So if a land is because of its people, here is Kerala.
They grin.
And grin some more.
They seem to enjoy work. Miracle it is.
And they make watching the world go by seem like the most desirable thing ever.
And we went during the wrong season, but there was colour everywhere.--------
Tudo o que quiser
(Everything you want)
Tem que entender
(You've got to understand)
Nas palmas da mão
(In the palms of the hand)
Se tiver porquê
(If there is a reason)
Frágil nessa terra
(Fragile in this land)
Fácil derrubou
(Easy it fell)
Quando jogou fora
(When you threw it away)
Tudo acabou
(Everything ended)
It's Portuguese, but what the heck. Nitin Sawhney has answers to everything. Especially for people who can't write holiday posts.
22 kindred spirits have swallowed my rambling:
Lovely pictures :) And what's the obsession with the season all about? Everything in South India surely isn't about the coconuts? :P
Nostalgia? Or simply reminiscing? :)
There seems to be this cosmic joke doing the rounds.
But I don't get the punchline.
@ elendil: we ALWAYS go at this time! you're supposed to visit kerala in september, ideally. oh well. and thanks.
@ the nut: a bit of both, the memories are finally flowing, so to say.
@ 29a: as usual, i understand nothing of your comment. =]
kerala. they keep waxing eloquent about it, and get me a packet of banana chips. every time.
I WANT TO GO!!!!
A land is its people and you do a good job of bringing that out. Although, with Kerela I'm tempted to argue that a land is its food. Aaah (salivating).
And their boxers are something to behold.
...
Long story.
Beautiful pictures.
There seems to be this cosmic joke doing the rounds.
But I don't get the punchline.
^^and hence I don't get why everybody
keeps smiling.
Have you ever noticed how much we romanticize places we visit? These pictures seem happy-smiley to you - they grin, they seem to enjoy work, there's colour everywhere in your technicolour photographic world, but who's to say what it's like from the other side of the lens? Maybe they seem like this only because you want to see them in this light.
@elendil- Your comment reminds me of a passage from John Fowles "The French Lieutenant's Woman" which I read recently: "A charechter is either real or imaginary? If you think that, hypocrite lecteur, I can only smile. You do not even think of your own past as quite real; you dress it up, you gild it or blacken it, censor it, tinker with it...fictionalize it, your book your romanced autobiography.
And this is your grand plan of getting existentialists to run away? I'd be surprised if they weren't pounding on your doorsteps right now.
Jai Guru Deyvah Om.
Lovely collection!
@ heh? ok: we forgot to buy the chips, though. paradox.
@ rahul saha: indeed. it made me, a confirmed non-fish-eater, take to seafood.
@ space oddity: all i saw were, er, the lungis.
@ 29a: i got that. i did.
@ elendil: well, i'd say your comment applied to the hill-states of northern india pretty well, but kerala seems pretty prosperous. you'd be surprised if you looked around there a bit. the only problems, i think, are 1) a lot of narrow-minded masochism (in a matriarchal society, yes, strange but true) 2) communism and gods being worshipped alike (strange but true again) 3) low-caste bias and 4)fat women on movie posters. otherwise there's no abject poverty/misery/general third world sympathy provoking phenomena.
@ rahul saha: i've been wanting to read that book forever. i'll go buy it today.
@ speedpost: shuddup.
@ what's in a name: thanks.
Why should I my adorable Sartre... just u wait. dont u see the comments above mine. Hehe. Moja with capital M.
@ speedpost: i repeat. shuddup.
beautiful re...and yes,it reminds me of my presi entrance test...it was this beautiful poem about how people inherit a smell from the place they come from.
and i repeat,iwanttogotokerala
I liked the banana picture best, which you have not put up.
And, I was trying to look up that poem about people and places that someone mentioned,but couldn't find it. So, my comment is doomed to be the Average Uninteresting Comment about how much I loved your pictures etc.
Lovely post. Brief, yet it says so much.
@ you have no idea how obsessed i was about the bananas. i hate bananas, but i lived on them all through the trip.
and i analysed that poem for bijoya maashi (rather horrendously), google tells me it's by some obscure canadian poet. kintu it was beautiful.
@ fishy: arre, dhonyobaad.
LOVE the pictures.
However, my favourite memory of Kerala (and I've been there twice) is of this signboard-
"Bakery
-Ladies and Stationery."
terrific captures.. great photography really
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