Cocoa Tree, Ernakulam

We are heading back to Ernakulam after a fabulous trip to the Alleppey backwaters. As we reach M. G. Road, fond memories of an earlier trip flood Shamin and she enthusiastically tells me about it. We want to halt at a coffee joint, one other than our regular haunt - Cafe Coffee Day. She knows one (her friend had mentioned that it was one of the more popular joints around) that she visited the last time but can only vaguely remember the directions. We see Levi's around the corner, and suddenly she knows we're near it. A short walk ahead is the coffee joint - Cocoa Tree - right next to a popular night haunt, Loungevity.

We settle down on a couch and browse through the menu. It's got the usual suspects, but the rates are definitely not metropolitan. Our eyes fall on the Pancakes with Blueberries & Honey at the same time, and amicably agree on it! Shamin picks a Cafe Mocha to go with it, while I settle for an Assam Tea. Other items that catch our attention are their pies (chicken and fish), sundaes, homemade pineapple and carrot cakes. But a heavy breakfast unfortunately ensures that we do not binge here.

While we wait for our order, we notice the beautiful wallpaper next to us. It's a happy party scene; one with a lot of colour and joy. But it can't be happier than our trip so far!! Our order arrives - the pancakes are yummy; the blueberries, honey and whipped cream add to the yum quotient. We talk some more about Shamin's previous trip as we devour the pancakes and our drinks. We're happy now, and are off to see some more of Ernakulam.

Location: Cocoa Tree, M. G. RD, Ernakulam
Meal for Two: Rs 250-300

Musings from my Diary 3 - Cochin

We take a bus to Cochin from Alleppey and get dropped at MG road around half past eleven. I want to take Mandar to the coffee shop I visited on MG road when I was there a year back. The only landmark I remember is the Levis shop. We spot the coffee shop. Its called Cocoa Tree. We have coffee and pancakes and make our itinerary. We plan to visit the Jew street, Fort Kochi and the Dutch Palace all in Mattancherry and then head back to the Marine drive and Spice market on MG road in the evening. Our bus to Bangalore is at half past eight from MG road. We want to make best use of the time we have.

We take a rickshaw to Mattancherry. It is about 15 kms from MG road. To our bad luck, the oldest synagogue in India on Jew street is closed today because of a Jewish holiday. We take a walk around Jew Street. Its so different form rest of Kerala or even Cochin. We enter the Jew Café and look around its bookstore. We pick up some books we haven’t seen in our city bookstores. The café serves freshly made Swiss cake. We walk further on the street. I feel like I've landed in some different land, very different from the rest of Kerala. There are shops selling Jewish antiques, postcards, coins. The street is artistic. I pick us a ceramic door knob. I have never seen so many door knobs ever. They are in different shapes, prints and colours. We are at the other side of the street. I spot a shop cum café on my way. It has a board that says Kerala meals and biryani served here. We decide to visit the Dutch palace first. Its just at the end of the street. Its an old building. Nothing impressive. We back step to the café in the shop. It’s a cute place. There are paintings, essential oils and home-made perfumes for sale. Our chicken biryani and roti and chicken is delicious. I smell all the fragrances and finally pick up a Kerala-flower essential oil. Mandar spots a Kathakali pamphlet on another table. Our attendant tells us that there is a Kathakali show today evening at Fort Kochi from 6 to 7:30. I am elated. It is too tight for us to fit into our schedule but we decide to go for it.

So post a late lunch at 3 we head to Fort Kochi in a rickshaw. Its just 2.5 kms from Jew Street. Fort Kochi makes my day. It reminds me of Goa or Pondicherry. The Dutch/Portuguese/French occupied parts on India have a different feel to them. Fort Kochi with its colourful cafes, long stretch of beach, beer bars, small boutiques and chapels has a European look to it. I love the walk. We walk along the beach, see the Chinese fishing nets, admire the streets with their funky names like Lily Street and Burger Street and finally halt at a Coffee Day. It is very humid. I want a wine and Mandar a chilled beer. However, we cannot find a café that serves wine. So we just settle for Coffee Day out of sheer exhaustion. We have been roaming with our backpacks whole day and need a break.

After refreshing cold coffees we head to the Kerala Kathakali Center for the Kathakali show. We have been told to be there by 5 if we want to witness the make-up. We reach there by 5.45. It’s a non-pompous place. The auditorium is filled with foreigners. We are the only Indians. Make-up is in progress. One of my recently read books “Mistress” is based on Kathakali so I am very eager to watch the performance. They show us how natural colours are used for make-up, what each colour signifies, brief us on the nine emotions of Kathakali and demonstrate the mudras. It is a tough, rare and dying art. I feel sad for the art. The show costs only rupees 200 per head. I wouldn’t have appreciated the art myself of it weren’t for the book I read. We have been given a page which describes the act from Mahabharata that will be performed today. Its called Keechakavadham – the killing of the half-good half-bad king Keechaka by Bhima for the sake of his wife Draupadi. The actors are introduced through the singing. They look so stunning and just so unreal. Its like a fairytale. The show is amazing. The music, dance and acting leave us spellbound. I come out with a feeling of melancholy. And satisfaction – my dream to watch a Kathakali performance is fulfilled. I am content.

Its already 7.30 pm and we are late. We rush to catch the bus to MG Road. It will take us an hour. We just hope we reach in time for our bus to Bangalore. And we do. Just in time. The irony being our bus to Bangalore being delayed by an hour.

The trip ends but the memories remain. It has been one of the best and most fulfilling trips. Two happy souls.

Musings from my Diary 2 - Alleppey

It is the early morning of our third day. I wake up thinking its still night when light shines through the tiny window of our room in the boat. I smile, a smile deep to thank the sun god. I am a morning person. I come out of our room. I’m spellbound. The orange and blue of the sky mix so perfectly to create a new shade – lavender-like. I spot a tiny red canoe and a fisherman, a flock of blue birds, a duck with the most delicate neck, dead fish caught in the net laid by the fishermen at the side of our boat. I click pictures, I can’t stop.

Every direction I turn around, there is a picture to be clicked. Mandar is here now. He spots two fishermen drawing the nets that have been laid the night before. They dump their catch into a basket. They are amused at us. One of them smokes a beedi. He seems so experienced like he has caught fish all his life. I tell him in broken English that the fish is small. He nods. I ask him “no karimeen?” he grins and says no. Freshly made tea is served to us by Seju who stayed with us overnight. Santosh stayed at his home which is near to where the boat is parked. His home is a small hut in the centre surrounded by the lake and coconut trees. Yesterday after the boat was decked around six thirty in the evening, we plunged into water. I couldn’t figure out the colour of the water in the dim light. The moonlight came upon us. I panicked as I jumped into the lake, I do not know why may be the fear of the unknown, I regained my calm when Mandar also jumped along. The lake was pleasant and serene, with fishes popping, the only sound heard was that of the crickets and toads. As we were enjoying the peace the water brings to you, we spotted a canoe at a distance. It was Santosh. He remembered we wanted to ride a canoe. I was so humbled by his gesture. In jumps Mandar and rides along with Santosh. My turn next – Santosh hands over the oar and we ride into neverland. I cant spot Mandar from the distance, only the faint light of the houseboat.

Back to today, Mandar and I chat, I do not know why but I remember childhood and my grandmother. Mandar clicks a picture of me with a purple flower he picked for me from the lake. Its beautiful – the flower and his gesture. Mandar was fishing sometime back. And was elated thinking he caught fish. His rope seemed heavy till he realized the rope got stuck in the fishing net laid out in the night by the fishermen. Seju and Mandar tried to untangle the rope without any luck. We spotted the fishermen collecting their nets. We called out to them. They untangled the rope from the net with ease. As I write this, I remember the tamed eagle. Then fish stall owner from whom we got prawns yesterday had tamed an eagle. When I first spotted the eagle on a branch sitting like an old grandpa, I instantly clicked a picture thinking how lucky I could get to spot an eagle so close. That’s when Santosh tells me its tamed. The wings of the eagle are cut. It looks like an owl sitting on a bark. Another sight I wouldn’t forget.

Seju cleans himself in the lake. Santosh is here too. Breakfast of idlis and sambar is served. We eat and are ready to sail after clicking numerous photographs. Its half past seven. We take a shower and are dressed to leave. Seju tells us we will reach the jetty in an hour. The air around us gets morose. Mandar and I look at each other. We have the same feeling – we do not want to leave this heaven abode. But we have miles to go before we sleep…and our next stop is Cochin.

Musings from my Diary 1 - Alleppey

We are sailing on the houseboat. I ask Mandar what time it is, he says “I do not know and for the first time I don’t care”. In between our conversations with Seju, our cook, I feel like writing. So here I write as we sail, smell, stare and savour this experience of a lifetime.

A background of our trip – we reach Alleppey from Bangalore via bus to Cochin and a local bus from Cochin to Alleppey at 8.30 in the morning welcomed by an over-enthusiastic Salim from “Snehadhara” homestay. Its nothing grand – the place, it feels like I’m in my native house. Our day starts on a good note with super Kerala style tea and puttus with chanas, idlis with sambar and chutney for breakfast. My writing is paused now to relish the early evening snack of fried bananas and chai on the houseboat.

I get back to narrating our experience of yesterday. After breakfast, it pours heavily. We have a quick hot shower and wait for the rain to subside. Alas, it doesn’t. We decide to venture out in the rains. We get dropped in a rickshaw to the Revi Karunakaran museum which is unfortunately closed on Oct 2nd. We decide to take a walk in the rains. The rain god has enhanced the beauty of Alleppey. It looks warm and untouched like a newly wed bride. We walk by the canals and in the market area. Then head back for lunch at Snehadhara. The smell of fish cooked fills the air. Lunch is served with fish curry and fried fish for me and beetroot salad and French beans with sambar for Mandar. Salim tells Mandar to mix the rice, curd and sambar together, the way they eat it. I am content with my fish, The seer fish is fleshy and the masalas have been soaked into its meat. The fish curry is different from the Goan fish curry I'm used to eating. This one is tangy and light. An half hour’s rest and we are back in form to explore Alleppey. This time our mode is the Kashmiri Shikara. Salim arranges for a two hour ride in the backwaters. Salim has instructed our sailor to take us into Alleppey’s smaller canals, a route different from the houseboat route we would be taking the next day. The ride starts from the jetty. A voluptuous woman’s statue stands there sensuously subtly sending out a message to each traveler of the sensuous journey ahead. he two hour ride through the canals and in the Vembanad lake is mesmerizing. The water reflects the green around it. We are at peace. No thoughts, no feelings, only the sound of the ripples. We hope the shikara is a preface to our houseboat experience.

Its six in the evening. We get some chai, groundnut cookies and sweet bun at a shall shack near the jetty. We buy banana chips, murkoos and cookies for home. We take a round of the market again to get a souvenir. We have made up our minds – the miniature houseboat is what we shall pick up. Dinner gets served at half past eight. It’s a rejoice time for Mandar with his favourite idiappams and chicken. No doubts, the chicken curry is one of the best we have had so far in our lives. Oh, another halt to my writing. Its raining, the houseboat cushions are dragged inside and a raincoat is worn by Seju.

Oh! I am overwhelmed on a boat in the middle of the sea, I turn I only see coconut trees and rain. I do not think I can capture this in words. I think its what the sages call Nirvana – no thoughts, no emotions, an empty mind, rather a mind and soul at peace. Mandar sitting besides me comments in his Bambaiya hindi “Khopche khopche se nikaal raha hai yeh”, its so true, small canals galore, with small cute boats and simple people. And there, we just spotted a water snake. Wow.

Our day today started with a breakfast of appams and curry at nine thirty at Snehadhara. We lazed in our bamboo-walled room till twelve noon and headed to the houseboat after that. Salim took us to our boat. It is called “GRANMA”. My first reaction was a big smile. Granma is so pleasant to look at and so neatly decorated in a rustic way to match the natural surroundings. Santosh our sailor tells us that it is three years old and to build a single room houseboat it costs about 20 lacs and can be ready in 5 months. The boat has all the amenities – open sitting area, dining table, kitchen, bedroom with a queen size bed, mosquito-protection, mirror, shower and a loo with a bum-shower as well. The boat is sparkling clean. This is one thing I notice during our stay in Alleppey – cleanliness, yummy food and tourism-friendly people. We are welcomed by lime juice and a fruit basket. My writing is halted again for a brief moment as I notice cute wooden houses on islands. Besides, the island-house, we spot pink lotuses and lavender water-lillies. A postcard view. No words.

Back to my narration, after the welcome, we sail into the Poonamada river. Half and hour of sailing and we dock for lunch. Seju and Santosh tie the boat’s rope to a pole in the middle of the river. A bird sits on the pole. A smile breezes my face. After a lunch of fried Karimeen fish, Kerala parboiled rice, curry and vegetables we sail again. And I pause my writing again to watch Seju clean the tiger prawns we picked up at a fish stall by the river bed – rupees 500 for two prawns. It was a fascinating experience to stop the boat in the middle of the river, jump out onto the river bed and pick fresh tiger prawns from the fish stall. Back to present, Mandar poses the prawns for a snap. I look around. There are villages in the river. A small boy washed the demon out of the clothes. A ferry commutes people from Kottayam to Alleppey. Women ride a canoe.

We now enter another canal. We have asked Santosh to talk to a villager to get us a canoe-ride. I sail the houseboat for a while. Its easy but needs patience. I get the feeling that I own the river. I hope to ride the canoe and experience the feeling of being down-to-earth or should I say down-to-sea? I head back to the kitchen to watch Seju cut a pineapple in a fascinating way and arranging it like a snakeboat with racers.