The Book people(REAR WINDOW)

Picnic. Children the world over simply love it. So did us, at the Mannanam St. Ephrem’s School. Our farthest picnic destination would be Kochi or Alappuzha. More often, it would be the nearby Industrial Estate at Ettumanur or in local lingo, the ‘40-acre.’ Without the services of computer and the internet, one had to read and learn about any destination, beforehand. We were  lucky  that the teachers who led us on picnic tours—Fr.Ladislavoos, Kareethra sir, Simon sir, Chacko sir,Thayyil John sir and the like—were keen to provide us with the same.

Destination Kochi and your rowing eye auto-clicks the synagogue at Mattanchery. Jews in Kochi had been a small yet significant community. P.M. Thomas sir, our history teacher told us that Kochi once had 2400 of them. The Jewish migration to India is said to have begun in 605 BC, when the Persian king set free, ten Jewish families from jail. They sailed eastward and landed at Kodungallur (erstwhile Muziris).  Later when Babylon defeated Judah a second batch arrived. More Jews came as exiles from Israel in 70 CE, following the destruction of the second Temple in Jerusalem. The Hindu kings in Kerala received them as guests and made arrangements for their settlement. And they adapted to the new world peacefully mingling with the natives, at the same time keeping own beliefs and customs intact. Much later, Jews from Europe and the Middle-East made their entry .Paradeshi Jews as they were called, most of them being the descendents of Sephardim that were expelled from Spain in 1492 CE. Today only eight paradeshi Jews remain in Kochi. According to Shalva Weil, anthropologist at the Institute for Innovation and Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, this is the smallest Jewish society on earth.

The Jews in Kerala, though numerically weak, were notable figures in trade and commerce.  S. Kodar and Samuel Halegua were the prominent names during my younger days. Kerala’s lone mall chain at the time belonged to Kodar. Such was his business integrity that the state government allotted him even the license to sell liquor. The chief guest for the quadri-centennial celebrations of the Mattancherry synagogue was the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi herself. And Kodar was the chief warden of the synagogue. Unfortunately, the Jews of Kochi who merged with the Kerala society by learning Malayalam, singing Malayalam songs  and absorbing  the cultural moorings becoming  businessmen, traders, bankers, contractors, accountants  et al  bid good-bye to  this foster land.  Taking away only their nostalgic memories with them they left behind hearty relationships of lasting emotional bonds. We can’t find fault with them. For, the gravitational pull of the Promised Land was so intrinsic that when the state of Israel, their age- long dream came true, they had to succumb to that burning passion. A few are still left in Kochi awaiting the call, either of the promised destination or the eternally promised one, whichever comes first. But there are some others like Mrs. Kodar, unwilling to leave the soil that smells her late husband and 80-odd years of life-breath. As it drizzles outside she would sit beside the window of her bungalow, alone, a deep gaze reaching out to the horizons. The frozen frame of an evanescing age.

The Israelis had been   prone to an eye for eye, tooth for tooth temperament even from the time of the Old Testament. Though the New Testament brought in explicit changes to this philosophy, the Jews do not approve of the new book as such. That much for the People by the Book! (as they are called).The independent state of Israel  that was established by thrashing Nazer’s Egypt and the combined might  of the Arabs in just six days under Gen. Moshe Dayan, continued to anchor on this very same  policy of  aggression  and  annihilation, to sustain the neo  nation and its integrity. In other words, a new version of the traditional eye to eye policy. Remember their response to the heinous massacre of the Israeli athletes by the Palestinian terror outfit Black September in the Munich Olympics village in 1972. They eliminated the terror gang by hand picking each one involved in the gruesome plot.  Not retribution but keeping Palestine subdued  by  terrorizing was the real intend as echoed by David Kimch, the deputy chief of the Israeli intelligence agency , Mossad ; ‘’The aim was not so much revenge but mainly to make them frightened. We wanted to make them look over their shoulders and feel that we are upon them. And therefore we tried not to do things by just shooting a guy in the street  …’’ The decision was not taken in a fit of anger or anguish. The then Prime Minister Golda Meir after top level deliberations gave green signal to what was termed the ‘Operation Wrath of God.’ The planning and execution far outwits even the best of crime fiction. Abdul Wael Zwaiter was having supper at his Rome residence. Two Israeli agents were patiently waiting outside to make it his last supper. And they did not betray their lords, a full continent away. A copse with eleven bullets on it was all that was left for the Roman cops. By the time they had their inquest ready, the agents of operation wrath had landed in Tel Aviv. Though the diseased (who was the PLO representative in Rome) was later claimed to have no connection with the Munich massacre, Israel was dead cool. Dr. Mahmood Hamshari, the PLO representative in France was the next target. A  Mossad agent befriended him as a journalist, planted explosives in his land phone and left. Then he rang up the number from outside. Hamshari promptly took the call and was blown up into pieces. Thus goes the wrath of Israeli annihilation style. When Mossad agents shot dead a Moroccan waiter mistaken for Hassan Salameh, who they thought to be the mastermind of Munich killings, international uproar forced them to suspend the operation. Since public memory is ridiculously short and its Jewish counterpart is arithmetically acute, after a deliberate lull, they continued from where it was let off. Israel proved to be a hard nut with their sleuth network, Mossad, the master of annihilation by any means. One may think that there is an inherent contradiction here. That the Israelis who suffered the brutality of annihilation themselves making annihilation their chief weapon of defense. But when it comes to the question of survival at any cost, nothing matters. As they provided a scrupulous character to the savagery of mass killing, the world was witnessing an Israeli model of annihilation. Their justification is simple. When a country that was thrown into the black hole of no-return many times in the course of history, gets a rebirth, dreading unknown black holes and trying hard to avoid further falls is nothing but the inevitability of survival.

Global history of Jews apart, let us go a bit local. Mannanam school had several inmates hailing from the Kuttanadu region. They used to narrate stories about a Jewish land lord in Kuttanadu. Kocha of Vettkkal bungalow in Pattanakkad. His ancestors had come to Travancore from Palestine some four centuries ago. They straight away headed for the king and presented him with a big mirror. Pleased, the king gifted them acres of land in Vettakkal, Cherthala. By farming paddy and coconut initially and then letting lands on lease like the other land lords did, they became land barons on their own. At one point of time they had 700- odd tenants and another 300 as sub-tenants.  Kocha was notorious for brutality. Even minor errors invited severe torture, either by him or by his lieutenants.  Pati kanikkal (presenting before the baron’s doorstep) was another ‘custom’ Kocha had practiced. The tenant ought to show his newly-wed wife to the land lord the very next day of their marriage. If not that good-looking, she would be sent back. Otherwise, she had to stay at the lord’s bungalow for 90 days without any contact with her husband. On the 91st day, her parents and relatives could come and retrieve her after placing presents at the lord’s feet. Though this custom was almost extinct elsewhere, Kocha observed it assiduously.   Young tenants dreading Kocha’s wrath kept their grin, quite. The baron had a factotum who was equally brutal: Raman. With the advent of labour trade unions, tenants in and around Pattanakkad gradually began to show their spine. One day, a labourer complained to his union leader about the brutal treatment he received at the hands of Raman and co. The leader shouted at him: ‘’don’t you feel ashamed to cry? Go and retaliate.’’ It was a turning point in Pattanakkad’s history. Labourers attacked and beat Raman to death.  I don’t know the later whereabouts of Kocha. However one thing needs to be stated. Kocha was an odd- one out, as far as the Jewish community in Kerala was concerned.

Back in Israel, the Jews from Kochi earned a new title: the kochinis. Though they have merged with the mainstream of their motherland, they still keep the ‘mallu’ habits as a cultural hang-over from their foster home. The kochini grandmas who taught their grand children Malayalam songs are reported to have arranged in Israel, even some permanent venues for their performance!

Indians have always treated the Jews as family members unlike in many other parts of the world where   anti-Semitism scaled dizzy heights of inhumanness. The Nazis under Hitler alone eliminated 90 lakh Jews. The holocaust nightmare still haunts humanity. I too have a bit of it personally with the indelible memories of visiting the holocaust sites in Germany and Austria. The concentration camps in Dahau and Mouthosen gave me a mute wave up my guts that made me imagine the journey from hell to hell. Looking back at history, I feel proud that we could keep kochinis away from hell.

The history of having been good to their brethren does not make the Jewish police any bit lenient to you. I had gone to Turkey with wife Lakshmi to attend the UN Habitat Summit in Istanbul. There is a regular cruise service to Israel and Egypt from Cyprus. We boarded it for a short trip. The ship reached Israeli shores. Every one stood in line with their travel documents.  The Israeli police verified them and cleared all but us. The chief officer asked us to sit in a corner and wait. When all the other passengers were cleared the cops came and sat round us, as if for a grilling session. It actually was one. They scrutinized our passports in detail. Since I had too many visits abroad, mine had become a bunch of passports tied together. They perused them all. Then an abrupt question, like the one usually reserved for terrorists: ‘’who are you?  and what brings you here?’’ My reply that we had come to see Jerusalem and Bethlehem related to Jesus Christ’s life did not satisfy them. Who all would you meet in Israel? Where‘d you stay? What are you in India? Interrogation went on with one man repeating another’s question in a tougher tone. When it became unbearable, I asked them in return, ‘’ what do you want? You must be having some doubts. If you make it explicit, perhaps I could help clear it.’’ The senior officer felt some sense in it. ‘’Your visa documents show that you’ve visited the Arab countries eight times. What for? Who to meet?’’   So, that’s it! There always lies a pall of suspicion between the Israelis and the Arabs. Conceiving the foe’s friend as foe is quite natural. I patiently explained that lots of Keralites were employed in the Gulf countries and that being a government officer I had to visit them. I also made clear the rationale behind my visits, both official and otherwise. The ice began to melt. It was then that they chanced upon the ID card kept inside the passport. It was issued by the habitat summit’s organisers indicating my status as the special invitee of the UN secretary general. Next query was on that point.  I had to brief them about the Nirmithi Kendra and its mission to build houses for the poor, the ‘global best nomination’ it received at the summit et al. The air of suspicion was removed.  Changing gears, they politely escorted us to the other passengers. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief.

A really interesting ethnic breed indeed! Think of radical trend -setters in human history, and Jewish names prop up the charts. Albert Einstein in physics, Karl Marx in economics, Sigmund Freud in psychology, Noam Chomsky in linguistics, Ludwig Wittgenstein in philosophy. The list extends to even block-buster movie making with Steven Spielberg. Their Indian kin were not without their contributions either. Frederic Jacob who successfully led Indian forces on the Bangla front in the 1971 war was a Jew from Kolkata. Litterateurs like Nissim Ezekiel, Esther David and Anita Desai became names to reckon with in English writing from India. How can Bollywood forget its progenitors like Ezra Mir, Ruby Myers and Aaron Joshua?

Shylock is more famous than Shakespeare, his creator. Courtesy, the much tossed up Jewish miserliness. Once an Arab undergoing a surgery was in urgent need of blood .His being an extremely rare group, the fellow placed an ad on the Net. A suitable man turned up in time. He was a Jew. The surgery was successful and the happy patient gifted the Jew with a Rolls Royce and a diamond. Three months later the Arab was again in need of blood. The same donor gladly obliged again. This time however, the recipient gifted just a couple of cashew packs. Surprised, the Jew asked the doctor about this drastic change in character. The doc said: ’’ He gave you a diamond and the car when he had Arab blood in his veins. Now he has Jewish blood in him.’’