NH 47, Kayankulam

Next to the KPAC office is a stage where they practice and have occasional shows. This is the reading of the KPAC's 2011 play: Sahanaparvam.

NH47. Kayankulam

KPAC: Full Story

NH47, Kayankulam

KPAC: Full Story

NH47, Kayankulam

KPAC - The Kerala People Arts Club. Part 1

It is not easy to run a drama troupe in India. Their days have come and most probably gone. In Kerala, the iconic KPAC still survives. It was started as an art club and they have stayed true to their name. Drama is what KPAC became synonymous with but along with drama, they continue to run art classes. They stand on their own two feet.

Standing in the KPAC office and watching the troupe practice their next play, you get a feeling of being in the past. The world seems to have moved on while this group of people hold on to the nostalgia, methods and style of an age that probably does not resonate with the taste of the present or future. The art classes on offer provide what seems to be the things the new generation will like but is it what they actually want?

The KPAC office stands like an island along the busy NH47 highway connecting two of Kerala's biggest cities. The cities where the entertainment and messages of the new Kerala is manufactured by a generation that looks outside the state for inspiration. It is hard to believe that 5 decades back, revolution could start and the freshest movements of the time could come from a minuscule town in the middle of the paddy fields and backwaters.

Over the next few posts, I will show you images from the KPAC office in Kayankulam, Kerala.

Korigad Fort

Dying in  Cowrashtra.

The life of a cow sounds good on paper. And, the life of a cow is only a little worse than how we Indian men treat our women be it a kashmiri beauty or kanyakumari. The bulls fare a lot worse. For instance, in Maharashtra, old bulls (wonder what happens to cows) are driven up or find their way up the forts built by the Marathas and Mughals to slowly wither away and die.

----------------------

An "Inconvenient" Life ? By Suranga Date.

Some look back
at a life
in a homestead cowshed,
milked,
and enjoying the greens
in the fields,
once the few days of ploughing were done;
Preening and making eyes
at the harvest time,
the frisky little ones,
fussed over
as they gambolled around.

Looking into worlds beyond
was about
being useful
even in death,
treated in respect,
expertly
by trained hands
in traditional technology...

Today,
green of the grass
has given way
to
other paper greens,
as avaricious powerlords
pour concrete
down the
farmers' throat.

Some,
Cheek by jowl
with other seniors,
stunned breathless in a truck,
accelerating
to the abattoir

And some,
ending life alone,
on a greenless hill,
no food, no work,
no NREGA*** for cows,
from a party,
that once had them
as their election symbol*****,
and has now
switched instead
to a Hand,
most often found
jingling
in someone's loaded pocket.

Figures.



*** NREGA : National Rural Employment Guarantee Act .

Puri-Konark Road

Pilgrims.

Temples, Mosques, Dargahs.Churches. India's top 4 reason to travel. God is a good excuse to travel.