PALAKKAD: Age has not deterred 78-year-old Arlette Corlotti, a retired college teacher, hailing from a small village in Southern France, from flying to Kerala every year for the past 12 years to enjoy its culture and varied festivities. Though she usually stays for five days in a year on the outskirts of Palakkad at the Kandath tharavad, this year she decided to stay here for 10 days.
In the past few days, she has witnessed the Kallepully kummatti, Manapully temple vela which paraded 30 caparisoned elephants and 150 artistes on the panchavadyam, the Uthrallikavu temple vela in Wadakkancherry in Thrissur district where there were 33 elephants and on Saturday evening she witnessed the Puthiyangam vela. She also loves the kanyarkali here. “Arlette Corlotti is a retired teacher from Lycee Daumier in Marseille, France. For the past 12 years she has been coming here regularly. Last year, she came in mid-November to witness the Kalpathy car festival. The year before she had witnessed the Chinakathoor pooram. Usually, she visits during January, February and March.
She would alsosqueeze in time to go and witness the Theyyam. She is well-versed in Ramayana and the Mahabharatha,” said Bhagwaldas of the Kandath tharvadu in Thenkurissy, who plays host to many tourists. During the visits to the poorams, there will be floats or the ‘vandiveshams’ where people dress up as characters in Hindu epics. Many Keralites would be amazed to find Arlette Corlotti explaining the significance of each character as though she is a native of India. Two years ago, she stayed awake the whole night to witness the Arattupuzha pooram, says Bhagwaldas. “This year my itinerary was to attend the Rajim Maghi Punni Mela in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, Joranda mela in Odisha and onward to Kerala. My main area of interest is culture. I will leave Palakkad on Thursday,” said Arlette Corlotti, who has visited India 22 times.