THE morning I am to visit Cochin�s Jew Town on the island of Mattancherry, I pore through the literature my suite in the Taj Malabar has to offer. Not surprisingly, I come across a mailer compiled by the Kerala Tourism�s spin wizards. It is made up entirely of articles on the state that have been written by foreign travel and food writers. These have been published in National Geographic Traveler, the Weekend Financial Times of London, Geo Saison of Germany, Conde Nast Traveller, Time magazine. Cursorily, I flip through it. And this is what my eye stops on. �... the loveliest part of Mattancherry is Jew Town, a traditional quarter of shuttered houses in ghost-shades of once audacious blues, greens, and ochres, often with a Star of David worked into the grillwork of a window. In early centuries, a thousand Jews lived here.

Most are gone. Many old houses are now antique shops for foreign tourists. But the quarter remains the nerve centre for Cochin�s spice commerce. The famous 16th century synagogue is both simple and lavish. Its white plank ceiling and plain walls contrast with ornate hanging oil lamps and 1,100 blue and white Chinese floor tiles. Services are still held here for the few remaining Jews. There are hardly 15 left. What will be the future?�

From my earlier visits there, I know that the surviving Jews do not know the answer to this. Nor do they particularly care. Only seven families stay in Jew Town. The rest have migrated to Israel. Not because India has persecuted the Jews. Not in two thousand years. This is the only country in the world where that is so. The Portuguese did, yes. But never the Indians. Whoever is left will decide what the future is to be. Happily, the streets of Jew Town, with the spice market and tourist shops selling curios, still have houses with Jewish names. Solomon, Isidore, Cohen, Jagmeah, Neroth John Chandy, Mandalay Hall, Solomon Hall, and I. S. Isidore, outside which a notice says: Please do not sit on the steps.

The synagogue stands at the end of the lane, historic but not impressive, with a clock tower that has stopped at 10.40 o�clock. You have to remove your shoes to go inside. Fortunately, photography is allowed. But not video cameras and handycams. The ornate doors of the 1568-built synagogue open to reveal a silver-clad Torah, the great scrolls of the Old Testament that are used in the services and which are made of sheep�s skin. Copper plates depicting the grants of privilege offered by Cochin maharajas, Hebrew inscriptions on stone slabs, and other ancient artefacts of the evidences of Jewish history are stored in here. The old caretaker of the shrine, the last surviving Jew, points out the exquisite hand-painted floor tiles and says they were imported from Canton. They are in a willow pattern and every tile is different from the others. Outside the synagogue is the Jewish cemetery. And the spice market and antique curiosity shops.

The antique shops depend and survive on the trade that the tourists coming to visit the synagogue bring them. They are vast and cavernous and lead, from bright and colourful exteriors that open attractively onto the streets, deep into the bowels of the tiny structures that house them. They are run by enterprising Malayalis and young Kashmiris eager to please. Outside them you will find old and carved wooden statues of Jesus Christ and Lord Ganesha, jade bric-a-brac, porcelain plates, stone gargoyles, jewellery cases in all shapes and sizes and made of wood, brass, and glass, bronze dancing Natrajas, huge cow heads in wood, antique furniture to delight the last of the Maharajas, bottles and decanters for ancient spirits, lamps, urns, grinding stones several hundred years old and costing as little as Rs. 9,000 and as much as Rs. 15,000, chests of drawers, wall hangings in silver, marble birdbaths.