Nothing that a mere mortal can complain about when right in front of your eyes goes on the spectacle of extreme fortitude for almost an hour or more. The heat from the glowing red hot coal at 10 feet away was unbearable and uncomfortable.and a nightmare with a camera and a tripod and surging crowds. The only protection is a thin sheath of coconut palm cuttings that are placed on his body and as the show continues, it tends to catch fire ever so often. The dive and pull out continues till the dancer can manage to do it no more. The dancer repeatedly hurls himself into the fire with all his body and is pulled out by two attendants with ropes. A chosen dancer of great ability and fortitude to stomach strong heat and fire and smoke and carbon monoxide.takes on this huge glowing heap of coal cinders. A 10 feet stack of choice firewood is burnt down to red hot glowing coal during the night.Īt about 4 or 5 in the morning comes the coup de grace of all theyyam dances. The ritualised trance ridden dance form of enduring feats and mythical tales of gods and nature gets hot and hotter as the night passes. )ĭSC_4385 2exp sel cu sat le tfn sh 250 sel Sometimes the brain does not work as well as it ought to. )) Anyway blame it on a long hard drive followed by immediate shooting - on a hot afternoon in May. Instead you have slightly blurred image of the fighters which I can claim is done on purpose to show dynamic motion. The take should have been at a much higher shutter speed but I guess I was so interested in bringing the environment into play here that the tack sharp combatants did not happen. Sometimes you miss the action of a fast lens or a fast setting. Young fighters from various schools of Kalari gathered here and here they are on the road going through their routines with actual weapons. They had a Kalari conventino going there. Thirunavaya is a small non descript habitation on the banks of river Bharathapuzzah in North Kerala. We are harking back to centuries ago here, a millenia and more in time frame.īack in Kerala this form of combat has remained as it was practiced earlier.Ī days drive though the narrow highway NH 17 that runs on the west coast of India from Kanyakumari to Mumbai brought me to Tirunavaya from Cochin on one hot day in May 2008 just before I left Kerala for good. It is from here in Kerala that it was exported and developed into the modern day martial art forms of judo, kung fu and what ever other variant you can think of. Kalaripaiytu or Kalari in short is allegedly the oldest form of martial art in the world.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
March 2023
Categories |