Fort Kochi: Where Trade & Tourism Go Hand In Hand

One rainy summer vacation evening in Kochi, as my bored cousins and I lay hither-thither on the red-oxide floor, hating with childlike intensity the power cut, the rain and the impending doom of our schools reopening, my grandfather told us the story of an umbrella maker from Alleppey. The man, affectionately called Kuda Vavachan, had made umbrellas in his backyard for 40 years. Vavachan believed that the essence of an umbrella is not its prettiness or colour, but its resilience against the governing elements of the Kerala sun and rain. He never steered away from the traditional model -- a black waterproof cloth wound tight on a metal frame with a hooked handle and a pointy head.