Forum in "Challenges of Alli": a Reformulated Kooththu

Forum Theatre facilitated by the 'Parai Araivon' the traditional drummer in "Challenges of Alli" a Reformulated Kooththu performance of Seelamunai Art and Cultural Centre and Third Eye Local Knowledge and Skills Activists Group.

In tradition, the character of 'Parai Araivon' faces opposition from the caste of Paraiyar because of its negative portrayal in Kooththu.

The character was reformulated with the participation of Annaviyars and Parai Melam Players as a positive one and developed as a facilitator to run a forum theatre followed by the Kooththu performance.

For more detail,
Pl. read
Playing with Parai Araivon (Herald)in Kooththu (Traditional Theatre)of the Thamils of Sri Lanka: From tradition to Reformulation.
A Journey through Participatory Action Research
Book: DRUM OF A HERALD
A THIRDEYE PUBLICATION

AJ: THE ROOTED COSMOPOLITAN

CONSUME NOTHING BUT....

Mind blossoms and spreads it's
Intellect frragrance of freedom

The fiercely forced silence
Is not destined
The concurrence with occupation

Physical languish
And the mental anguish
Distribute not the prospects

But arrogant minds fail
To conceive and consume
Nothing but resistance

S.Jeyasankar
December 2008

TEACHING HUMANITARIN RULE TO A CHILD

Oh dear my child
You have to wait at least
The age of eighteen
Until have to take refuge
Under the trees or
Behind the tree trunks
Or at your usual resident
Where you bury yourself alive
The bunker you inherited
As the house of yours
In the age of e.world

And you can keep it
For the future
If you can or if you have
A future
In the humanitarian world
As the heritage
Of your living mode
If you and all
Are save and alive
Under the barrages of
Shells and bombs of
The almighty liberators
Of you and all
Under the dark sun

SJeyasankar
December 2008

NOT THIS TIME

Papa brings you
This time
Not a bag full of gift
But a bag of grief
Filled with full of
Field fresh body parts
Collected from the
Grounds of battle
And you
You will be failed
If you try and find
The race in the limps
That scattered
On the grounds
The hands
That nourished
The tender limps
With love and oil
Squeezes its hearts
In grief and pain
Papa will bring you
The grief and pain
Of the hands that
Nourished with love and oil
And field fresh body parts
Collected from the
Grounds of battle

S.JeyasankarDecember 2008

THE POWER OF CLOTH AND POLE

ONLY TO THRUST
OR
ONLY TO GRIEF
OR
THE POWER OF CLOTH AND POLE

My dear friends
I wish to greet you all
But have words
Only to grief

My heart is filled full
With disfigured
And decomposed
Bodies and body parts
Of brothers and sisters
Scattered all around

And my mind
Is derailing with
The images of
Young disabled
With flying heart
And immobile body
In silent scream
With tears of blood

We all learnt
To call it
Differently able

But still not to learn
How to keep safe
The bold
And the enthusiastic
Youths

The children of
Hardly laboured mothers
From the inborn disease
Of warring man kind

My dear friends
I wish to greet you all
But have words
Only to grief

Where people
Do not know
How to live together
But to Kill each other

Only to thrust
A pole with a cloth
Call it as a flag

S.Jeyasankar
December 2008

Challenges of Alli: A Reformulated Kooththu

Kooththu photos which were captured in the performance held on 20th December 2008 at Institute of Swami Vipulananda Aesthetic studies for the festival on Swami Vipulananda memorial day.

The performances of the Kooththu, the traditional theatre of the Thamils of Sri Lanka was extended with a forum facilitated by the Parai Araivon, the traditional drummer.

Chinna Chinna Aanantham: An Exhibition of Hand Made Greeting Cards

LITTLE LITTLE HAPPINESS