South India – Day 5, part 1
Sunday, February 9, 2025
Backyard supermarket
After breakfast Thomas Mathew took me around his farm, which you can reach by simply walking around his house. It consists almost completely of trees that bear fruits and spices and reminded me of the food forest I had seen at another ARI graduate’s place in Indonesia, though he had never heard the term “food forest” before. His preference for trees, which do not require daily maintenance, is because of his busy schedule and frequent traveling.
Be warned, I am about to give the name of every tree in the order he pointed it out to me. This is for the sake of you “food foresters” out there. But if your eyes grow weary and your mind starts to wander, feel free to skip ahead.
Okay then, we are out the front door and on the right is an allspice tree. Yes, allspice is the name of a spice. It is not a mix of all of the spices, as I used to think. Next to that is a nutmeg tree. It must be fun to be able to pick your spices rather than buy them in tiny bottles. Take a few steps and you are looking at a mighty Oudh Tree, just like the one at SEEDS India. I’m sure you remember its other name, Agarwood, and that it is used for perfumes, incenses, and herbal medicines. Head around the side of the house and you’ll find a mango tree, just in the flowering stage. I am forever missing the mango season in my travels to tropical countries.
Next, you will find pepper vines, which we will become very familiar with in the next days. Then come the jackfruit trees with their massive, but fragrantly delicious fruits. Its yellowish hued wood is excellent for construction! After that are coffee, chikoo (I’ll let you Google that one), and vanilla trees. The durian he grows is a kind of cross between durian and jackfruit. I wonder if it has the infamous durian smell.
Coming around to the back of the house we find the curry leaves that Sally picks each morning. These are followed by some young avocados and Makota Dewa trees, the leaves of which are good for diabetics, which means they are good for Thomas Mathew.
Keep in mind that this is a forest. It may sound as if each of these trees is in a neat line, like an orchard. No, they are scattered here and there, usually with several of each kind. There is a cinnamon tree whose bark is peeled to make the powder you know so well. For the cocoa trees he has made a contract with the squirrels. They eat the fruit when it is ripe and let the nuts, which is what he really wants, fall to the ground. The wild taro, he received as a gift from the forest of Adivasi friends. Next are mangosteen and the hairy rambutan, whose tastes remind me of lychee (which is growing nearby), only better in my opinion.
Okay, now we are to the moringa for boosting your immune system, and coconut, found in so many South Indian dishes. Oh, and here are the mahogany and teak, the forest version of an investment scheme planted by his grandfather and great grandfather. Over there is another aromatic tree, a sandalwood, standing next to a starfruit tree, with its star-shaped fruit and a texture similar to apples. Now we’ve reached the lemons, gooseberries, guava, plum, papaya, and passion fruit. He’s even got Miyazaki Mangos, a mango variety grown in Japan, which commands an astoundingly high price! His bananas come in all different varieties, including ones that turn red as they absorb the iron from the soil. They are interspersed with the plantains we had for breakfast.
By the way, be sure not to stand on an anthill while you are looking up at the dragon fruit vines. Their bites are not pleasant. Getting to the end of the list, there is milk fruit with its leaves green on one side and red on the other, and the miracle berry which leaves a lasting sweetness on your tongue, making whatever you eat next sweet as well. And…wait a minute…I think that’s all. I’m sure I missed a few here and there, but you must be relieved to be at the end by now. What a feast Thomas Mathew and his family can enjoy, with each season providing its own unique gifts!
Fellowship of the deaf
Since it was a Sunday morning, Thomas Mathew took me to church. We bypassed his regular Mar Thoma church and drove some distance to another that he attends once a month. This is a church for the deaf community. He built it more than thirty years ago and then went around the area inviting deaf people in the area to come. He would even pay for their transportation. Today it is a fully operational church, completely independent. “They manage everything on their own. It is their church,” explains Thomas Mathew.
As we entered, I was struck by how noisy it was. Noisy, not with sound, but with the vigorous motions of arms and hands. They were singing a hymn. Thomas Mathew and I took a seat near the front and the service continued without interruption. The pastor signed to the congregation from his podium, but he also made use of a large blackboard that hung front and center. In fact, this blackboard was completely integrated into the delivery of the message. Today’s theme was taken from the book of Mathew and it was about two brothers. Even I could know this because it was written on the board. The question was, which brother obeyed his father, and as the pastor preached, he wrote down important words and points.
Then he did something that surprised me. He asked one member of the congregation who was sitting behind me to come forward and explain his understanding of what he had preached so far. In fact, the sermon was more like a conversation. If a member doubted the pastor’s words or had questions, he or she would sign to him from their seat. The pastor would listen and respond. It wasn’t an argument or debate. It was a slow and peaceful discussion, in silence.
The theme then moved to the next verses which were about “who is the greatest” among you, a segway I could catch because it was written on the board and the “conversation” continued. When the Lord’s prayer was being recited, Thomas Mathew told me that it, along with the hymns, are all in Malayalam sign language. I wasn’t sure what he meant by this, but later learned that the world of signing is just as complex as that of spoken language, with “official” sign languages and many local signs. Here is not the place to go into details, so I will just leave it that they use a mix of English and Malayalam during worship, along with the blackboard for further clarification if needed.
At the end of the service, Thomas Mathew stepped up in front and spoke with everyone in sign. This community had taught him how. I didn’t know what he was saying, but I do know he introduced me, because I was motioned to come and give some words as well. Using my voice rather than my hands, I told them about myself and about ARI, and most importantly I told them what I found most beautiful in this place. It was not the impression of my first experience worshipping with a deaf community, though that did touch me very much. No, it was the fact that the pastor invited the people into his sermon, to ask questions, to challenge him. He did not put himself forward as the one and only authority of the scriptures, but invited people to join him in exploring their meaning. That moved me more than anything. Of course, my words were all in English, which were transformed to Malayalam by Thomas Mathew and then to sign by a non-deaf woman who volunteers at the church.
After the service I had a chance to “chat” with a few members. They taught me sign for “Japan” and “America.” During the group photo I saw that in place of saying “three, two, one,” they use fingers to count down. It was a whole new world for me and I felt as if I were being drawn into it. I wanted to learn more.
This is the first deaf church in Kerala, maybe the first in India where they can meet in an actual church building. It even got a complete refurbishment in 2021 by SEEDS India. Other congregations meet in venues such as schools. There are 54 of them in Kerala. When Thomas Mathew started, the mainline churches told him he was wasting his time. “They will never understand. Let them go to the regular church, get holy communion, and they will go to heaven,” they said. “Sidelining” is what Thomas Mathew calls this.
The full name of the church is Ebeneezer Fellowship of the Deaf and it is non-denominational. They prefer the word fellowship because of the inclusiveness found in that word. Even one Hindu fellow comes every week. After the service they pull out their lunches and hang out, talking the rest of the afternoon. Many of the deaf community men are house painters. They work together in teams and the quality and sincerity of their work has earned them a good reputation. The women are doing tailoring, handicrafts, and don’t forget about their leaf painting.
What a wonderful morning it was. It will remain in my memory for the rest of my life.
Touching the untouchables
That afternoon Thomas Mathew took me to a mirror shop. If you are thinking “that’s out of the ordinary” you would be right. It was quite out of the ordinary. It was one of those local cultural treasures you don’t find in guide books. The mirrors at this shop are all handmade from a metal alloy, and I’m assuming this secret technique has been passed down for generations. Known as Aranmula mirrors, you will find them nowhere else in India, except this small town called … Aranmula. Naturally, I couldn’t leave without buying one, a small one, set in a brass frame the shape of a Pipal Leaf. How special is that?
But the story I really want to tell you is not about mirrors. It is about what happened here back in 2018. This shop was under water. The whole street, in fact, was a lake. That year the monsoons released torrential rains far above what the rivers and dams could be expected to hold and Kerala experienced the worst flooding in nearly a hundred years. Local fishermen went around the “streets” to rescue people stranded on their rooftops. They risked hitting submerged trees and power lines and some damaged their boats, but they came anyway. Now, stepping from a wet, slippery roof into a lilting and bobbing boat is not something most people are used to doing, so naturally the fishermen would reach out and offer a hand or even two hands, which most gladly took hold of. Most, but not all. You see, fishermen are considered low caste and looked down on as smelly laborers. (Never mind, that without them, there would be no yummy fish curries!) So, some upper caste people refused to touch them. To this the fishermen responded, “You think I am untouchable? You are untouchable and I am the Brahmin because I am saving you!” And that’s how it went.