September 14, 2011
A few memories from yesterday's procession that I forgot in my tiredness at night will be included today as they come back to me.
There were actors dressed as Mahabali and Vamana, from the famous Onam legend, who walked in the procession followed closely by three actors in costumes to represented the fancy dress put on by the shameless who make a living in the name of the three major religions of Kerala: a pot-bellied, sacred-threaded, ash-stroked, hair-tufted Hindu priest; a turbaned, bearded, looking like you-know-who Islamic mullah and a Christian padre in a white cassock loose enough to accomodated one, possibly two, little boys inside it conveniently.
Man missing from this group was the youngster dressed as Parashurama, the avatar of Vishnu, credited with creation of Kerala using his axe. This dude was caught up assisting the float of the Padmanabhaswamy temple replica that insisted on swerving to the right as if divinely displeased at the recent comments made by the Left-wing politicians about the temple treasure. Parashurama was so lost in aiding his original form, Sri Padmanabha (Vishnu), that he recognized his friendly desertion only after the abandoners were around one hundred meters ahead.
An empty chasm of road lay ahead of him!
The black bituminous road, parting an ocean of people rising on either side like the famous Moses scene from the Ten Commandments.
He bolted.
Like the Usain.
No foul start.
Waving his fake axe in one hand while the other constantly urged the sagely wig to stay put. His running action with the weapon resembled the typical, uncredited, movie 'gunda' running towards the hero, moments before he'd be punched or kicked through the air.
The dashing axe-man!
There was no screaming though. May be the beard was glued on too tight around his mouth. The population ocean on either side cheered him on.
If he had thrown that axe with that run up momentum, the sea might have receded those 33 meters from Shanghumukham beach.
Mentioning Shanghu-mukham beach brings to mind the famous eunuch, Chinese admiral Cheng Ho or Zheng Hu about whom I read this morning. In the early 1400s, before Vasco da Gama and Columbus, Zheng Hu led a massive armada of gargantuan ships, including one with an 80,000 sq ft deck and total crew size of 36,000, around the Indian ocean. There is some research that claims he was the first to reach America. The diaries of one of his crew men, Meng Ho, mentions the commodities market of Kochi.
There was a float in the procession yesterday by the Idukki Hydroelectric Project dept. It was a rather gruesome depiction of the aftermath if the dam at Mullaperiyar bursts. This dam is in dire need of rebuilding but damn political disputes between neighboring states is delaying it. If it cracks, two districts of Kerala will suffer irreversible damage and immeasurable loss of life. It would be tragic. But like all tragedies in this nation, it will be forgotten after 24/7 media coverage for a couple of weeks. Weaker construction is a direct fall out of corruption.
And this fall out is not just an Indian phenomena. Looks like China is also bearing the brunt of money-siphoning and corner-cutting in the supe-rfast construction of its high speed rail. 820 miles can be covered in less than 5 hours by these mega machines. That is like going from Kanyakumari to Mumbai in 5 hours. China built this railway along with indigenous trains in 8 years time. But it seems the Communist Part is asking people to show "courage" by riding the rail whose safety has been questioned by some party leaders themselves.
At least the Communist Party there is getting something done. Here in Kerala, it is busy imploding from in-fighting. This lack of a productive opposition is being thoroughly exploited by the Oomen Chandy government that has scored plenty brownie points from the public for its 'first 100 days' program. The government, it claims in centerspread ads in all the newspapers, completed 100 of the 110 projects it intended to finish in the first 100 days. Now a one year plan of new projects has been unveiled.
One of them is to get the work started for the Balaramapuram-Attingal monorail which is part of vision 2030. This 800 capacity monorail will operate every 5 minutes from either end covering the distance in 1 hour with stops every kilometer. It'll be built on beams supported on concrete columns rising from the middle of the current roads linking these two locations through the city. This frequent rail traffic at a height will add to the noise pollution folks had hoped to avoid by buying apartments in the upper floors of high rise buildings.
One of the floats in the procession was for celebrating one hundred years of the famous Malayalam poem by Mahakavi (great poet) Kumaranasan called Veena Poovu (fallen flower). But the hoarding affixed to the radiator grille of the truck carrying the float, had a spelling mistake.
Unfortunate indeed!
Too bad the float meant to evoke the memories of one of the greatest poems by one of the greatest poets of the language contained an error in bold, bright, blue, big lettering. The 'pu' sound in poovu was written with an unnecessary double 'pa'. Manorama newspaper carried a photo of the board today with the caption "Adhikam kadupikkanda" meaning 'don't stress/insist too much', referring to the extra 'p' in the 'poo'.
Learnt from this morning's newspaper that the fire dept float had won the best display award. Well deserved.
I don't know if there is a botoxing effect involved in reliving habits from younger days. It was all deja vu for me to wait for Amma to come back from her office around 5:30pm. For many years in the past, I have done this. With the gate wide open for her to drive in, I would pace up and down the street right outside the house, waiting for the horn when she turns in at the top of the street. Every few moments, I would glance up the street as if my glancing had the power to conjure up her car.
She'd always bring something from the office: fruits, magazine, savoury snacks.
Today it was 'barotta' and beef curry along with the regular fruits package. A Brahmin cook affectionately called 'swami' (pronounced saami) as Brahmins usually are in Kerala, heads the canteen. I think he is the best beef cooking Brahmin in the world. Ancient habits die hard, I suppose. Before Buddhism came around with its extreme vegetarianism, Hinduism was all about cattle slaughter. Nowadays glimpses of this ancient life-style can be seen only in Nepal once a year.
Amma brought the digital version of the wedding album and the wedding video split into 3 dvds. We spent the night watching whole two and a half hours of it. Achan and Amma, who are barely awake after 9pm usually, were not only wide awake but alert enough to identify almost every one among the guests, including those disguised with distended cheeks stuffed with 'payasam' distorting their regular appearance.
I'll note a detailed review of the movie tomorrow. Perhaps even clip some video for youtube.
While watching the DVD, discussion turned to some upcoming marriages. Then it went on to intercaste marriage. There was a color photograph in today's newspapers announcing the wedding of the son of a prestigious construction group (Hindu) with a Christian girl from Thrissur. Hopefully the trend will continue. Suddenly Amma patted on my leg and said, "You don't worry about caste, you can marry whoever you want!" Looks like the astrological predictions are beginning to work themselves into effect.
I should tell my uncle what more to "find" in my birthchart so that Amma can be prepared!
At the end of the dvd viewing, Achan turned to Amma and asked, "Namude kalyanathinu orupadu photo illathirunathinte sangadam ippo theerno?" (Does this make up for the lack of lot of photographs of our wedding?) I think that's the essential spirit of the arranged marriage. Indian parents trying to live their dreams through their children.
A society that runs one generation late in terms of dreams!
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