tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61230924658492360202012-02-16T00:50:45.425-08:00saturdaynoreply@blogger.comBlogger21100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6123092465849236020.post-82809419198508703842008-04-06T20:13:00.000-07:002008-04-06T20:21:56.942-07:00<div style="width:100%; clear:right;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_1itvyGyMwbk/R_mRhlgxHUI/AAAAAAAAABg/3ORakWske20/s1600-h/mosquito.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_1itvyGyMwbk/R_mRhlgxHUI/AAAAAAAAABg/3ORakWske20/s320/mosquito.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5186336452085095746" /></a><br /></div><br /><div style="width:100%; height:20px; margin:0px;"><br /></div><br /><br /><p>Visit:<a href="http://www.saturdaydigest.blogspot.com"> Saturday Digest</a> for a comment on this photograph.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6123092465849236020-8280941919850870384?l=focuskochi.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>saturdaynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6123092465849236020.post-2122122730572610762008-04-04T02:09:00.000-07:002008-04-04T06:03:18.927-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_1itvyGyMwbk/R_YlJFgxHSI/AAAAAAAAABQ/5dmH7Q0w9Mc/s1600-h/kochiboat1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 20px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_1itvyGyMwbk/R_YlJFgxHSI/AAAAAAAAABQ/5dmH7Q0w9Mc/s320/kochiboat1.jpg" <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"></span> <br /><br /> <br /><br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Kochi is my home city. I love Kochi. Marco Polo did. The Portuguese did. The English did. The Dutch did. But we Kochiites do not. But I love Kochi for its weird lifestyle. sometimes it is clean; sometimes it is not. Nowadays it is always unclean. Like the mindset of the inhabitants of Kochi, it is unclean always now. <br /> <br />Kochi is the international port city in South India along the western coast adjacent to the Arabian Sea. Vasco da Gama came that way to Kochi and claimed he discovered a sea route to India from Lisbon. In fact a recent Historical research shows Vasco da Gama only followed a Gujarati trader of spices from Africa to Kochi in his comparatively smaller ship. Weird. Isn't it? <br /> <br />I have never seen Mr. Gama nor that Gujarati trader who asked him to follow his big ship to Kochi to buy spices from here. But tell-tale evidences are here in Kochi where Gama lived, ate and slept while his small ship was moored in the backwaters in the natural port of Kochi. <br /> <br />Kochi, indeed was known as "The Queen of the Arabian Sea" then. I don't know anyone of the present times remember that poetic description of Kochi now. <br /> <br />Today Kochi is a bustling commercial metro of Kerala State. Perhaps one of the fast-developing metros like Mumbai or Delhi in India. It may outlive even Bangalore in a couple of years from now. <br /> <br />Kochi is the gateway to the only tropical state in India, Kerala. Kochi is human-friendly and simple. The cost of living is affordable but the cost of keeping the mosquitos away is prohibitive. About mosquitos I will tell you later. <br /></span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6123092465849236020-212212273057261076?l=focuskochi.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>saturdaynoreply@blogger.com