A bit of sun, a few elephants and a lot of percussion

Yesterday, on the last day of my few days off at Kerala - to be precise, at Thiruvambady, Thrissur I found myself in the late afternoon walking towards the Thiruvambady temple entrance. It was nice pleasant winter morning - probably a cool 28 deg C (80 deg F?) in the shade with a touch of humidity. The crowds were gradually gathering in anticipation and i was myself not quite sure, for what.

As the train passed by a few minutes past its scheduled time and the railway crossing was opened, there came a revelation - and boy, did it make the wait worth. Five magnificent tuskers - gigantic pachyderms, probably in the prime of their youth grandly walking in single file towards the temple. Each one decked up in his finest jewelry (nettipattom), they entered the temple and assembled inside.

Aaaah - now it struck me. What better way to spend a nice Sunday afternoon than to watch these magnificent beasts walk around decorated so skilfully? But someone had a better idea - so there, waiting for them at the temple entrance was a posse of a few dozen musicians, including some of the more famous names all over Kerala. They were the panchavadyam team - a group of skilled musicians, highly specialized in the synchronized performance of some of the most phenomenal percussion sounds one can here on this side of the Equator. It surprised me how these gentle giants allowed themselves to be handled so seemingly easily by their mahouts, gently kneeling down to permit the priests and their assistants to clamber up their broad backs with the deity of the temple, then circumambulate before the party began. While all five pachyderms lined themselves up on one side, the beats began in a gentle sway. Gradually, the drums picked up their pace and the cymbals and trumpets raised the crescendo. The beats grew faster by the second, with an occasional pause to let a single player belt out a tune on his instrument - suddenly being picked up by the dozens of other players around. Not once did they miss the beat or skip the sync.

The performance was incredible. After what seemed like too short a time, the performance slowed down to let the elephants move on to their next destination, a temple further down the road.

I bid these marvellous mounts of Thiruvambady Sri Krishna goodbye as they lined up on the road. As they departed in their stately trot, the devotion people show these elephants seemed rather appropriate if not funny - the musicians led the procession barefoot on the hot afternoon asphalt.
But behind them came a tanker pouring water on the road to ensure that these gentle beasts walked on a cool ground - now isn't that nice?

Epilogue: The water tanker cooling down the road for the pachyderms was owned a company called "Godly water company".

Coincidence, wot?