DUTCH CEMETERY AND THE BATTLE OF THE BOOKS

KOCHI has a vast hinterland growing spices such as ginger, pepper and cardamom. Arabs, Jews, Dutch, Portuguese, French and English came here to buy our spices and sell their goods. The Dutch, when they left our shores for good, forgot to take the bones of their dead companions. We did not want to throw these bones into the sea and instead we have made the Dutch Cemetery a tourist attraction.(Please click on the photos for a larger view.)




I was astonished to see there were no Crosses on the tombs. All Christian tombs have Crosses.Perhaps you can make a guess.
I wonder how many cities and towns in the world can boast of an exclusive cemetery for foreign nationals who don't live there any more.

Here is an old house left by the Dutch. No one is living here. But I think this house must be infested with insects, mosquitoes, cockroaches, lizards, rats and of course giant spiders with magnificent webs.
Talking of spiders and their webs reminds me of the book written by Jonathan Swift called The Battle of the Books. Here he compares the spiders to the Modern writers and the bees to the Ancient writers. He says that the modern writers are narrow and limited in their knowledge and their work will not last just like the spiders web. On the other hand the Ancient writers are like the bees. They gather their material very selectively and carefully from far and wide from Nature and their writings will last for ever. I am not going to elaborate on this wonderful book but lovers of literature will surely find it interesting. This book has an allegory within an allegory.