Apart from the coconut by-products, the South’s biggest contribution to Incredible India is its art forms. The minute one thinks of the South part of India, automatically strains of Carnatic music flows through one’s ear from an invisible source!

If you are traveling through Fort Kochi, I strongly recommend stopping by the Kerala Kathakali Centre and picking up a brochure and going to some of their programmes on for that week. I went to their morning raga mediation session which was niceee though I was extremely sleepy because I didn’t get much sleep the night before and their famous Kathakali dance show. Kathakali is traditional storytelling dance form where the story is expressed with facial and hand expressions. Its a highly specialized form and the amount of training and disciple required to learn it doesn’t go unnoticed.

What’s probably worth to see in one of the daily evening shows is the pre-show setup where you can see the artist’s makeup and the stage preparation. The performance is loud and not everybody’s cup of tea but it would be a crime not to see it.

Here are some of pictures of the show I attended. It was 2 1/2 hours and cost RS.250 pp.