Life & Style

Kadukkachi, a native mango variety
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

The Mallissery mango, found exclusively in the Nedumbassery region of Ernakulam district is the one that goes into the famous tangy Angamaly mango curry. The aromatic Kotturkonam varikka is Thiruvananthapuram’s pride, the Kuttiatoor mango from Kannur is the first native variety to get a GI tag and the Olor mango common in Vadakara region is loved for its size and sweetness. As much as we relish our Alphonsos and Banganapallis, this summer, let us get to know Kerala’s native varieties better. 

If one were to navigate through this fascinating mangoscape, one would find a staggering variety — from the favourite bite-sized Chandrakkaran, known for its sweetness (up to 25 Brix), and scent to the ubiquitous Moovandan. Mango collectives in Kerala have been documenting indigenous varieties and creating awareness about them, but there are still a number of unidentified varieties, rich in flavour and unique qualities waiting to be discovered and popularised, says Shyju Machathi, founder of Nattumanchottil, a mango collective based in Kannapuram, Kannur. 

Native mango variety Karutha Chungiri found in the Angamaly region
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

The collective will host its ninth native mango festival in May. Unlike a commercial mango festival, this is a closed event, where conservators, scientists, farmers, researchers and mango enthusiasts get together, says Shyju. It would showcase around 100 native varieties from Kerala. “This year, we have participants from the US, China and the UAE,” he adds. 

The collective’s conservation efforts led to Kannapuram being declared as an Indigenous Mango Heritage Area. Today, it has evolved into Nattumanchottil Educational and Indigenous Fruit Plants Conservation and Research Trust, winning the Plant Genome Savior Community award instituted by Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Right Authority, New Delhi.

Shyju has been working on a comprehensive reference book in two volumes on mango varieties in Kerala. While the first one would feature all named varieties from Kerala, the second would shed light on the unnamed and unique varieties. Notably, the Kerala Police Academy, Thrissur, has tied up with Nattumanchottil to create an indigenous mango conservation and research orchard.

An unnamed native mango variety
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Sakhil Raveendran, founder of the Indigenous Mango Tree Conservation Project (IMCP), a Thrissur- based collective, believes it is important to bring the native mango to the forefront, especially in this age of instant delivery platforms. “Any variety of mango can be ordered online today, but how much do we know of the mangoes we have in our own backyards?” he asks. The idea is to build a larger community that appreciates and understands native mango varieties. The IMCP has been working towards protecting indigenous mango varieties with the help of public participation. Started in 2019, the collective today has over 55,000 members. 

Native mango names

The nomenclature of a native mango is often whimsical, a take on its taste, colour, shape or even the place where it is found. Some have interesting backstories, too, says Sakhil. For instance, a native variety found in the coastal regions in Ernakulam, the Kalluketty, is a mono-embryonic mango variety. The story goes that the tree was layered and since they were mostly planted in coastal areas, the base of the sapling needed to be reinforced with stones (kallu in Malayalam) and hence the name.

The much-loved Priyur, is another example, he adds. The mango variety is believed to have been popularised by priest and social reformer Saint Kuriakose Chavara. It was named Prior after him, as he was the ‘Prior’ or head of the religious congregation. The story goes that at the monastery in Mannanam, Kottayam, there was a mango tree which was planted and taken care of by Kuriakose Chavara, who sent the seedlings to other monasteries and convents and told the members to take care of them.

“Many of these stories are not documented formally. But it is interesting to note that people valued these unique varieties and named them lovingly. However, we have lost some good indigenous varieties owing to neglect,” he adds.   

The IMCP is hosting a Manga Mela, which will showcase native varieties. Held in association with the Kerala Agricultural University, Department of Agriculture, District Tourism Promotion Council and the Thrissur Horticulture Society, the two-day event (April 28 and 29 at the Town Hall in Thrissur), will also include sale of saplings and mango products. 

A decade or so ago, Mathew George Sankaramangalam decided to restore his family’s nearly 100-year-old ancestral home or tharavadu, in Thiruvalla, located in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district. “I inherited this place in the late 1990s after my grandfather passed away, but it ended up lying unused for nearly 25 years,” says the Bengaluru-based businessman. During this process, the home, “a traditional Syrian Christian house” with finely-hewn woodwork, red-oxide floors and a tiled roof, went through various changes: the red-oxide floors were replaced with rustic tiles, modern attached toilets were added, and several rooms were repurposed.

“We kept the outer structure the same as the old house and made changes inside,” says Mathew, who spent three years and a considerable amount of money restoring his ancestral home. “If you want to bring in the original splendour as well as have modern amenities, it will cost you a lot,” he remarks, adding that the restoration cost of a heritage villa could go up to a crore, or even more.

While the satisfaction of having restored his family home more than made up for the significant capital costs of the project, he realised that “it needs revenue to sustain. It is very expensive to maintain a heritage home… like buying an elephant,” says Mathew, who decided to let out his ancestral home, CVM House, as a homestay in 2017, in an attempt to create a business model that could generate enough money for its upkeep.

Heritage homes often serve as wedding venues
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

The property, which charges from ₹16,000 a day for an individual’s stay to ₹41,000 a day if a function is held on its premises, offers all modern amenities, round-the-clock housekeeping service, free WiFi and security. While CVM House does not provide food, it offers nearby hotel recommendations that deliver, he says, adding that the bulk of their revenue comes from weddings. According to him, many people like the idea of hosting “their receptions in the gardens with this heritage house in the backdrop,” says Mathew, who gets a lot of NRIs wanting to experience “hotel services in a heritage home”.

Kallukunnu House interiors

Meet the Nazaranis

Like Mathew, many Syrian Christians, also called Saint Thomas Christians or Nazaranis, are choosing to rent out their ancestral homes to travellers in an attempt to preserve these old buildings, which are an important legacy of one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. It is believed that the earliest Syrian Christians were Hindus who embraced Christianity in 52 AD when St. Thomas, one of Jesus Christ’s 12 apostles, arrived at the ancient port city of Muziris. “He came to preach to the Jews who were already here,” says Thressi John, who runs the 260-year-old Nazarani Tharavad, in Pala, Kottayam.

CVM House at dusk

The Kottukapally family that Thressi got married into were successful traders who moved to Pala from Mevada in 1737 when Angadi Pala, the town’s commercial hub, was set up. The family, considered one of the founding families of modern Pala, was in the pepper trade, and the first house it built in the area also doubled as a shop. As the town grew, making it harder to live in this commercial centre, they relocated to the house that is now called Nazarani Tharavad, “a stunning heritage home built in a unique fusion of Kerala and Dutch architectural styles,” as the homestay’s website puts it.

Kallukunnu House interiors

This home was used by the family till the death of Thressi’s brother-in-law around six years ago. “We had to shut down the house… the first time that house was ever locked,” she says. For three years, it stayed that way until the family decided to restore it and open it up to the public, says Thressi, who offers the full house, including breakfast for her guests, and housekeeping services for ₹20,000 per night. The main motive of this homestay, she says, is to promote the her community’s culture, cuisine, and architecture. In keeping with this core premise, the family has also moved and rebuilt part of the very first home constructed by the family nearly 300 years ago, restored it using the original materials used to create it, such as laterite stone, lime and egg white, and converted it into a museum “to showcase the old-style living,” informs Thressi.

Losing an old style of living

Kallukunnu House

This old style of living is, after all, fast disappearing, as Mathew points out. For instance, in the central Kerala town of Thiruvalla and its adjoining villages, many houses have been left unoccupied due to low fertility rates and because many young people have migrated abroad over the last few decades. “At least one family member is expected to be abroad, particularly in and around Thiruvalla and its neighbouring villages like Kumbanad,” Mathew says, pointing out that since these ancestral homes are so hard to maintain, they have either been demolished or sold off as plots. “With the loss of these homes, the culture and heritage of this once-thriving Christian community have also begun to fade.”

Staying in a heritage home, can offer a more authentic experience
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Holding onto the Nazarani culture is essential to George Kuruvilla, who runs a construction business in Eraviperoor. When the last remaining heir of the Sankaramangalam Tharavadu in Eraviperoor village planned to move from India to the US, George stepped in to save his family’s 321-year-old ancestral home, with its central courtyard and three wings. “We realised that if somebody else took over the house, we could not anticipate its fate,” says George’s son, Ajin, who moved from Kuwait to Kerala to look after the family home that his father had bought in 2010 from his cousin and painstakingly restored over the next three years. “We are the ninth generation of this family; if my brother and I don’t look after it, who will?” he asks.

Sankaramangalam Tharavadu is a must-see house for the 5,000-odd members of the Sankaramangalam family
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Today, Sankaramangalam Tharavadu is a must-see house for the 5,000-odd members of the Sankaramangalam family, who are spread worldwide, a powerful reminder of how its forefathers once lived. The building, which was in a dilapidated condition when they bought it, was renovated without losing its core structure. “We felt that we should retain the old shape and colour,” says Ajin, listing out some of the changes made: changing the flooring, adding air-conditioning, repairing the existing furniture and replacing the veranda’s lime mortar with stone.

In 2021, when they realised the upkeep costs were very high, they decided to take a homestay approach, opening it to the public. “Many people who come to this area are NRIs who, even when they visit Kerala, no longer have their ancestral home,” Ajin says, adding that his home now hosts many wedding parties because of its aesthetic appeal. Visitors are able to enjoy the experience of living in an ancient, traditional building but with all modern amenities, “very different from regular concrete structures,” says Ajin, who charges around ₹5,000 a day for a 1,200-odd square foot house that is five minutes away from the Mannimala river.

Creating an immersive experience

Exploring multidimensional possibilities to support the conversion of heritage or vernacular homes into an “incentivised adaptive reuse” format is something that architect Gisny George of the DHARINNI_Ecology & Heritage Conservation Trust in Kottayam is passionate about. The Trust — a self-funded, research-based collective — is attempting to do this through its pilot initiative Dhara, which focuses on responsible tourism for micro-regional conservation in Kerala. “Tourism is not the only solution, but it is the most open-ended sector when it comes to having a conversation about heritage and cultural identities,” believes Gisny, who thinks of this practice of converting heritage hotels into homestays as a more sustainable form of tourism. “When you are a leisure traveller, the hotel is the most intimate part of your journey, so why can that not be the core of your experience?” Staying in a heritage home, which “is more subtle and rooted to a place, gives you a deeper connect, a more authentic experience,” she believes.

Inside CVM House

Also, in a globalised world with blurry boundaries, where many indigenous microcultures are disintegrating, heritage homestays could help “bring in a dialogue between a transient and the local,” Gisny says.

Kurien CK, who owns and manages Akkarã Homestay in Kottayam, one of the oldest players in the business, was keen on this right from the start. “There is heritage, history and character that we wanted to preserve, enjoy and share with people,” he says. It has not been easy, involving “a lot of hands-on work”, says Kurien, who opened up his 220-year-old family home to guests nearly three decades ago. But, for him, it was about keeping his family home alive and inviting people to come and experience an authentic Syrian Christian lifestyle.

At Akkarã Homestay, which has retained nearly all the elements of the original house, with the addition of some modern technology, visitors can experience Syrian Christian food, explore nearby heritage sites, and go for an Ayurvedic massage, fishing, river cruise or plantation visit, among other things. “To give you an analogy, our house used to be a little like Downton Abbey, with a large staff, people walking in and out, rich culture, landholdings,” he says of the property, where double rooms cost around Rs 3500/day, inclusive of breakfast and taxes. “Two hundred and twenty years is not a small period of time. We just wanted to get our visitors to experience that life.” 

Akkarã Homestay
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

This perspective is shared by Divya Mathai, who renovated and looks after the colonial-style, high-ceilinged ‘Kallukunnu House’ in Kottayam belonging to her father-in-law, George Varughese. Despite a touch of modern flair, the 80-year-old house, designed by the renowned architect and town planner JC Alexander and once home to celebrated cookbook author Mrs BF Varughese, still exudes its old-world charm, says Divya.

In her opinion, the house, which costs around ₹ 60,000 per day for the entire property, is a perfect venue for weddings, baptisms, family holidays, and parties, one that offers a highly immersive experience of the state in which it is located, she believes. “Kerala has so much to give,” Divya enthuses. “The greenery, the backwaters, the homes—it’s magic.” According to her, guests come for more than a stay; they come to slow down and soak in life as it’s meant to be: ethakka appam and chaya at sunset, hours spent with a book on the breezy veranda, and the kind of simple pleasures immortalised in books like The God of Small Things or The Covenant of Water “except here, you’re not reading about it. You’re living it.”

At Kallukunnu House

Godson Gladwin leads the ‘Devastha vili’ in Portuguese in Vypeen
| Photo Credit: THULASI KAKKAT

Around midnight, a group of young men, dressed in black, assembles on the Vypeen beach. One of them, 26-year-old Godson Gladwin, is carrying a large wooden cross adorned with a single strand of jasmine. Soon after, with his head bowed and eyes shut, Godson begins to chant an ancient prayer, his powerful voice breaking the stillness of the night.

Godson is performing the ‘Devastha Vili’, a centuries-old prayer ritual brought to Kochi by the Portuguese. As he chants the haunting hymn aloud, the men in black chorus some stanzas.  

Described as “an exorcism of lost souls”, ‘Devastha Vili’ is usually performed during the Lent period in the coastal regions of Kochi and Varappuzha dioceses. 

Believed to have been composed by St Francis Xavier, when he came to these shores in the 16th century, the hymn dwells on the importance of righteousness in one’s life, the inevitability of death, the eternal judgement and offers a way to a spiritual renewal. The tradition stayed on and various versions of it evolved in a blend of Malayalam and Tamil, adopted by the Latin Catholics of the region. 

The Anglo Indian community in Vypeen, however, continued to perform the Devastha in Portuguese. Though not from the community, Godson learnt it from one of its last Anglo Indian custodians Howard Hendricks. 

Today, Godson is one of the only few who performs the Devastha in Portuguese. “As a child, I watched him (Howard Hendricks) chant in Portuguese. I was drawn to the words and the way he recited them. I would listen to him intently and, by the time I was in Class X, I found that I could recite most of it by heart,” says Godson. 

After Howard passed on, Godson has been carrying forward the legacy. Godson’s father Gladwin John, who runs a travel company in Vypeen, performs the Devastha in Malayalam. “Godson is well-versed in the Malayalam version, too, but he felt a deep connection to Portuguese,” says Gladwin. 

Godson Gladwin
| Photo Credit:
THULASI KAKKAT

Godson and his team congregate at the historic Church of Our Lady of Hope in Vypeen by night every Monday, Wednesday and Friday during the Lenten months for the first prayer. From there, they proceed to the Goshree bridge. They halt at several spots on the way to perform Devastha, believed to exorcise evil or lost spirits.  

Author and screenplay writer P F Mathews says the ritual goes beyond the religious realm and harks back to Kochi’s chequered history. Growing up here, he has heard the Devastha in a blend of Malayalam, Tamil and Sanskrit. “It sounds like a deep lament straight from the heart,” he says. 

Just as any other folklore, it revives the stories from the past, he adds. Devastha, therefore, can also be seen as a performing art such as Chavittunadakam. 

In a bid to preserve heritage, Godson, who is currently studying German after completing his B.Sc in Physics, has been teaching younger boys who wish to learn the Portuguese Devastha.

“The person performing Devastha has to follow a strict penance, fast and prayer,” says Godson. “It is a powerful prayer for souls in purgatory and while chanting it, one is not allowed to turn back or stop even if there are sudden disturbances. I have felt tremors in my hands while chanting.”