The last two days of our stay in Kerala were spent in Cochin and Ernakulam.
The view from the 10th floor of the hotel was pretty good.
The only problem was that we had to depend on the mini bus to take us to the city.
The first day was devoted to Jew street and visiting all the historic churches nearby (more on that in the next post)
There was a Tribal mela held near marine drive. We ambled around for some time and the thing that caught our attention was the ice cream !! (more of ice and less of cream)
A stroll in the mall at Marine Drive turned out to be a good shopping event for some.
We were lucky to witness the last day of the eight day long festival of the Shiva Temple at Ernakulam (near Darbar Hall) where the deity is taken out on the caparisoned elephant in procession.
This elephant is accompanied by eight other elephants all decked up.
I was observing these elephants, the huge giants that roam the earth, but so docile and submissive to the quick orders from their mahout.
Their eyes speak a lot.
Pretty feet in chains should be an apt title for the picture below.
The changing of the coloured umbrella is a ritual that takes place here with the accompaniment of the Panchavadiyam.
It is said that the best available chendavadiyam artists are arranged for this occasion.
The instruments used for the Panchavadiyam are Timila, Madalam, Ilatalam, Idakka and the kombu.
Blowing the kombu is not an easy task as can be seen by the way this boy is straining on it.
It was fun to watch the crowd, some eagerly following the drum beat and keeping a count of the 14 beat adanta taalam, while others waiting for the next programme to start.
(I believe there was some variety entertainment after that as I could see these sound mixers busy fine tuning their work)
We moved out of the Durbar Hall ground and entered Avenue Regent Hotel. The air conditioned comfort and the soothing drinks put us at ease and was a good prelude to the dinner that followed.
I found the food quite good and a special mention should be made about the magician who mysteriously appeared as soon as we finished our buffet dinner.
Well, this video that I made with the still pictures should explain that sequence better:
(wait for the complete video to buffer and then replay it so that you get the right effect with the music)
