin are seen dark and they talked very louder..we passed a lot of them..as usual we had to have close encounters with stalkers but had no time to give them..even though they call it "the broad way" the streets in real were narrow but there were wheel cart vendors on both sides shouting out loud to attract customers..they sold everything..from fruits, vegetables fish & meat to cloths, bags, paan, sandals & flip-flops, umbrellas, spices, antiques and so on..this is strange that the rush in there is thrice thicker than that you will see in a posh-mall..i saw all kind of people in there..this part of the broad-way was the most oldest which eventually took us to another side where the cart vendors disappeared and small shops inside buildings looked a 1000 years old..most of the vendors here were marvaadi's (people from Mumbai)..after a few rounds of window shopping and bargaining we got everything that we wanted with a single note of Rs. 500..with a content heart we looked in to each others eyes and smiled..we decided to take short walks, while we talked endlessly about each others life experiences and about our friends..
The tired duo found a small tea-stall, an old fashioned one with two benches put on both side so that the customers can sit..the roof of the tea stall was covered in bird-poop that appeared like painted white..i felt awe but then it was anns offer to have a tea and bonda (potato dumpling)..the way the man mixed the tea throwing it from one glass in a hand to another in the other hand made me get lost in his actions in a blink-less stare..i was so curious how the liquid ran and fall just in the glasses and not a single drop spilled..then i realized..years of expertise..thats it..
The next memorable spot is Convent junction..which is literally the "chick center"..every girl who loves fashion and are in Cochin would at least have visited this place once in their life time..the memory about this place takes me to that day when we were all planning to just take a simple visit to this place to get the cheap but funky sandals they sold in one of the malabari's shop..it was a December and i am kinda crazy about this month..anything happen to me in this month will lay solid in my head for any long time..the sun was glazing though the atmosphere was dry and cold..that way we dont sweat but i could still remember that sore nose and dry skin n hair which doubled my dressing time..once you enter the convent junction all you can see is middy worn chicks in groups walking from end to end getting in every shops..coz everything they sold in here is for women..sandals, bags, cosmetic, ornaments, dresses, designers shops, beauty saloons, tattoo centers, card shops, gifts shops, flower shops and lingerie shops..to be frank, i never could find any lingerie shops better than the numerous that's available in here..it was a magnificent place where you can stop at this one point and bag what ever you want for an occasion without thinking twice..this place is great..we walked and shopped many things and i think this is a part of every girls attitude..get tired doing stuffs like changing in to a dozen cloths and buy nothing from there and continuing this at many other stores and finally pays for a couple or more and then sit somewhere and relax before we leave..we turned to our way to that coffee and snack shop run by an old aunty dressed in frock..may be Anglo Indian.. the steaming coffees and cutlets we used to order..the mess that we created up there laughing and talking like we ruled the world..that was one damn time of our lives..we lived a whole life in there altogether and now we are assigned completely to look after our homes..the charm of Cochin was everywhere..the CSI church..the convent road, the adult park (where we spotted many couples doing disgusting things and once a smooch too..crazy people), the childrens park.the tender coconut walas under every trees..and the marine drive..
There is room for every one in the lap of Cochin..for the rich, for the poor, for the families, for the children, for the girls, for the boys, for the tourists and finally for the lovers and friends..Marine drive is sucha place..most of the friendship moments might have spent on the walk way or the green benches or on the bridge built by Greater Cochin Development Authority.. i wonder how many people had clicked their wonderful times on that bridge that resembled an artificial form of Chinese fishing net.. the day when we wait for each other on the steps of bay-pride mall..the walks from the start to the end to find a vacant green bench to sit on for some while and giggle at our own secrets..the escaping's from the sticky palm-reading women who tries to arouse our curious wants to know about our future and then when we try to withdrew, they tried to catch us with false threats..the fierce wind that blow our kameez like the cloth of a yacht..everything that happened there will be remembered until our last breath. I have heared many saying this that marine drive had eye-witnessed good and bad things equally..there are tremendous number of love took birth here and an equal to it had broken in the banks of the Vembanad lake..all it might could do was to pat them with its gentle breeze..
Cochin is not just this..this page is not enough to hold the words that describes her..its vast and wide in the minds of the people wh
o had ones touched her than the area in reality it holds on the earth..Reaching her did made me hyperventilated and leaving her was like losing my ability to breath..This place had welcomed everyone with warn open hands..and most of them have earned what they wished to have before they first set their foot on her..these were a few glimpses that remained in my head rest of all had been eat by something else..i had even more to scribble about this one wonderful lady..may be i could clear my memories from the dusts and cobwebs that had covered it partially and depict enormously after some time..All i have here now is a heart full of greatness towards the mesmerizingly gorgeous queen of the Arabian Sea..May she blow the minds of more with that fascinating sexy hip strikes always..
Cochin will keep on growing old like everyone of us..but i wish it never lose its brides pride ever..
Shes got her lot of disadvantages and drawbacks which usualy happens when a country girl develop in to a figure of modernity..she might have lost her virginity somewhere sometime but never did her charm fade completely..years makes a women gain wrinkles..she might also have experienced it..but then this
Traffic, potholed roads and pollution can wait. but her real beauty resided just on the sides of the beach, The old Cochin or fort Cochin. The romantic bitch that attracted everyone to her lust. I can only pick up the memory from my age 10 when i last visited this place while i was a child on a school vacation..people spoke a very different slang of the language and all ran like madmen..everyone seemed busy and occupied. But i still remember the first time i got down at the north railway station with that goosebumpy thrill. that was the first station i saw this crowded in my life..people talking laughing..some trying to get in to the train squeezing before allowing the ones who wants to step out of it..Men in untidy curled-up dothis and red shirts pulling two wheeler carts carrying giant trunks and bags.. I spotted a good number of western-dressed locals in there..i turned back and watched everything and fed my brain while my mom hurriedly pulled my hands to the entrance in the intention to escape from the hasty rush of humans coming and going in and out of the station.
An ambassador car was waiting for us outside, it was my uncle. I read the boards on the shops and soon feel asleep..all i remember then is the house painted in green with lots of flowers and closely built other houses which at least dont have a hands gap..i being living in amid a big compound of land surrounding a forest of mango tress, jack-fruit tress,,plantain, sandal, neem, bael tree and etc i find it awful to have a life so congested like this..i wondered how the kids played mini-kitchen in here..It was a colony, the urban part of Cochin was having the residential areas whic were separated as different colony's or streets..ours was customs colony where the majority of the residents were customs officers, including my grandpa..while we were entering, he was coming out with his white n white uniform with the white officers hat..i asked my mom why the police in Cochin are wearing white and she told me its a department that handles only the customs, i didn't understood so she said that it is related to ports/ships and sea transport. The houses were all modern but the space was very less. Our neighbors children played in a small squire of a varandha..while i at home played in a vast area of back and front and side yards..
There is room for every one in the lap of Cochin..for the rich, for the poor, for the families, for the children, for the girls, for the boys, for the tourists and finally for the lovers and friends..Marine drive is sucha place..most of the friendship moments might have spent on the walk way or the green benches or on the bridge built by Greater Cochin Development Authority.. i wonder how many people had clicked their wonderful times on that bridge that resembled an artificial form of Chinese fishing net.. the day when we wait for each other on the steps of bay-pride mall..the walks from the start to the end to find a vacant green bench to sit on for some while and giggle at our own secrets..the escaping's from the sticky palm-reading women who tries to arouse our curious wants to know about our future and then when we try to withdrew, they tried to catch us with false threats..the fierce wind that blow our kameez like the cloth of a yacht..everything that happened there will be remembered until our last breath. I have heared many saying this that marine drive had eye-witnessed good and bad things equally..there are tremendous number of love took birth here and an equal to it had broken in the banks of the Vembanad lake..all it might could do was to pat them with its gentle breeze..
Cochin is not just this..this page is not enough to hold the words that describes her..its vast and wide in the minds of the people wh
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