How every box is checked before it leaves Kacheripady
Damp, crushed corners and loose fuses: what our staff look for when they open and repack each order.
Shopping for the kani in Ernakulam
Konna flowers, kani vellari, the uruli and new clothes: where Kochi families buy what the Vishu kani needs.
In the week before Vishu, Ernakulam gets busy. Families are buying not just crackers but everything for the kani, the sadya and the new clothes. Here is the route many of our customers follow, often ending at our counter.
Start at Ernakulam Market and the lanes off Broadway for the kani itself. Kani vellari, the golden cucumber, appears in heaps two days before Vishu, along with jackfruit, mangoes, raw rice and coconut. Brass uruli and nilavilakku are sold in the shops near the market, though most families use the ones they already have and only buy a new wick and oil.
Konna flowers are harder. The trees bloom on time most years, but in a hot or early season the yellow clusters drop before Vishu. Street vendors near Kacheripady junction and Kaloor sell bunches from the evening before. Buy them that evening and keep them in water so they last till dawn.
For kodi, the new clothes, the textile shops along MG Road and Broadway stay open late in Vishu week. Then come to Kacheripady for the crackers. We open at 8 am on the last two days and stay open until 10 pm, but the busiest hours are 6 to 9 in the evening. If you order on WhatsApp by the Friday before Vishu, we deliver across Ernakulam the day before the kani, so you can spend Vishu eve at home rather than in a queue.
