“Meantime life outside goes on all around you”*, in Kochi

12th to 13th April 2026 Blog Post 22

In India you greet with “Namaste”: “The divine in me honors the divine in you”. Close to 18% of humanity, world’s most populous nation, approximately 27 million babies born each year. Hundreds of languages, multiple religions, swirl of cuisines, music styles, dances, colors, festivals.

This time two days in Kochi, still Cochin to many, one of India’s oldest ports where merchants from Europe, China, Middle East, East Africa, Southeast Asia came to buy spices including pepper & ginger, later: coffee & tea. Around fifteenth century, amongst world’s first truly global port cities. Mixed population: Indians; Arabs; Jews; Chinese; Portuguese…. !! Sustained religious harmony between Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Jain, Sikh, Buddhist communities for centuries. Kochi’s population density several times the national average!

We drove south of Cochin, Kerala Province, 2½ hours each way. Incredible spectacle from bus window. Throngs of people going about their daily lives. Multitudes of tiny businesses. Intense, diverse, alive.

Wonderful function called “Exotic Marigold”: dancers, musicians, martial arts, people on large mechanised elephant. On Tuc Tucs to lunch of Indian curries, other local cuisines. Then along Kerala backwaters, Indias longest lake, on one of its iconic houseboats surrounded by rice paddies, palms, mix of waterway vessels.

Next day at Fort Kochi’s historic neighborhood, walked through colonial-era architecture, fish market, watched fishermen working their “cantilever system” to lower and lift their distinctive Chinese fishing nets, passed buildings previously warehouses that supported trade, now upmarket hotels.

Thrilled to visit Jew Town, including Paradesi Synagogue, dating back to 1568, oldest in Commonwealth, previously served a flourishing Jewish Community. Most left for Israel from 1948. Today Jew Town, almost no Jewish people living there, a thriving area of cafes, boutique hotels, antique shops, clothes & fabric stores, curios. We could happily have spent more time exploring the narrow lanes and alleys, enjoying fragrant air filled with the smell of cloves, cinnamon and a rich sense of Jewish history.

En route to Seychelles we reflect on approximately 1,476,000,000 people living in India. Each an individual! And the lives that were going on all around us during our brief visit to Kochi!

* “Meantime life outside goes on all around you” From Bob Dylan’s song: “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”.

1 of 3 photographs reflected here of food stalls along roadside as bus drove past fast. A tiny sample of very many. All were busy. Note passenger no helmet on the motorcycle. Also, many of those. Photos taken – then only notice their detail afterwards.
2 of 3. I was thinking of the Indian vans, laden with vegetables and fruit, outside Molsonder Mansions of my childhood in Summerstrand, Port Elizabeth, from which my mother z”l bought supplies to cover the next few days.
3/3 All of the fruit & veg stores we passed had hanging multiple bunches of bananas. There were of course a variety of other kinds of stores as we whizzed past.
Sheryl arrives at the “Exotic Marigold” function.
A chance scene behind the event’s main marquee. Dancers, high school seniors, nervously interacting before their piece. “Namaste” as we walked past. One of their mother’s standing next to me proudly taking photographs of her daughter at the show and explaining the dance. Parents the same everywhere!
One of the finales. Bright colours. High energy. Distinctively Indian music and dance.
Just got into the “Tuc Tuc Ferrari” (as they call it), en route to our lunch venue.
Iconic Chinese Fishing Nets. We watched as the fishermen went about fishing with them.
Bimah at Paradesi Synagogue, Jew Town.
Aron Hakodesh and Ner Tamid at Paradesi Synagogue.
A photograph inconceivable in the West! Above the souvenir shop Swastika and Magen David burglar bar emblems next to each other. The Swastika an ancient sacred symbol of good luck, well-being and auspiciousness in many Asian traditions, long before it became the racist, antisemitic and fascist symbol of the Nazi Party.

Sarah Cohen’s home on Jew Street, Jew Town near the Paradesi Synagogue. Sarah Jacob Cohen, z”l, the last prominent member of Kochi’s Paradesi Jewish Community passed away in 2019, lived and worked there. She entrusted the home to Taha Ibrahim, her Muslim friend, who turned it into a museum that displays siddurim, kippahs and other Jewish Kerala artifacts.