Storytelling and an Exploration on Roots

The art of storytelling exists in every culture around the globe. Tales that teach, inspire, heal and entertain are constantly being shared by people of all ages. The oral story is one of the oldest and most diverse of all performing arts. Tellers can romance and frighten. They educate and enlighten. They can cause political excitement and children delight. They can heal the body and spirit.

Add to the oral story some of the most vibrant colours nature can provide, graceful dancing, expressions flitting over a mysteriously made-up face, the highly stylized language of gestures and unearthly (divine?) costume, enchanting music, and you have any of the myriad performing arts of Kerala.
Performing arts in Kerala may be of three types:
1. Ritual arts, like Theyyam, where the performer is transformed into the divine, is possessed by the spirit. Here costuming, mask-like paint, masks and headgear are predominant features.
2. Dramatic arts, like Kathakali & Kudiyattam, where the performer enacts the roles of mythological and divine characters. Here sung narrative and gesticulation are fundamental and costuming is important but subsidiary.
3. Solo temple arts, like Mohiniyattam, where the performer offers himself/herself to the gods through music and dance. It is musical melody and dance in a single costume.



Do not ask me which is the greater form of devotion, I am just a child discovering with wonder all that's tremendously inspiring in our traditional arts.

To sit on the cool floor, before the 'arangu'(stage), dimly lit with an oil lamp (unfortunately with modern lights in most places!)is in itself a magical experience. When the play begins, with it's mesmerizing music, and the larger-than-life characters dance their story,you become one with the dancer.
Yes, on the stage there are no performers,they have slowly transformed after hours in the sacred 'green-room'.Putting on the crown with utmost piety, they become the character!

I have been vain and shy with Simhika, the demoness adorning herself, I have felt deceived with Baali,the dying monkey king, I have felt maternal love flowing from me with Devaki, Krishna's mother separated from him (Oh, the beautiful Vijayan as Devaki!), I have felt anguish and ecstasy of Poothana, whose life Krishna sucks out.

The music enriches the experiences, the music lives in you, fills you, and sometimes if you closes your eyes you can see the music.

Living in this multi-hued global village with a most marvelous group of professional and aspiring artists, I am feeling like the proverbial stone dusted with fragrant jasmine. All through my life I have felt rootless, now I am finding my way, I find that my roots are one with the many explorers of life and beauty, people who try to make a difference, creating beauty wherever they are, in the slums of calcutta, awakening disappearing art forms, exploring new ways of expression and education and many more who are trying to keep creativity alive in a dying world.

I am a tiny leaf on the great tree of unending life. My roots run strong and deep just as yours...