When Alaric the Visigoth king ransacked Rome in 410 AD, his ransom demands to lift the siege included 5,000 pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of silver, 4,000 silken tunics, and 3,000 pounds of Pepper.
The Welsh Poet George Herbert coined the phrase “land of spices. “ Trading in Spices was big business for centuries It brought;
Pepper brought Vasco da Gama, that flag-planting Portuguese coloniser, onto our shores, in the 16 century and put Kerala on the world map. The Portuguese ran the spice trade for the next hundred years. Four hundred and ninety-two years later, Kerala Kerala woke up to its Tourism potential, and its search for a TagLine ended with "God's own country".
I saw the same tagline three decades later while driving through Yorkshire county. Kerala had pinched it from Yorkshire either by circumstance or by design. There are conflicting versions of how Yorkshire earned it, but we won't go there. Let's accept that it's worked very well for Kerala.
Into this God's country, I rode in a bus to meet my aunts who lived ten miles apart. The first one lived in a small town called Wadakancherry and had recently returned from Tanzania with her accountant husband. Their ancestral home had jack fruit tress mango trees and coconut palms.
It was the first time I saw a pepper vine, it was creeping up a tree. A caretaker took me on a tour of the plantation and, in the end, offered me a drink of fresh, tender coconut juice. Then he deftly opened up the coconut with his machete, and I ate the tender coconut fruit.
During the four days we spent, my favourite pastime was pulling the water bucket from the well and pouring it into the pots. I had many a luxurious bath at the well. It was time to partake in the hospitality of the other aunt. She had recently been widowed and lived alone with her three children in Trichur, whose claim to fame is the Pooram festival.
It's celebrated each year on the day the moon rises with Venus. It is an unforgettable spectacle dedicated to one of the manifestations of Durga (Kali), popularly known in the South as *bhagavati* Two groups representing two geographical divisions face each other mounted on their richly caparisoned elephants accompanied by a traditional orchestra called panchavadyam. They compete by swiftly and rhythmically changing brightly coloured and sequined parasols. It's called kudamattom and ends with a dazzling display of fireworks.
There probably were a thousand people in the temple's main courtyard and over a hundred elephants. In my wildest dreams, I couldn't have imagined I'd bring a group of Tourists to witness this spectacle 45 years later. Moving on. My older aunt no 2 decided to make an offering to another god, Sri Krishna, a manifestation of Vishnu at a temple nearby. In an early morning ritual called *thulabaram* I was weighed against my weight in raw bananas, which were then fed to the resident elephants. What mustn't one do to seek blessings or appease God?
We then rode to Cochin. We were to catch the train back to Madras from the Cochin harbour terminus. As we drive to Cochin, let's get back to black pepper. Who hasn't heard of Mulligatawny Soup! there's no dearth of stories about its origins. Mulligatawny in Tamil is *milagu-tanni* translated as "pepper water", which was added to chicken broth, and a hybrid was born. It's an Anglo-Indian dish that's been around since the 1800' to which you can add any number of garnishings. My favourite is rice. I drink the vegetarian version.
Fort Cochin was the first European settlement in India. Many old buildings stand testimony to its colonial past. Some lie in ruins, while others have been converted into chic boutique hotels. Fast forward 36 years. The CGH Hotels re-incarnated an old decaying boatyard at the Cochin harbour entrance into a fine luxury Hotel. Named after its owner George Brunton.
The Brunton Boatyard opened its doors in 2000 C.E and is indubitably vintage Luxury at its best.
It's my favourite hotel, fort Kochi. I love their easygoing style. Even the tiniest room is spacious. The food is finger-licking good. The Central CourtYard is ZEN. Here, we paid a fitting tribute to the King of Spices when we organised a sit-down dinner for 100+ guests themed on the Dutch East India Company. An eclectic menu included the famous Mulligatawny soup followed by **steak au poivre** and a Dutch pudding generously flavoured with Cinnamon.
My Southern Journey, which began in 1964, continues.