Nothing can prepare you for your first sight of a Theyyam. Don't know what a Theyyam is? Don't be alarmed; I didn't know either until I happened to begin a conversation with a fellow guest in Kannur, North Kerala.

Olivier, a dancer, was there in Kannur in the hope of witnessing a Theyyam festival. Kerala itself is the ancient enigmatic India, a tranquil world apart from the rest of India. Our hosts, Rosie and Hazzir had organized an auto rickshaw for Olivier to attend a Theyyam they had tracked down in a local village.

It would go all night, but if we arrived at 11pm and stayed until about three am, Rosie assured us, we would see the main part of the action. The auto rickshaw driver was happy to wait and so we set off into the night.

On the way Olivier told me what he knew about the Theyyam, which wasn't much. A ritual form of dance where the dancer is said to become possessed by God energy. This was precisely enough information to prick my curiosity. I decided that without the benefit of a guide or a cultural perspective, I would have to just watch and make up my own story about the whole event.

We arrive at a village square which is bedecked and well lit, a small temple by a tree marks the home of the village deity and is where the Theyyam will be performed.

Theyyam is said to be thousands of years old, the ritual itself is said to have developed by low caste people who were refused entry to temples by the high caste Brahmins.

Every Theyyam is local in that the story that is performed during the Theyyam ritual is centered on the local deity or a story from India's Ramayana.

The whole scene looked like a midnight picnic. Families were sitting together patiently, food was being served, chai sold, and somewhere in the background the drums announced that the preparation of the dancer was almost complete.

The first dancer came out and danced the story of a young married woman who had thrown herself in the well because of her unhappy home situation.

This story is available also as a soap opera on DVD and CD at the gate. Then another wait, we are fed and given chai and local women smile at us in welcome. Generally the people sit through the night just watching and being very well behaved with the odd toddy wallah sleeping it off under a tree in the corner.

At some point during the night, a flaming costumed dancer leapt onto centre stage, his eyes rolled marvelously in his painted face, his costume studded with fire torches and stretching to two meters above his head leaned dangerously.

He danced and leapt totally impervious to the fact that his whole costume could be engulfed in flames at any moment. The crowd drew back but their faces stayed fixed on the god. Around and around the temple he leapt and ran and danced, the suddenly he is gone and another god/dancer appears. The rest of the night passes in a whirl of fire and the blazing light of faith.

Audience participation is limited to approaching the god and asking a blessing, sometimes advice. The god will then say some mantra over them.

The ritual is thousands of years old. I can only imagine the spectacle it created in the world that gave birth to it. The sight must have scared the daylights out of little kids for years and years, without the benefit of electric lights and Playstation.

Needless to say after that I was hooked. And luckily for me the month I had planned to be on the Malabar Coast also co-incided with the Theyyam season.

North Kerala is still relatively off the tourist map; there are excellent accommodation options in terms of homes-stays, easily accessible from Goa by great trains.