Kumily: rounding off

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As described in two previous posts there are plenty of things to do in Kumily if you are interested in physical activity. It is, however, also possible to enjoy other people's workouts. Kerala is the home of kathakali. It is a form of ritualised theatre where the actors/dancers depict the world of gods and demons. All the roles, including the female ones, are played by men. The dancers wear amazing costumes and make-up. Also, there will be a couple of musicians on bronze gong, cymbals and vocals creating the necessary rhythmic base for the display. Apparently, it takes a long time to become the complete kathakali performer; the best ones will have started training at the age of eight and will not start performing for the public until 10 years later.

It is possible to watch kathakali in most places where there are tourists. These displays will usually be adapted to the average attention span of a tourist; i.e. approximately an hour. However, in some villages it is possible to attend authentic all night kathakali. In Kumily there are a couple places where kathakali is performed.

Another thing to watch in Kumily is martial arts performances. The Keralan martial art, kalarippayat, is also performed in Kumily. It is a 13th Century art form that was, probably, developed by the bodyguards of warlords. Later it was, as many other things, banned by the British. Apparently, there are two different systems, the northern and southern. The southern system, which emphasises footwork and hands in combat, is shown in at least one of three places in Kumily, and it is performed at a high level.

Keralan popular culture
One thing that is missing in Kumily is a cinema. Going to the cinema in India is generally very cheap (e.g. in Tamil Nadu the government recently decided that the price of a cinema ticket must never exceed Rs. 50. This may, however, be linked to the fact that the Tamil Government is made up almost entirely of famous actors). In some places though, typically where rich Indians live, the phenomenon of wanting to pay Rs. 500 or more for a ticket has, strangely, developed. The most famous Keralan actor is Mohan Lal. Clearly, he is not popular because of his looks, but his face is still plastered on every second wall in Kerala. He makes an absolute fortune advertising anything that money can buy, and he is, some people say, a very good actor. If you turn on a Keralan television you are guaranteed to find him in a film on one or more of the 100+ channels.
Keralan actors are a funny bunch. The male actors tend to be overweight, bordering on the obese, sporting giant moustaches; you get the feeling that they are all trying to look like Mohan Lal. The female actors tend to be slim and look a bit mousy with a round face and no chin. These famous Keralan actors are, however, a poor reflection of the Keralan population.

The other side of Kumily's wildlife
Apart from the wildlife of the reserve, Kumily has, as any other Indian town, its share of stray, semi-stray and pet animals. We came across quite an impressive dog, looking a bit like a cross between a boxer and a rottweiler. Every time we walked past him, which was unavoidable since the centre of his territory seemed to be on our preferred route back to the homestay, he would be sitting or lying in, more or less, the same spot seemingly uninterested in what was going on around him. However, when taking a closer look we would find that he was staring at us from the corner of his eye. And it wasn't just any old eye. The part of the eye that is meant to white was blood red. As you would walk past he would follow you with his red eyes. Occasionally, we would see him running to places far off his prime location; clearly, he had managed to acquire an enormous territory.

At Chrissie's Café we heard the loudest cat ever. He is part of the household and will be lying in selected places, stretched out whilst sun-bathing giving off loud meows.

At the homestay there was a gecko in the roof. It would occasionally sound its characteristic gec-gec-gec-gec signal.

And there are the monkeys. Once you start looking around, you realise that there are quite a lot of monkeys in Kumily town itself. These are of the much disliked and most common macaque type which is renowned for stealing from and hassling people. Recently, the parliament in Delhi was overrun by this type of monkey stealing important government documents.
There are also quite a few at the boat jetty in the wildlife reserve. They seem to know that mixing with tourists increases the chance of finding food, and to have developed a technique for mugging Indian tourists. The Indians are clearly afraid of the monkeys, and the monkeys, knowing this, will run towards their chosen victim, who will typically be carrying some form of food, hissing, spitting and waving their arms. The victim, in a state of mild panic, will throw the food stuff to the ground and escape. And the monkeys will enjoy their meal.

Unfortunately, the macaque monkeys at the boat jetty are environmentally unaware; maybe they have imitated someone? They will turn on a tap, take a drink, turn the tap on full blast and leave. Very provocative.
We didn't experience any problems with the monkey even though we were travelling with our picnic, including a handful of bananas. We gave a banana to one of the monkeys who retreated into a tree. It took the best part of five minutes for him to eat it.

Clothes shopping
In Kumily Mort finally managed to extend his wardrobe with two pairs of trousers made from hand woven khadi cotton. He bought the cotton from Mickeys Tex and had them sown up in the neighbouring tailor's shop. The procedure wasn't flawless though, but at least we learned a good deal from it. We took the Fabindia trousers to the tailor and asked for the new trousers to be slightly longer and slightly wider at the ancle. One pair was made of white, bleached cotton, and the other pair from unbleached cotton. The tailor's first attempt ended with Mort owning two pairs of trousers that could have fitted two people in each leg. The tailor said they would shrink, but we were certain that there was no way they would shrink to an acceptable size. The tailor cut off a whole inch of the width, and the trousers, when including some shrinkage, seemed fine. However, what the tailor forgot, and we did as well, was that the bleached cotton already had shrunk a bit through the bleaching process, but that the unbleached cotton was completely raw and was going to shrink quite a lot more than the bleached cotton. Predictably, Mort ended up with a pair of bleached trousers that were too long and a pair of unbleached trousers that were too short. The “too long” issue was solved by folding the waist band (common procedure in such cases), and the “too short” issue was solved by removing most of the hem and by stretching the trousers after each wash.

The lesson learned is this: have your cotton washed enough times for the shrinkage to be gone for good before taking it to the tailors.

Finally, Mort learned how to wear a lungi. It is very simple. The lungi is wrapped around you symmetrically, the right side is folded behind the left side and tucked into the underpants. The left side is then folded across the right side and tucked into the underpants. Eventually, the entire hem is folded into the underpants.

Leaving Kumily After a week in Kumily it was time to cross the border into Tamil Nadu, the main southern state of India. We were going to spend a couple of days in the temple city of Madurai, which is located three and half hours bus drive from Kumily. We decided to leave early in the morning from the bus stand across the border. This was the thing we got into:

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This entry was posted by pundabee, on Saturday, December 30, 2006. You can leave your response.