Wednesday 21 November 2007

The Kokan trip Snapshots (much-delayed...but written nevertheless!)

Presently we are doing a play that is set in present-day Kokan. It is the story of a family of thirteen people and their inter-relationships. Those who have visited Kokan have always attributed to it adjectives such as beautiful, deep, mysterious, refreshing, quaint, charming and the like. No matter what anybody feels about it, there is nobody who escapes its magic. Yes, magic. I find it magical. Some of us had never been to Kokan. Those of us who had, were more than willing to go. Most importantly, we had, as a part of our process for the play, planned that we should visit Kokan as the family in the play, live in a manner as close as possible to the local way of life and perform the scenes on live locations. So we planned a trip to a small sleepy and quaint village. The uniqueness of this place is that on one side of the village is the sea, and on the other, a river.


Some of us were able to go a day in advance. So the next night the remaining 6 of us left by the 9:30 p.m. bus. I suffer greatly from motion-sickness. So I was dreading the journey. As expected, I had a splitting headache that continued till we reached our first bus change-over stop at about 3:30 a.m. The bus to our village was at 5:00 a.m. We reached at 6:00 a.m. This bus was almost empty. So I got a whole three-seater to myself and I could lie down a bit and sleep and thus get rid of my headache.


In the village, one our team-mate A's relatives have a house that is closed throughout the year except the rare occasion when some of them visit it. So we were to stay in this house. A local who usually takes care of the house was intimated in advance. S & S, two boys from our team, had come to the ST stand to receive us. We walked to the house, which instantly became our "home" for two days. The road is narrow, lined with trees that form the front for homes that are constructed in the typical Kokan style. When we reached home, we got a very very pleasant surprise. Those of us who had reached a day in advance were dressed up totally in their character's costumes (at 6:30 in the morning !) and welcomed us in traditional Kokan style. As we settled in our home, we were offered a typical Kokani breakfast. What a great way to begin our trip !

We spent the day exploring the home, the village, the beach etc. Our food arrangements were with a family that runs a home-restaurant where we got typical (and delicious) Kokani food.

As soon as we reached and settled in our home, two doggies appeared out of nowhere. Both really slim-n-trim. Actually one was too thin...the ribs were showing. So the slim one got named Bips (no prizes for guessing after whom) and the thin one got named Malaika :))) Bips was very friendly but Malaika (unlike her human counterpart) was so snooty and disinterested in us ! For the two days that we were there, Bips followed us around everywhere in the village....even to the bus-stand when we left !

Two of our team-mates crossed the river in a small boat and went over to the other side to buy some provisions for dinner and had funny experiences of their boat ride to share with us.

We visited a Dargah atop a hill in the next village that is 8 kms. away. The view from the Dargah is magnificient. In the previous post I have posted the photographs taken from the top of the hill, standing next to the Darga.

The night we reached, we cooked our dinner on the open-air "chool" ("chulha" in Hindi). We cut the firewood, we lit it, we kept the fire going, tended to it, and cooked on the chool. The flavour of the rice cooked on the chool is too good...and I'm not saying this out of excitement. It is really different and tasty. The next morning we heated our bath-water on the chool and I discovered what the difference was. Food gets a smoky flavour when cooked on the chool and the heated water had a beautiful smoky fragrance !

At night it was a typical big-family scenario, with somebody lying on the large wooden swing talking to each other (oh ! did I mention that EACH home in Kokan has a swing in the sitting room i.e. the room that one finds oneself in, as soon as one enters the home...actually it is called a "padawi"), some sitting around singing old songs, somebody oiling somebody's hair. It was a very warm scene :)

Usually, in Kokan, in the villages by the sea, there is one road that runs parallel to the beach. The houses lining the beach have a small front yard. Then sits the home with very small garden patches on both sides and at the back is a very long and large patch of land on which there are banana plants and coconut and betelnut trees. Its called a "waadi". A path through the waadi leads to the beach. The beach begins where the waadi ends and suddenly you find yourself on a clean and deserted beach with a strong breeze and the vast sea in front of you. The houses on the opposite side have a back view of the green mountains. All in all...any home is a home with a view :)

There was something very interesting that we did. We rehearsed each scene on live locations. So, if, in the play, a scene is set in the mandir, we rehearsed it in the mandir on the hill. Another is set on the beach and we rehearsed that one on the beach. The way the scene entrenches itself in your conscious, in each of your senses, when you do it on live location is something that I won't be able to describe. It is something to be experienced or observed in the least.

In our village there is a small hill that has a Ganapati Mandir on the top. We visited that Mandir as well. The view from the top is just fantastic ! You are standing on the top of this hill. You see the slope of the hill covered with a thousand shades of green. Then you see the dark green tops of the coconut and betelnut trees and tiny red-tiled homes in their midst. Where this green-top cover ends, you see the beige coloured sand. Beyond that, the water shining in the sun, the waves advancing and retreating. Then the horizon and there begins the blue sky that extends all the way up, then takes a curve and comes back to you :) Magic ! :)

I promise myself that I shall keep returning there to experience the magic...again and again.

Zoya

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