Experiencing Theyyam in Kannur: A Road Trip from Bengaluru to Kerala

We travelled from Bengaluru to Kannur to enjoy the amazing food and catch a glimpse of Theyyam for the first time. We were in two cars - my F30 and my BIL's Rapid.

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Having lived in multiple places across India while growing up, I have never been able to relate much to being a proper mallu. Its only after marriage that I have been able to find the inner Mallu in me. In that spirit, I was beyond excited to catch my first hand experience of Theyyam in Kannur. Theyyam apparently is a work on the word - "Deivam" meaning god. We travelled from Bengaluru to Kannur to enjoy the amazing food and catch a glimpse of Theyyam for the first time. We were in two cars - my F30 and my BIL's Rapid. Both beautiful sedan with amazing gearbox specially made for the kind of twisty roads you encounter in the Bengaluru Kannur journey.

We took the Mysore - Hansur - Virajpet - Iritty - Kannur route and it took about 7.5 hours for us to reach here with couple of lunch and snack breaks. The ghat section post coorg gate was in a pretty bad shape for a Sedan. I was driving so carefully that couple of Trucks overtook me . But post the Kerala border the roads were good.

Theyyam being the first priority we quickly zeroed in on a Theyyam happening just 500m from our Homestay. I went there twice. Once at 7pm in the night and second time at around 5am in the morning while it was still dark. Theyyam is a spiritual art practised by certain communities from the North Malabar region. I understood from the folks there that Theyyam was a ritual which grow out of the protests against the atrocities carried out by the elite on these communities. My experience was nothing short of Amazing. Sharing few pics here.

Post enjoying Theyyam, we explore the amazing food scene in Kannur for a couple of days and returned to Bengaluru. We took the Wayanad route for the return journey in the expectation of having some amazing breakfast from Wilton in Wayanad but the shop was closed because of Ramadan.

But Indian coffee house to the rescue. Return was smooth it took us 8 hours with couple of food stops for breakfast and lunch. Cant wait to go back to Kannur again for the next Theyyam.

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