gooligan

thaiyyam - chapter uno

 kerala has always been a land of strange incongruencies. two-in-one music systems from dubai compete for shelf space in every house with pictures of grandmothers long gone. literacy rates run neck and neck with suicide statistics. fish is staple and so are doctors and lawyers. and in cannanore (up north), every year gods walk among men.

how thaiyyam evolved is a story i don't want to ever find out. i have fascinating theories in my head that i will never put to rest with the truth, something i fear is far more plain. so what thaiyyam really means is also best left at what i think it means - the dance of the gods. oh. oh. i'm a sucker for my own versions of stories.

but this is not a story that can be told. this one deserves to be seen, heard, smelt. common men don war like face paint and strange almost-costumes fashioned from coconut and whatever else your average ingenious malu could find. they then go into theatrical trances and see through rituals bordering on bizarre with meticulous detail. and eventually they make the jump from man to god. a mutation announced through the neighbourhood to the accompaniment of old fashioned gun powder going off. your every last sense is under assault. and before you know it - there you are. staring wide eyed at a god. in the flesh.

chickens are beheaded. people faint inexplicably. gooligan (seen here) pirouettes endlessly. followed in enchanting circles by his reed skirt and long flowing black hair. and then passes out. before he's rushed to an ICU. this is not a story that can be told.