Two weeks. Beach. Lots of yoga. Yummy food. Nice people. It doesn’t get better than this. Here’s to India, and my 5 weeks here. Yogashala was a fabulous place, and I am so happy to have met Padma and spent time in her glowing presence. She is a wonderful person and a great teacher. My practice has deepened so much.
Tomorrow, Kota Kinabalu and the mountains and jungles of Borneo.
Kannur was an idyllic 3 days. after which I headed back down to Trivandrum. There, some family friends picked me up and brought me to their house, where I dozed a bit before hopping a bus to Kanyakumari, at the very southern tip of India. Kanyakumari is in Tamil Nadu, and it is located at the confluence of 3 seas. Inevitably, the sunset/sunrise is gorgeous, and I managed a fabulous picture of the former. Kanyakumari is the sight where Gandhi’s ashes were set adrift in the ocean, and where Swami Vivekananda meditated on the social justice aspects of Hinduism. Both events are commemorated by excellent memorials.
Then I hopped an overnight train to Rameshwaram, which I shared with about 10 other people, all elderly. It was nice to be in A/C and have the compartment to myself. At the very early hour of 5:20 am, we arrived, and I departed and wandered my way through the dark to the main temple of Ramanathaswamy.
There are 4 main temples in India that form the Char Dham, sites of pilgrimmage undertaken by all Hindus in their lifetime. Two of them I’ve seen – Dwarka in the west and Badrinath in the north. This third one is in the south, and I decided, since I was in the area, that I would go visit.
So, before sunrise I showed up, and made my way to the water to take a quick dip (or rather, dip my toes). Then I dried off to some extent, and made my way into the temple.
The temple is enormous. I walked the corridors for quite some time (coming across an elephant in a pen at one point), stopping for darshan at various points. Then I meandered my way to the center (after considerable wandering and getting a bit lost) for a brief puja, and then made my way out again. Then I hired a rickshaw driver to take me to the end of the island, where I could just barely make out Sri Lanka in the distance.
At Rameshwaram, it is said that Rama took his steps toward Lanka to free Sita from the demon Ravana. It is also said that Ravana’s brother surrendered here, and offered penance. After defeating Ravana, Rama offered penance for his sin of killing a Brahmin.
After leaving the temple, I made my way to the bus stand, to take the bus to Madurai. Just as a note, always ask about where the bus stops. in my case, it took almost 5 hours to arrive as we kept stopping everywhere..
Madurai is the home of the Sri Meenakshi Temple – a blinding display of S Indian architecture. Also huge. Tonight, I take the train back to Trivandrum, and find some way to Periyar.
For anyone who has read the LP guide to India, the Kerala section mentions that the state government has been off-and-on Communist. Apparently, the relatively high rates of literacy and other social indicators can be attributed to this phenomenon. But so, apparently, can the high rate of alcoholism and suicide, because communism stifles ingenuity and people turn to substances and death out of despair.
The solution, it seems, is to build up Kerala’s tourism sector, and because they are all communists, everyone gets a piece of the pie. Seems so easy..
And as always, the unintended consequences raise their ugly heads.
The push for tourism has been quite successful – it is high season now and we see a lot of tourists here. The tourism board has created a great system, and are very helpful. Kerala is a wonderful place to travel.
Too wonderful, maybe. Because Kerala’s highlight is the backwaters, miles of rivers and lakes that stretch parallel to the ocean, and lend themselves to lazy canoe rides and houseboats. The houseboats are simply bigger canoes with coverings, but at some point, some enterprising soul discovered he could put an outboard motor on one, and run trips overnight. And of course, putting the motor on the boat meant they could get larger now.
So, for about 100 bucks, you and your sweetie can lounge on the deck of a boat while a chef cooks you meals and you motor down the river for a day or so. You, your sweetie, and about 1000 other people, that is. Because the houseboats all leave from Alleppey, and the channel is only so big, and at any given moment, you can stand on a jetty and watch about 10 massive boats pass you by, their motors churning the waters and leaving chaos in their wake.
And diesel residue. So the channels are polluted now, and the government in their infinite wisdom has walled the channel to prevent flooding, thereby killing the last of the mangroves. And so, while tourism provides jobs and livelihoods, tourists kill the ecosystem.
Recent Comments