Reflections

Over a period of time, I guess it has become a habit for me to resist anything new. I could not have been any less enthused about this trip. The apprehension of encountering everything new, of travelling across oceans leaving behind all things familar along with encountering my little one's put-on brave countenance, made me feel as if I was deserting home and hearth."The next time it will be you and I together exploring this huge continent", is what I kept telling myself whenever the thought came upon me. The day finally dawned and it felt like the last day on the face of earth. I rushed through packing, some last minute shopping. Thanks to my mom and dad, a bright new shiny red suitcase was waiting to be loaded. By eleven in the night, I shut the suitcase after throwing in that last bit of randomly chosen piece of clothing. The cab was arranged for. I had some three hours to 'sleep' and sleep I did... broken, yet sleep it was! It was on my way to the airport t...

It has to be my penchant for everything 'Keralese' which got me to Kannur to watch Theyyam.If you ask me what I knew about Theyyam before I watched it live... nothing at all. I have heard of it mentioned in Malayalam movies,.. remember seeing the fantastically dressed up artists dancing to persistent drum beats. To me it looked all out of a page of a tale from yore... Much later during a series of interesting conversations with a Theyyam enthusiast I got to know more about the art form; the fact that it originated from religious traditions and grew in form and character with the changing times, was something which intrigued me. I wanted to know more. The Nine Lives by William Dalrymple has an entry on the Dancer of Kannur. That story spoke a lot about the artists who masked their faces from real life and adorned the visage of a God or a Goddess offering counsel and showering blessings to devotees who come to visit them.The ordinary man from next door attains th...

To be honest, I went in to Jagriti Theatre with a lot of reservations about the play. True that it has won awards and was performed across the globe... True that it was written by the eminent Girish Karnad and directed by the talented Mrs. Arundhati Raja. It is still a period play and a period play could be very tedious to watch. There were a bunch of us theatre enthusiasts who got together at the venue from different parts of the city beating the traffic and the impending rains to witness this slice from history, thanks to the persistent coaxing of our dear Rihan. After a short delay of around 10 minutes the lights went out and there was an expectant silence all around and we waited... From that moment on I have not taken my eyes off the stage except to stretch my aching limbs or my tired back. The stage was set with the minimal of props but the lights created an ambience of splendour and royalty which took us all back to the hey days of the Tiger of Mysore. Just as the title sp...