Temple Moments Part 3: Red Gold And Blue
An azure canopy bathes all beneath it in a still pool of aquamarine;
a temple devotee passes by..
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Picture taken in Kapaleeshwarer Temple, Chennai
Related post
A Splash Of Colour: Part 3
Homes and warehouses in Mattancherry
Picture taken during the Cochin Biennale
A Weekend Break: From Umbrella To Parasol
The parking attendant of a sari showroom in Kannur shelters from the sun.
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The monsoon has finally relaxed its heavy grip on Kerala.
Though floods devastate the northern states of Assam and Sikkim, we in south India are no longer inundated by the rains.
After weeks of feeling almost imprisoned, I took the opportunity to visit a friend in Kannur, a city in northern Kerala, two hundred and fifty kilometres from Cochin.
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Umbrella or Parasol?
Although we tend to use the word parasol when sheltering from the sun, umbrella is just as accurate.
*The word umbrella comes from the Latin “umbra”, meaning shade or shadow.
(The Latin word, in turn, derives from the Ancient Greek ómbros [όμβρος].)
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* Taken from Wikipedia
The Colour Purple – Amongst Others…
Today I came across a small Hindu temple, whose caretakers were an elderly Muslim couple.
Such gentle and unostentatious tolerance of different faith traditions,
in a country whose communal violence often descends into almost unimaginable carnage,
could probably only happen in Kerala.
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Picture taken in a small Hindu temple in Cochin.
A Bit Of A Do?
An explosion of welcoming colour spreads its canopy across the road.
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Picture taken in Fort Cochin
Wandering Westward: The Light Of Votive Prayer
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“..et lux perpetua luceat eis.”
“..and let perpetual light shine on them.”
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Picture of votive candles taken in the Church of the Holy Comforter and St Cyprian, Washington DC
Lunch On The Go
A vegetarian lunch palette in a Kerala roadside restaurant:
the fast-food equivalent of traditional sadya cooking.
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Picture taken in a roadside restaurant, travelling between Cochin and Kottayam.
Halfway Descent
We descend from a morning high above the snow-line, to noon in a very different world.
This is the Nubra Valley, where all is fiercely arid yet almost bizarrely colourful.
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Pictures taken during our descent to the Nubra Valley, Ladakh
Aspiring To Altitude: A Door Opens
A door, shoes and light.
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Picture taken in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Ladakh
Three Colours: Red
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Picture taken in Fort Cochin.
Clip from the “Three Colours: Red” Trilogy
Autumnal Variations
There is, of course, no autumn in the tropics,
nor spring, nor winter too.
Here on the Malabar coast, our temperatures vary very little between January and July.
What marks Kerala’s tropical seasons are the monsoon rains.
But deciduous trees must still drop their leaves.
They may fall individually, while the tree remains dressed in full and lustrous foliage.
Or occasionally, a tree will capriciously display its entire autumn wardrobe,
to stand alone in wistful copper tones, against the sea of vibrant greens.
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Photographs all taken in Kerala: the first two pictures shot in the Koottickal foothills of the Western Ghats; the last, a discarded coconut palm “leaf skeleton”, from the Chellanam backwaters.
Three Colours: White
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Pictures taken in Fort Cochin
Video clip from the “Three Colours: Trilogy”
Three Colours: Blue
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Pictures of shop refitting taken in Kannur, Kerala
Video clip from the “Three Colours Trilogy“.
The Forgotten Colours Of Eating
Returning to Cochin, I hoped to find the restaurant we used on our outbound journey.
Although its wash-rooms had been busy with mosquitoes – a hazard that afflicts lady diners more than men – my guests particularly enjoyed the food.
It was a forlorn hope:
None of us had any idea of its name and we now had a different driver.
As the hours passed and we all became increasingly hungry,
I realised just how impractical the idea was.
With solemn reference to “stepping into the same river twice” and embracing new experiences, I asked Solly, our driver, to stop at the first decent-looking eatery.
Just a few moments later, a sign advertising good food appeared. Solly slowed the car to cross the road and enter a car-park.
It was, of course, the same restaurant we had so happily patronised four days previously.
And the food?
Just as good as before.
Though, for the life of me, I still cannot remember its name..
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Pictures taken in a restaurant somewhere on the road from Cochin to Trivandrum, Kerala.
In Search Of The Exotic
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Gangtok maintains a garden of colourful flowers.
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Its older blooms are particularly exotic.
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Pictures taken at the Flower Show, Gangtok.
Northern Exposure: Part 9
Colour.
If you’ve got it:
flaunt it..
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Picture of boy with umbrella taken in Upper Pelling, Sikkim.
In The Pink
Whether it’s women’s saris, men’s shirts, or house exteriors,
In India there’s an exuberant tendency to think pink!
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Picture taken in Fort Cochin.
A Preference For Orange
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If you like a colour,
Go for it!
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Picture of a house-front, taken in Mattancherry, Cochin.
The Journey Is The Destination: Part 10
Entranced by colour.
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“I’ve dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they’ve gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind.”
Emily Bronte
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Picture of saris drying in one of the Hampi temples, Karnataka.
Fame
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Less than an hour’s journey from Thrissur is the Kalamandalam, Kerala’s school of performing arts.
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On our tour of the campus, we join up with a party of very English Girl Guides.
It seems a somewhat surreal juxtaposition.
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The Art Of Kalam
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The current arts festival in Thrissur celebrates the vanishing art of Kalam, an ancient Kerala folk tradition associated with the cult of Kali.
During the day a floor painting is drawn, using pigments from ground rice, turmeric, charcoal and other natural products.
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But as darkness descends, the celebration takes on a more sinister form.
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Neither Use Nor Ornament 