THRISSUR

Standing 75 km northeast of Cochin, Thrissur is a good place to see some temple festivals and local art performances of schools during your 1-2 day visit (not more). The main reason that brought me here was the fact that Cochin Airport was standing in the middle of Thrissur-Cochin road; and surely there was no point in visiting Cochin for the 3rd time.

The city has an interesting characteristic as it's built around a park area, in which the Hindu-only Vadakkunathan Kshetram Temple has been placed right in the centre, and dozens of road goes out of the main round road as if they're the sunbeams of a painting drawn by a primary school kid. You might be surprised when you see the temples' architectural design like me since they are more similar to Chinese/Japanese designs than the Hindu ones.

The day I arrived was also the last day of Thypooya Maholsavam festival, which was celebrated in Sree Maheswara Temple in Koorkancherry village with a kavadiyattam (a colourful ritual art, is a votive offering to Sree Subramanya) procession where hundreds of kavadis (tall, colorful ornate structures) were carried by people and a musical cerenomy with the temple's elephants was performed later. Unfortunately I missed the former one.



The next day, my last day in India, I watched a 1982 local movie in the 4th International Thrissur Cinema Festival, which had been produced to criticise the unfair traditions the women had to follow.

Late in the afternoon I was on my way to Cochin Airport to fly Singapore.