India 2 – Learning Opportunities.
We weren’t due into Cochin until about midday and although S was feeling a good bit better, luckily sadly, she didn’t feel up to 8.00am Pilates. However, she still had other areas of her self-improvement plan to work on. To my considerable astonishment, she wanted to go to the next lecture by the Concorde pilot, which was about why Concorde was withdrawn and the future of supersonic aviation. The summary of the first bit was (as per the Paris air crash session) that it was all the fault of the French! However, the lengthier symposium on the future of Supersionic/ Hypersonic / sub-orbital aviation was of necessity somewhat technical in nature but S was clearly hovering up the detail and making notes; she is now fully versed on the difference between TurboJet and TurboFan engines, for example. One has to say that the presentation was excellent, but S rarely learns something without wanting to follow it up and I found the thought of where this latest ‘hobby’ might lead disconcerting.
Anyway, it was straight from Aeronautics to Bridge! We found ourselves back with Nathan and Jeffery and we all agreed to be on our best behaviour. However, we were now in the approaches to Cochin and distractions appeared…
“Lady on Table 4, what is happening outside the window that is more important than me?”, demanded Mike the teacher.
“Look dolphins, dolphins!”, shouted S, excitedly.
“OK Madam, feel free to say ‘Hi’ to flipper and then can we please focus on Three No Trumps!”
A minute later…
“Okay, you english lady with the nice accent – now what are you doing?”
“It’s just the Chinese fishing nets, I’ve been waiting to see those… and now I don’t have my camera”
“I can reassure you that there are fishing nets to be seen in coast towns all over the world – whereas your only chance to learn bridge with me is right now!!”
The tannoy jumped in;
“Hi everybody, this is the captain speaking…”
MIke; “Okay, I was promised that would not happen until noon; I give up – once again I need to go and get my pills…!”
Cochin is just like we imagined an Indian port to look like – not terribly much changed form the 1930’s, lush tress along the river, every type of water craft imaginable and any high rise development (and there was very little) safely tucked away in the distance.
Indian immigration ran true to form; although much much quicker than anywhere previous, no less than four different pairs of officials checked our visas within the space of 30 feet of each other!
Kerala, where Cochin is located, is a small state on the South West coast of India. Our guide told us that it has the highest standard of living in India, the highest level of literacy and is truly multicultural, with an equal balance of Christians, Hindu’s and Muslims, all of whom rub along really well together. Interestingly, it also has a communist government.
As we drove along, it was radically different from Rajasthan earlier in our trip. Although still with dreadful levels of litter and dishevelment, it didn’t have the outright poverty and squalor of the north. Even the driving, although horrifying to those seeing it for the first time, was much much better than Delhi. Above all, it was beautifully lush, with palms, mangos, banyans, bananas all growing prolifically everywhere. It really felt like the tropics.
Our guide was a mine of information on many aspect of life in India, including arranged marriages, which he explained at great length. One again, I was nonplussed to see S paying great attention to this and made a mental note to warn the kids later…
The object of the tour was to visit a local farmer; we were a small group of about twelve and we were invited to lunch, filling everyone with the normal apprehension!
We needn’t have worried; the farmer was a retired lawyer who had taken on the family farm of about four acres, a very common state of affairs in India outside of the big cities, where owning or renting just enough land to be self-sufficient if you need to be seems to be pretty standard, whatever else you may do for a living.
His english was excellent, he had a lovely house and they laid on a great lunch which by unspoken agreement, we all decided to tuck into. Conversation was fascinating; two couples in our party were Aussie farmers and they compared detailed notes on all aspects of farming with our hosts. Due to the situation in Australia, one of the farmers was down to his last 40 head of cattle and unless it had rained by the time he got home, was going to have to sell up – assuming hat his farm hadn’t been burnt down in the meantime. They hadn’t had any rain for six years!
A Canadian couple from Edmonton sympathised – but had had nothing much other than rain for the last year…
Walking around the farm was wonderful but exhausting; the humidity was such that it was like being in a sauna fully clothed – we were all completely dripping in minutes. But we saw vanilla, gingers, turmeric and much more, all amongst lush palms, tropical birds and swarms of large dragonflies.
Despite the heat, it really was a wonderful place to be – and felt a long, long way from November in Finchampstead!