Day 63, Trissur [Monday 4th February 2008]
Previous day: Day 62, Coonoor Coimbatore Trissur [Sunday 3rd February 2008]
Next day: Day 64, Trissur, Kerala [Tuesday 5th February 2008]
I get my trousers taken up at the tailor's. I also get a haircut which involves close, some might say excessive, attention around the ears, a head massage, talcum powder applied to the neck and a spritz of aftershave: a massive snip at only Rs. 30!
We have parotta (paratha) and veg curry for breakfast in Malabar Restaurant. The curry is creamy with coconut milk, and very peppery too.
We try the Kerala Tourist Development Corporation (KTDC) to get them to decode the Manorama — an almanac of events and festivities published each day in the newspaper, but only in Malayalam. And using the Malayalam calendar too, so it needs translating twice, once for language and the second for time. The woman at the desk reads for a while, then tells us that there will be some Bharatanatyam dancing at a temple called Kottankulangara, a Mahavishnu temple nearby.
So after dinner — fish curry and an amazing veg dum biryani, which is cooked in a pot sealed with a roti to trap the steam — we get a rickshaw out to the temple along dark roads. It's only a couple of kilometres, and we get an extremely friendly greeting when we arrive. "Welcome to our temple!" They have an 'elephant garage' here, which is full of elephant parasols, decorations, bells and everything else needed for a successful festival. We watch the chenda melam, a percussion performance. There is hypnotic, deafening drumming. The drummers and several elephants circumambulate the temple. Boys are stringing up shredded banana tree leaves as decorations. someone asks us to come back tomorrow — the festival will last for several days. Tomorrow, he says, they have 5 elephants instead of 3.
Trissur is crazy about shopping, and movies. The shopping must include lots of saris and gold. The movies must include moustachioed, angry men.
Next day: Day 64, Trissur, Kerala [Tuesday 5th February 2008]
Previous day: Day 62, Coonoor Coimbatore Trissur [Sunday 3rd February 2008]