![]() ![]() Sometimes the brain does not work as well as it ought to. )) Anyway blame it on a long hard drive followed by immediate shooting - on a hot afternoon in May. Instead you have slightly blurred image of the fighters which I can claim is done on purpose to show dynamic motion. The take should have been at a much higher shutter speed but I guess I was so interested in bringing the environment into play here that the tack sharp combatants did not happen. Sometimes you miss the action of a fast lens or a fast setting. Young fighters from various schools of Kalari gathered here and here they are on the road going through their routines with actual weapons. They had a Kalari conventino going there. Thirunavaya is a small non descript habitation on the banks of river Bharathapuzzah in North Kerala. ![]() We are harking back to centuries ago here, a millenia and more in time frame.īack in Kerala this form of combat has remained as it was practiced earlier.Ī days drive though the narrow highway NH 17 that runs on the west coast of India from Kanyakumari to Mumbai brought me to Tirunavaya from Cochin on one hot day in May 2008 just before I left Kerala for good. It is from here in Kerala that it was exported and developed into the modern day martial art forms of judo, kung fu and what ever other variant you can think of. Kalaripaiytu or Kalari in short is allegedly the oldest form of martial art in the world. Kung Fu fighting by Carl Douglas.ĭSC_4386 from nef sel le tfm gr cu sh 250 A number from way back in 1970s - Carl Douglas - Kung Fu Fighting Kung Fu is a much later version of Chinese martial art but I refer it here only to mention the appropriate music. Whosoever won the bout, won the judgement for his lord and master. The martial races of Kerala did not have much to do except to settle the occasional land dispute between neighboring landlords which would sometimes be resolved by two fighters doing the Kalalripayattu. ![]() In Kerala not many wars or battles have been fought with rapacious invaders as has been the case in the north where pillaging hordes would descend from the Khyber pass to take away the proverbial riches of the emperors and kings in the plains of the Indian subcontinent. Kerala is also the place where martial art was born and nurtured and then it travelled out to China, Japan, Korea and elsewhere to become kung fu, ju jitsu, Karate and taekwando. Kerala boasts of the oldest dance form Theyyam and its avant garde derivative, the Kathakali of the hugely tactile eyes and brow punctuated with swirling arm movements all performed under large colorful painted masks. A surprising religious celebration in March where every year the Hindu Gods are abused in the filthiest and foulest of languages for a day. Anachronistically, the state is now ruled by a Communist Party for the last 10 years. Fairs and festivals that celebrate life and living in this state of its deep religious and cultural origin. Starting with the famed boat races in the backwaters, to the lesser know bull races. The state has a calendar of activities that can at best be termed as chaotically "busy" 12 months a year. You have cool pleasant hills and valleys running north to south with forests, tea plantations and wildlife sanctuaries. It is hot but no one is a water baby here. Long beaches on its west coast, and slightly inland its fabled waterways that run for hundreds of miles to create communities totally surrounded by water. Kerala is a place of many riches and dumbfounding contradictions. I am putting this up after a bit of tinkering with editing and cropping.ĭSC_0136 copy 2x overlay transform cu sel sharp reworked and tfm ![]() This is again from the year 2007 and another fine photog from Kerala Hari Menon was also traveling with me to shoot this. Thankfully that day there was a dispute in the running and judging at about 530 pm so a lot of visitors on the finishing point embankment left and it was the opportunity to shoot what with the sun highlighting the runners in the golden light. The embankment is littered with human beings and there is not a square inch of space to shoot. The bulls run in their racing frenzy and it is a feat of human endurance to keep up with them in that medium of slush and mud and water and bare feet. The bulls are supposed to turn left and do a 360 degrees but that would happen only about 50 percent of the times. The race track is about 100 plus metres of a field filled with water for days and at the finishing point an embankment of about 5 feet. This is the legendary bull race held in Kerala in the month of August to coincide with the Onam festival. ![]()
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