The Backwaters of Kerala Through The Lens

India’s First Biennale

For more information about the artists, visit their official site here.

Kerala Kathakali Mandapam

The art form of Kathakali is crystallized at around the same time as Shakespeare was scribbling his plays.  The performance is dramatised by presentation of a play usually based on Hindu epics such as Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Puramas. All the great themes are covered – righteousness and evil, frailty and courage, poverty and prosperity, war and peace.

In Kathakali, the makeup is very important to get the character ready for the stage…It takes a minimum of one hour.

The makeup used is made from the powdered/mineralized natural stones, diluted in rose water or coco oil.

    

Fort Kochi, Kerala

It is challenging to arrive at a place during wee hours. We arrived in Ernakulam from Madurai at around 5am. We didn’t book a room at any guesthouse, so we took our chances by knocking on closed doors. We found a place in Ernakulam to stay there for a night, then proceed to Fort Kochi on the next day.

There were many places to do yoga and Ayurvedic massage in Fort Kochi. We came across the Chinese Fishing Nets along the sea side. It was bustling with seafood stalls  and fishing boats. We had an amazing lunch with fresh Tiger Prawns and grilled fish. The last time we had a meal like this was when we were in Sihanoukville in Cambodia.

The chinese fishing nets of Cochin.

Fort Kochi

My handsome lunchdate.