THE MAGNANIMOUS MALAYALEES OF FORT COCHIN
During my ongoing visits to Fort Cochin, I have met some
wonderful friends, and I must say some of them have become good friends.
I had a chance to interact with some of the today and at the
end of the day despite being tired I had such a lovely sensation of having
lived a good day, part of a good life.
I was absolutely touched and then made me wonder, if there
are millions of Malayalees abroad, but where are they? How come the
interactions change when I meet a Malayalee at Oryx Rotana in Qatar or Hilton Salalah?
I have never met a Malayalee in the USA or in KL or Singapore... why is that?
Why such a chasm?
If I were a follower of Sadhguru I would say that the chasm
is within myself. When I am here I am at my best and I get their best and I have
a wonderful time. When I am in the USA or Qatar or Oman or Malaysia, I am not
at my best as I am guided by clues related to the environment and I don’t seek
out any opportunity. But it bothers me that this group of people in Fort Cochin
who are so wonderful, their cousins in the USA cannot be that different?
Today I met two Malayalees who are running a very successful
construction company that employs over 1000 other Malayalees in Abu Dhabi
I was with a good friend of mine, who wears many caps,
including Under Secretary of State in the Federal Government for Minorities, a
private high level high school in Nelspruit and has the Mercedes Benz agency
and I don’t know what else, as he very seldom talks about what he does and he
makes himself available when I am here in Cochin.
Also I was introduced to the first and possibly the only Raw
food restaurant in India, and met the brains behind this idea, fueled by his
own success of throwing away Insulin after adopting this diet. He has also
bought some land near Munnar so that he can have a Fruit tree Forest.
Such innovative people. Such hard workers, these Malayalees
of Cochin.
Afterwards the Last Jew of Cochin joined us for coffee and cakes,
with him I went to one of the best SOUQs that I have seen much better than the
ones in Muscat or Doha, with thousands and thousands of little shops selling everything.
The next time I am here in Cochin, I will have an extra suitcase and also a day
to shop for all the tchotchkes that I can take back to my friends in Cuba.
Today also gave me a good chance to examine cultural
identities, in conversation with a wonderful man who is the son of the last
Indian Army superindent of British Punjab. I also recollected the four
different pillars of identity given by Sadhguru
Buddhi Ahankara Namas and Chitta .. How am I different from these wonderful
people I met today? Am I that different because of my passport and my
connections to Cuba?
Then I thought about my own dear ones
My brother who speaks Japanese who was born in Bombay and
grew up in Asia and lives in Portland, Oregon
My sister who was born in England, who speaks Jamaican
Creole and lives in Miami, Florida?
And I, who was born in a British Protectorate and speak
English with an Australian memory and live in Cuba?
So the Buddhi in each one of us, the one that is attached to
the memory is so different but we are so similar but we don’t allow our
passports and our places of residence to divide us. We each have to divest ourselves
of our memory to accentuate our relationship and that is our nationality which American
Indians would say, Mitakuye Oyasin, we are all related.
It was a long day, it was a full day and I am grateful
