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The French connection
Ocean of colours.
A S SOFIA set foot in Kochi, thousands of colours, scents and lights engulfed her.
For Jonathan who "never seized to discover different worlds each day in Kochi," where the smell of spices floats into streets illuminated by millions of colours, the meeting with the snake charmer in a city street was a haunting experience.
Sofia and Jonathan were among the 10 children who reached Kochi as part of a team selected from six different countries to meet the millennium children of the year 2000 on board the French vessel "Fleur de Lampaul".
The three-day-long visits to the "funny island villages" and the urbanised "peaceful villages" of Kochi, where there were no cars and trucks, and boats filled with passengers, cruises to the backwaters of Kochi, warm interactive sessions with the residents of Bolghatty island, witnessing the fishing activities in Vallams and a few overs of cricket with local children....
The children, along with a team of scientists and mariners, were on a three-year-long voyage, touring the world and visiting remote islands. They set out on their tour in August 30, 1998. In their journey, which covered 50 islands, they reached Kochi, their only stopover in India, after visiting Bali.
After touring Kochi, they left for Maldives.
The journey, which began from West Africa and extended to Polynesia, Asia and touched Greece, ended in Lipari after sailing through the Mediterranean Sea.
The oceanic voyage of the children, named `Children of the year 200 expedition around the world' was described in a French book with the title "Children of Indian Ocean".
The experience that unfolded before the children in Kochi, who were designated as the mariner-reporters, found ample expression in the journal.
For, they devoted 30-plus pages of the 92-page journal to Kochi and the life on its shores.
They also photographed the charms and beauty of the port city, including the statue of Mahatma Gandhi near Rajendra Maidan, the Kinco boats travelling past the Marine Drive, Kathakali, fishing operations and the majestic movements of an elephant for the journal.
The children also made good use of the opportunity to interact with Prof. Ramachandran and Dr. N. R. Menon of Cochin University of Science and Technology and Vijeesh, a local boy who made a living by assisting at a fish-landing centre.
``The Indians looks very clean always and they even change clothes 2 to 3 times a day," wrote another sailor-reporter.
``We imagine a world which may have the colour of our dreams. We talk to the children of the island we cover and they would tell us about their world and the one they dream," wrote one of the children on board Fleur de Lampaul.
By K. S. Sudhi
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Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
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