This title actually has nothing to do with my post, it’s just what my life has been for the past 5 weeks or so, that, and writing, a lot of documenting, because I want to be able to remember this trip in the years to come. We’ve been in India since the 21st of October.After our 1 hour flight from Sri Lanka ,we landed in Chennai airport in the Tamil Nadu region of India aka the south. We knew we were about to move on up to the East Side when a real taxi on 4 wheels with AC, picked us up in a real car, that didn’t give us whiplash every time it changed gears. Woooo! were we excited to not be sitting under each other’s armpits in the back of a tuk tuk. I suspect I was especially happy because I have always felt that if I could kick a vehicle over with one Chuck Norris roundhouse kick, then I am much better of walking! No?! do you agree or do you agree? Eh? OK OK * . About 4 hours later we got to our final destination. We were finally at the home of Aunty H, who is R-Wheezy’s relative (side note R- Wheezy’s family has more cultures and races than a United Nations Summit meeting, it’s quite spectacular and wonderful!)
Anywhooo I was glad we were finally there because really I’m tired of flirting with death in the cars of these drivers. However I learned quickly that driving is as bad in India as Sri Lanka if not worse, and I was in a fender bender in Sri Lanka ! YIKES! Other than that it is simply beautiful. After a 2 day rest, we decided to try our legs at Hiking up Mount Arunachala with Vijay ( a friend of R – Wheezy’s aunt ) at 5 AM in the morning to visit the Sri Ashram Ramanasramam where the guru Ramana Maharshi lived for many years.. Mt. Arunchala can be found in Tiruvanamalai which is an important Shaivite town where Shiva is revered as Arunachaleswar (an aspect of fire). There is a proliferation of Ashrams around here and many Sikh and Buddhist followers, foreigners and locals alike. Those who have surrendered and reject all attachment to the material world, those devotees who stay in no place longer than 3 days , those who are looking for enlightenment and even those once regular travelers who came to this place years ago for a visit and just never returned to their home towns and countries. These are the people we meet. This is why I travel.
Anywhooo I was glad we were finally there because really I’m tired of flirting with death in the cars of these drivers. However I learned quickly that driving is as bad in India as Sri Lanka if not worse, and I was in a fender bender in Sri Lanka ! YIKES! Other than that it is simply beautiful. After a 2 day rest, we decided to try our legs at Hiking up Mount Arunachala with Vijay ( a friend of R – Wheezy’s aunt ) at 5 AM in the morning to visit the Sri Ashram Ramanasramam where the guru Ramana Maharshi lived for many years.. Mt. Arunchala can be found in Tiruvanamalai which is an important Shaivite town where Shiva is revered as Arunachaleswar (an aspect of fire). There is a proliferation of Ashrams around here and many Sikh and Buddhist followers, foreigners and locals alike. Those who have surrendered and reject all attachment to the material world, those devotees who stay in no place longer than 3 days , those who are looking for enlightenment and even those once regular travelers who came to this place years ago for a visit and just never returned to their home towns and countries. These are the people we meet. This is why I travel.
Anywhooo I digress, back to our 5 AM morning exercise. While hiking up and down the mountain (which satisfied my exercise requirements for the next 2 months I think.) Vijay who is very learned and also quite possibly the most hilarious version of an incorrigible 68 year old man I have ever met, regaled us with some apocryphal, some religious and some historical stories and anecdotes. I think he was trying to drop some knowledge on us, but not in the avuncular way of a condescending, highly educated, intellect but rather as a friend trying to enlighten. For example, here are a couple of my favourites :
A woman is speaking to Vijay and asks “ Do you meditate?”
Vijay “ No I don’t meditate”
Woman “ Why?”
Vijay “ Because if you need more than the 6 to 8 hours of peace and quiet you get while you sleep at night then that’s just greedy!”
Vijay “ No I don’t meditate”
Woman “ Why?”
Vijay “ Because if you need more than the 6 to 8 hours of peace and quiet you get while you sleep at night then that’s just greedy!”
2) Woman “ Do you pray?”
Vijay “ No I don’t pray, because if he doesn’t know my needs better than me then he is not worth praying to.”
Something to think about huh? Let those marinate y'all. There were quite a few others, many much more interesting and mind twisting than these, but I’ll save those for my personal collection and drop one every now and then on you guys .
After descending the mounting we went to the tea shop to have our usual, traditional Indian breakfast, of dosai ( a flat fried bread), idlis ( a steamed something of some sort) mint and coconut chutney, coconut sambol , dahl and some other crunchy stuff on a banana leaf. YUM YUM ( my apologies, I just realized I usually don’t know what I’m eating, all the same it’s all delicious, I’ll work on that.) I’ve been practicing eating with my hands too, which is very common here and completely the norm even in hotels and restaurants. I still have problems scooping the rice, mashed with my fingers into the dahl, to my mouth without it dribbling down my chin. But hey, you practice and you learn and when people look at you and double over with their guffaws you learn even faster. That’s just the way it goes.
After descending the mounting we went to the tea shop to have our usual, traditional Indian breakfast, of dosai ( a flat fried bread), idlis ( a steamed something of some sort) mint and coconut chutney, coconut sambol , dahl and some other crunchy stuff on a banana leaf. YUM YUM ( my apologies, I just realized I usually don’t know what I’m eating, all the same it’s all delicious, I’ll work on that.) I’ve been practicing eating with my hands too, which is very common here and completely the norm even in hotels and restaurants. I still have problems scooping the rice, mashed with my fingers into the dahl, to my mouth without it dribbling down my chin. But hey, you practice and you learn and when people look at you and double over with their guffaws you learn even faster. That’s just the way it goes.
After our breakfast, we dodged , ducked and prayed our way across the street while sidestepping the cows, the bulls, their poop and tuk tuks that all seem to want to engage pedestrians in a game of ‘Chicken” We get to the tea stall where we fall into chatting with an apparent non local (turns out in the past he lived up at the border of India and Burma. Another traveler who never made it back home. He’s a photographer who almost gave up photography (how tragic that would have been!) He’s facetious but not insulting or rude. After a little bullying he loans me his camera so I can scroll through his pictures, after all, he’s a published photographer so reason states that he inevitably has dozens of beautiful eclectic and artistic photos. WRONG! His camera memory is empty and he doesn’t even have an SD card. So, I decide to full his camera with some the scenery around us, the tea man, the random pedestrian and my friends. You only have one chance to capture one moment in time and then it’s gone like a whisper, lost forever to the present. Anyways after some banter he claims he’s going to put it on his website. I thought “yeah believe it when I see it !” J True to his word though . . . (check it out http://devgogoi.wordpress.com/2011/09/27/peace-corps-is-50-years-young/ )
Following this Hari met us at the tea stall and we all went into town. Parx ( who I shall now call our guy traveler and friend) , R Wheezy and myself visited the Arunchaleswar temple , built during the 11th century, which covers approximately 10 hectares of land. Here both Parx and R Wheezy got blessed by an elephant. You place either fruit or money in your hand which the elephant takes with his trunk. He eats the fruit immediately and passes the money (both bills and coins) to his handler seated next to him. Then he pops you gently on your head with his trunk and you are blessed.
After the temple we meandered back through the streets to the store where we left our shoes. It’s not strange to see people wonder about barefooted, which now is not strange to me either since even in Dubai we saw business men going to work in sandals. But, nevertheless just so you can picture it in your mind, to my Trinis : It’s like walking around Frederick or Charlotte street barefoot , Californians : It’s like walking around San Francisco, Tenderloin area without shoes, North Carolinians : It’s Durham without shoes and to my Armenians it’s like Yerevan ( Toumanyan st) without shoes. You get the picture? Good! Footwear secure on our now pitch charred feet, we walk to Trishull’s hotel to have some of the cheapest and most delicious Indian food of my life!
Some people say you either love India or you hate it passionately. Luckily I have fallen on the brighter side of that spectrum.
PS the day after I wrote this we went to Puducherry , locally known as Pondi where I saw a larger than life sized effigy of Ghandi and the bay of Bengal. India has been beautiful and good to me.
PPS Mom sent you a post card from Sri Lanka, not sure if I put enough postage. Let me know if you got it. Love you
PS the day after I wrote this we went to Puducherry , locally known as Pondi where I saw a larger than life sized effigy of Ghandi and the bay of Bengal. India has been beautiful and good to me.
PPS Mom sent you a post card from Sri Lanka, not sure if I put enough postage. Let me know if you got it. Love you
Sincerely,
Dee.
Dee.
