Shevlin Sebastian's Blog, page 39

Hotshot Striker

Alan Solomon KJ is the only player from Kerala who will be part of the Indian football team for the Homeless World Cup which will be held in Cardiff, Wales. 64 countries are taking part   
By Shevlin Sebastian

At 5 am, on a recent morning, the mobile alarm rings in Alan Solomon KJ’s house at Chellanam. The 20-year-old switches it off, and gets up. Quickly he gets ready, and puts on a T shirt, shorts and sneakers. The air is still and unmoving. It is a humid morning. But the roar of the waves is a soothing sound at this coastal village in Ernakulam district. Soon, he sets out on a jog. There are hardly any people on the streets. The few stray dogs have seen him often so they don’t bark.

Alan is on a five kilometre run. As he runs on the tarred streets, a word pops into his mind: ‘Wales’. And suddenly, a nameless excitement pervades his body. Without realising it, he begins to run faster.

There is a reason why ‘Wales’ caused such an excitement in him. Because, in July, he will indeed be in the city of Cardiff, as a member of the Indian football team. The Homeless World Cup is taking place from July 27-August 3. Around 64 countries are taking part.

The football that is played is different from the usual football that we see all the time. There is a maximum of four players per team on the court. These include three outfield players and one goalkeeper along with four substitute players. “Players can be substituted all the time,” says Alan. Each match lasts for 14 minutes and there is a one-minute interval at the seventh minute. The pitch is smaller and the ball never goes out of play, since it is played in an enclosed area. “Hence, it can get very tiring,” says Alan. Incidentally, the criteria for participation is that players should be living in a slum.

Alan’s life changed when he met members of Project Venda (Say No to Drugs) at Chellanam. This programme is run by the Bengaluru-based Fourth Wave Foundation. “We work with young adults from high-risk areas who are exposed to a lifestyle of drugs and help them to steer clear,” says Diana Joseph, founder/director of the foundation. “In Chellanam we noticed that there is a culture of playing football. So we set up a team and they began to do well.”

In fact, when the Kerala team took part in the national slum soccer championships at Mumbai in March this year, all the eight members were from Chellanam.

At the tournament, the Kerala team lost in the semi-finals. Alan has an easy explanation for the setback. “We played three matches on a single day,” he says. “Our last match was against West Bengal, and we lost because we were so tired.”   
Nevertheless, a few players impressed, but it was only Alan who made it to the final team. Now he is the only player from Kerala who will represent India. “My role is that of a striker, to score as many goals, as possible,” he says. The other players are from Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu.

All of them, like Alan have a deep passion for football. Alan fell in love with the game when he began playing it in Class five at the St. Mary’s school at Chellanam. Thankfully, the school had good coaches, so he learnt all the right techniques and developed into a fine player. 

Today, he plays in numerous five-a-side, seven-a-side and 11-a-side teams in the district.
“There are many sponsors, but we don’t get any salary,” he says. “Instead, the prize money is shared between all the players. This could vary from Rs 20,000 to Rs 50,000.” Of course it means Alan’s teams have to win tournaments. Which they have done quite a few times.

Meanwhile, on the education front, Alan is doing his Plus Two. Thus far, his father, Joseph, a fisherman and homemaker mother Helen are supportive of his footballing ambitions. “Thanks to the ISL (Indian Super League) it is possible to make a comfortable living through football,” he says, with a smile. 

(The New Indian Express, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode)

The power of antiquity

The Kochi-based antique collector Bobin J Mannanal has ancient coins, litho prints, seals, stamps, and a curved stick that acted like a boomerang
Photos: Bobin J Mannanal. Coins during Tipu Sultan's reign. Pics by Albin Mathew 
By Shevlin Sebastian
In 1819, Colonel John Munro, the British Resident at the Court of Travancore invited the Reverend Henry Baker to set up a seminary for Syrian Christian priests. Following that, Baker worked on several other projects. Then, one day, he went to the Peermade hills with the idea of setting up a coffee plantation.
Things went according to plan. Labourers were hired. The land was cleared. And the cultivation began. The company was called Southern Coffee Plantation Limited. But instead of paying the workers with money, they were given tokens. “These tokens had value only inside the plantation,” says the Kochi-based antique collector Bobin J Mannanal, as he shows the coin: it has an image of rolling hills with a factory in front. “These could be exchanged for food items. There were similar tokens in the tea estates of Munnar also. It was a form of slavery, a sort of bonded labour.”
Bobin’s newly-opened antique shop ‘Leora’ is an eye-popping trove of all kinds of items like old seals, beads, weapons, and coins. Earlier, all these were on display, like as if at a museum, at a leading five-star hotel in the city. But now he felt it would be better off in a shop, with a possibility to buy and sell items.   
Not surprisingly, he has numerous gold, lead and copper coins. These belonged mostly to the dynasties in South India: Cholas, Pandyas, Venad Cheras and the Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan (1750-99). In Tipu’s kingdom, he had ⅛, ¼, ½, one paise and two paise copper coins. In silver, there were one rupee and two rupees, as well as smaller denominations.
Interestingly, Bobin says, only the upper-middle and the affluent classes used these coins, especially for property deals. In 1419, King Kotha Varma of the kingdom of Thekkumkur, Kerala sold a large parcel of land (modern-day Poonjar in Kottayam district) to Pandyan King Manavikrama Kulasekhara Perumal, in exchange of 10,000 coins and one emerald stone.
As for the rest of the population, they relied on the barter system. “And none of them owned any land,” says Bobin. “Instead, they worked on the lands of the rich but had to give 75 percent of the produce to the landlord.”
Because these coins are rare, there is a huge demand in international markets. “In Bangalore, last year, during an auction a Shah Jahan Gold Mohur was sold for Rs 1.1 crore,” says Bobin. “In 2013, at an auction in London, a Tipu double rupee, minted in Kozhikode, went for Rs 35 lakhs.”
Thereafter, Bobin shows a glass-framed litho print hanging on a wall. It shows Tipu fighting the British during the Siege of Seringapatam (1799). In the work by English painter Henry Singleton, the British soldiers, in their bright red tunics and white trousers are aiming muskets at the opposition. Tipu, with glaring eyes, has an upraised sword, but a British soldier has already shot at him from a pistol.
“Twelve litho prints were made to show how Tipu was defeated,” says Bobin. A few years ago, at an auction in London, another collector sold one for Rs 7 lakh.
Bobin then takes out a curved stick with a sharp iron edge. It is called a valari. And is similar to the Australian boomerang. Two brothers, who were chieftains, Chinna and Periya Marudhu had transformed this hunting weapon into the valari. They lived in the Sivaganga Estate in modern-day Tamil Nadu which was ruled by Queen Velu Nachiyar. In 1801, when a 750-strong contingent of British soldiers attacked the kingdom, the valari created havoc. It could slice a neck and return to the thrower. After the battle, the British outlawed the valari, physically destroyed 25,000 of them, and hanged the brothers at the Tiruppattur fort on October 24, 1801.
Asked the lessons that he has learnt, Bobin says, “In our history, there is a lot of bloodshed and betrayal. History is not like in the films we see. You could get killed at any time, especially if you are a member of the lower castes.”  
On the personal front, Bobin became interested in collecting when he came across his father’s collection of foreign coins and stamps. Since his father, Johnikutty Joseph passed away from a heart attack when Bobin was only ten years old, he did not know the reasons behind his interest. “But it must have been an unconscious inspiration for me,” he says, and adds, “This hobby has brought a lot of joy to me.” 

The country where the Equator is located

The Kochi-based entrepreneur Balram Menon talks about his impressions of Ecuador as well as the Galapagos Islands, which was made famous by naturalist Charles Darwin
Photos: Balram Menon with  Dr Steffi Estanio; Ciudad Mitad del Mundo (Spanish for ‘Middle of the World’) and at the Galapagos Islands    
By Shevlin Sebastian
It is noon on a cloudy day in April. The place: Puerto Ayora, a town on the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador. The Kochi-based entrepreneur Balram Menon adjusts his helmet and his sunshades. He is dressed in a black T-shirt and Bermuda shorts. A few metres behind him is a 27-year-old paediatric surgeon from Buenos Aires,  Dr Steffi Estanio, who is hunched low on a bicycle. A day earlier, they had met in a boat which was taking tourists around and agreed to meet the next day for cycling.
This is a downhill route, a dedicated track for cyclists. The length: 19 kms. Soon, they set out. On the left, there are tall grassy plants. On the right is a highway. Balram adjusts the Go Pro camera, which is shooting him as he cycles down. He says, “Steffi, say hi to the camera.” She duly does so. Soon, they are gathering speed. They are now going at 60 km/hour.  
After a few minutes, Balram hears a sound. He quickly looks back and realises that Steffi has fallen down. Balram begins to apply the brakes, but he is not used to the bike and falls down. Thankfully, he has a few abrasions only on his left arm. He gets up quickly and rushes back. Steffi is bleeding at the back of her head. The locals rush the duo on an open truck to the nearest hospital.  
But when her head is stitched Steffi loses her memory. “She asked me who I am,” says Balram. He calls a doctor friend in Kochi who tells him that the loss of memory will last a day. Nevertheless, Balram keeps showing the videos of their ride. “Steffi finally understands what has happened,” says Balram.
It is a novel experience for Balram. On the advice of a friend, he decides to go for a holiday to the Latin American country of Ecuador. It is 19,000 kms from Kochi. The flight route is circuitous. First, he flies to Delhi. From there he goes to Amsterdam. Thereafter, it is a 14-hour flight to Ecuador’s capital, Quito.
Since Quito is at an altitude of 18,000 feet, hence, first-time visitors face the risk of experiencing altitude sickness. So, when they check into a hotel, they are given cocoa leaves. “You warm it in hot water and drink it like green tea,” says Balram. “It helps ward off uneasiness.” Incidentally, cocoa leaves are used to make cocaine, the drug of choice for many international celebrities.
At Quito, Balram is taken up by the simplicity and friendliness of the local people.  “They had not heard of India and are happy to know that I have come from a far-off place,” he says. To one local, Balram gives a Rs 20 note. The man walks about showing it to everybody. Since the people only know Spanish, he uses Google Translator to communicate.
Not many people know that the Equator is located in Ecuador. The place to go is the Ciudad Mitad del Mundo (‘Middle of the World’, in Spanish). “You stand on a yellow line and the latitude and longitude is 0 degrees,” says Balram. On the left side of the yellow line is the Northern Hemisphere while on the right it is the Southern Hemisphere. To show this, a tourist guide puts some leaves in a wash-basin filled with water. Then she takes off the stopcock, and the leaves on the left side will turn clockwise while it is anti-clockwise on the right. Also, because of the zero gravitational force, a local shows that he can balance an egg on a nail.
Soon, Balram begins travelling within the country. He goes to Banos, 220 kms from Quito to see the Pailón del Diablo or ‘Devil’s Cauldron’ waterfall. The fall of the water, from a steep height of 240 feet, is a fascinating melange of sound, foam and mist.
Another trip is to the world-famous Galapagos Island archipelago, which is 1000 kms from Quito. On one island, Santa Cruz, you can see the Charles Darwin Research Station, which was established in 1964. Among many other subjects, they do research on tortoises. Charles himself spent some time in 1835 and was so inspired by the wildlife he saw on the islands, he was able to pen down his revolutionary Theory Of Evolution.
You can see a carcass of an 800-year-old tortoise called Harriet. In fact, the world's biggest tortoise can be found in Galapagos. It weighs around 400 kgs and is 110 years old. Balaram gets a photo taken of him sitting on his haunches next to it.
There are some unusual birds, too. “One species is called the blue-footed boobies,” says Balram. Booby means clown in Spanish. Their feet are blue in colour. When the mating season arrives, the males raise their feet to attract the females. Then it flaps its wings, which are of a wide span. Then if the female is receptive, they will rub their long beaks together.
Finally, when asked about the cuisine, Balram says, “In everything the people use bananas. They mix pork and beef with bananas. The shrimp is not cooked. Instead, lime juice is put on it along with pepper. This is called ceviche. It is their national dish and very tasty. They also eat crabs, octopus and oysters. But their speciality, Cuy is a small guinea pig rat. It is roasted and eaten. Sometimes, it is grilled. They also use potato, rice, pasta and yuca (a type of bread roll).”  
Overall, Balram had the time of his life. And he is busy saving up money for his next sojourn to South America. 

When one heart replaced another

One of Kerala’s leading cardiac surgeons Jose Chacko Periappuram fulfilled a long-cherished dream by visiting the Heart of Cape Town Museum, in South Africa, which is dedicated to Dr Christiaan Bernard, the first man to do a heart transplant
Photos: Dr. Jose Chacko Periappuram; Dr. Christiaan Bernard 
By Shevlin Sebastian
At 3.30 p.m., on December 2, 1967, at the Observatory Road in Cape Town, a car comes to a stop across Wrensch’s Town bakery. The driver is Edward Myrtle, 66. The others in the car include Edward’s wife Myrtle, 54, daughter Denise, 25 and son Keith, 14. Myrtle and Denise get out, cross the road and enter the bakery. They want to buy a caramel cake for a family friend, Rachel, whom they are going to meet.
A few minutes later, they step out and are crossing the road. At that moment, an inebriated man by the name of Frederick Prins speeds through a red traffic signal and hits the duo with full force. Myrtle dies on the spot, while Denise is flung up in the air. Her head hits the wheel cap of the family car before she lands on the pavement. She is rushed in an ambulance to the casualty unit of the Groote Schuur Hospital, which is just two kilometres away.
But a few hours later the doctors declared her brain dead. A request is put to Edward. Can Denise’s heart be transplanted into a dying patient Louis Washkansky, 54, who is suffering from heart failure. Edward thinks for a brief while before he gives his assent. “Denise was a very giving person,” he said later, explaining his decision.  
At midnight, the operation for the world’s first heart transplant begins. By 5.45 a.m., after several moments of high tension, Denise’s heart starts beating inside Louis. An emotional Dr Christiaan Bernard, the cardiac surgeon, who did the pioneering surgery, told his staff in Afrikaans, “Dit gaan werk!” (It’s going to work). And yes, it did work and Bernard entered the history books as the first man to do a heart transplant.
At the Heart of Cape Town Museum, located on the premises of Groote Schuur Hospital, on the afternoon of May 3, 2019, Dr. Jose Chacko Periappuram, one of Kerala’s leading doctors, who is the chief cardiac surgeon at the Lisie Hospital, Kochi, listens to the story told by a guide with bated breath. It had always been a dream for him to see the museum and now it had come true.
As the group -- which consisted of his wife Jaimy, 11-year-old son John, Jose’s brother Dr Mathew, a paediatrician from Birmingham, and his wife Mary -- were taken around, the doctor duo looked stunned when they saw the equipment. “The heart-lung machine looked so outdated,” says Jose. “In those times, the operation theatres were open ones. There was no air conditioning. The ceiling was ten metres high, so there was plenty of ventilation. The students used to come and sit on a balcony at one side of the operating room. Was it germ-free? I am not sure.”   
In one room, there was was a silicone figure of Bernard in a white waistcoat sitting on a chair and talking on a phone. “This was a recreation of Dr Bernard’s consulting room,” says Jose. “It looked so real.”
Thanks to Bernard’s pioneering work, lakhs of transplants have now taken place all over the world. Jose himself became the first to do a heart transplant in Kerala and the first to do a heart retransplant in India. “Dr Bernard is a hero to me,” he says. “Whenever we did a Powerpoint presentation on organ donation or transplantation to doctors, nurses or outsiders, our first slide is always a photo of Dr Bernard.”  
But what remained in Jose’s mind following his museum visit was that Bernard, and his team, in the 1950s, when the heart-lung machine was only in the process of being developed, thought about a possible heart transplantation. “It is an organ which people don’t want to touch because it is so vital and even touching it can produce changes in the heartbeat, rhythm and blood pressure,” he says. “So, even thinking about doing a heart transplant was very courageous.”  
One of Jose’s enduring regrets is that he was not able to meet Bernard in person. However, the celebrity surgeon did come to Chennai on December 14, 1995, to inaugurate the Madras Medical Mission hospital which was founded by Jose’s mentor Dr KM Cherian. Chief Minister J Jayalalitha was also present. But by the time Jose came to know about the visit, through newspaper reports, Bernard had already returned to South Africa. Six years later. Bernard passed away at age 78.  
Asked to describe Bernard, after his visit to the museum, Jose says, “He was a pioneer and a daredevil who had a dashing personality. He was the right person at the right place at the right time.”
However, not everybody was happy with Bernard’s achievement. He had trained in the USA and worked closely with doctors who were doing research on transplants at the University of Minnesota. They were getting ready, after long years of practice and research, to do the first heart transplant when Bernard flew back to South Africa and beat them to it. At the museum, the guide told Jose, with obvious pride in her voice, “We beat the Americans.”
Jose says, “It is no surprise that the Americans have been angry about this for decades.” 
(The New Indian Express, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode)

Making clean dirty water

‘My School’ from Tirur wins the second prize in the entrepreneurial category at the Roborave International competition in California. It was a learning experience for the students
(From left): Robotics teacher Sunil Paul, Ameesh Roshan, a NASA scientist, Aiza Noura, Manha Ziyaan, Vasudev Hari and Sherrin Mathew, Director-Academics of My School, Tirur 
(From left): Ameesh Roshan, Vasudev Hari, Aiza Noura, Sherrin Mathew, Director-Academics and Manha Ziyaan at California 
By Shevlin Sebastian 
The moment the team from ‘My School’, Tirur entered the hall of the Santa Clara Convention Centre at California, for the Roborave International competition held recently there was an intake of breath. That’s because the group was wearing traditional Kerala attire. 
While the boys, Amish Roshan Chirakkal and Vasudev P Hari wore brightly coloured shirts and white mundus, the girls, Aiza Noura and Manha Ziyaan wore the dhavani (half saree in off-white) and colourful blouses. As for the Director-Academics Sherrin Mathew, she wore an orange saree with a beaded green necklace. 
“The participants as well as the visitors had never seen an attire like this before,” says Sherrin. “They found it unique. They came and touched our clothes. A few said, ‘How many metres is the saree? How do you wear it? Are you comfortable having so much of cloth covering your body? How does it hold up?’ They also wanted to know about the handloom material.” 
The ‘My School’ team had come to participate in the entrepreneurial category. And they brought a very simple project. Says Class 7 student Aiza, “Our project was about water harvesting. In Kerala, we get a lot of excess rainfall, yet we face drought when summer comes around. That’s because we are not storing the water, purifying it, so that we can use it. Instead, we allow it to flow back to the sea.” 
With the help of their robotics teacher Sunil Paul, who accompanied them to California, they made a prototype in which the water is collected in one section in an enclosure. The dirt particles are allowed to settle down. Then it is moved to the next section which has bits of charcoal. When the water goes through that, it is purified, and in the third section, the water is stored. 
“It was a very simple project, and very cheap,” says Sherrin. 
Meanwhile, the group was in for a shock. Some of the other projects were so sophisticated, especially the type of robots that had been made. “We realised we are way behind in terms of our knowledge of robotics,” said Aiza. 
Students in the age group of 12-14 took part. And they came from seven countries -- the USA, China, Poland, Mexico, India, New Mexico and Spain. Overall, there were 42 participants. The judging was done by visitors. 
And the winners were Indians Sri N and Sahasra C, who represented the USA. Sri is only in Class three but he had made a sophisticated robot. “He is so advanced in his knowledge,” says Sunil. “Sri has a bright future ahead of him.” 
But the good news was that the ‘My School’ team won the second prize in their category. 
Among the visitors, there were a few scientists from the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA), which is just 10 kms away from the venue. The next day the children were invited to come to NASA. Which they did. “It was very interesting to see the different exhibits,” says Sherrin. 
One lesson the group learnt was the importance of robotics. “The knowledge displayed by the children of other countries was amazing,” says Sherrin. “We need to upgrade our studies, otherwise, internationally, we stand no chance.” 
(The New Indian Express, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode)

The princess and the elk

A group of performing artists from Sweden staged a play at the Kerala Museum recently and held workshops for schoolchildren in Kochi
Photos by A. Sanesh. Petra-Eleonora Näslund (in white) and Susanne Olsson 
By Shevlin Sebastian
Swedish actor Petra-Eleonora Näslund is wearing a white skirt, over a green jumper. But what catches the eye are the white gloves, from which her fingers extend for over a foot. She also wears an exaggerated amount of rouge on her cheeks.
On the grassy lawns of the Kerala Museum, Kochi, recently, as guitarists Lars Svedberg and William Larsen Naslund strum a Swedish folk tune, Petra, who plays the Princess Tuvstarr, from a Swedish fairytale, says, “Once upon a time, in a land far far away, where the wind was blowing so hard, and the snow was dancing all day. Brrr...” Petra starts shivering.
Then actor Lindy Larsson, who plays a big elk with antlers jutting out from the top of his head says, “Hoo Hoo.” Several children who are watching the play start giggling. Then the duo dance next to each other, again accompanied by the guitar sounds.
The actors had adapted a short story called ‘The Tale of the Elk and the Little Princess Tuvstarr’ by Swedish painter and illustrator John Bauer and writer Helge Kjellin. It is a simple story of the Princess Tuvstarr who falls in love with the elk but he walks away and breaks her heart.
“But in our story, the elk returns with a red heart,” says Petra.
Petra and her colleagues had come on a cultural exchange visit to Kochi. Apart from their performances, they held hour-long workshops on mime and music. “More than 400 students between the age of 2 and 14 from private as well as government schools took part,” says Kerala Museum Director Aditi Zacharias. “The Swedish Arts Council and the Museum sponsored the event.”
In their workshops, Petra and her colleague Susanne Olsson focused on physical movements. So children swung their arms as if they were the branches of trees or stamped their feet like the way bears walk. And they also encouraged the children to paint the elk.
It did not take long for the Swedish duo to get impressed. “The students started to paint the elk in different colours and it was fantastic to see their talents,” says Susanne. “They also made beautiful sculptures, using their bodies and I believe they got the inspiration from the many statues in India. The youngsters have a certain advantage because of India’s ancient and deep-rooted culture.”  
And for Petra and Susanne, on their first visit, there were many eye-openers. Asked how Indian children are different from their Swede counterparts, Susanne says, “They are much more polite and respectful to the teacher. When we asked them to dance they first looked at the teacher. Only when the teacher nodded, did they start dancing. In Sweden, children are more relaxed in front of authority. Indian children are also very curious. So, it is easy to get their attention. In Sweden, the children are easily distracted.”
Susanne noted the different ways of raising children. “In India, the parents have much more control over the children,” she says. “On the other hand, in Sweden, the parents are more like friends.”
However, there are many commonalities. “All children are natural, spontaneous, and joyful, whether in India or Sweden,” says Petra. “During some segments of the performance, the smaller children laughed very loudly but the older children didnot. Then in other sections, the older children found it funny and not the younger ones.”
They smile and Susanne says, “We are so keen to come again next year.” 
(The New Indian Express, Kochi and Kozhikode)

Ajith Krishnan Nair, owner of the Krishnan Nair studio, h...

Ajith Krishnan Nair, owner of the Krishnan Nair studio, has contributed several photos of an earlier Kochi for the walls of the Mahatma Gandhi road station of Kochi Metro
Photos: Ajith Krishnan Nair, pic by Albin Mathew; Rajendra Maidan; Indira Gandhi
By Shevlin Sebastian

At the Mahatma Gandhi Road station of the Kochi Metro, Ajith Krishnan Nair, owner of the Krishnan Nair studio, points at a photo taken in 1950, of a large open area, beside Foreshore Road, in Kochi, and facing the backwaters. “Most of the political meetings during the pre and post-Independence era took place at the Rajendra Maidan,” says the 68-year-old. “But I have a family story linked to the maidan.”

Ajith’s father MP Krishna Pillai was the secretary of the All India Students Congress. A meeting had been planned in 1947 to protest against British Rule in India. But it had been banned by the Cochin administration, which was under the control of the British. Police Commissioner Pappali had his office just opposite Krishna’s studio on TD Road. Pappali sent two policemen across to inform Krishna not to take part in the meeting; otherwise, he would be beaten up.

“Many of the student protesters from Travancore had come a day earlier and were staying in a room above the studio,” says Ajith. “The police were aware of that. Krishna was banned from stepping out by an uncle. But on the pretext on buying something, he stepped out and went to the Maidan.”   

Expectedly, the protestors were lathi-charged. Krishna was beaten on his leg and a knee cap broke. He was hospitalised and later taken to the Viyyur Central Jail in Thrissur. He spent several months there. Soon, India gained independence and Krishna was released in early 1948.

The black-and-white photos are on display at the entrance, in the station concourse and also on the platforms. These include images of the iconic Hotel Sealord, which had been the only building at the present-day Marine Drive, the Assembly building which is now the Law College, the Ernakulam Town railway station, the High Court boat jetty, Maharaja’s College, as well as the Rama Varma club. Beside each photo, there is one showing the present-day building. Most of the prints are of a width of 9 ft or 12 feet and at a height of 3 ½ feet.

It all began when the Kochi Metro put out an advertisement in all the leading newspapers and magazines asking for photos of the old Kochi. “The idea was that by looking at earlier photos, we will get an idea of the progress of Kochi over the years,” says APM Mohammed Hanish, Managing Director of the Kochi Metro Rail Limited. “Also, these photos showcase our glorious past.”.
Many applied but they had taken images from the Internet. On the other hand, Ajith had actual negatives. “So, mine would print much better,” he says. Ajith submitted 75 prints but the Metro authorities decided they would only put up buildings. Hence, the number came down to 25. Incidentally, this is a gift by Ajith to his beloved town of Kochi. All the photos have been given for free. “I felt that these are important visuals for future generations,” he says.

Ajith’s studio was set up by his grand uncle in 1910. But it was his uncle Krishnan Nair, who began running the studio in 1930 and made it a success. Soon, there were branches in Thrissur, Ernakulam, Kottayam and Thiruvananthapuram. Ajith’s father began working at the studio in the 1950s. The studio would print postcards of Kochi with an image of the town on one side and a space for an address and a writing area on the other.

"These cards were very popular, especially among tourists,” says Ajith.

Today, Ajith has a collection of over 200 photos. There are photos of Mahatma Gandhi who had come to Vaikom in 1925, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on a visit to Kochi, a dapper Jawaharlal Nehru at the railway station and a smiling Indira Gandhi on her first-ever visit in 1956. A group photo of the Cochin State Police was taken in 1940.   

Meanwhile, Hanish says there are plans to put up more old photos in the other stations. And Ajith says he is, once again, ready to share his treasure trove...for free.  

The Malay Palate

At the Monsoon Empress hotel, in Kochi, Executive Chef Shihab P Kareem provides Malaysian dishes for local as well as international guests
Photos: Executive Chef Shihab P Kareem. Pic by A. Sanesh. The various dishes
By Shevlin Sebastian
A few years ago, Shihab P Kareem had gone to Kuala Lumpur to work in the Menara International five-star hotel. One day, he stepped out to have some local food. At a restaurant, he decided to have vegetarian food. So, he ordered a sayur champaur. But when the dish arrived, Shihab was shocked. Apart from carrots, cauliflower and beans, there were prawns, squid, chicken and fish.
But it does not mean there are no vegetarian dishes in Malaysian cuisine. “It is usually made of beans, sprouts and tofu,” says Shihab. “In fact, they use spinach in almost all their meals including fried rice and noodles.”
All these thoughts came to Shihab’s mind when he joined the Monsoon Empress in Kochi in May last year as its Executive Chef. He realised that there were guests from Malaysia staying at the hotel. They had come mostly for medical tourism. That was when he decided to introduce a few dishes on the menu.
On a recent afternoon, Shihab got started with the Laksa soup. This is a popular soup in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. “It has a bit of coconut milk and yellow curry paste, apart from ginger, garlic, lemongrass and Pandan leaves,” says Shihab. “These leaves are very nutritious and have a distinct flavour.” But the main ingredient is seafood: prawns or squid. Expectedly, with the mix of so many flavours, it is tasty, with the juicy prawn being a welcome value addition.  
Interestingly, there are 90 per cent spices in all the curries, noodles and rice. At the same time, the Malaysians add a bit of sugar. So the taste is unique. “Nevertheless, despite the sugar, you can end up crying after a meal, because of the chillies,” he says.

And in a 360-degree turn, in all the sweet items like pastries and desserts, they will add a bit of salt. “That creates a different experience,” says Shihab. “And any drinks which are hot, like tea or coffee, they will fill only half the glass with the liquid, and add scrapings of ice. As for juices which are taken cold in India, like lime, they will warm it.”
Shihab now moves on to showcasing the Ikan Sambal dish. “Ikan means fish, while sambal is a popular sauce in Malaysia,” says Shihab. “It is made of shallots, small onions, and chillies. You can use small fish like the anchovy or the snapper. But it has to be presented as a single piece.”
Again the spices create a tangy feeling but the inside of the fish (sea bass) is white and looks baked, very similar to a Western style, even though it has been fried. And this can be eaten along with rice or noodles.
Interestingly, noodles are one of Malaysia’s most popular dishes. For 2-minute noodles, similar to the Maggie noodles in India, there are more than 25 different varieties. “Malaysians will eat noodles 25 days a month,” says Shihab. In the Mee Hailam noodle dish, Shihab has added prawns, squids, slices of carrots, beans, cauliflower, baby corn and capsicum. The overall effect is simply awesome, with the noodles floating in a spicy gruel.
And like all Indians, the Malaysians like their rice. So, in Nasi Goreng Kampong, there is a garnish of a fried egg single side up placed on top of the fried rice, apart from long beans, prawns and shrimp paste.
Asked whether there are similarities between Malaysian and Kerala cuisine, Shihab says, “In both, coconut milk is used for a few preparations. The locals like the Malaysian dishes because there is not too much of a difference, and yet, the taste seems unique.”   
The Aluva-born Shihab has worked in Thiruvananthapuram, Dubai, Kovalam, Kumarakom, and spent five years on the international cruise liner Carnival. Asked his working philosophy, Shihab says, “I would like my guests to be physically as well as mentally satisfied after they have my food.”
(The New Indian Express, Kochi and Kozhikode)

‘Stranded Abroad’ provides free assistance to Malayalis who fall into legal trouble in Dubai

Photos: Illustration by Soumyadip Sinha; Arun Abraham 
By Shevlin Sebastian
It is a Monday morning in Dubai. But Shreya, 16, and Anil, 14, are sitting at home and watching TV, instead of being in school. That’s because their father does not have the money to pay their school fees. Jacob George was working in an insurance company as a senior accountant for a few years. “But I wanted to earn more,” he says.
So, he quit the company, took a bank loan and started a travel company. But his timing was wrong. Dubai has been in an economic downturn for the past few years. “The firm did not do well,” he says. And soon Jacob found himself in financial trouble. Creditors came knocking at his door.
Kochi native and Dubai-based lawyer Arun Abraham is the founder of ‘Stranded Abroad’, a not-for-profit firm. He set it up in May, last year, to help Malayalis who are in legal trouble. Jacob approached Arun and, somehow, the latter managed to keep him out of jail. But because he is under a travel ban, Jacob is stuck in Dubai.  
It was because of cases like Jacob that Arun felt an urge to help these people who are in limbo. “I have lived in Dubai for many years,” he says. “During the course of my work, many Malayalis have approached me. In most cases, the breadwinner is in jail. His family back home in Kerala is the one who actually suffers. They have no clue about what to do. There was a lacuna. They needed someone to guide and assist them. So, through my organisation, I provide the advice and link them to lawyers.”
Arun has set up a network of fifteen Arab lawyers who provide their services for free. “They are friends and people of a similar mindset,” he says. He also links them to community leaders who provide moral support.     
As for the different offences that Malayalis are charged with, they include financial misappropriation, unpaid debt, drunk driving, visa violations, overstay issues, and drug-related offences.
Junaid Malik, 20, who was working in an IT firm, was having grass (cannabis) in his home. The police arrested him and did a medical test. Usually, drugs stay in the system for two weeks. They got his name from a friend, Mani, who was arrested earlier. They forced Mani to give up the names of his friends who took drugs with him.
He received a ten month sentence, because he is a first-time offender. Following the completion, Junaid was deported.  
All these problems put the family under severe financial stress. For drunk driving, the fine is a steep 30,000 dirhams (Rs 5.7 lakh). “Sadly, it may lead to loss of employment and a steep drop in income,” says Arun.  
The only silver lining is that the Dubai government has introduced a new rule regarding bounced cheques a couple of years ago. “Now if the amount is below 200,000 dirhams, you only have to pay a fine,” says Arun.
So what is the way forward? Arun suggests that the Indian associations in Dubai should hold refresher classes for Malayalis so they know the legal hurdles they might have to face if something goes wrong. “Too many Malayalis are unaware of the dangers,” says Arun. “They take loans casually. They give cheques without enough balance in their accounts. They drink and drive. They succumb to the greed of wanting more money. All this can cause immense damage. You have to be cautious if you want to live a hassle-free life in Dubai.”  
(Some names have been changed)
(The New Indian Express, Kerala editions)

Little-known, ignored and forgotten

In his solo exhibition, photographer Praveen Rengaraj has focused on the lives of fishermen in and around Kochi
Photos: Praveen Rengaraj by Albin Mathew. Image of fisherman by Praveen Rengaraj
By Shevlin Sebastian

Photographer Praveen Rengaraj stood on Mandapam beach in Tamil Nadu. It was a tranquil setting. A clean beach, the roar of the waves, wisps of cloud in the sky on a December morning. Soon, the fishing boats returned. There were loud cries of joy. It had been a good day’s catch. Praveen approached them. They readily agreed to be photographed. One later took him for a ride. When he returned, a fisherman by the name of Guruswamy requested him to come to his home for lunch.

It was a two-room thatched hut near the beach. Praveen sat on the floor and had a meal of rice, rasam and the choicest fish. In the end, he offered Rs 500 because he felt happy. Guruswamy said, “How can I take any money? You are my guest.” Praveen was moved. “This behaviour of theirs, so friendly and large-hearted is what drew me towards them,” he says.

Praveen returned to Kochi and began taking photographs of fishermen. It helped that his apartment overlooked the backwaters. Later, he shot in different parts of Kerala, in Bengal, Sri Lanka, Sweden and the US. Today, his first-ever solo exhibition called ‘Beyond Fishermen’, is taking place at the Kashi Art Gallery at Fort Kochi (April 6 - May 31). Interestingly, he decided to put up the photos only of the fishermen in and around Kochi.    

Praveen has taken images of the boatmen, sometimes in the early morning, as the sun is rising, when they embarked for fishing, or when they returned, at twilight, with the sunlight like a single ray just lighting up the fisherman’s body as well as a portion of the boat, or when they sat on the river’s edge with an introspective look on their faces. Looking at the images, viewers become aware of the solitary nature of the job.  

“For me, a fisherman is an extension of nature,” says Praveen. “I have not viewed him as a person in physical form. Instead, he is faceless, almost like a shadow. For me, God is the ultimate artist, and a fisherman steps in from one side and adds a new perspective to the water body.”
Praveen has gained a new perspective about fishermen thanks to his constant interactions. “They have a deep belief in nature,” he says. “Many have the conviction that nature will not disappoint. If not today you will get something tomorrow. So, even if he does not get fish on any particular day, the fisherman is not disappointed. All fishermen have a positive attitude. You wave at them. They will wave back.”

Another reason for their joy could be the close proximity to water. “It is a calming medium,” says Praveen. “The sound of a waterfall, the dribble of rainwater falling from a roof to the ground, or the slap of the oar against the water, you tend to fall into a meditative mood..”  

A constant interaction with Nature leads to humility, too. “A fisherman’s material possessions is very limited,” says Praveen. “In this age of voracious consumerism, you can only drive only one car at a time. Yet people want two or three cars. People have 30 pairs of shoes but can only wear one pair at a time. Does happiness arise from owning things? I have no idea. In many ways, the fisherman’s simple existence is a life lesson for all of us in the middle class: less is more.”  

Praveen’s ardent desire, through the exhibition, is to make people aware of the fishermen. “They have been the mainstay of Kerala for centuries but we have not given him the respect that he deserves,” he says. “He has always been an unsung hero. During the floods last year it was the fishermen who saved so many lives. And without their tireless work, you cannot enjoy fish in your cuisine.”

Praveen also enjoys photography with a passion. His life turned when his mother gave him an Agfa camera when he was only seven years old. The son of an Army officer, photography, however, has not been a full-time career. Instead, he worked in the tea industry, first as a planter and later as a taster. Then he shifted professions and began developing high-end boutique hotels. But through it all, photography remained a constant. “I hope one day to bring out a coffee table book on the fishermen,” says the 47-year-old.