A festival in my village…

Last Thursday, December 10th was the annual festival of the Lord Ayyappa Temple in our village. This is an ongoing function for the past 35-40 years. The peculiarity of this temple is that the Ayyappan deity is in the form of the Lord riding on a tiger… as the folklore goes. This is quite a unique temple in the whole of Kerala for none has this kind of Ayyappan form.

I had to go to work that day and returned earlier than usual to attend this festival. As I came home the procession with caparisoned elephants had started. It was a grand spectacle with three elephants decorated with the traditional headgear and with people on the top with the complete assembles as you can see in the much grander Thrissur Pooram. There was a complete Keralite orchestra called the panchavadyam and accompanied by frequent bursts of fireworks.

This ultimately ended in the temple with women and girls leading the caparisoned elephants to the sanctum sanctorum with the orchestra in full blast… this was a great spectacle to watch and there was a great sense of reverence to the local guardian of thoughts and the beacon to lead them to the next year without any hassles and praying for a bountiful crop.

The air was quite electrifying and the entire village assembled around the temple, with a lot of hawkers selling their wares and women dressed up for the occasion. There was a small makeshift temple built entirely with the layers of the banana tree and tender leaves of coconut trees. It was an amazing piece of art amplified by electrical lights…but all these shows of grandeur soon ended as most of the people had left and with a great deal of programs still pending.

The Thayambaga or percussion with the traditional Keralite drums and cymbals started after a break of half an hour, the sad part was the entire orchestra was for just three people… a drunk, a deaf and me. Still the performers did a great job and I enjoyed the masterful percussion show. Normally this program last for more than an hour, but they stopped within 30 minutes. The reason is there was hardly anyone to encourage them for more. I could see the disappointment in their eyes and kind of defiance that can be seen in seasoned performers. That defiance conveyed the art form would die if they get only such a meager support and enthusiasm. I actually felt sad and could not help reflect then and there that TV, mobile phones and the modern crass consumerism has made a slow and steady back door entry into our village. Most of villagers had left by then and back to their TVs and mobiles within the comforts of their homes. Later on there was a drama performed in a makeshift stage and I came to know there were hardly 10 people watching the theatre performance. I was not able to stay longer because of my poor night vision and was apprehensive of how I would manage in a huge crowd, but that was not the case to be.

I really feel that if this trend continues many local festivals and art forms will disappear and we can listen to the sick sounds created in a mobile phone or orchestrated reality shows in future. But again what can be done to reverse this… if you ask me that question, I really cannot come out with a concrete answer and I think you reading this would feel quite helpless if you are a person to care about preserving the traditional arts and culture.