ﺒﺴﻢ ﷲ ﺍﻠﺮﺤﻣݧ ﺍﻠﺮﺤﻴﻢ 

Dear Brethren,

 ﺁﻠﺴﻶﻡ ﻋﻠﻳﻜﻡ ﺮﺤﻣﺔ ﷲ ﻭ ﺒﺮﮐﺁﺗﮥ

Kochi is the largest Cutchi Memon settlemet in India after Mumbai. It has a well recorded history of stalw-arts in the community exemplified by their successs in business and leadership in philantropy. This edition is dedicated to the memory of those who made us proud in the yester years and to recognize those who continue to carry the flag now. Most of the informat-ion on these pages have been culled from various published documents, the principal source being the Jubllee Souvenir of the Cutchi Memon Jamath and Cutchi Memon Association of Kochi. The information will be updated on receipt of the comments of the Jamath and Association or their members.

When the Cutchi Memon Federation was launched in the 80s there was a high expectation that the Feder-ation would serve as a common platform for the Cutchi Memons all over India and a hub of coordinat-ion among various Cutchi Memon settlements elsew-here in the world. I am not certain to what extent this ideal has been realized. One thing is obvious that the benefits, if any, has not percolated down to the common Cutchi Memon. The very fact that even after more tna 30 years the writeups about various Jamats in the Federation Souvenir has not been updated anywhere even in the websites of various Jamats proves this : see the website of North American Cutchi Memon Jamat which is live on the net today yet carries the same old stories. The Cutchi Memon Digest, Kerala too could not obtain any further information and is compelled to limit itself to the readily available data. It is hoped that this digest will be seen by the scores of brethren who browse the net, particularly via social sites like facebook, twitter etc and feel the need to keep the community knit well and to know each other instead of living alone in isolated groups and clusters.