Immortal Mohammed Ibrahim- Past Cricketer

In the death of Shri T A Mohamed Ibrahim, Kerala had lost one of the outstanding cricketers who donned the cap for the Kerala Ranji Team. His Ranji debut began in the season 1967-68. A product of the St Joseph’s High School, Trivandrum, Ibrahim began his career in Cricket via the Kerala School team, proving his mettle as an indemonstrable all-rounder. He has claimed hat-trick many a time, during his school days. His highest individual score was 237 runs in 150 minutes. In the same match he claimed 10 wickets for 15 runs including a hat-trick. He was a left hander, who could bowl controlled fast bowling and introducing cutters which were his strong points as an opening bowler. He was coached by A R Bhupathy in his formative Years. He played regularly in the Shastri trophy Cricket tourney organized by the Cochin Cricket Club of which I was the President. He played a cavalier knock for his team by hitting 74 (against Mahindra & Mahindra Sports Club which had test players playing at that time) in the Parade Grounds during 1965. I have known him intimately, and his prowess for the Kerala team came at a time when Cricket had different dimension. If he were to play Cricket today, I am sure, he would have been a dominant player in the Indian Cricket team. The Kerala team of his days had poor reputation. Yet his play, and the coveted glory that brought him, will be a standing testimony of the Cricket of the 60s, when Tripunithura Cricket Club, Swantons, Cochin Cricket Club, Ernakulam Cricket Club, Cannanore Cricket Club, Trivandrum Cricket Club existed. We had to take collections to conduct the tournament. In those days, Ernakulam District Cricket Association was headed by Shri V R Krishna Iyer, then a leading advocate. His late wife, Smt Sharada Krishna Iyer was a great cricket fan and a patron to all of us. As we migrated to greener pastures, I lost touch with Kerala and its Cricketing fraternity. Mohammed Ibrahim was one of them. Mohammed Ibrahim is no more. But his contribution to Cricket, in those days when it was least popular in Kerala, remains immortal. May his soul rest in eternal peace.

Panchavadhyam,Kerala's unique orchestra

Panchavadyam, literally meaning an orchestra of five instruments, is basically a temple art form that has evolved in Kerala. Of the five instruments, four -- timila, maddalam, ilathalam and idakka -- belong to the percussion category, while the fifth one, kombu, is a wind instrument. Much like any chenda melam, panchavadyam too is characterised by a pyramid-like rhythmic structure—with a constantly increasing tempo coupled with a proportional decrease in the number of beats in cycles. However, in contrast to a chenda melam, panchavadyam uses different instruments (though ilathalam and kompu are common to both), is not related very closely to any temple ritual and, most importantly, permits a lot of personal improvisation while filling up the rhythmic beats on the timila, maddalam and idakka. Panchavadyam bases itself on the 14-beat adanta (also spelt atanta) thaalam (taal), but amusingly sticks to the pattern of the eight-beat chempata thaalam—at least until its last parts. Its pendulum beats in the first stage total 1,792, and halves itself with each stage, making it 896 in the second, 448 in the third, 224 in the fourth and 112 in the fifth. After this, panchavadyam has a relatively loose second half with as many stages, the pendulum beats of which would now scale down to 56, 28, 14, 7 and three-and-a-half. Whether panchavadyam is originally a feudal art is still a matter of debate among scholars, but its elaborate form in vogue today came into existence in the 1930s. It was primarily the brainchild of late maddalam artistes Venkichan Swami (Thiruvillwamala Venkateswara Iyer) and his disciple Madhava Warrier in association with late timila masters Annamanada Achutha Marar and Chengamanad Sekhara Kurup besides, subsequently, by the late idakka master Pattirath Sankara Marar. They together dug space for a stronger foundation (the Pathikaalam), thus making pachavadyam a five-stage (kaalam) concert with an intelligent mixture of both composed and improvised parts. Spanning about two hours, it has several phrases where each set of the instruments complement the others in a manner that is more like harmony in the Western orchestra than the concept of melody in India. Much like in Panchari and other kinds of chenda melam, panchavadyam too has its artistes lined up in two oval-shaped halves, facing each other. However, unlike any classical chenda melam, panchavadyam seemingly gains pace in the early stages itself, thereby tending to sound more casual and breezy right from its start, beginning after three lengthy, stylized blows on the conch (shankhu). A panchavadyam is anchored and led by the timila artist at the centre of his band of instrumentalists, behind who line up the ilathalam players. Opposite to them stand the maddalam players in a row, and behind them are the kompu players. Idakka players, usually totaling two, stand on both sides of the aisle separating the timila and maddalam line-up. A major panchavadyam will have artistes totaling around 60. Panchavadyam is still largely a temple art, but it has come out of its precincts to be seen performed also during non-religious occasions like cultural pagentry and according welcome to VIPs. There are several central and northern Kerala temples that have been traditionally playing host to major pachavadyam performances. Prominent festivals featuring them are Thrissur Pooram (its renowned Panchavadyam event is known as 'Madhathil Varavu'), Kaladi Panchavadyam ulsavam, , Tripunithura Sree Poornathrayeesa Aarattu, Tripunithura Thamaramkulangara Makaravilakku, Thiruvona Mahotsavam at Sree Vamanamoorthy Temple Thrikkakara , temples in places like Chottanikkara, Odakkali, Vaikom,Ambalapuzha, Perumbavur, Pazhur, Ramamangalam, Nayathodu, Chengamanad, Chennamangalam, Irinjalakuda, Thiruvillwamala, Pallassena, Pallavoor and several renowned temples in Malabar ,Central Kerala and South Kerala.

Sopana Sangeeta Nadhamo...

Kerala is a land and abode of Temples, Festivals. The festivals attached to temples have many fanfares including many plays of musical instruments which are specific to Kerala. One such musical instrument which is used when the nada (God’s abode) is closed for pooja and the opening is often with a mangalaharti. To the beating of chanda, the God receives the arti. This is a practice followed in most of the temples in Kerala. Sopanam literally means the place surrounding the sanctum-sanctorum of a Temple in Sanskrit. This strain of music is regarded as the sole Classical Music strain native to Kerala. Some unique features of this strain of music. It is a Music that proceeds slowly in ascending and descending order of its raga swaras. During ragalapana (recital of raga), the artist treats every note of a raga as its nila (base) and proceeds to the immediate successor note and returns to the starting note to proceed to the next note thus continuing always returning to the starting note. The alapana is slow and tala (beat) bound, and is set to he beats of edakka (a percussion instrument made of skin), and elathalam (small cymbals), at different speeds with various koorus (permutations) signifying different stages of its exposition. It is marked by a tremor in music, even when straight notes are used (This is true of most of the ancient systems of music.) The singer usually selects a note as Sthaeebhavam or the overriding emotion of the raga, and uses supporting swaras to create a Bhavam or emotion, and the succeeding notes that do not support it are skipped over. This usually results in either the first half or the second half becoming prominent. It uses Margitalams (a type of beats) which were in vogue before the advent of more modern desi talams (a more modern variety of beats 35 in number). More than fifty instruments can accompany Sopana Sangeetham of which the important ones are chenda (Percussion), edakka (Percussion), chengila (type of cymbals), ilathalam (type of cymbals), maddalam (Percussion), kuzhithalam(type of cymbals), thimila, mantuni, maram, kompu(wind), kuzhal(wind), villu, and shanku(wind).