We are excited to introduce Kochechi, a humble but revolutionary venture from Fresh Foods Kerala, with the participation of a group of women from a small village named Kumbalangad in Thrissur, Kerala.
Launched in 2019, Fresh Foods Kerala deals with the manufacturing and sale of fish pickles, dry fish, chips, masala powders, and food supplements, some of which are also sourced from the neighbourhood small-scale manufacturers.
As the captain of this ship, we have Baburajan Kizhakedath, a born entrepreneur who is passionate about doing business and empowering people in his fields of interest like football and entrepreneurship.
Now comes the story of Kochechi.
The brand name “Kochechi” is a tribute to Kochechi, one of our family members whom I was very fond of. Kochechi was my mother’s elder sister, and we called her Vallyamma. She was an inspiration to all her family members. Being the eldest of the six siblings, she had to shoulder greater responsibilities from early childhood itself. In a typical family like hers in those days, the parents worked in fields, leaving their children at home, in most cases four or more. Thus the eldest of the siblings would naturally assume the role of the guardian of the younger ones. Thus, in those families, the eldest often sacrificed their education and childhood. Kochechi was no different.
My mother recalls that Kochechi was more than a sister to her. She was a powerful lady capable of managing the responsibilities like the elders. Their father passed away at a much younger age, so Kochechi got burdened with more responsibilities to earn and meet the needs of the family. So she started working as a maid in nearby homes, while her mother worked in the field and other siblings went to school. Thus she hardly attended school and couldn’t even learn to read and write her mother tongue. That turned out to be a much bigger issue in latter part of her life.
When all her siblings got married and shifted to different places, Kochechi was left alone with her mother. Kochechi chose not to marry (I will write about that in another blog), so she stayed with her mother and took care of her till her last breath. I remember, in my childhood, my mother used to write letters to Kochechi because that was the only mode of communication those days. The blue inland which folds into half, and then to quarter, with an extra fold to apply the glue and seal the letter was an interesting artifact to us kids those days. We used to eagerly wait for the postman to deliver the letters, mostly from Kochechi.
However, as we open the letter, we would realize that it was not written by Kochechi, but by someone from her neighbourhood. There were two or three ladies who transcribed as Kochechi dictated; and in those letters Kochechi could never pour her feelings to her dearest Ponnu (that’s how she called my mother, who was the youngest and dearest to her). The reverse was also true. Ponnu couldn’t open her heart to her dearest Chechi, the only soul on earth to support her those days. Ponnu knew the letter would exchange hands in the neighbourhood, so she was afraid that the content of the letter will be a topic of discussion among her neighbours. Those days Ponnu had several restrictions imposed by the in-laws, and visiting Kochechi and her mother was impossible for her. Ponnu had to remain cut off from her family for a long nine years after her marriage.
…. to be contd.
Rajani Baburajan
Co-founder, Kochechi, a brand of Fresh Foods Kerala
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