Ormakalute thirumuttam (Sacred courtyard of memories)

As I decided to restore the old palaces of Tripunithura royal family – they are the standing monuments of the harmony we once had with the rest of the world: all of them Kerala-Dutch in architecture – by capturing each and every one of them in my painting, one question did bother me. While doing so did I possess the eye of an artist or the idea did motivate me because I am a member of the whole clan? (My father is from Tripunithura royal family) To tell the truth I still don’t have an answer to this. In fact I was both an artist and a family member, while doing so; sometimes this and sometimes that. But the experience of collecting all of them in my picturesque space was beyond all these. It was a pilgrimage, so to speak. Every day, early morning I used to get out of my father’s family house with a number of painting materials, wandering not only through these palaces but also through many centuries, hearing many haunting memories that many of the inmates were eager to share with me and working my best on each and every picture. I used to sit on the sand, concrete benches in the gardens, on the gravel kept beside the road, wherever it was comfortable to sit and draw. I used to eat and drink whatever that was offered to me. The days were never the same although the routine was the same. Every evening I got back home tired with fatigue but rich with experiences.

Now thinking back, the best feature of these architectural wonders is that even though there is an underlying similarity, no two are completely alike. If one place is a U shape, another is in an L shape. One palace is shared by many families while some have only one inhabitant. Some palaces are still standing intact while some others are rundown and shabby. But in my painting all stood equally important and evenly beautiful.

Later; as I was putting these paintings into the exhibition in the royal family Pavilion (Thattumalika) during Tripunithura Temple festival, my mind flew back to a century which I have not seen. A century without electricity, without the ugly concrete flats spoiling the background of these beauties, without the conspicuous mosquito nets on the windows and doors, without the sounds of the motor vehicles, without the dirty power lines criss-crossing the sky – An era without computers of course!!! How would it have been then? Although the only thing I can do now is wonder. Of course times have changed; but these structures have stood, adapting to the changes, never diminishing in beauty, going from one generation to the other through thick and thin. They tell stories, they have witnessed many things.