This evening I walked in the gaudily-lit main streets of Thiruvananthapuram among the crowds gaping at the show that is on, under the name of Keraleeyam or the Essence of Kerala.
Continue reading Keraleeyam, Or Narcissus LaughingTag Archives: Thiruvananthapuram
Multiples of Four: Anitha Santhi
This is a guest post by ANITHA SANTHI
We certainly are living through confusing and tumultuous times in Kerala. Amidst the Local Self-Government elections and beef festivals, deplorable attempts to segregate young minds on the basis of gender in campuses ( how one wishes that the same zeal was shown to segregate waste that is spreading like an epidemic), a mini drama was enacted by a few on the outskirts of the capital city. A quote from Bertolt Brecht’s To Those Born Later rings in my mind as I write this :
What kind of times are they
When a talk about trees is almost a crime
Because it implies silence about so many horrors?
The Silence about Trees and other Horrors: Continue reading Multiples of Four: Anitha Santhi
The old Gods haven’t fled: Sankar Radhakrishnan
Guest Post by SANKAR RADHAKRISHNAN
On a morning not long ago, chaya cup in hand, I was getting my regular Kafila fix, when I paused mid-click. What caught my eye was a headline with ‘Gods, Own and Country’ in it. Now that combination of words could only mean one thing — a piece on Kerala. It helped though that right below the headline was a picture of a Kathakali artist in sthree vesham or female makeup.
So I dived right into the essay on Thiruvananthapuram by Professor Mohan Rao. The first couple of lines had me grinning with delight for he wrote of his “four wonderful days” in the city, one that’s been my home for much of the past three decades.
I was so pleased by this that I skimmed the next few lines. Only to be stopped in my tracks, almost spilling some scalding chaya on myself in the process, by the Professor’s declaration that “… Ganesha is not a deity widely worshipped in Kerala.”
Now I’m no expert in Hinduism, but I do know that my extended, and very Malayali, family used to perform a ‘Ganapathy homam’ on a number of specific occasions; before moving into a new house, for instance. And this has been going on for decades. I also remember that both my grandmothers had an image of Ganapathy in their personal pooja spaces. Just to make sure that I hadn’t got my wires crossed, I checked with a couple of Malayali Hindu friends who confirmed that Ganapathy and Ganapathy homams were an integral part of their families’ religious landscape too. Continue reading The old Gods haven’t fled: Sankar Radhakrishnan
Notes on Velaveping Kerala : Inside a Brand-New Paradigm and Outside
Insiders: Velaveping Idukki
All I can say about the Supreme Court verdict striking down Kerala’s position on the Mullaperiyar Dam issue is that we are due for another round of the Hysterics vs. Imperialists media game. The managers of the Hysterics team, our local Malayali politicians, do have the advantage that their experience in fear-mongering has gone up considerably with the controversies over the Gadgil and Kasturirangan reports regarding ecological conservation of the Western Ghats. The Imperialists team out there in Tamil Nadu is also now more experienced, after their successful suppression of their own people’s fears for their lives at Koodankulam. So we are set for an interesting match!
However,please don’t underestimate us. The truth is that you north Indians (or others) never really got us — what we are today you will be –well — ten years later. There are of course simple souls, many ordinary folk in Idukki, who are scared for the land and their lives. But in any society, there are bound to be backward people who are always under old delusions? The sophisticated among us may be marginally scared of the dam break but our fear is not really that the land will disappear. Actually our issue is that the dam-break will make that happen too quickly. Please note that we intend to do it little by little, so that full economic advantage can be obtained! Ah, what is the use of letting everything get washed into the Arabian Sea? Our plan was simple and you will admit that no one can maximise advantage better than us. You have to realize that Kerala’s topography is too unfriendly towards profit-making ventures and we need to do something about it. Consider the following steps: Continue reading Notes on Velaveping Kerala : Inside a Brand-New Paradigm and Outside
Kerala’s Lost and Found Object of Cinema: Bindu Menon M
Guest post by BINDU MENON M
The fascination for films by Kim Ki Duk, the iconoclast South Korean film maker, and his hold over cinematic imagination in Kerala has generated many anecdotal and apocryphal stories in the film festival circuit in Kerala. Given his popularity, its not surprising at all that Kim Ki Duk films are available in the original and pirated forms in electronic markets in major towns i the State. A recent Malayalam short film titled ‘Dear Kim’ is a letter written to Kim Di Duk by his fans from a remote village in the High Ranges of the Western Ghats. Against all odds, a small group of young men who are laborers set out to watch a Kim Ki Duk opening film in the city , but couldn’t make the journey. The CD that they procure of his film ‘Wild Animals’ turns out to be a pornographic film of the same name! They finally manage to send an email to Kim Ki Duk requesting for his original DVDs. The Korean wave , has taken distinct turns influencing mainstream Malayalam film production as well, prompting a wry and satirical remark from a popular internet portal film critic that at this rate Cochin might soon be declared as the capital of South Korea! Parodying another joke that pronounces Gabriel Garcia Marquez as the most popular Malayalam novelist, it is often said that Kim Ki Duk is the most popular contemporary Malayalam film maker!Kim Ki Duk wouldn’t have been a household name without the International Film festival of Kerala,the large number of film festivals that mushroomed all over the state in the last decade and the pirate DVD market.
Continue reading Kerala’s Lost and Found Object of Cinema: Bindu Menon M
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 