Day 5 – Part 2
After all of us took hot water baths, we changed into fresh clothes and were ready for our evening plans to fall through.
N, took us to the Raga Traditional Arts Performing Theater, a 10 minute drive from the White House hotel.
But, as soon as he stopped the car, GBee opened the car door on his side of the car and managed to scrape it against the wall. Turns out N’s boss is the Devil’s reincarnate, because, at once N lost his composure and started reprimanding GBee and Mr.Bee. By the anxiety N was going through, I had imagined the door must have been mangled and is on the verge of collapse, but the scraping on the door was hardly visible, even in the day light! (All this was to probably demand extra bucks from us for which Mr.Bee complied, since GBee was at fault.)
Anyway, with that discussion about compensation out of our way, N allowed us to go inside to watch our program.
The first program of the evening was Mohiniattam. Later Bharatanatyam dancers too joined in the dance and it was one mesmerising show. I love watching dance shows. (Mr.Bee and I have been to actress Shobana’s dance show, where she played Lord Krishna. This memory is locked inside my brain, as a part of Charlotte, USA folder!)
Bharatanatyam dance
The next leg of the performance was Kathakali, which had been my dream to watch live. (Dreams, do come true!) The skit was based on an incident from Mahabharata, Dushasana Vadha, i.e. Bheema killing off Dushasana, for disrobing Panchali, Draupadi, in the court room.
All the performers together at the end
As you can see in the above pic, Bheema is standing to the left, where as Roudra Bheema (when he is extremely angry, because of insult to his wife) is in the middle, while Dushasana is on the extreme right.
The Mohiniattam performer is flanked by Bharatanatyam dancers on either side.
When Bheema is angry, he is portrayed by the guy in the middle and I think that his aura is red and dangerous, hence the costume. He looks very similar to Bhoot Kola performers from Kantara and we had to close KBee’s eyes for him to not be scared. The performance of Roudra Bheema was intense. (They may not be paid as much for the effort they are putting in!)
Bheema and Dushasana- warning each other.
After the performance, the audience were allowed to take pics and selfies with the artists. We took a photo with them and incidentally, KBee was not facing the camera, but one of the Kathakali performers! (It was hilarious.)
Eye catching, vibrant Kathakali performer – KBee’s person of interest!
As soon as we were done with one performance, we had to rush towards the arena of Kalariyapattu! I never knew I needed this!
Kalariyapattu students and their Guru performed various stunts.
The performers pray to their weapons before start of the stunts.
Jumping through Rings of Fire!
Then there is this stunt….
Playing with fire!
It is difficult to explain but, I had most fun watching the stunts live. Even GBee and KBee who were like, let’s go to the hotel and sleep, after watching Kathakali, but Kalariyapattu, brought new life in their dull faces!
With renewed energy, we returned to the hotel. We pacified N again, promising him that we will pay the charges for the scratch.
As soon as we pressed the number 4 in the lift, we understood that the key card of our hotel room is nowhere to be seen! GBee had asked Mr.Bee for the card and put it in his pocket, but it was nowhere to be seen. (GBee had put the key card in his pocket, but before the start of the performances at the Raga, we were made to stand for the national anthem. That must have been the time GBee lost the key card from his pocket.)
You guessed it right, we paid a fine, to get a new key card! Turns out GBee was having a bad day, after all!
P.S:
1. Even after the car door incident and key card incident, we could hardly scold GBee. He is a careful boy, 95% of the time. Today was just not his day!
2. Wait, I forgot to mention, GBee managed to pull a weapon from the Kalariyapattu arena and all the weapons toppled, like you see in movies! Yup, bad bad day! (I was busy running after KBee and GBee managed to create quite a ruckus)
3. Mr.Bee re-lived his Muay Thai Kick Boxing days, by shaking hands with Kalariyapattu experts and taking a photo with them.
Mr.Bee posing with a Kalariyapattu exponent.
4. At one point, the Kathakali performers stood among the audience and KBee was shaken. He is scared of people wearing heavy makeup and costume. He had a similar scare, when he had watched the Varaha Roopam song from Kantara, when he was hardly a 2 year old baby. He had screamed loudly and wouldn’t stop crying till I had turned the t.v. off. (In my defense, he had been playing in the bedroom while I was watching the song in the hall!)
5. All the images of Kalariyapattu stunts are NOT mine. I have downloaded them from search engine.
6. We had a hearty dinner of vegetable fried rice, tomato soup and the usual and retired for the night.
Till the next post, cheerio.
