A Rendezvous with the Queen(of the Arabian Sea!)-Kochi Diaries

THE JOURNEY BEGINS...

It was 8 AM on a Monday morning. For most of you, Mondays paint a picture of busy days with children hurrying for schools and colleges and parents hurrying for their offices. But this wasn’t the case that day, as the date was 9^th of April, 2018, the day just after the JEE Main Offline exam (which I had appeared for). We had meticulously planned for the trip in advance and were to set out for Kochi, the day after JEE Main exam itself! The 1482 kilometres journey was covered in 32 hours in the infamous Dhanbad-Alappuzha Express (I call it ‘infamous’ as it takes more time than other trains thanks to the numerous halts, 48 to be exact).

Dhanbad-Alappuzha Express

ERNAKULAM- HERE WE COME!

The city with a very rich history, was historic in my life too! Well..Kochi happens to be my birthpace. Coming back to the trip, we reached Ernakulam Junction (no localite knows that name by the way, they call it ‘South’!) at the scheduled arrival time which was 1730 hours with the sun still shining. We were to stay at my friend Subhranshu's place (I’ll refer it to as ‘home’ and Subhranshu as Shiva hereafter) in Mahavir Enclave, a naval residential area located on the Fort Kochi island in Mundamveli near Thoppumpady. We deboarded the train and came out of the railway station.But what followed, was a fruitless search for taxis and autos. Finally, we had to call my friend Shiva’s parents who told us to proceed to the prepaid taxi stand to the north side. We then headed towards the counter and found a serpentine queue to our dismay. I was sent to stand in the queue while my mother looked after the luggage near the queue. My father ventured out of the railway station to look for autos going towards Fort Kochi where luckily he found one heading there. We climbed into the auto with high spirits, as we were back into the city where we all once lived, 17 years ago! The auto driver had done his homework and drove through the bylanes of Kaloor to avoid the busy Banerji Road (East-West arterial road) and Chittoor Road (North-South arterial road).

Ernakulam Junction(South) railway station

Traffic on the Banerji Road

NOSTALGIA UNLEASHED

My parents were seeing the city after about 16 years, both puzzled and amazed at the city’s great strides in terms of development. The auto finally came onto the main arterial road, which had huge traffic. I recalled that Vizag was better in this regard as it had robust public transport (Just take a 400 route number bus from the railway station, as simple as that!) and also didn’t have this much traffic. Coming back to our auto ride, what followed next was a series of junctions, each busier than the previous one. After clearing Valanjambalam Junction and tackling the busiest junction – Pallimukku Junction, we entered the busy MG Road and crossed the busy Ravipuram area, home to many retail stores and educational institutions, and reached Thevara Junction from where we took a right towards the bridge which linked the mainland to Willingdon island (India’s largest artificial island). After crossing the narrow bridge, came the island which had the Port Trust and the naval establishments. The road which we were travelling on, is actually the shortest National Highway of India, the NH47A(Kundannur to Willingdon Island) which was just 6 kilometres long. Then came another bridge, the Thoppumpady Harbour Bridge, which linked the Willingdon Island to the Fort Kochi Island.

Thevara Bridge

Willingdon Island

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

From here we took a right to travel a bit on the Tagore Road and then took a left from the next junction to join the PT Jacob Road before turning left from Parippu Junction, going some distance to reach Mahavir Enclave, where Shiva was waiting to receive me. The tidy naval residential area with 9 storeyed buildings (more new, higher buildings were under construction then), like other naval areas, had a secure entrance where we had to show proof of naval affiliation and enter our names in the guest register before being allowed access to the enclave. Finally, we were there. We didn’t do much that day but gossiped a lot (Shiva's mom happened to be a very close friend of my mom too). After dinner, Shiva and I acted as if we were sleeping so that we could carry on with our endless conversations until we fell asleep. But that never happened. Though our fathers slept soundly in the living room, we could hear our mothers chatting away as old friends always did. So, my friend and I decided to carry on with our conversation being vigilant enough not to get caught. The topic of PC games arose during our conversation and it escalated quite quickly. Soon we found ourselves on the battlefields of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III on his laptop, while our moms were engrossed in their conversations of the past unaware of the storm that was brewing in the adjacent bedroom! Meanwhile, the date changed from 10^th to 11^th April and we slept at around 2 or 2.30 am. Our meticulous plans of walking and going to the gym at 6 AM were all in vain as we slept like logs even as the alarm rang at its highest volume.

Mahavir Enclave, Mundamveli

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III

A 'BUSSY' DAY

Finally, we woke up as our fathers shook us and gave final warnings. We made a well planned itinerary to cover many places of interest in Kochi. We decided to begin the day with visiting the largest mall of India, the Lulu Shopping Mall at Edapally. This trip to the mall brought with it an opportunity for me to travel on the Kochi Metro. Before this I had known from various sources that it was the second fastest completed metro rail project in India. Excited by this, we headed towards the Maharajas College Metro Station (which is currently one of the terminal stations of the metro), the closest to home. First, we hopped on a private ‘Lion’ bus(infamous for rough drivers and death defying overtaking!) from Mahavir Enclave bus stop to reach Thoppumpady bus stop which was renovated recently and featured LED arrival time boards with good seating arrangements. We then boarded a KSRTC Low Floor bus from Thoppumpady to Maharajas College metro station.

The 'Lion' buses of Kochi

Thoppumpady bus stop

KSRTC Low floor non A/C bus

Thoppumpady Harbor Bridge

DODGING TRAFFIC: KOCHI METRO TO THE RESCUE

We soon bought tickets (Kochi Metro has paper tickets with QR codes, unlike other metros which use tokens). It cost us ₹30 each, lesser than taxi or auto fares, and it took us just 15 minutes to reach Edapally, which is normally covered in 30-45 minutes owing to bottlenecks enroute. Kochi Metro runs between 6AM to 11PM with a frequency of 5 minutes. The metro was sparsely occupied thanks to the fact that Maharajas College was the originating station for the metro.

The Kochi Metro

My metro ticket from Maharajas College to Edapally!

A BIRD'S EYE VIEW FROM THE METRO

The metro was of a greenish blue colour with unique designs drawn on its coaches. The large windows offered an awesome view of the cityscape which was dotted with hospitals, churches, malls and offices. I’ll briefly describe the flurry of metro stations which we crossed on our maiden journey.

First came M.G. Road, a commercial hub, where some people boarded the metro. Then came Lissie which has the famous Lissie hospital in its proximity, followed by Kaloor, a major traffic junction. Then came JLN Station, which houses the JLN stadium which played host to U-17 FIFA World Cup matches and also the home stadium for ISL’s Kerala Blasters team. Soon after, came Palarivattom, a commercial area followed by Changampuzha Park (most non-Keralites pronounce the ‘zha’ part wrong;it’s pronounced as ‘ra’ instead of ‘zha’), which is a recreational park home to many cultural activities in Kochi. Finally, we reached Edapally where we bid adieu to the metro which would go on till Aluva, near the international airport. We walked towards the great LuLu Mall which was a magnificent architectural marvel. There we ‘window shopped’ for an hour or two before deciding to return.

Metro arriving at MG Road metro station

Lissie Metro Station

Metro arriving at JLN metro station

Palarivattom metro station

Changampuzha Park metro station

Near the Edapally metro station

A FERRY TO FORT KOCHI

This time we took a metro from Edapally to Maharajas College and from there we took an auto to reach Ernakulam Boat Jetty. While walking from the main road towards the jetty I observed that Kochiites went gaga over buying lottery tickets (this thing was even more visible in newspapers where the winning lottery numbers were printed daily!). We stood in the queue to buy tickets for Fort Kochi Jetty which costed just ₹3 per person, for the 20-minute ride! Soon after, I was sitting in a ferry for the first time in my life and was quite excited for the ride. The engine began with a roar and the thus began the journey from the Ernakulam jetty over the calm waters of the Arabian Sea. We soon crossed Willingdon Island and saw many ships- cargo, navy and cruise docked at the island and finally reached Fort Kochi Jetty. Then, we took an auto for Mundamveli and had lunch. The rest of the day was uneventful and then at night, as the whole city slept in peace, we were at war (I mean Modern Warfare 3!). After completing 4 missions successfully, we slept in peace until we were shaken off the beds as the sun was still rising in the sky.

Ernakulam Boat Jetty

Junkar at Fort Kochi Jetty

DAY 2: ON THE LARGEST MANMADE ISLAND OF THE COUNTRY!

Thus began our second day in the “Queen of the Arabian Sea”. We visited the naval base which saw many facilities such as flight simulators to train young naval airmen and the magnificent golf course at Katari Bagh which overlooked the Arabian Sea. After this, we decided to explore the Cochin Port Maritime Heritage museum which was located at one end of the Willingdon Island, and is now a desolate and secluded spot. On the way we saw the Cochin port trust’s cranes and the cruise ships’ jetty(one of the largest cruises in the world, the Queen Mary 2 was anchored here once!). We also saw the now defunct Cochin Harbour Terminus where all trains used to terminate two decades ago. Finally, we reached the museum which had some amazing photographs of the Cochin Port. It had historic things like buoys, lights, anchors and other stuff which took us back in time. Satisfied by the diverse things we had tried out and the historic places visited, we decided to call it a day and headed home. This time, we were tired and though my friend and I had promised each other that we’d wake up at 12 to complete missions, none of us woke up until 7AM the next morning.

Cochin Harbor Terminus

MV Kavaratti at the cruise jetty on Willingdon Island

Katari Bagh

Cochin Port Heritage Museum

TIME TRAVELLING IN FORT KOCHI

The third and final day of our stay at the ‘Gateway of Kerala’ was devoted to visiting and exploring museums such as Southern Naval Command Maritime Museum near the Fort Kochi beach. The museum has a very rich collection of naval artefacts such as anchors, uniforms, badges and photographs. The museum’s gardens have models of Indian Naval ships such as INS Delhi and has real decommissioned (out of service) helicopters too. Then we moved on to visit the Indo-Portuguese Museum where there were many artefacts of the times when the Portuguese had come to India for trade, especially in spices. It had a wide range of ornamental stuff like chandeliers and showpieces. Since it was a Friday and the Jewish Synagogue was closed to the public, I was disappointed. But we visited the Antique Museum situated near it and saw some vintage and historic things. We had our train from in the early morning on the following day, we decided not to venture out and rest.

SNC Maritime Heritage museum

SNC maritime heritage museum

SEE YOU AGAIN! 

All good things come to an end and so did this one. We had no plans of late night gaming that night and the next morning I was up early as we set out to the Ernakulam Junction railway station where our train, Allapuzha-Dhanbad Express was scheduled to arrive at 0705 hours. To our dismay, the train had been rescheduled by 2 hours, apparently due to the late arrival of its pair from Dhanbad (when would Indian Railways stop that ‘rescheduling’ stuff). I bade farewell to my birth city which always occupies a special place in my heart.  We boarded the train and thus began the long 32 hour-journey (with 50 halts) back to Vizag, where surprisingly the train reached almost on time. I cherish all those moments even now and thank my friend Shiva and his parents who ensured a very comfortable stay and helped me explore the city of Kochi and to my parents for paying heed to my requests of revisiting the city of Kochi. Last but not least, thanks to all of you who spared your valuable time in order to read this article. 

The memorable rendezvous culminates...

Debabrata Malik here... Meet you next time in another article, in a different world!

Image sources: Wikimedia Commons, The Hindu, TheQuadCamBros, Google Maps, www.dailymail.co.uk, The New Indian Express