Lanterns, legends and lost souls: Unearthing Fort Kochi’s haunted histories

A deserted street. A single lamp post. A small votive niche holding a few candles, a cheroot and a boiled egg. It is Halloween night, and a group of 20 of us have gathered around Oneal Sabu, who has been leading us through the silent lanes of Jew Town in Fort Kochi. It is close to half past midnight, and we are nearing the end of our walk — one spent chasing dybbuks, forbidden names and tales of ancient jinxes. “Sshh. If you stay silent, you might be able to hear the chains by which this kappiri muthappan was bound,” Sabu whispers, as he guides us through his Phantasma walk. Born and raised in Fort Kochi, Sabu is a culinary anthropologist and storyteller and, by his own amused admission, an incurable romantic about the town that shaped him. His Instagram handle, FC Boy, is a badge of that pride, a tribute to the histories and mythologies he grew up hearing. ### How it all began The idea for Sabu’s guided experiences took shape far from home. While backpacking through Scotland, Sabu joined a spooky walking trail in Edinburgh. “The characters I heard about that night felt like they had stepped out of a Harry Potter book,” he recalls. That experience became the seed for two projects: Community MeSa (with mesa meaning “table” in both Portuguese and Malayalam), a curated communal dining experience that links food to Kochi’s complex past, and the Phantasma walks that explore Fort Kochi’s haunted spots. Community MeSa began in 2024 with the aim of building a community interested in learning about the city through people’s stories rather than through historical narratives alone. The Phantasma trails include Colonial Crawlies, which winds through eerie colonial landmarks, and Phantasma – Jew Town, a walk that delves into the neighbourhood’s haunted spots. There is also the Community MeSa food walk, which takes participants through eateries that remain open late into the night, usually after 10.30 pm. On a Community MeSa or food anthropology walk, FC Boy might introduce participants to Fort Kochi kawah — a black coffee infused with pepper, dry ginger, cinnamon, clove and palm jaggery — originally brought by Arab traders. The menu may also include rose cookies or mussadth, a strong, spicy sauce created by the Luso-Indian community in Fort Kochi. “I strive to popularise local Fort Kochi dishes that don’t fall under Moplah or Travancore cuisines, which were popularised by the British,” he says. ### Spirits, slaves, and forgotten histories Back on the Jew Town walk, we stop before a kapirithara, a small votive niche dedicated to an African slave spirit. It gestures toward a lesser-known chapter of Kochi’s past — the history of African slaves brought by the Portuguese, who arrived in the port city via Africa. These enslaved men were often used to guard treasures hidden inside wall niches and were entombed within those very walls. Locals continue to refer to African spirits as kappiris, and kappirimuthappan is offered toddy, cheroots, boiled eggs, and sometimes puttu, for blessings of wealth and prosperity. Another stop on the route is the tombstone of Kabbalist Nehemiah ben Abraham Mota, one of Kerala’s earliest known practitioners of Kabbalah. Said to be indestructible, the tombstone once stood in the Kadavubhagam cemetery attached to the Kadavubhagam Synagogue. According to legend, the Kabbalist had summoned a dybbuk (an evil spirit sealed inside a box) that was later buried with him. The Kadavubhagam cemetery was destroyed in the early 2000s after land grabbers encroached upon the site and demolished it. However, the story goes that when attempts were made to destroy the Kabbalist’s tombstone, the surrounding area caught fire. The tombstone itself survived. “When people from Kerala think of Fort Kochi, they usually think of the tropes shown in movies like druggies or gundas,” says FC Boy. “ I wanted to break this perception. People from Fort Kochi are quite proud of their roots and heritage and the town’s colourful history. In a way, the town changed the course of history for the rest of India.” FC Boy began with Phantasma – Jew Town in 2022, a 600-metre walk that traces myths and lore specific to the area, such as why a particular name should not be spoken on the street near the Paradesi Synagogue, or why the Kabbalist’s tomb must be revered. Colonial Crawlies followed in 2024. This walk covers Fort Kochi’s seven bastions — Stromberg, Gelderland, Holland, Zeeland, Friesland, Utrecht and Groningen — and explores unsolved murder mysteries, including that of Otta Mulachi, the woman with a single breast, believed to have had a congenital condition. The walk also includes visits to the cemeteries of the murder victims. “Visitors have told me they feel a shift in the atmosphere, or an eerie feeling, as we progress into Colonial Crawlies and I talk about certain unnatural, unexplained deaths,” says FC Boy. When he vividly describes the Kabbalist, one almost instinctively turns around, half-expecting a tall, cloaked, bearded figure to emerge from a dark corner. Sabu believes that folk tales and stories about people need to be told alongside history, because only then does the narrative become well-rounded. “A friend from New Zealand came for one of my walks in 2024. He took a video and posted it on YouTube. And that’s how the walks gained popularity. Then of course, there’s always word-of-mouth, which brings in more new people.” Rain rarely deters participants, locals or visitors alike. And on nights like this, past midnight, lanterns flickering, and old stones whispering, Fort Kochi reveals itself not as a postcard town, but as a town of myths, wanderers, and memory-keepers. At its centre, guiding us with both a grin and a shiver, stands its favourite FC Boy. (Sumita Nair is a freelance journalist based in Kochi, Kerala)