The Palghat Umbrella

The ubiquitous Olakkuda of Malabar Though I knew a bit about the palm leaf umbrella, the olakkuda of Malabar, I never knew until recently that it was more popularly known as the Palghat umbrella.  I saw it mentioned so in the pioneering book Saraswati vijayam by Potheri Kunhambu, for the first...

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Eustace Benedict De Lannoy

And the Udayagiri Kotta in Travancore The other day, we were listening to an old song – Udayagiri kottayile Chitralekhe, from the film Aromalunni and watching the ever beautiful actress Sheela's sensuous dance to the lines. As I listened, my grey cells got into an overdrive, how did Aromalunni get...

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Saradindu, the Meri and Raktha Sandhya

Many years ago, I wrote about the fate of the ship Meri, its plunder and the massacre of its occupants by Vasco Da Gama. I had also mentioned briefly about a short story written by the late Saradindu Bandhopadhyay, on the very same subject. Anyway, of recent, I have been in the process of devouring...

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