Kerala Stories

As Kathakali continues its evolution from a 16th century dance-drama-musical in palaces and temples to modern day settings (one of the most memorable performances my wife and I saw was at Kalakshetra in Chennai), it is now entering the informal and intimate spaces where you are just a few feet away from the performers and the connect is immediate. This performance at a hall near us was mesmerising. The setting may have been informal but the Kalamandalam troupe that performed were top class as they regaled us with Attakatha staples such as Kuchela's story, Gitopadhesam, and Panchali's lament to Krishna. We've seen at first hand the rigour that goes into making a Kalamandalam artiste and deeply appreciate the toil and many years it takes to produce such magic.

  In memory of MGS Narayanan (20.08.1932 - 26.04.2025). A historian with strong opinions who freely courted controversy, this was a man I would definitely have met had I pursued my book on Malabar. His book was widely talked about but unavailable anywhere and I'm thankful to my brother Venu for having gifted me a copy. It's a big book demanding a lot of time and I certainly haven't read it in full. One of the regrets is that it ends in 1766 when the last Zamorin commits suicide in the face of Tipu Sultan's invasion. As MGS himself says in his foreword, much has changed in Calicut since then and the city awaits another book to chronicle that story. My own exploration was to see if Malabar was having a renaissance after over 200 years of decline but I couldn't find data to corroborate that hypothesis and so the book idea lapsed.

Can a celebration be detached from its moorings? Every year at Onam, the 30-odd Malayali families in our apartment complex in Bangalore change things a bit to avoid repetition and to make the celebrations interesting for the 200-odd other families in the complex. Up until this year, this meant adding variety to the song and dance programs, arranging a Kalarippayattu demonstration and so on. The event has always been well received by the community. At its core though, there was always a walkabout by a Mahabali in full regalia, a chenda melam, and an unmistakable traditional Malayali feel to the program. This year was different. For the first time, the legend of Mahabali has been largely separated from the event. While we did have traditional events like kaikotti kali by the ladies, the overall theme was more street, less tharavadu. So there was a naadan chaya kada (tea stall), menfolk dressed in red mundu and black shirts, and the song and dance items were more rap than traditional. The...

I've been searching for 'Dhana dhanya sasialatha', a Malayalam version of a Bengali song for several years now. My late mother used to sing it but no one I asked seems to remember it now.  The song is an adaptation of  a Bengali original written by Dwijendralal Roy in the late 19th or early 20th century and which is still popular.  The Malayalam version seems to be lost. Some people say it used to be played on All India Radio in the 1950s and 60s when Kerala state was newly formed. Others say it used to be sung in school assemblies even till the 1970s. But I haven't been able to get the lyrics or a recording or a reference.  If you come across it or know of it, do let me know, it would be wonderful to recapture the memoty. Thanks! Here's a video with both versions.

Over the past few days, I've seen variants of a post on the impermanence of a 'permanent address'. Through the analogy of an address, the posts talk about the futility of trying to hold on to certainties in a changing world. I agree. But I also believe that - at least for us in India - the liberalisation of the last 30 years has accelerated that change and permanently altered the status quo. Over the last couple of years, I completed an exercise that many families in Kerala undertake at some point -- creating a family tree and history. Sifting through anecdotes, dimly or often mis-remembered by older relatives, and scouring available sources for credible facts and figures to validate often apocryphal claims, I put together a timeline for my parent's families going back several generations. It was a bit of a vanity trip, of course. Like many families in our situation, our family trees feature chieftains, royals, vagabonds, layabouts, achievers, and a large number of peop...

T hirty kilometres north of Thrissur in the southern Indian state of Kerala, close to the Nila river (also known as Bharathapuzha), is the small town of Cheruthuruthy (also known as Vallathol Nagar). This is the home of Kerala Kalamandalam, an art and culture deemed university dedicated to preserving and furthering the traditional art forms of Kerala. Started in 1930 by poet Vallathol Narayana Menon and his associates, Kalamandalam offers training in a range of performing arts such as Kathakali, Mohiniyattam, Thullal, Kutiyattam, Carnatic Music, Mridangam, and Kerala percussion instruments like Chenda, Maddalam, Timila, and Mizhavu. A residential institution that democratised the performing arts by opening admissions to students from all walks of life, Kalamandalam offers a Day with the Masters guided tour in which visitors are taken to the various classes being held in the campus. Over a three-hour walk around the large campus, you get to sit in on a wide range of classes from differe...