Felt heart wrecked at being offered a ‘Combo’ of Kathakali, Kalaripayatu and Mohiniattam – topped with some air-conditioning! Really? This is how we want to save our culture? Are we gonna offer it so unabashedly to a hoard of tarvellers, burdened under their digital cameras and purified water??
Then I sat at ‘Tea Pot’ and gulped some ‘garam’ chai to ironically cool down! I remembered how impressed I was at the weighty presentation of the light history of countries like Singapore – immaculate displays, easy to browse, readable amount of information. It was easy to assimilate and thats what I always felt that India required. While I]d personally love to watch a dance performance at a local temple, for some, a peep into various cultures is good enough. And thats good enough as long as the actual artists benefit and an art lives on ( infact thrives everyday)…..
Must have been the marvelous cheese cake at Tea Pot in Fort Kochi- it just induced a sense of balance in my head! Its good to be idealistic about saving tradition but its equally important to have commercially viable avenues for the artistes to make money.
All in all Day 2 was more fruitful than Day 1!