The Lost Beaches of Fort Kochi

Time flies, flows, events happen, life goes on with interminable and insufferable regularity all around you while you live in a stupor. Suddenly it is the last days of 2022. We have now lived in Kottayam for a decade after spending close to forty years in Ahmedabad. My family, wife, two children and their families, had converged here a decade back to celebrate our purchasing an apartment in Kottayam. They had visited separately on various occasions in the past. Regular zoom meetings had kept the bonds strong. However, both my children and their families agreed we should all get together without further delay. Christmas of 2022 appeared to be an excellent target.

Earlier vacations, whenever children visited, were confined to a stay at a resort in Kumarakom for a few days. While the children swam, we would sit around the pool dozing. We had a break with this format; wandering in Fort Kochi and Mattancheri with an afternoon of shopping in the Lulu Mall were agreed upon as a desirable holiday plan.

I booked rooms in the Holiday Inn and engaged a 12 seater Traveler for three days to take us to Kochi from Kottayam and to haul us around Kochi and the suburbs. Shijo, the driver, turned out to be friendly and willing to meet our impulsive demands for random forays with a friendly smile.