Feb 16, 2005 - Day 225 in Fort Cochin, India

Charles writes: The night before we took a seven hour overnight train from Kannur to Cochin, in the central state of Kerala. The train conductor came in our car and said “Oh, hello Fidel Castro” I made a note to myself I need to get the beard trimmed soon. We arrived at 4am, but got a great hotel room at the Yuvarani Residency in Cochin, an upgrade because a standard room was not available. We took a ferry over to Fort Cochin, where the famed Chinese fishing nets are set up. The technology was brought over to south India by traders from the court of Kublai Khan. The huge catapult like apparatus lowers a large net, (the net measures about 40’ by 50’) into the water, where it sits for 10 to 15 minutes. Then at least 4 men pull ropes connected to pulleys and rock weights and that then lifts the nets out of the water. One of the fishermen then walks out on the catapult and scoops out with a hand net the catch. Hopefully there are many huge fish in the nets. I helped pull the ropes in on one of the catches, as you can see in the photos below. There was a dolphin close to the net, which the fishermen were hoping would scare fish into the net, but not get in the net himself, since it is illegal to hurt dolphins in India. Many shacks along the water will sell you the seafood raw or cook it for you on the spot. Boats are constantly coming in with their catch for sale, even lobster and shrimp. How are there any fish left in the Arabian Sea around here? We went to a Kathakali show at night. Kathakali means story/play. It is a form of ritualized theatre that has evolved uniquely in this Kerala region as a way of celebrating their religion. The reasoning goes something like this: All art forms are spiritual. In the Hindu religion, everything is art, color, design. God has no form or shape, so artists offer “ideas” of God. Art is exaggerated. Art is greater than reality, so in Kathakali, the body is made to look bigger, the eyes are bigger, the lips are bigger. Before the performance you can come early and watch the makeup for the play. Men are transformed into Gods before your eyes with all natural ingredients that have been used for hundreds of years. It was very entertaining to watch the tricks of the trade with just a bit of rice glue, paper, tumeric, calcium, coconut oil, etc. Charles is making notes for next Halloween. Then lots of little oil lamps are lit at the edge of the stage. In the play that we saw, a narrator sang the text and musicians accompanied him with drums and cymbals as the performers used exaggerated gestures, movements and hand motions to act out the story. As far as we could tell, good (green) conquered evil (red) the way we hoped, a stunning drama and a very exciting evening.