Art Forms and Artists from Kerala

Welcome to Warrier's Daily COLLAGE January 23, 2021 Friday Kathakali https://youtu.be/KuVYwU9nND8 (Narasimhavatharam: Final Scene) 🙏 Friends As the focus today is on "Art Forms and Artists of Kerala", some Malayalam presentations are included in Collage. I feel some of the videos uploaded on YouTube etc should have given some introduction or subtitles in English. Collage is introducing a young Movie enthusiast from Kannur, Kerala at F1. Watch a couple of Prem Anand's short films which will be in the news this year. Collage wishes Good Luck to Prem Anand and his team. Hope Prem will tell us more about his efforts. 🙏 Nice Day M G Warrier The one book most discussed in Collage during 2020 Restoring TRUST in Governance : India's 2020's Challenge https://www.amazon.in/dp/B08NT36GB2/ref=cm_sw_r_em_apa_hBmYFb7PBYR0M Reviewed @ Amazon.in and in The Global ANALYST. Appreciated in Without Reserve, RBI's House Journal. A Interaction 1) S Nallasivan Dear Shri Warrier, Thanks for the micro editing! I am sure you know what I mean. Your Collage has become very popular because of your good work and sincerity. S Nallasivan (It's "Our Collage". As that name wasn't available, it was named "Warrier's Collage". Thanks for your encouraging words-Warrier 🙏) 2) Sudhakar Didolkar I forwarded the article in the Hindu on Dr. Shantha to my younger brother Dr. M.S.Didolkar who is an oncologist at John Hopkin Hospital in the USA for his information as he knew her personally. Following is the reply received from him which is put on Group for information. "Thanks for the article on Late Dr Shantha. I led the team of 8 surgeons from USA in her institute to give surgical oncology seminar & demonstration. I knew her and her colleague Dr Krishmurthy well. God bless her soul" Sudhakar Didolkar 2) A J Mary Thiruvananthapuram Sir today's "classes" I enjoyed very much. Thank you very much for the inclusion of all the valuable and interesting information and stories 👍🙏 3) R Jayakumar Mumbai It is All about Cricket... It was a wise decision by the Collage to include two articles on the Cricket glory achieved by the Indian team three days back in Australia. For the third consecutive day I have been reading every article appearing in the newspaper as well as in the online media. All speak of the same thing. The fall, the awakening and the rise to glory. It is heartening to read how the past cricketers from Pakistan, England, West Indies and Australia unanimously praise and approve the convincing victory of young Indians against the mighty Aussies. Truly it was like the little lad David trouncing the giant Goliath. R Jayakumar 4) V Babusenan Thiruvananthapuram It is Warrier's beautiful piece on mangoes that prompted me to add this: In my boyhood days, you could not see, in the mango season, a boy or a girl without the marking of the heavenly mango juice from the lip-ends down. Chempazhanthi in the Thiruvananthapuram district was famous for its mangoes besides having been the birth place of the great Sree Narayana Guru. It has been 75 years since the 2nd World War ended and I am one among the few members of the Collage still alive who suffered the ill-effects of the War. Almost on all days, we were under the threat of aerial bombing, as we were living close to the airport. But, if the lady from Chempazhanthi came our way with its precious produce in the big basket on her head and I could get one, who cared the bombing? (Luckily no bombing took place) Another very popular variety of mangoes was the 'Kilichundan'* (one end looked like the beak of a bird) which had the good fortune of acting in a Malayalam film with Mohan Lal as the hero. (*The reference to " Thatha Kokkan gaining its name by the parrot-beak shape of the lower end of the mango," in my article is to the Malabar variant of 'Kilichundan'. All Skye-high mango trees are missing today, but our Family Deity is protecting 2400 sft of space occupied by them and other trees. For those who missed/skipped the link yesterday: "Mango season" https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/warriersviews/mango-season-9044/ Excerpts: "In our compound, more than a dozen big mango trees were touching the skies. Each tree had a name which revealed their identity in terms of the size, shape or taste of the mangos they gave. Thus thondan mavu (thondan indicating big size, mavu is mango tree), Thatha Kokkan gaining its name by the parrot-beak shape of the lower end of the mango, Chunayan, indicative of the sour taste of the mango, Mundan being small in shape, Panchaarakkandy again declaring its extra sweet taste, Panchaara being the colloquial word for sugar, Balinchian disclosing its bland taste and so on were the names of different mango trees in the large compound. Except for a limited quantity for making pickles, mangos were not plucked from the trees. They became ripe on the trees themselves and whatever number was left after feeding squirrels, crows and other birds fell from the trees which we children, including our friends from the neighbourhood, picked up and enjoyed. We took a position in groups at different strategic locations depending on our assessment of the chances of getting more mangos when breeze or wind or movement of squirrels or birds make them fall from the trees.") 5) S Nallasivan "The House of Blue Mangoes" At the outset I must acknowledge my gratitude to David Davidar* who has a Novel to his credit, set in the backdrop of a South Indian Village by the name, "The House of Blue Mangoes". I have borrowed only his Title and this mail otherwise has nothing to do with the Novel. I am going to speak about my House of the Blue Mango Tree. Having been driven out of Madras to seek my house elsewhere with a paltry Rs.70000/- as Housing Loan, yes by none other than the RBI Central Office, I had no other option but to choose a piece of land in my native place. In a way it proved to be a boon as the small two storied house built by me saw my parents spending the last leg of their life in total peace and comfort in their own House. There was a small patch of land that had been turned into a veritable jungle of trees by my father and mother by their untiring hard work which kept them too in robust health in an all green environment and their hard work really gained them, literally fruits of labour many fold. They had planted, nurtured and tended coconut, guava, lemon, mango and even a Jack fruit tree which alone remained barren even today. Our village is at the foothills of the majestic and panoramic Western Ghats. It is being fed by a River on the West and two lakes on the North and South. Though it is not a piece of God's Own Country but by virtue of its location at the immediate back yard, divided by the Ghats, it enjoys the bounties of both North East Monsoon and South West Monsoon. Before venturing into my lore on the Blue Mango, I would like to make a mention about the Lemon tree, which blossomed, bloomed to the full and bore fruits aplenty. It offered succor and sustenance to the ardent devotee, my mother, who made fasting as a way of her life. Who knew that the Lemon tree too had a soul of its own, until, like a human it suffered a partial paralysis, a warning to me that it would not survive long after the lady who had breathed life into it was no more. The other healthy half too survived just another couple of months. It was not all; one of the Coconut trees was struck by lightning and was reduced to a stump in the later days. There are two mango trees, though not of the same family. The Blue Mango tree stands out and surprisingly has two seasons of bearing fruits in a year. When I visited my house last the Blue Mango tree was in full bloom, now has been turned into mangoes of different sizes by the ever wielding magic wand of nature. A fully grown mango weighing a nearly half a Kilo, have a lustre dark green with a shade of blue. Once they are fully ripe the taste is out of this world and appear that no mango grown on this planet would come anywhere near in its flavour and the knack of winning the taste buds of all without exception. In one of his earlier mails Shri Sitendra Kumar had rated Indian mangoes from Alphonso, Dasehri, Langra, Chaunsa, to Banganapally, and more on a scale based on their sweetness and taste. If by chance I am able to send a basket of fully grown and ripened Blue Mango of our own he would blindly certify without hesitation, to be the Queen of all, the best. After all it had been nurtured, tended and patronized with heart and soul by my late mother. When she had been spending few years after the passing away of my father at Trivandrum, she was feeling restless and was longing to be in the company of her foster children at her garden home at Melagaram. She went to the extent of pestering me to take her there and she would be happy there even if she were to be left in the Garden if I chose not to allow her to stay alone in the House. I could not bear her uneasiness anymore and when the Bank had announced the OERS I had opted to call it a day and move to Melagaram with my mother. Yes we had moved to Melagaram, in the first week of April,2004. She was happy and contented and complained no more about anything at all. As she had been predicting that she would have a peaceful end in the house she shared her life with my father, she breathed her last just after three months in August,2004. She did not have any health related issues. When I see the Blue Mango tree in full bloom somehow I am reminded of my mother. Now I feel it is time for me too to retire to Melagaram from the present nomadic life to the House of Blue Mango and to be at peace with Nature. S.Nallasivan (* David Davidar is an Indian novelist and publisher. He is the author of three published novels, The House of Blue Mangoes, The Solitude of Emperors, and Ithaca. In parallel to his writing career, Davidar has been a publisher for over a quarter-century-Collage) B Narasimhavatharam 1) Narayaneeyam: Narasimhavatharam https://youtu.be/ISSQ0sbg2nQ 2) Narasimhavatharam: Story The Story of NARASIMHA Avatar" https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/the-story-of-narasimha-avatar/m-lite C Focus on Arts & Artists of Kerala 1) Raja Ravi Varma: a) The Artist https://g.co/arts/uyFgy5x64bd7CnVq5 b) Life and Times Raja Ravi Varma Biography - Life History, Paintings & Art Work, Achievements" https://www.culturalindia.net/indian-art/painters/raja-ravi-varma.html 2) Mohiniyattam Engaging Mohiniyattam - The Hindu" https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/dance/engaging-mohiniyattam/article4508399.ece/amp/ 3) Kalaripayattu or Kalarippayattu "The Martial Art form of Kerala | Kerala Tourism" https://www.keralatourism.org/artforms/kalaripayattu-martial-art-kerala/27 4) Why Kerala has produced India’s top cartoonists, such as Shankar, EP Unny, OV Vijayan, Abu Abraham" https://amp.scroll.in/magazine/903768/the-best-indian-cartoonists-usually-come-from-kerala-but-why D Faith/Spirituality: V T Panchapagesan Let us learn more about Spirituality.. It means that it is to establish a set of values,Principles and Beliefs That give life a realistic meaning to us and then using them to guide The decisions and actions we take..... Phycologists opine Human brain grasps when they are in threes..... Ahimsa, Non violence , Brahmacharya, Celibacy, and Satya, Truth... Are threes which need to be understood well in our day to day life. Ahimsa does not mean literally non killing, non injury, etc. We may be required to do acts that appear cruel or violent for a higher cause. But the action itself performed stems from Love and Compassion. Gunning down an enemy to defend the Nation is NOT A BREACH OF AHIMSA.. It means that it is to be lived at the mental level, meaning to mentally never curse Anyone or never wish harm to anybody. Therefore at the mental level we must have positive ideas of wishing welfare for all. Then comes Brahmacharya.. This means the attitude of intelligent contact with the world is called Celibacy. It is self-control by reining the senses...It is not total denial. It is self-restraint... Enjoy the world, but let not the world overpower us. It is badly distorted that the higher implication and value have been misunderstood. In short Excessive indulgence in sensual pleasure is to be discarded ...... Finally Satyam which is Truth, means intellectual honesty... When we remotely sense a challenge to ideals in life, we feel daunted and helpless And are ready to compromise on values. This is very bad.. It is the spirit to honestly live our intellectual convictions within... When we understand these three things in depth, we go to a higher Plane of thought elevating us into SPIRITUALITY... V.T.Panchapagesan. E Readèrs' Contribution: C V Subbaraman the memorable Cricket Test victory: It was gratifying. It was worthy of celebration. Though hyperbolism is not necessary. We have to move on. So has to Australia. They, the Aussies, lost their balance once India got dismissed for their lowest total in Test History. They all went up in chorus "A clean sweep is ahead!" Shane Warne thundered: Australia will blow the Indian off. All that was also hyprbole and not necessasry. Cricket has been a great leveller. That leveller happened when our boys drew one Test with dogged batting prowess and won the last one. Aussies tried their usual sledging game. They also tried uncricket method, when Steven Smith rubbed off the guard marks of Pant at the crease - this is not the first time he tried such dirty tactics, he and Warner were banned for one year earlier for tampering with the ball. They have not learned lessons. Justice was done by Nature! It would be better if Australians learned some lessons and began to play cricket rather than play mindgames. Tributes to Dr. Shanta A great lady who dedicated for the welfare of human lives. It is to be hoped that the spirit of her passion will hover around for a long long time. Human liberty: Courts have often been very vocal about human liberty, giving bails as a rule and jail as an exception. It is heartening to hear about it. But when one hears about thousands of innocents in jail without a hearing for their bail for months on end, we have to raise questions about our "vocal" courts. Is justice only for those who have money and power? What kind of justice is this? Life and Death: Many discussions have taken place in a focussed manner. All discussions have a common vein: the inevitability of death for all those who are born. Even those Daanavaas who do severe penance invoking Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva do not get immortality as a boon. And when those doing severe penance seek to avoid mortality by seeking various conditions like Hiranya Kashipu did, Nature has its own way of finding a solution! Yet Man strives hard to live longest: we all extend good wishes saying "Jeevet Sharadah Shatam" only but not jeevet Anantham. Yet, why do we grieve on death of some one? It is only because of attachment, a wish that they could have lived a little longer! What is that "longer" is undefined, though. Can any knowledge about one's longevity be a comfort for Man? No one in the world so far had any such prior knowledge about one's own life time, except Parikshit, and he wisely used the time. He could have as well used the seven days time in indulging in untold worldly pleasures as he had the resources for that. But he chose a different course of life. As in Mahabharatha, again, what is the most amazing thing in the world? This is one of the battery of questions asked by the Yaksha to Yudhishtira. And what was the answer given by the Pandava? Question: What is truly amazing in this world? Yudhishthira: The most amazing thing is, though humans are mortal, everybody goes about their life as if they are going to be here forever. For Parikshit, he could not choose his life time. It came as a curse for him. But Bhishma pitaamaha could choose his life. He lay there in the bed of arrows till he chose his last day. On the 24th January, 2021 we are observing the Bhishma Ekaadashi. Could he have chosen immortality? If he had, there would have been perhaps some other development in his life which could have negatived his ability to choose his life time! For, there is nothing that can defy Nature. Subbaraman F From here and there 1) Short Malayalam Films from Kerala a) "IF I CAN BE A... ENGLISH SHORT FILM - FilmFreeway" https://filmfreeway.com/1317663 b) Balakandam https://youtu.be/UT3wpLQSmUM 2) Festivals Theyyam festivals of Kerala | Kerala Tourism" https://www.keralatourism.org/event/theyyam/ 3) Chakyar Koothu a) https://youtu.be/pg8Ywvd4Pfc b) Chakyar Koothu - Classical art form of Kerala | Performing art forms of Kerala" http://www.keralaculture.org/chakyarkoothu/27