ON HERITAGE TRAILS THROUGH ‘THE CITY OF TRUTH'

The book by Captain Ramesh Babu takes us through various heritage trails, helping shed light on the rich history of Kozhikode

- JYOTHISHA V J

Along the Malabar coast of Kerala was a port city that once, as folklore would have it, had a Goddess stranded on its shores. The Goddess of wealth, Lakshmi, was stopped from entering the sea, her father’s home, by the minister of the Zamorin, the reigning monarch. He asked her to wait at the port promising to return with the Zamorin’s consent letting her leave. The minister never returned and instead killed himself in the palace, leaving the daughter waiting along the shore even as her father sent her gifts from across the seas – ships full of gifts!

This fable, extracted from the book Calicut Heritage Trails, written by retired Naval officer Captain Ramesh Babu and published by DC Books, is a perfect opening to the story of Kozhikode – the quaint, sleepy city now more known for its exotic cuisines than anything else. Lucidly taking the reader through trails he designed during an official stint in Kozhikode, Ramesh Babu, a noted history buff and heritage enthusiast, has crafted a perfect handbook for anyone who seeks to explore the city’s fabled past in detail and listen to its stories.

In a sense, the book provides a peek behind the scenes of the famed culinary charm of the city – the stories of how the cosmopolitan settlement came about and how the aroma of spices from its shores decided the course of history. Mariners and traders made Kozhikode their home from the time of the Arab settlers, marrying into the local communities, bringing their faith and cuisine with them to form an eclectic and hybridised mix blending the best of both worlds.