Days 1 and 2: Cochin
    The evening of my first day I attended a performance of Kathikali, the traditional dance-drama of Kerala. Kathikali is religious drama that is performed in temples and lasts all night, although this performance was shortened to accommodate Westerners. It has a set of stock characters, each with distinctive makeup.
    Kathikali is performed without words, using instead highly stylized gestures and movements. It is accompanied by music produced by two musicians, one on a drum and the other with a pair of cymbals. The effect of the music is hypnotic; it establishes a rhythm and then changes that rhythm as necessary, building up to dramatic moments. For religious reasons, performances begin with the lighting of an oil lamp at the front of the stage. In this transformed space, the performance begins.
    I sat mesmerized for an hour and a half. First, there was a demonstration:an actor illustrated the nine basic emotions and performed several short sequences. After that, two performers enacted several scenes from the Mahabharata -- the attempted seduction of a hero by the sister of his demon

Cochin Street scene - Lorre Weidlich