Last night's performance was a scene from the Mahabarata where Karna, one of the righteous Pandava brothers realizes he's on the wrong side of the war and tells his wife he's going to die before he's slain by Arjuna. What's insane is these performances start at 10PM and end at 6AM. 8 fucking hours. How crazy is that? The only thing I can do for 8 hours is sleep. It's not like these are easy performances because the actors are constantly jumping and spinning for damn near the whole thing. It's pretty cool but since I don't know Tamil it gets pretty hard to follow pretty fast. It's also not rude at all to go to sleep since it goes literally all night. It's nuts that the actors are all 10-20 years old. In the US people wouldn't really let kids and young folks do stuff like that. The whole time there's a band and a chorus playing too. The costumes are super elaborate and overall it's a nuts atmosphere. We were in this other small village in Tamil Nadu and it looked liked literally the whole village came out.
I couldn't really last more than 2 hours. I don't know Tamil and it was hot and crowded and the dude next to me was spitting up a storm. I ended up sleeping in the bus we took from the school for most of it. It was still an amazing experience and I'm glad I went.
A few awesome notes
1. Since we're in the country side felix's whiteness and my asianess are still incredibly amusing to everyone. We literally have a crowd of kids following us everywhere. Felix told them Jackie Chan was my uncle and that the undertaker is his dad. BTW wrestling is still really really popular in India, or at least in Tamil Nadu.
2. Some of the adults are just as amused by us. One of them came by and sort of rubbed my chin. Apparently it's a sign of affection? It's definitely awkward.
3. The lighting for the whole thing was some dude on the roof connecting wires to the power lines. Seemed insanely dangerous but nothing happened so iunno
4. Really young kids sort of go around unsupervised. This 2 year old was just walking around during one of the periodic blackouts and i really wanted to be like "CAN SOME ONE WATCH THIS FUCKING KID ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"
5. Tamils have this head nod that means "ok" or "yes" but it basically looks like they're tilting they're head side to side to say "no" or "whatever". Since I had my DSLR everyone wanted to see the pictures I was taking so I'd take a shot and they'd just walk behind me to look. When I'd look at them after they'd do the head shake of approval but it really looked like they were going "mehhhh"
6. Kids love having their picture taken. It's literally the #1 request I get. Then they look at it and laugh and giggle and ask for another one.
7. Since they're maybe a double digits of foreigners who watch kattaikkutu a year they treat us like guests of honor and just kick people off the floor so we can sit. It feels pretty weird. In other news folks just sort of pee and spit wherever. the guy i was sitting next to hocked a gnarly loogie and i decided to get up and walk around
8. In the US when people are talking about you they try to do it discreetly. In Tamil Nadu, especially in the countryside they will just be in groups like 3 feet away pointing at you and talking to each other in Tamil. It's sort of weird but it doesn't feel rude and everyone is insanely nice all the time.
We're heading out from the school today to start our journey in earnest. Tirupathi is next. Stay tuuuuneeeeeddddddd.
ALSO some pics are on FB, not of last night but stuff in general. It's a pain posting them to this blog so just go there. If we're not friends on facebook and you're reading this then that's sort of weird and maybe I don't want you seeing the photos.
Village Kids Pre Kuttu:
Pre Kuttu Ritual:
Kids Getting Ready:
The Buffoons:
Spinning:
Arjuna:
Dude im impressed you've got a steady enough connection to upload that many photos. BRING ME BACK AN AWESOMELY CHEAP INDIAN SHIRTTTTTT
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