The story of how the little rural pocket defined by alcoholism was transformed into a hub of cultural awakening comes clear in a recently released book that narrates the numerous hurdles that the country's first biennale faced in its run-up to its realisation.
Titled 'Against All Odds', the 257-page work has a chapter juxtaposing the yesteryear tumult with the present renaissance-like movement in Gothuruthu, lying off North Paravur in Ernakulam district.
Not that the coastal strip ever had a tryst with the arts. The Christian-dominated Gothuruthu has an age-old tradition of staging a ballet with Biblical theme. More recently, there has been a movement against the production and consumption of illicit liquor.
Even so, it took the biennale to give a much-needed boost to both the Latin Catholic dance-drama of Chavittu Natakam and residents' organisation called Jana Samithi. The resultant synergy has brought out an air of unmistakable positivity, as essayed in the eight-page chapter, 'Turning Gothuruthu into an Art Village' of the book, edited by Sabin Iqbal, editorial director of the ongoing biennale.
The write-up gives insights into the disorder that defined its society despite Gothuruthu having a two-century-old parish, a high school nearing 13 decades of establishment, an annual boat race that is 75-years-old and a library functioning for the past half a century besides the 'Chavittu Natakam' (traditional dance form) dating to the feudal era.
Such was the stigma associated with the village that its young men were thought to be a misfit when it came to employment or marriage.
"Nobody believed that we could get out; and maybe in some ways, people didn't want to as money was always on hand," said Palliyil Devassy, who has been working as a sexton at the local Holy Cross Church at Kadalvathuruth for 36 years. (MORE)
