Hi all,
Well, we’re back from a whirlwind December. Here’s the update on our trip to Kerala, in three chapters to help break up the story a little bit. And, if you need to run off for some reason, you can remember where you left off.
Mark sent out this update shortly after we returned on December 10th.
Introduction from the Author
Katie and I are in the Cochin airport, waiting to board our flight back to Delhi. We have been traveling in Kerala for the past week and have had an amazing time. I flew down to Cochin on Wednesday, December 2 for the Cardiological Society of India’s annual meeting. The conference was a good opportunity to learn more about the research already underway here in India, and I even met up with a few familiar faces (including Jeff Goldberger, an electrophysiologist from Northwestern).
I stayed in small hotel in the Fort Cochin area, which still serves as a key seaport for Kerala and southern India. The highlights of Fort Cochin include the St. Francis Cathedral (former tomb of Vasco de Gama), traditional Chinese fishing nets (a particularly durable style of nets, which are still being used today), Jew Town (full of nice shops and restaurants), and the fort itself. I spent two nights in Cochin before heading down to Kovalam to meet up with Katie.
Chapter 1 – The Wedding Festivities
We traveled near the tip of southern India to Kovalam for the wedding of Anjana Eapen in nearby Trivandrum. Anjana is Asha Eapen’s sister, and Asha is married to Jyothy Puthumana, who is a cardiologist from Northwestern. Katie and I spent time with Asha and Jyothy during our last visit to India one year ago, as well as back in Chicago. They recommended the Travancore Heritage Hotel (named after a former king of Kerala), which was situated atop a plateau overlooking the Indian Ocean. The property was as lush, and the views were as spectacular as what we had seen in Hawaii.
Our Room with a View
So tempting...
Katie arrived Friday afternoon and was invited for dinner at Asha’s family’s home for a traditional south Indian dinner with plenty of coconut-based curry dishes served on banana leaves. Katie also met several of Anjana’s New York-based work friends who were very fun and new to India. Anjana works as a technical designer for Tracy Reece, a fashion designer who outfitted Michelle Obama for the cover of People magazine. Katie even won a few rave reviews for her colorful salwar kameez and dupatta combination from Tracy, who made the trip as well.
And when you're finished, you fold the leaf in half lengthwise
I arrived late on Friday and noticed several hundred small lights in the distance as I was walking to our room from the lobby. I figured we were staying on one side of a bay, and the lights were coming from the town across the bay. When I asked the bellboy about the lights, he corrected me, telling me that the lights were from the fisherman in the ocean, who went out every night. The next morning, we saw all of the boats lined up along the beach—I could hardly believe it.
Restaurant & Pool
The wedding ceremony itself was in Trivandrum, about 30 kilometers away. Anjana and Tushar (the groom) were married in a Carmelite church with a beautiful ceremony. The priest gave a good homily, reminding us to love people for who they are, and not who we want them to be. After the wedding, there was a large luncheon at the local social club with about 650 people. Jyothy served as the emcee, and Asha’s father toasted the couple to many years of love and happiness.
Beautiful Bride
This pic only shows about 3/4 of the room...
Groom's side
Bride's side
We spent the evening and next day on the beach—playing Frisbee, swimming, reading, and relaxing. Katie had a full-body aryuvedic massage (I limited mine to head, neck, and shoulders), and we headed off to the second reception at a nearby hotel that also overlooked the ocean. Here the couple was greeted by a local band of drummers wearing traditional south Indian dhotis (long cloths that are wrapped around a man’s waist) and a giant, colorfully-decorated elephant. The women held oil lamps to welcome the couple, tossing flower petals as they walked in the entrance. The reception included classical Indian dancing, the best gulab jamun we’ve had in India, and a muscle-bound DJ playing the requisite “Jai Ho” from “Slumdog Millionaire” to end the night.
The Beach
Greeting the Bride & Groom
Chapter 2 – The Houseboat
The day after the reception, we jumped into the car with Asha and Jyothy to drive several hours to the Kottayam district for a houseboat trip into the backwaters of Kerala with Jyothy’s family. Jyothy’s father (John), mother (Mary), uncle (Matthew), cousins (Chery, Sissy), and aunts (Anna and one other whose name I am blanking on) were all waiting for us on the boat, so we took off as soon as we arrived. The backwaters are a must-do in Kerala, with luxurious houseboats outfitted with comfortable couches, expansive dinner tables, on-board cooks, air-conditioned bedrooms, and fresh coconuts awaiting us.
The Houseboat
Drinking Tender Coconut Water
Asha & Jyothy enjoying Tender Coconut
Throughout the afternoon, we lazily moved along the backwaters, stopping only for lunch and to dock for the night. The rivers were clean and verdant, reminding me a little bit of the swamps near New Orleans. Before dinner, our group hopped into a small gondola to visit a 550 year-old church across the river and offer a prayer. Around this time, we were approached by a man from Delhi who was honeymooing in Kerala with his new bride, and he asked if he could sleep in our boat since he was fearful of bandits. Jyothy reassured the man: telling him that the area was safe, giving him his mobile phone number in case of an emergency, and recommending that he dock his boat near ours for the night. Jyothy then told the man not to worry, reminding him of Kerala’s motto, “This is God’s own country.” We finished the evening with dinner, listening to Bollywood classics and catching up in general.
Mary & John - Jyothy's Parents
Bedroom
Dawn on the Backwaters
Chapter 3 – Family Visits & Education
The next morning, we toured around the backwaters a bit more, enjoying our relaxing breakfast of toast, coffee, and meen (fish) curry. We hopped off the boat and headed off with Jyothy, Asha, John, and Mary to visit John and Mary’s families over the next few days in the hills of Kerala. First stop was John’s older brother, Phillip (note that John is one of twelve children, and Mary is one of ten children, so we may mix up a few names!), where John and his brother had a chance to catch up. We chatted for about 30 minutes, meeting Phillip’s wife and their two fox-like dogs.
On the road again...
We then drove north and east through the hills to Mary’s ancestral home in the Palai district where her brother Joy lives in the family home. Joy is the second oldest (the oldest is an archbishop in Assam, a northeastern state in India) and helps oversee the family rubber estate.
Rubber is big business in Kerala, and the hills are covered with thousands (probably even millions) of rubber trees. The rubber trees mature for five to seven years at which point they can be tapped for “milk” (the liquid form of rubber), much like maple trees would be tapped for their sap. Each morning, a skilled “tapper” will introduce a small metal conduit into a new position in tree to allow the milk to drain into a medium sized bowl. Around noon, all of the bowls are emptied, and the milk brought into a small processing room where it is combined with formic acid in a baking pan. Once the rubber is set, it is fed through a hand- (or sometimes machine) powered press that operates like a pasta maker. The flattened rubber mats are then dried in the sun over several days until they reach a golden brown color (or can be smoked to achieve the black rubber color seen on tires and soles of shoes). From here, the rubber is sold for Rs 135 per kilogram, and this process continues for ~200 days per year.
Rubber Tree Farm (plus other complimentary crops)
Rubber Tree which has been cut to collect "milk"
Liquid Gold Rubber
After the acid & rubber set the sheet is put through the roller
Smoking is one method of drying the newly made rubber sheets
Another method is to hang them in the sun (Jyothy is showing me the family's stamp)
Mary and Joy’s sister (from the backwaters tour) lives next door, and we were visiting Palai to remember her husband, who had died suddenly five years back. She also serves as the village council (“panchayat”) president and has served on the panchayat over the past 15 years. When I asked her what her proudest accomplishments were, she included several critical milestones for the entire village of 7,000: 100% tile roofs, 100% electricity, 100% indoor plumbing, 100% primary schooling, improved, paved roads (which were much better than Delhi!), and overall empowerment of the community’s women. I think she should win in a cakewalk in the next election with that list of achievements.
Mary’s other brother, Michael, a Salisian priest from Tamil Nadu, also made the trip over the western Ghats (mountains that separate Tamil Nadu from Kerala) to concelebrate the memorial Mass the next morning. Fr. Michael was a garrulous, friendly man, who encouraged Katie and me to speak Malayalam (the local language, an appropriate palindrome that means “hills and valleys” and has equally serpent-like characters) as well as to eat everything in sight.
From here we made a quick stop at another relative’s house (savoring crunchy rose cookies with black sesame seeds and sweet dodols, made with cashews, butter, and jaggery [brown sugar]) and then went to meet Daisy (Mary’s younger sister) and Joy (her husband, different Joy than above), who live in Joy’s ancestral home nearby. Daisy and Joy have five girls (in comparison to John and Mary, who have five boys) and also care for Joy’s mother, who requires their help around-the-clock. Joy cultivates many acres of land with diverse produce such as rubber (in line with the family tradition), betel nut, pineapple, jackfruit, gooseberry, cocoa, black and green pepper, nutmeg, and more. Fr. Michael insisted we try everything we could get our hands on—from sour gooseberry to aromatic nutmeg flower to spicy black pepper to sweet cocoa to other fruits I have never seen before. The best part of our visit was coming back from our tour of the fields to Daisy’s table, where we enjoyed banana chips, grilled banana, cashew cookies, and a light, homemade chocolate cake—all before lunch!
After being sent off with a bag of beautiful, green cardamom (my favorite, especially for making tea), we drove to visit Mary’s cousin Matthew (different Matthew than before) and his family. Their family welcomed up for a delicious lunch with spicy, curried squid, porottas (flaky south Indian flatbreads), beetroot with yogurt, rice, and ice cream. Matthew and his three sons own a south Indian food export business with two factories near their rubber estate. Two sons work from the US, and one son (also named Matthew) works from Kerala. The company produces flash frozen foods under the Daily Delight brand name, and spices and canned foods under the Periyar brand name. They sell products such as porottas (manufacturing approximately 10 million per year!), meen curry, shaved coconut, vegetable puff pastries, and many others in New York, Chicago, and other US/European cities with large south Indian populations. We toured the giant cauldrons, giant vats of oil (using sunflower oil, rather than the cheaper, more atherogenic palm oil), and giant freezers.
After lunch and the factory tour, we went back for a nap at Mary’s ancestral home, and caught up with the rest of the family for the evening prayers and dinner. Katie had a slight fever (likely from sinusitis), so we turned in early for the night.
The next morning, I went to the memorial Mass while Katie rested and recovered. We were able to pick up some meds (including antibiotics—she had symptoms for 5-6 days so we figured it was time to pull the trigger in lieu of traveling and her fever), which helped over the course of the next day’s travels. From Mary’s ancestral home, we drove to meet John’s cousin, who led the previous day’s annual town jubilee for Immaculate Conception. He and his wife served cake and wine, since it was the first time they had seen Jyothy and Asha since their wedding (December 29, 2007). Cake and wine are part of a tradition welcome for a newly married couple into one’s home. John’s cousin also showed Jyothy and me his previous cardiac reports—lipids, stress test, and angiogram—and also showed us his treadmill that he walks on for an hour every day without angina. I asked him if he wanted to be my patient! We had fun taking a short video that I will try to incorporate for future talks about coronary heart disease care in India.
After this visit, we drove to visit Mary’s cousin and her husband, James, who works as a lawyer. They live on a small, picturesque river downstream from the Udiqui dam, which is the second largest arched dam in Asia. They served us delicious jackfruit, a huge green and yellow fruit that is divided into many bite-sized segments that taste just like bubble gum (with a color that looks like a Juicy Fruit label). Perhaps Beth can let us know if jackfruit is the basis for bubble gum, because I’m convinced that it is. They are also cousins of a well-known Indian cardiologist, Dr. Enas Enas, who practices in Downers Grove and spoke at the cardiology conference in Cochin (one of the better talks of the meeting, I thought). Dr. Enas had stayed overnight at their home just the night before so we just missed him.
Jack Fruit pods
For our lunch stop, we visited one of John’s other cousin, Dr. John. Dr. John is a general practitioner who spent the greater part of his career in Benin, Nigeria. He still treats the occasional patient for mild illnesses in his home-based clinic, and shared with Jyothy and me the diversity of his previous practice in Nigeria (ranging from pediatric illnesses to performing hysterectomies). We lunched on chicken curry, vegetable biryani, fried beef patties (our first taste of beef in a while), and a
Neapolitan-like ice cream for dessert. After walking around the estate to get a little exercise (Dr. John is also a rubber farmer) and to meet the dog and cows, we drove to Jyothy’s brother’s in-laws (his brother lives in Baltimore) to say a brief hello.
After a two hour drive northward (which included naps for everyone), we made our way to John’s cousin’s ancestral home where we were remembering his cousin who had died one year back—again suddenly and likely related to heart disease. We met Thelamaunty (his widow), and their three sons—Johnson, Geppy, and Alex. As usual, coffee and snacks awaited, including dried mango and tapioca chips (surprisingly good). I tried my hand at the coconut shaver, narrowly escaping a major kitchen catastrophe, and quickly left the device to the experts. We toured around the rubber estate, seeing the new brick home being built for Alex (over 4000 sf!) and a few bee colonies. We cleaned up and played with the grandchildren, who ranged from about three to eight years old. We had evening prayers then another indulgent dinner of spicy fried fish, cabbage salad, chapatis, and banana/pineapple pudding with caramelized cashews.
Two Cute Kids
We slept nearby at the home of Johnson’s, Geppy’s, and Alex’s cousin, Vinoy, and his wife, Sobha. They live in a beautiful, traditional-style Keralan home with their three children—Phillip, Maria, and Thomas. After the morning memorial Mass, we toured the estate, which included a rubber processing building, fruit trees, chickens, and a GIANT two year-old pig that should be ready by next Christmas. We had our final meal (breakfast of scrambled egg sandwiches made with an electric sandwich-maker, vegetable curry, and coffee) before heading off to the airport. On our way, we dropped Fr. Michael at his bus stop (for his eight to ten-hour bus ride back to Tamil Nadu) and were dropped off at the Cochin airport with Jyothy and Asha (they were headed to Mumbai for the Hindu portion of Anjana and Tushar’s wedding with his family).
John's Family
2010 Christmas Dinner
Chapter 4 – Reflection
We have greatly appreciated this past week on so many levels. We have met so many wonderful, kind people who are proud of their families, their heritage, their state, and their country. We have visited villages that did not have paved roads or electricity only 30 years ago, but now have DSL with Skype, Wii sets, and flatscreens along with life expectancies and literacy rates that rival the US. We have learned more about rubber than I ever thought I would. Most importantly, though, we met two extended families that respect and remember their elders, love each other very much, and have remained connected over generations and thousands of miles. We feel grateful and lucky to have been able to tour Kerala with Jyothy and Asha and their families and look forward to re-connecting with our own families and friends back in the US in less than two weeks for Christmas and New Years. [KDH – updates, pics coming soon!]
We hope you are having a good Advent/holiday season so far, and we can hardly wait to see you in St. Louis and Chicago soon.
Love,
Katie & Mark
Delhited 