What do you think?
Rate this book
Win a free kindle copy of this book!
7 days and 19:28:17
100 copies available
U.S. only
The Night When The Gods Danced
Win a free kindle copy of this book!
7 days and 19:28:17
100 copies available
U.S. only
Theyyam is a Dravidian ritual art form of Kerala, India - God's own country. Like the Blues in the Mississippi Delta, the Thottam and Theyyam use song and dance to express the melancholy of the Dravida, natives of God's Own Country, submerged under the 5000-year-old Chaturvarnya caste system. A truly divine rebellion against mighty, unjust systems, Theyyam stories, and art pluck a string in our own hearts today. This book offers comprehensive insights into the authentic Theyyam as fashioned five centuries ago by Manakkadan Gurukkal and King Kolathiri. It showcases stunning images, videos, and forty captivating stories, paying homage to the Theyyam artists, the true embodiments of the sentiment behind "Of the People, by the People, for the People." We express gratitude for the awe-inspiring message and blessings from the Indian Prime Minister for the Chirakkal Perumkaliyattam Festival. We are honored by the resounding success of the festival in April 2023, where we had the privilege of hosting a staggering 450,000 participants from around the world. The authors of this book have devoted a substantial amount of time and effort to delve meticulously into the multifaceted realm of Theyyam. In doing so, they unveil its nuances, historical significance, and elaborate ceremonies. This book is the culmination of the dedicated contributions of over a hundred esteemed professionals hailing from different corners of the globe, including Fulbright Fellows and award-winning writers. This state-of-the-art multimedia book is ornamented with photography and video links/QR codes that provide a glimpse of hundreds of hours of captivating, high-quality video and spatial audio recordings from the festival. This book showcases core content media aimed for streaming on platforms like Amazon Prime, Netflix, Apple TV, and National Geographic Channel. Most of the Theyyams involve high-wire acts, with performers dedicating their lives at considerable personal risk for the betterment of devotees. Performers transform into mystical beings and exhibit the ability to walk through fire, carry heavy costumes and impossible headgear, and perform seemingly magical feats. Their well-being is significantly impacted by the service they render. We are actively exploring philanthropic partnerships, including collaborations with Indian medical organizations, particularly in the West. We firmly believe that such partnerships will yield an exponentially beneficial impact in areas where it is most needed. We dedicate this book to the Theyyam artists, the veritable Gods “of the People, by the People, for the People.” The royalties from this book will be donated to those needful Gods of the God’s Own Country.
184 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 27, 2024
About the author
Saji Madapat
37 books19 followersA Brief History of My Nomadic Re-incarnations
“To fight and conquer in all our battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”
- Sun Tzu's The Art of War (476–221 BC)
I was born and raised in God's Own Country, Kerala, a tropical paradise in India. In Kerala, we are followers of St. Thomas, the Apostle, educated by Christian missionaries brought by colonizers from Portugal, France, and Britain. 100% literacy and high educational standards in Kerala have led to many progressive movements, including Communism. Kerala has many unique records, such as a model COVID-19 recovery rate being higher than most Western countries. The first place where communists became democratically elected to power in world history, ruled as such since 1957. The resulting industrial desert brought on by Communism forced me to pack up my bags after obtaining my Industrial Engineering degree (with specialization in Total Quality Management) and seek a job in Bombay (the commercial capital of India).
I soon realized my prospects beyond the factory floor became limited by my dark skin (as a lungi-wearing Kala Madrasi). Fearing for my future, I fled to the South to escape the racist professional ladder. I obtained my MBA in finance as a candidate for national integration. Providentially for me, in 1990, the entire Indian economy collapsed under the weight of the half-a-century-old mighty Indian License Raj. The result was a liberalized Indian economy. The timing was impeccable, as it provided me the opportunity to start my career as an Investment Banking Analyst. Fortune smiled upon me again when the 1996 stock market crash in India allowed me to come out of my investment banking career.
India took the socialist route and, during the conflict of the 1970s with Pakistan, which declared emergency rule. Due to the Pakistan war and other non-alignments, the US and India’s relationship soured, and IBM abandoned India. Hail to the vacuum (to be filled), TCS and the other Indian IT conglomerates were born out of desperation. They coded us in IT to kickstart the legacy computers and mainframes left behind by IBM. Thanks to the biggest blunder in business history (Y2K), IBM and the other western enterprises saw us (‘Cyber Coolies’) as the thrifty solution to fix the doomsday Armageddon code.
During this time, I managed to migrate from corporate finance to ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solutions and snatched my passport to the epitome of capitalism, the USA. Nevertheless, in 2000, the (Netherlands-based) BaaN Brothers got involved in the Dutch scandal, and the #3 ERP (BaaN) system I was riding became a dead horse.
Since then, I have spent over a decade volunteering for PMI. I have etched my name on PMI’s key standards (including PMBOK, OPM3, PP&PM, etc.), thanks to my PMI papers, publications, and books (especially Project Portfolio Management Standard). I even served in Gartner’s PPM board room panel and later became one of the three PM Methodology SME at E&Y. In 2008, amid the economic tsunami, I served as an advisor to CFO’s office, setting up the Project Portfolio Management Office for a Fortune 10 World's Most Admired Company. I saved them around a half a billion dollars, but I became the victim of my short-term financial engineering. I managed to capitalize on the 90s legacy Hyperion Enterprise and moved on to the fancy world of a CFO’s suites of products for more prominent Financial Engineering in the BIG4 consulting world.
In 2009, I packed my bags for the Cambodian Jungles in search of answers from the bottom of the pyramid through Chinese GIFT (Global Institute for Tomorrow) – a Clinton Global Young executive Leadership Program (YLP). The more I examined the finance world in the West, the more disillusioned I became. I lost faith in the rollercoasters of flash markets (90% of today's stock market without long-term fundamental values is chasing stock buybacks, the
“To fight and conquer in all our battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”
- Sun Tzu's The Art of War (476–221 BC)
I was born and raised in God's Own Country, Kerala, a tropical paradise in India. In Kerala, we are followers of St. Thomas, the Apostle, educated by Christian missionaries brought by colonizers from Portugal, France, and Britain. 100% literacy and high educational standards in Kerala have led to many progressive movements, including Communism. Kerala has many unique records, such as a model COVID-19 recovery rate being higher than most Western countries. The first place where communists became democratically elected to power in world history, ruled as such since 1957. The resulting industrial desert brought on by Communism forced me to pack up my bags after obtaining my Industrial Engineering degree (with specialization in Total Quality Management) and seek a job in Bombay (the commercial capital of India).
I soon realized my prospects beyond the factory floor became limited by my dark skin (as a lungi-wearing Kala Madrasi). Fearing for my future, I fled to the South to escape the racist professional ladder. I obtained my MBA in finance as a candidate for national integration. Providentially for me, in 1990, the entire Indian economy collapsed under the weight of the half-a-century-old mighty Indian License Raj. The result was a liberalized Indian economy. The timing was impeccable, as it provided me the opportunity to start my career as an Investment Banking Analyst. Fortune smiled upon me again when the 1996 stock market crash in India allowed me to come out of my investment banking career.
India took the socialist route and, during the conflict of the 1970s with Pakistan, which declared emergency rule. Due to the Pakistan war and other non-alignments, the US and India’s relationship soured, and IBM abandoned India. Hail to the vacuum (to be filled), TCS and the other Indian IT conglomerates were born out of desperation. They coded us in IT to kickstart the legacy computers and mainframes left behind by IBM. Thanks to the biggest blunder in business history (Y2K), IBM and the other western enterprises saw us (‘Cyber Coolies’) as the thrifty solution to fix the doomsday Armageddon code.
During this time, I managed to migrate from corporate finance to ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solutions and snatched my passport to the epitome of capitalism, the USA. Nevertheless, in 2000, the (Netherlands-based) BaaN Brothers got involved in the Dutch scandal, and the #3 ERP (BaaN) system I was riding became a dead horse.
Since then, I have spent over a decade volunteering for PMI. I have etched my name on PMI’s key standards (including PMBOK, OPM3, PP&PM, etc.), thanks to my PMI papers, publications, and books (especially Project Portfolio Management Standard). I even served in Gartner’s PPM board room panel and later became one of the three PM Methodology SME at E&Y. In 2008, amid the economic tsunami, I served as an advisor to CFO’s office, setting up the Project Portfolio Management Office for a Fortune 10 World's Most Admired Company. I saved them around a half a billion dollars, but I became the victim of my short-term financial engineering. I managed to capitalize on the 90s legacy Hyperion Enterprise and moved on to the fancy world of a CFO’s suites of products for more prominent Financial Engineering in the BIG4 consulting world.
In 2009, I packed my bags for the Cambodian Jungles in search of answers from the bottom of the pyramid through Chinese GIFT (Global Institute for Tomorrow) – a Clinton Global Young executive Leadership Program (YLP). The more I examined the finance world in the West, the more disillusioned I became. I lost faith in the rollercoasters of flash markets (90% of today's stock market without long-term fundamental values is chasing stock buybacks, the
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
No one has reviewed this book yet.