Karagattam - Folk Dance

Any village festival in Tamil Nadu is sort of incomplete without Karagattam. Until, my last trip to India, I never had a chance to meet and take pics of the dancers. This time round, we met a group in Namakkal, (Tamil Nadu, India) who were practicing for a competition! So I'd a good photo opportunity:)

Balancing the karagam - For SOOC and Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Yes, balancing this pot (Karagam) on top of the head without holding it and performing graceful, yet fast paced dance (attam) movements is KARAGAATAM!

Ready to dance

Until then, I used to wonder if they tie up or 'glue' the pot on their head and disguise with makeup! But now, for sure I know that it is purely an art of balancing the decorated 'karagam', which is most important to start the attam!!!

They dance with so much grace that it is hard to believe how the pot royally sits on their heads.

At times, as a challenge, they lie down on their stomach by few dexterous movements and pick up a small piece of wood or fruit from the ground, while balancing the karagam!!!

The dancers are called as 'karagattakaran (men) and karagattakari (women). The music is also very peepy and you feel like tapping your foot.

The man in white is musician of this troupe!

Karagattam should be highly regarded and encouraged. But, it is not considered as 'fashionable' among city dwellers, so, I feel that this form of art is under suffocation.

Dawn @ Ocean Palm, Klebang

The bus for our day trip to Universal Studio, Singapore was supposed to start from Ocean Palm Condominium in Klebang, so we stayed overnight with a friend who lives there. Thanks for her hospitality. It was lovely to watch the sky and the ocean from the 9th floor, here are the shots that stole my heart:)

Sea view from the balcony - For SOOC Sunday and Monday Blue

Look at that beautiful back water jetty!

Shoreline view from the balcony

View from the guest room - For Skywatch

Land reclamation is in progress, which is a sad thing as it affects the nature

Cloud resembling a smoker!

Light and Shade

I have guilty conscience, whenever I go through my photo archives (2 + years of captures!). Yes, I feel that I've created a huge backlog in preserving the memory. I intend to make at least a weekly post from the backlog. Here is a series of shots that has light and shade...

@ Jewellery Quarter Museum - Birmingham, UK (Yet to post photos from this Museum)

Somewhere in Reading, UK

Apartments in Choa Chu Kang, Singapore

Ancient Egypt - Universal Studios, Singapore

Dome @ Hassanal Bolkiah Mosque Brunei

Thorn shrubs @ Madurai, India

World War II Memorial @ Labuan, Malaysia (yet to write a post on this) 

Hoping to catch up, before my memory fades!

Replica of a Ship - Malacca Maritime Museum

Playing tourist in the town where I live (Malacca, Malaysia) is one of our favorite activities during my daughter's school holidays. This time we went to the Melaka Maritime Museum.

Malacca Maritime Museum

The museum is housed in a replica of an old Portuguese Ship, known as Nau. Nau is a 16th/17th century ship that was used for trading and warfare. This museum showcases paintings and other artifacts that represents maritime history of Melaka from 14th to 20th century.

King welcoming overseas Islamic Missionaries

Traders selling spices - Era of the Melaka Sultanate

Trade Route - taken by Magellan

Pulau Besar - Wu Shu Island near Malacca - Chinese travelers used this island for filling water and food

Foreign traders at Melaka Port

Fight with the Siamese army

Portuguese Ships

Foreign Invasion

Model of a British Ship

Confinement or Prison in a Nau

Melaka Port during 19th Century - Sumatran and local ships

Besides scanty descriptions along each painting, not much information was available. It has been my long time dream to work as a volunteer in a museum, be it in documenting or guiding the visitor. So, I wanted to meet the curator or any other responsible person to get info regarding this. Unfortunately, there was no one, except for the security guards! Tried to find info online without any success. Planning to visit the other museums and try to get info, hopefully.

Ghost Festival

You can see this giant sized incense sticks all over Malaysia, during the month of Chinese Ghost Festival.

However, until now I haven't bothered to stop by and find out more. This time, I made it a point to drop in one of these tents and chat up. Heat waves hit me the moment I opened my car door. The aroma was so strong that I sneezed.

A volunteer was kind enough to patiently explain and answer my questions:) This festival falls in the seventh month of the lunar calendar (usually around July/August) and is celebrated thorough out the month. Each community/family selects a convenient day to celebrate it.

Yellow - dead people list, Red - live persons seeking prosperity and peace!

On that day, the monks visit this type of prayer tents and pray for the dead souls in general and specifically for those listed on the yellow posters! They also pray for the peace and prosperity of the living, and special prayers for those listed in red posters!!

Colorful idols are placed at the alter. The center one was very large.

God of Heaven

"This is the Heaven God. He guides the dead people, so we pray to him" said the volunteer.

Demigods

"These small Gods are like angles and they help us during natural disasters like earthquake...and see these are the gold and silver mountains that will be there in the Heaven"...

Golden Mountain

It was very fascinating to learn about their beliefs. And the most surprising article was this cute model.

Toilet for the DEAD!!!

The loo model was placed outside the tent and was meant for the visiting souls! It seems that the right toilet is for men and it was marked by 'red tail' like character that represents spade, which is used in farming. Whereas, the left was for ladies, which is marked by red dot, that depicts hand!

One of the Buddhist Goddess Kuan Yin - capable of taking 32 'avatars' to help the believers!

The offerings kept in front of Kuan Yin would be distributed at the end of the prayers, after midnight 12 am! I was proudly shown that the candy, dates and cereals towers were hand crafted by community members!

Vegetarian food

As it was a Buddhist community, all the offerings were vegetarian food, which had mock chicken and other soya/flour based meat. Along with a gift hamper, this food too would be distributed to the donors.

Finally, I was told that all the paper idols and articles would be burnt at the end of the prayer at midnight. Though I strongly respect the tradition and culture, I am concerned about the environmental pollution that occurs due to these burning. And I have a doubt if this could be the cause of the haze at nights during this season!

Bulgogi - Meat on Fire

It was totally a new lunch experience with expat friends. Well, our Korean friends suggested that we go for lunch at Korean House Restaurant, in Bukit Baru Malacca.

Menu

As we didn't know what to choose, our friends (Korean) Sara, Catherine and Yong Mei decided on the menu and ordered for all of us. First, we were served with rice tea...

Rice Tea

It tasted like Chinese tea. After that a stove was placed on each table, so I was assuming that something like Steamboat is going to be served...

Bulgogi

Well, it didn't look like a steamboat and when Sara said the name of the dish, I heard it as wolgoki and was unable to pronounce it properly, so she wrote on paper as 'Bulgogi', where Bul = Fire and gogi = meat in Korean! So, it was meat (beef) on fire!!!

Bulgogi comes with an assortment of vegetables and meat, so our table was filled with lot of mini-plates:) Though am a die-hard vegetarian, I must admit that the meat dishes were aesthetically presented.

Bulgogi Set

Bulgogi has Beef as the 'king', followed by sides - fried anchovies, pickled shells, fish balls, omelet and steamed egg. Then few veg dishes - pickled cucumber and radish, fresh lettuce with thin slices of garlic, lotus root fry and salad with thousand island sauce. On top of it, a small plate of bean sauce was placed for everyone and it was reddish and resembled Malaysian Sambal or Indian kara chutney!

All of us were given a small box of rice. But, by then another plate of what looked like glass noodles was placed in our table and Sara and Yong Mei told that it was vegetarian. When I said 'I dun want rice, I'll just have this noodles', Sara insisted 'no no, this is a special dish we make only on occasions and you should eat it with rice'.

1st time eating noodles as a side dish for rice!

As the owner of that place was Sara's friend, he gave us two complimentary dishes...

Pancakes

They were Kimchi pancake with crab meat (the one on top) and Veg & egg pancake (the one @ bottom). I didn't try it, because they were not vegetarian.

Overall, I was surprised to see that I had quite a choice of veg-dishes! Especially I liked the way the Koreans eat the rice. Yong Mei gave a demo on how to eat rice...take a fresh lettuce, add a spoon of rice, followed by bean sauce and meat or any side. Now, fold it and eat! It was yummy:)

The Giant Flower - Rafflesia

One of the major attractions of Sabah, besides Mount Kota Kinabalu is Rafflesia, the largest flower in the world! On the way to Mount Kota Kinabalu National Park, a banner and a hand made sign board attracted us. It was a private plantation that had Rafflesia.

We were told that the flower stinks even before we could see it. First, there was a waft of rotten fish smell, but as we neared the flower, we forgot all about the smell as we were awed by its gigantic beauty!

Click on the photos to enlarge...

Rafflesia - in full bloom

The inlaid photo boasts that the flower was 83 cms large, and can be reached within 3 minutes walk. A 5-6 year old girl (probably the owner's kid), guided along the short trek. Well, it took us about 10 minutes walk, but it was well worth.

Close-up

The guide, the youngest one I've ever come across, was pretty good in explaining about flower. Here are some of the interesting stuff we heard from the guide:

• Rafflesia is poisonous, thatz why the flower was fenced off!
• Rafflesia is a parasitic plant that just absorbs food and nutrients from its host
• The flower can grow more than 100 cms in diameter
• The life of the flower is about 1 week, and
• It starts stinking terribly when it dies!

Rafflesia - Offsprings!

At least one bud will be around the full bloom, nature's way to preserve its species!

You might also like to read/see pics of my other Borneo experiences...

Poring - Canopy Walkway Bridge
Aerial Views - Borneo

Water ways of Brunei - Air Kampung, Venice of the East