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Jan 22, 2010

Kochi

I finally made my way to Cochin last week. Internet Kerala was actually all around me and I got extremely kicked when I saw an endless canopy of coconut trees before we landed at the airport (the inside of which smelled of sandalwood). On the car ride from the airport, I counted Kallu kadas, lost track of coconut trees and attempted to read Malayalam. I can actually make out a lot of the characters, so a game of fill-in-the-blanks usually worked for the simpler words.

It was all so oddly familiar.
Except for the accent, which was extremely surreal.

Drew Mohiniattam and Kathakali dancers in the dark, sniffed at spices and stared at windows in Jew Town, saw how fish is caught in Cheenavalas and watched fishermen mend nets, and sat at random places in the sun to draw.



























































17 comments:

Traveller said...

awesum work mate !!! as usual kerala brings the best out of u earthlings :D ..oh btw... "COFFE" eh? watevr u say we have 100 % literacy .mwahahahaha...

Anonymous said...

ഉഷാറായിട്ടുണ്ട്‌!

Anonymous said...

super! kerala sights and sounds "oddly familiar"? and the accent was not?? :O strange!!
and like my friend^^ would say, "kool sketches dude"!!
the spice market and, naturally, the gogonud drees are particularly ossom!!

Shreyas said...

@vivek: Thengs ma. And yes, it said "Coffe" !!! :)

@abhijit: hehe, I could read only part of that, had to get translator for the rest! thankyoo! :)

@geek: See, an OD of the accent was SOOPER surreal. I shall regale you with accent stories soon, or did I ollready?

jazzlamb said...

Woa. A lott of work. Louwely sketches. I love the fourth one the most for some reason:)

Unknown said...

im in love with your log book!
of these i especially like the masala one, the balaji bhandar and the arts indien ones the mostest.

Shreyas said...

@jazzy: Thenks louwe :)

@Uditi: hehehe. thanky!
I actually drew the arts indien one for the two buildings that the shop was flanked by- "Pepper Exchange" and "India Pepper & Spice Trade Association Building". Very Spice market I thought :)

Anjana R said...

came here from chutney's blog.
ive always wanted to go to a live kathakali performance. lucky you. :)
and those are some pretty cool pics.

Unknown said...

Nice Shreyas! Fort Cochin is my favourite place. I could go back there any time... You've done a beyoootiful job! keep it up.

Shreyas said...

@Anjana: Thanks :) The Kathakali performance was a very short one though. I hope I DO get to see a full length one some day! Thanks for coming by!

@kalyani:Thanky thanky :) I kept thinking of your drawings when I was at Fort Cochin!! Especially the one of the fishermen with the cheenavalas. Hope I can suthify there more soon :D

Unknown said...

I love the music thats coming out from your brand new sketchbook format.It tastes of benana chips fried with family roots and sprinkled with love.

Shalini said...

How did I land up here!? Amazing work!!

Anonymous said...

there is so much to do in fort coshin. hope you get to go there and suthify very soon :)

Bondhu said...

Thanks for your kind words. I like these series of sketches.The Kochi shop in ink is damn good.Keep going!!!

Samarjit Roy said...

Very nice sketches !!! You guys are inspiring me... I think I'll also join the club of urban sketchers.

Unknown said...

Really nice works =D
Just curious to know what kind of sketch book do you use, especially the one you did the Kathakali sketches.

paymach said...

Loved your style Shreyas.