Thrissur

This past weekend we went to Thrissur. 

It's about two hours drive north of Kochi. Michael and I were invited to give plenary addresses at a conference on "Print Modernities" at St. Thomas College there. They were going to drive us up there Sunday morning and back Sunday evening, but we decided to go up on Saturday and stay overnight so that we could see a little of Thrissur. Henry was supposed to go to school as a "working day" to make up for the hartal, but we went anyway. Thrissur is sometimes called the cultural capital of Kerala, and it is a town built around a big open park in its center with an important temple in the middle. It is only open to Hindus, and there are sacred sites and very old paintings and sculptures inside. In April they have a big festival with lots of fanfare and drumming and elephants. We walked through the Round (as they call it), gawked at the temple gateway, and then walked around the walled perimeter of the temple complex where you can peer over the wall and peep at the temple elephants.

In one place you can spot them through a chink in the rock wall.

Then we walked up the road a little ways to the palace, built in 1795, of the Kings of Cochin. Until the early 19th century, Thrissur was the main port for trading spices in northern Kerala. Then a massive flood reshaped the coastline and silted up the port, shifting the trade south to Kochi/ Cochin. 

I enjoyed being in my comfort zone of the 1790s for a few hours! The palace had a carriage on display that would be right at home in Versailles. It is now mostly an archeological museum, with lots of pot sherds and sculptural fragments on display, although they also had a wonderful display of cooking vessels in the old kitchens, and a guide who explained to us the uses of the giant mortars and pestles, coconut scrapers, pickle jars, and sambar troughs. (No photos allowed, unfortunately). 

Here is an interesting sculptural form on the grounds-- I have no idea what it is or what it signifies! Is it a serpent in a cone? Quite fascinating. Agatha is giving me her tween face.

Also on the grounds was a beautiful garden, with lots of blue butterflies flitting around.

We went back to the hotel, went out for delicious dosas for supper, and then went to sleep. The assumption here is that the children will sleep in the bed with their parents. We ordered an extra bed for Henry (luckily he is pretty happy sleeping on the floor, which is what he usually does in this situation) and Agatha slept on these two armchairs pushed together. We called it her crib.

Yes, I am aware how fortunate I am that my kids are such troopers! 

I was really nervous for my lecture on Sunday. It was mainly the uncertainty: I don't know what the expectations are for such an event, and yet I felt so much was expected of me. There is a great deal of formality and deference to authority-- one phrase I have heard is that in India, the teacher is a guru. We were being given the VIP treatment, and they expected us just to parachute in and give our talks and then leave, without staying for the other sessions (this is bad form in the US). The conference organizer was such a kind man-- he had walked over to our hotel Saturday night to give us the schedule and make sure we were comfortable. Everyone seems to be trying so hard and I just don't want to disappoint them. It's rather tiring.

In the end, it was fine. I gave my talk (surmounting the technical difficulties of projectors and power outages) and I also succeeded in creating a comfortable enough environment in the room for many women to ask questions and make statements. Afterwards, several talked with me in the hallway. Then we went down to this beautiful courtyard and had a delicious catered lunch: biriyani, curries, chicken, and ice cream. Our children were very much welcomed and included, which has been the case everywhere in India. 

I'll have more to say about conferences in India in my next post, on the big St Teresa's conference on Art & Democracy that I'm in the middle of right now. Suffice it to say, that it is still definitely a patriarchy. Agatha noticed that after my talk, women spoke up, and then spoke to me privately in the hallway. After Michael's talk, only men spoke, and it was in a much more challenging register-- critiquing his use of theory, etc. No women spoke. 

Once Michael's talk was done and we had partaken of our compulsory cup of tea and sugary cookie, our car was ready to drive us back to Kochi. Our kind host had arranged for the driver to stop on the way at a notable waterfall. This turned out to be a 1 hour detour on a very twisty road taken at high speed. We all took our Dramamine.

But the waterfalls were beautiful! I'm glad we saw this countryside, because it makes me want to go back and spend some time in these mountains, just east and north of Kerala. 

With more time, you can hike close to the falls. This is the "hill station" country that is forested and cooler than the coastline. We saw monkeys sitting on the fenceposts as we whizzed by in our car. Elephants and tigers also live in this protected zone. It was Epiphany (Jan 6), and as we zoomed home after peeping at the falls, we were momentarily slowed by a procession with colorful umbrellas and exploding fireworks.

Henry was pretty noncompliant throughout. We are trying to keep it positive and let him opt out where possible. He stayed in the hotel room while the rest of us went to the Round and the palace, for example. I hope he is finding something valuable in his experience.