Happy New Year

Happy New Year...

If you are in Kerala India this week, , you were treated to the new year according to the Malayalam calendar. We had drummers outside of IdentityMine who were part of the festivities. Here are some shots that Vijay took of the drummers.

The drums are wood with leather tops. Also notice the small knoms on the drum strings which are used to tune the drum. We had two groups of drummers pass through, and they were very good. What I found interesting was that no many people took much notice of the event. The comment I got from the folks at the office was, "This happens every year", and then they yawn and go about their business...although a few did sneak a peak out the window to watch for a while to see if the drummers had any dance moves. Apparently, the two groups of drummers we saw were playing modern songs versus the golden oldies. Since most people in Kerala find that Jan 1st is really the new year, I think the lack of excitement for this local cultural event has lost it's flavor due to another event called globalization.

If you want to know more about the Malayalam calendar, wikipedia will com to your rescue. The link is below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayalam_calendar