my quirky eye: July 2011

Kaleidoscope (n) is a complex, colourful and shifting pattern or scene.

Southbank Centre is a complex of colourless brutalist architecture of dubious charm and I absolutely love it!

I am a big fan of bright colours in an obsessive sort of way (I sometimes have every colour of the rainbow on me!). I also love walking along the south bank of the Thames (from London Eye in the west to Tower Bridge in the east) and I certainly love the exhibitions and galleries at the Southbank Centre (The Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and The Hayward Gallery). So this summer, when someone decided to paint colourful portraits on those concrete walls, open a café (Indian themed!!) and paint it bright bright bright!!!, they certainly put a huge smile on my face. I was in rainbow heaven!

The cold harshness of the concrete buildings against the beautiful blue summer sky and all those lovely colours will surely make your day as it did mine. I could write more but I think these pictures could do with less words. For now, let me leave you with a snippet from a Phil Collins masterpiece…

"You with the sad eyes
Don't be discouraged
Oh I realize
It's hard to take courage
In a world full of people
You can lose sight of it all
And the darkness, inside you
Can make you feel so small

But I see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that's why I love you
So don't be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful,
Like a rainbow..."

Come fly with me...

Paperplanes and an aeroplane

Avenue of portraits

Haywired at Haywards

I love that letter

Little India

Foxy Britain

Tea time

Goodnight!

He opens his small shop, his enterprise, at the crack of dawn. The water is put to boil, breakfast (usually puttu / rice cakes) is made, bananas are cut, batter is mixed, newspapers are laid out and along come the first punters of the day. A very busy day at that.

The Malayali’s affinity for tea and his local teashop or chayakkada is legendary. Hey, even Neil Armstrong was offered a special Malayali brew by a moustachioed tea man when he landed on the moon (one of the many “Mallu teashop” jokes on offer in India).

Our quintessential chayakkada is a far cry from clinical Starbucks. There are no teapots, no fancy machinery, no plush chairs and not even one neatly folded napkin in sight (that’s what lungi’s are for!). There are glass tumblers (again, please feel free to use the end of your lungi or sari to keep your fingers from burning!), a steel mug to mix his concoction and some cloth to use as a sieve, bottles filled with sweets and savouries, plantains, newspapers and magazines hanging from rope, vertically and horizontally! To add to the ambience there’s always a rickety old wooden bench and table for the malayali to drink his cuppa, read the newspaper (100% literacy in Kerala is not for nothing!) and eat his favourite “chayakkada items”. Deep fried bananas in sweet batter (Vazhakkappam / Pazham pori – try pronouncing that dear non malayalees!! Ha!), jilebi’s, bonda’s, and of course every Malayali’s favourite puttu and kadala (chickpeas) curry is always on offer.

Our owner, usually the most informed man in the area, pours his brew from mug to tumbler and back with utter dexterity. The tea travels in an almost vertical direction and not one drop is spilt and all this happens in a flash before your very perplexed eyes. That’s sheer brilliance for you!

The moustachioed Malayali drinks this frothy concoction, wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, lights his beedi and proceeds to discuss local gossip, latest movies, national and international news, politics (its all about communism here!) and then start an argument or two for which the owner is always the referee.

Along with our coconut trees and lush backwaters, the common mans chayakkada has always been pivotal to society in Kerala. One tea stall around every corner is as much part of Kerala’s landscape as is a Mohanlal poster. It was once a young mans entrepreneurial dream to start a chayakkada, it still features in every Malayalam movie and it’s as famous in India as the Malayali himself. If you’re looking for a glorious eastern tea ceremony or a western teapot you won’t find it here. If you want to have one helluva cuppa packed with Malayali punch (Mohanlal style), meet interesting lungi clad people and want to know who Shakeela is, head to any chayakkada in Kerala or of course, to the moon.