Trissur cultural centre of Kerala

On the way from Irinjalakuda to Cheruturuty to see a program in Kalamandalam, I decided to stay in Trissur. The reason was a mister C.A. Menon whose phone number I found in a booklet which contains the calendar of all the programs in Kerala in 2007. He is the writer of the booklet. Claudio showed me the booklet. Claudio is from Verona but currently works in Amsterdam for the European Space Center. He was in Hyderabad for his job. But his passion is music; he plays the flute. Having a specific interest in ethnical music and learning how to play all different kinds of flutes whole over the world, he combines the travels he does for his job with his passion. He knows how to play the western metal flute, the african flute and now started learning Karnatic (south Indian Classical music) flute. If you want to know more about Karnatic music, Ludwig Pesch is an interesting name to look up. I met Claudio on a performance of my teacher. He was amazed by this Kutiyattam performance and praised the interesting and unique combination of percussion and theatre. I think the intense relation a Kutiyattam performance can have with literature is also something exceptional. The enactment of a verse gives it even more significance than just reading it. So I met Claudio, that was interesting, i will certainly meet him when back in Europe. The evening after that we went to a whole night Kathakali performance in the Kalanilayam Kathakali school next to the temple(!only temple in the world which is dedicated to Bharata... in this there is a temple for Rama and one for each of his three brothers, Lakshmana, Bharata and Satrughna, all built by the same architect, it seems to be something intersting, but more time for those things in the end of november).
My my what am I posting here, is it to much of information, still relevant for you guys? I feel I'm beginning to get acclimatised to the culture...(whatever that might mean...). The moment i stepped out of the plain i thought the engine of the plane was still very hot, but when i got down the stairs i noticed that it was the warmth of the climate...
A few days ago i was throwing up and had diarrhea whole night, probably a bad juice i drank combined with eating too much and holy payasam (you normally would never get the milk rice they give you when you go out of a temple as a tourist, but the gatekeeper had a tattoo of "i love India" with a heart and told me that he is a retired soldier and that he met a lot of americans in Saoudi-Arabia. Arun later told me that retired soldiers get jobs in the temples. tourists are not allowed to go in the temples in Kerala, unless you have a "hindu certificate" which seems to be easy to get, but i hav'nt done an effort for that yet.
well, so i decided to stay in Trissur for the night. More about Trissur, the cultural activities here and Barbara Gerard, an elephant trainer from NY day after tomorrow! Now it is time to go back to Irinjalakuda for my class. Keep the sunny side up! Cheerio!