Vacation time is travel and small trips time!

Can you hear the sighs of contentment and general sense of laziness pervading here at Karthi? Yep, the big break of the year is here. No more school lunches to pack everyday, no more nagging about homework, no more hurried bathroom breaks required when the school bus is almost at the doorstep... yep, not for another two and a quarter months!!!

We celebrated the first weekend of our freedom with a mini-outing to a place that was not very likely to hold our young kids' interest. But we were pleasantly surprised when the kiddos enjoyed the trip. This is where we went...

Nope, sorry, not my ancestral home! This is the front view of the Koyikkal Palace in Nedumangadu which now houses a Numismatic Study Centre and a Folklore Museum. The palace itself is a humble dwelling - a grandiose double-storeyed naalukettu. It was abandoned and in ruins when the Archaeological Survey of India adopted it and made it a repository of those ephemeral fragments of our culture that are fast disappearing.

The numismatic display has coins worth a lot and the knowledgable docent really drew us enough to ask questions which she fielded with equanimity. For instance, there were these tiny little coins which looked like cousins of manjadikkuru.  I wondered aloud how ever in the world did they manage to count those coins. In reply our docent showed us this:

They just poured the coins into grids like these, gave it a shake, swiped off the excess and counted  by the board! Great, innit???

But more fascinating than the money was the folklore museum which actually looks more like a collection of old, forgotten things from our old homes' attics. But as we went through exhibits, we realized that our kids have never seen these things in their lives and didn't know what they were used for. Even we hadn't seen some of them in use.

Do you know what these are?

These are known as Ammaanakkaay, literally "juggling balls" and were vessels for a primitive form of preventive medicine. When seasonal epidemics ravaged the land, people would throng temples for succour. The local velichappadu would fill these balls with medicinal herb powders and juggle them in the crowd, thus dispersing the medicine among the people. Wow, physic, psychic and entertainment all rolled into one! 

And how many of you have seen one of these in an abandoned corner of your parents' homes?

This was what busy moms of yore resorted to when they didn't have the time to hold their kids' hands to steady their first steps. Yep, the original baby walker!

Apart from those lovely, worn items of domestic use, there were also some gruesome things like this!

This is what wrongdoers were punished with in those days. The whip's lash ended in the tail from a sting ray. The wound inflicted by this grisly thing would fester around each anniversary of the punishment, making it unforgettable as long as the recipient lived.

Besides such  mundane things are instruments of torture or baby care, there were also exhibits of folk art forms too..

Cat's cradle aka kayar pinnal

Can you name the three Thullal forms??? C'mon, be a good sport, don't Google it..!

There are numerous other exhibits - too many to show here. Another group of these are these lovely pieces that were thrown out when a local temple was "renovated" - the ASI scavenged the pieces and scrubbed off centuries worth of grime and garish paint to reveal these:

No doubt, those were REAL artists and artisans who designed and executed these as opposed to some nouveau artists who don't even know how to draw a decent perspective and still call themselves artists by producing high-faluting "interpretations" of their work! Yep, I mean several artists that I saw at the recent Biennale!!!

I have to say this: the docent of this museum, I totally forgot to ask the worthy lady's name, was the one who made the exhibits come alive for us. She was very knowledgeable and courteous - not just another government servant doing this for the salary. We showered her with our gratitude when we came out of the museum and words were all she would take from us. I hope we can we meet her some other time. We lingered around the palace grounds for sometime, even under the glaring Meenom sun, the palace and its grounds were verdant, cool and an ideal summer getaway spot. 

The Elanji gave us plenty of  shade and fragrance...

A single Elanji blossom

And our resident joker kept us in stitches....

Yeah, he thinks he's doing the Ottam thullal, of course!

Do take the kids for the trip and enjoy a lovely couple of hours in a cool palace visiting with the past. Directions to the Koyikkal palace? You were already Googling for the thullal forms, just Google this too, huh!!!!

A Kanji day (in the good sense!)

Much needed and heartily appreciated rainy day here at Karthi. Overcast skies, thunderstorm, intermittent showers and frequent power outages. Plentiful "aaahchoos"  and complaints of throat aches to be heard. A perfect day for this...

Hot and steaming Podiyari Kanji with dollops of slightly tangy curd, Vanpayar Mezhukkkupuratti for protein, crisp papads and multicolored fryums for fun, lime pickle for spice. Yum!

Revolutionary Breakthrough!!! Easiest Way to Lose Weight!!!!

Eureka! Eureka!

Last night, several years of my research into finding sure-fire methods for sustainable weight loss reached their culmination! Before I reveal this momentous discovery to you, let me first enumerate the myriad benefits of this ULTIMATE weight-loss method!!!!!!

1. Eat ANYTHING you want and still weigh NEXT to NOTHING!
2. NEVER again count calories or hunt for calorie charts for Indian foods!
3. Portions size? Who cares? Eat JUMBO size portions of anything you want!
4. Absolutely NO side effects except for lots of confidence and enhanced self-esteem!
5. No need to work hard at the gym ANY MORE and permanently damage your knee joints!
6. Save money by cancelling your gym membership and by never having to buy another diet book/ workout DVD etc. EVER AGAIN!!
7. No Diet foods or costly medications required, it's DIRT CHEAP!!!
8. The results are INSTANTANEOUS!!!!! 

Oh, if I had only known this earlier, I could have escaped from YEARS of misery at being overweight. The solution is so simple that a child can do it!

In fact, a child did do it...

Aaaand you weigh....

Yup, thaaat's right, NEXT TO NOTHING!!!!

Disclaimer: Please follow the weight loss method described at your own risk. This website washes its hands of all negative consequences arising from not aligning the chair properly or leaning forward too much over tummy to peek at the scale resulting in overbalancing and subsequent contact of subject's nose with aforesaid scale. Please note that as with all weight loss ads, model in photos is very, very slim.

Movie Review: Celluloid

This weekend we finally ended our drought of watching movies in the theater. Not that we were not watching new, good movies - there are still good movies from 2012 that we have caught and are waiting to catch on DVD. I'll give you a list of recommendations at the end of this review.

Now to head to Celluloid - it has been making news as THE movie to watch for some months now. As you may know, it is the story of the first ever Malayalam movie and what went behind it. We've all heard  of the "JC Daniel Lifetime Achievement Award" given by the State of Kerala, but did you know that it is given in the name of a man who achieved nothing but financial ruin and neglect in his lifetime? He was given his rightful place in Malayalam movie history due to the efforts of ardent cinematic history lovers only about 70 years after his first and only movie was made.

Celluloid is not just the story of a man who wanted to bring this new artistic form into his state. It is also a window into a socially dark era that was bound by caste and creed differences. It is at the same time so terrifying and so heartening to view those incidents on celluloid (or digital form!) and know that although they still do exist, those demons are much more tamed now - dangerous yet, yes, but not showing all their fangs and riding roughshod over the whole society. One cannot but wonder at the enthusiasm and persistence of a man who will go to literally any end to learn a new art form and create one of his own literally from scratch. It is perhaps well that his story was not known widely, one wonders how many budding filmmakers would have lost heart if they had come to know how this first Malayalam filmmaker (and first leading actor too!) fared in his life. But then I think, true artists cannot but help following their Muse where it leads them!

Director Kamal has walked the narrow path between documentary and feature film pretty well, achieving the fine balance in telling the story that might have degenerated into maudlin drama easily. There are humorous moments, tense moments and exciting moments galore. The cast consisting of Prithviraj, Mamta, Sreenivasan etc., have done an exemplary job. Prithvi as JC Daniel richly deserves the award for Best Actor for the homework he has put in - it must have been refreshing for him to essay this role after playing a taciturn hunk in Aiyaa. Chandni - a fresh face - does justice to her role as the first heroine of Malayalam cinema.

Much more than just the entertainment value that this movie provides, it makes me grateful for the personal freedoms that we enjoy in this time and age. My sentiments were amply echoed in the applause and sighs of the rest of the audience. We had had an inkling of the standard of the audience that had come to watch the movie when my DH observed that the four-time repetition of the Polio vaccine ad did not invoke the customary catcalls.

Do go and watch Celluloid!!

My recommendations for recent Malayalam movies to watch on DVDs:

Ozhimuri: Directed by Madhupal. If Celluloid was not around, this movie would have won the award for best film. I had wanted to watch this movie, but it was shown only in one theater and stayed for only a week. Thank God for DVDs. I cannot watch it enough for its setting, its language, its history and its brilliant psychological analysis and a brilliant cast. Must watch.

Chapters: A "newgen" movie that has an interesting format, and intriguing storyline. Good for one watch.

Jawan of Vellimala: A Mammootty starrer that was thoroughly massacred by critics - but which we found to be okay for one watch at least. We certainly didn't feel like that it was a total disappointment. 

Trivandrum Lodge: We avoided this movie in theatres because our kids did not appreciate being left behind when we went to see 22, Female, Kottayam. But we thoroughly enjoyed the movie on DVD. 

Black Friday: The story of the adventures four different groups of people go through in the space of one day in verdant Alleppey. Good for one watch.

Arike: Has the feel of a novel set in the 80s. Syamaprasad's latest is more food for the mind than the heart, but still manages to touch somewhere. Although the movie moves forward to a foregone conclusion, the path it takes remains obscure and delights in its unique twists and turns.

Kochi Muziris Biennale!

I had read about the "art explosion" happening in Kochi since first news of the Biennale started appearing in the papers last year, but was not particularly interested in it. That was till the week before last when I came across this post in Chai n' Spice, Sunita Mohan's delightful blog. I was hooked the moment I saw her wonderful pictures and when I read that she had come all the way from Mumbai to take in the art exhibition, I felt a twinge. The twinge grew into an itch when I saw that the biennale would conclude on March 13. Within a day or two, I had made an appointment with one of my dearest friends Tessa who lives in Kochi and we decided to have a "girls only" day out in the lovely environs of Fort Kochi (not because our DHs refused to have any thing to do with art, oh no!)

So last Sunday, instead of sleeping in, there I was on the  6 a.m. Shatabdi train to Kochi. My art viewing started when I was on the train itself, catching a vignette of the dappled waters of the Anchuthengu lake through a lovely frame of coconut trees and distant hills and colored by the lovely rising sun. Within four hours I had met my friend and her cousin and we were crossing the Venduruthy bridge into Kochi. As we trundled along the narrow roads and gasped each time another bus passed in the opposite direction almost skinning our bus, people were thronging the several churches on the way to their Sunday devotions. By the time the bus reached its final destination, the Fort Kochi bus stand, we were the only three passengers left. A few questions led us to the ticket booth for the biennale.

For those who intend to go there, the official biennale site is useless when it comes to what to do and where to go. So here's the lowdown. Tickets are available at the Aspinwall venue in Fort Kochi as well at the Durbar Hall venue in Ernakulam. These are the main venues and here is a list the others - except Pepper House and Moidu Heritage building

The Aspinwall House has the largest number and variety of exhibits. We took almost 4 hours to just have a cursory look at most of the exhibits there. Word of warning: wear your most comfy pair of shoes - there is a lot of walking and step-climbing involved. We got our tickets and the mandatory map of the northern tip of Fort Kochi where all the venues except Durbar Hall are located.

For a Sunday morning, we were early and there were only a few other art enthusiasts. The very first exhibit was Done and Dusted: a video installation that was described thus: (sorry for not capturing the English version here)

The inside was too bizarre to describe. There were two huge suspended inverted copper cauldrons into which the faces of two elderly men were projected. One simply kept rolling his eyes from time to time and the other sneezed and yawned alternately. In the intervals between eye-rolling and  the rest, a table with sundry objects laid on it between the two men vibrated so hard that we were sure the things would fall off. We were at first a little scared and then startled into laughing aloud. I hope the artist was not anywhere near us, he would have been flabbergasted to see his interpretation of the "discrepancies in archeology" and his depiction of the "confusion engendered by the questioning of our origins" being subjected to irreverent laughter. It was a good thing that the artist's interpretation of each exhibit  was given alongside most of the works, because we couldn't make head or tail out of most. For example, take this huge intallation that covered a whole wall:

I loved the technique - you can see what I mean by looking  at this closeup:

The  "pixels" are pictures of shop signs and these were used to create the pictures in mosaic fashion. The bottom of the painting looks like a classic painting. My interpretation of the piece was "the job was so tedious so i stuck them all up higgledy-piggledy after the first few rows". This sent my friends into a paroxysm of laughter that caused an earnest young man with an official tag to ask me very seriously if I had got the meaning of the work. I sincerely hope it was not the artist!

But then there were some that took our breath away by sheer beauty and simplicity like this gossamer web - who cared what its meaning was????

I was overjoyed to see Vivek Vilasini's famous "Last Supper - Gaza" in the repertoire!

Now that's MY idea of high art! 

An installation of "post card paintings" that had absolutely lovely prose on them was another favorite of mine. I wish I could have each of those postcards to read over and over.

And this would be a splendid idea to try in a garden:

The insides of the shells were painted in different hues, punctured and scored to make patterns - I could have spent a whole morning under them, looking at each shell and watching the sky through them...

Obviously I cannot show you all the things that I loved at the biennale - you have to see it for yourself. I will post more pictures in subsequent posts. You can see more pics of street art and the exhibits at Pepper House over at Chai n' Spice.   

Let me leave you with some more pointers if you intend to visit the biennale:

1. Carry plenty of water. There are water dispensers at the Aspinwall House, but nowhere else.

2. Try to have food at mainland Ernakulam - the Fort Kochi eateries fell into two categories: grossly overpriced and simply gross.

3. Photography is allowed everywhere, videography is not.

4. Try and watch Gitanjali Rao's "Printed Rainbow" a Cannes prize winning short film in its entirety. Don't miss it.

5. Don't be confined by the artist's interpretation of each piece - make up your own interpretations, don't be scared! Don't take the installations too seriously. After all one of the purposes of art - if it has any purpose at all - is to entertain!

6. Catch the government ferry to and from Ernakulam and Fort Kochi - lovely! Cost - Rs. 2.50 per person each way!!

7. Keep your eyes open when you go about - lovely paintings jump out everywhere - not just the main venues - see what I mean?

As I took the evening Shatabdi back to Thiruvananthapuram, I was treated to yet more displays of the works of the Greatest Artist of All. Isn't it wonderful that we Malayalis can have our fill of nature's beauty by just taking a 3 hour-train ride! Wow!

Is this what parenting is all about?

Hmm.. it feels weird to be typing without the help of my left forefinger. I'm having to hit the backspace button a lot. For the past two days I've been nursing a grievous knife injury to the tip of that finger and I've adopted a "bless-the-world" gesture holding that hand away from all accidental contact with anything. I may also call it my "beacon of hope" gesture because of the huge white bandage that provides extra cushioning...

But where were we, aah, the question of what parenting is all about... this question was brought about by a recent event.

Last weekend, our Anikkuttan's school was celebrating its annual day. The hero was appearing in two solo performances (reciting the names of months and a song) and a group dance. I was in charge of making him practice the solo pieces at home. The song was "Ambalappuzhe" from Adwaitham and it was heard at Karthi ad nauseam till now we all are ready to flee if any one starts singing that song again.

So the big day dawned and DH, Kunjunni and I were seated in the second row eagerly awaiting the first stage performance of the youngest member of our family. When "Nidhin Rajesh - Cinematic Song" was announced, I was all a-flutter as though I were to be on the stage. Kunjunni, who fortunately doesn't know the meaning of the word "stage fright" confessed that his heart was going pit-a-pat at the thought of his young brother performing. DH was the only one who looked stoic among us. Soon the curtain went up. There the little guy was, all smart in a kasavu mundu  and blue khadi jubba . There was a pregnant pause and this was heard, "Good afternoon everybody! I am Nidhin Rajesh. I am going to tell you the names of..."

We were all aghast. He finished his speech. His teacher came on stage and whispered in his ear and went back. We waited in nervous anticipation - "Good afternoon everybody, I am Nidhin Rajesh..." 

"Oh no, not again!" went his brother! As his little speech wound to an end again, he looked back at his teacher who gestured to him to sing. But he shook his head and refused. He was NOT going to sing. As we tittered nervously the curtain went down on the poor guy. Little did we know that the drama had only started...

Parents had been forbidden from entering the makeup room for the duration of the program, so we knew something was amiss when Ani was brought to us by a teacher. He wanted to see us and go home. He didn't want to stay for the dance program or any of the rest of the programs. I went and soothed him at first and sent him back along with the teacher. Five minutes later, he was back on his own. This time his father went along to encourage him and persuade him to get dressed for the next program. Ten minutes later, DH calls me admitting defeat and thinks it might be better for all of us to leave.

Okay, Momma to the rescue again: the recalcitrant performer had resisted all of his father's persuasion including threats and was seated on a desk. I decided to play good cop and went along these lines,

"Hey, we are all waiting to see you dance. It's ok if you didn't sing. Your speech was very good. Let's go and change!"

"No, I wanna go home!"

"I hear the costume is very nice (heard nothing of the sort). Shall we go and take a look?"

"No, I wanna go HOME!"

"Your friends will all feel sad if they can't dance with you. Even your teacher will feel sad!"

"I wanna go home"

At that moment I tried a different track. I huffed and puffed and said: "Ok, we are going out to have PIZZA after the program. You won't even get a SLICE!"

The little guy shrugged his shoulders and slid off the desk saying, ''Oh, okaaaay. I will go and dance"

As soon as I had picked up my lower jaw from the floor, dusted it off and put it back, I followed him to the make up room (where all the mothers were already there) and helped him into a Punjabi style costume which he absolutely loved. Thereafter, he was thoroughly happy with me fussing over his costume and turban, picked up his dance props and went along with his mates for the program. Once he was on stage, there was no hesitancy, no mistake, he only held his face a little sideways because he felt a little shy. He even managed a tiny wave to us in the middle of the dance and we three beamed with pride and laughter. Oh the sheer relief!!!!

Which brings me back to my original question: Is this what parenting is all about? Learning which button to push at the right time?????

Another birthday and how I tamed a wee beastie

Yet another year goes by and I said goodbye to the previous year with some yuuuuuummy black forest cake...

And ushered in the new year the very next day with some nectar-like palpayasam from Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple - aah, the advantage of having an official birthday and a star birthday!!! And this year, both fell on consecutive days too!

DH has bought me a huge gift that fills me both with the tingles of anticipation and tremors of anxiety.  Here's a sneak peek. Can you guess what it is?

 Can't guess? Anyone who called me on my birthday knows by now. So let me show it to you...

Yup, it's a gently-used almost-two-year-old scooter.  This is the beastie that I have been learning to tame since last September.

The last time I tried to master this skill was when I was 27 and just married. DH and DSIL decided one fine morning that I needed to learn how to drive a scooter. DSIL's trusty Kinetic Honda was pressed into service. My masters selected an excellent beginner's course for me - if they had chosen the moon's most asteroid-pitted patch they could not have done better. As I straddled the scooter for the first time, I gazed out upon a bouldery incline with all sizes of stones from the minuscule to the gigantic. My first challenge was to drive the scooter up a slight incline and get to the next level where an even steeper incline awaited me. My DSIL helpfully pointed out the throttle to me and stepped aside while DH (brave soul that he is) beckoned me encouragingly from my target point. As I gingerly gave some power, the scooter barely made it over a fist-sized stone immediately before me. So my instructors told me to open the throttle as much as I could in order to go up the incline. In doing so they also made a tiny novice-instructor mistake – kind of like Arjuna did. So a la Abhimanyu, I went up the incline majestically in full throttle, crossed my intended path and slammed into the stone wall opposite and gently toppled to one side – yup, they had just omitted to tell me when to brake...

Damage - a  little paint off the scooter, a bit of paint off my knees and a hideously swollen ring finger. The wall looked ok to me. 

Fast forward 10 years and last September, DH leaned heavily on me to learn to drive a scooter once again in the totally altruistic cause of making me independent transport-wise. This time he generously offered to pay for lessons so that whatever spills I took and vehicles and walls I damaged would be the school's responsibility. DSIL did offer to send me her Kinetic by train, but I politely declined.  My gallant steed on the first day of class was a battered Pleasure which was missing its headlights and several other things. My instructor helpfully walked behind me holding on to the handle behind while I hopped and bumped with both feet on the ground. The second day my teacher left me to my own devices and I went for several rounds of walking with the scooter around the yard. On the third day I put up my left foot on the floor board, but it had this tendency to jump off at the slightest wobble. By the fifth day I astonished myself by being able to put both feet on the floor board and managing to stay on course even though I wobbled horribly and was in imminent danger of driving into the boundary wall or the house on several occasions. However, the Pleasure was done for. Over the next several weeks, his throttle was so shot that either I had to push the scooter up and down the yard or it was stuck at full throttle when one had to just use the brake to drive the scooter. Those were the dangerous days when my fellow-students and I held our lives in our hands while trying to tame the Pleasure.

Fed up by the temperamental throttle and inexplicable swoons, our instructor finally got us a new vehicle - a TVS XL HD. Trying it  out, I realized for the first time that one didn't have to strain one's arms and shoulders trying to turn a scooter and that the wind in one's face is quite enjoyable. But I was destined for the next torture - The 8!!! By this time, I had had a gap of a month from my earlier study period and although I could zip around the yard without incident, for two weeks I could do nothing but again go into my crawling mode as I went round and round among the iron bar markers making no progress. Several of my fellow students were in the same predicament as I was and we sat together wondering whether we'd ever be able to accomplish at least one 8 to save our lives. Reports also came in of several students failing at the DMV's test at 8s. I was almost ready to give up when one fine day I astonished myself and my compatriots by completing one 8 without putting down my foot even once! I was so surprised and elated that I let out a whoop that resounded through the whole neighborhood! After that I've got to the point where I can take several 8s continuously.

So now here I am, looking forward to my test date with a scooter of my own, waiting to take it out for a practice run as soon as we get a chance to take it to the local temple and have a pooja done. Yep, I've got a pretty cool helmet too. If you come over next weekend, you can see me trying out my new scooter skills at the Maruppancode ground, early in the morning! 

And it all goes to show - any old dog can learn new tricks!!!

This post is dedicated to any one who thinks that they are too long in the tooth to learn something new. It might take a bit more practice and a little more time, but you can do it!!!!