Tamil Nadu

The stress of traveling in India by myself caught up with me. I spent the last couple of days in bed in Madurai fighting a flu bug. I’m much better today – my temperature feels almost normal and my energy level vastly improved. Thank goodness! When I started getting feverish I was worried that I might have caught something far more exotic than the flu!

Anyway, it’s time to catch up with my blogging. I’ve been in Tamil Nadu for the past week. This is the state from where my forefathers came. Back in the late-ish 1800’s they accepted the offer to work as indentured laborers in Natal, South Africa to escape famine. When I see the squalor in which the poor live here in Tamil Nadu I think, that’s how my great-great grandparents lived. I bought a red banana from an old vendor woman who carried her basket on her head. It made me think about my paternal grandmother (who died before I was born). She too was a fruit vendor - in Ladysmith. It’s hard for me to believe that these folks I see are ‘my people’. Their lives, their culture, seem so alien to me. Everyone here is very religious. That, of course, immediately distances me from them. In the mornings you see white ash on their foreheads which indicates that they’d started their day with a puja.
One funny thing is that I can read Tamil! When I was a little girl I was sent to Tamil school when I got home from regular school. In Tamil school they taught us to read and write, but not to speak! How idiotic is that! So I became quite literate in the language, but had no clue what I was reading and writing. Anway, decades later, here I am in Tamil Nadu and find myself reading the signs on stores and roadsides and everywhere. Sometimes I’ll sound something out and it turns out to be an English word – electric, wine, store – very funny indeed. But this ability has been helpful, eg, in finding the right bus!

After a night in Kanyakumari I came to Madurai, home of the famous Sri Meenakshi Temple. Madurai is a big city, very built up, with high rise hotels. The temple is absolutely magnificent. It’s spread over six acres and consists of twelve intricately carved towers (gopurams). I have a view of the towers (50m high) from my hotel room. As I approached the temple from the west I was spellbound by the colorful carvings of the Indian gods and goddesses on the wall. Before entering the temple grounds there are vendors selling flower garlands, plates of coconut and fruits, and other offerings for worshippers. Then you enter the grounds and at once the chaos of India disappears. You look up at the towers which range in height and you wonder how you could take it all in. Each carving with its own story. This style of walls covered with colorful carvings of the gods and goddesses and other symbols from Hindu scriptures is typical of Dravidian architecture. The beauty of this temple really does take your breath away.
You walk through long corridors which are crammed with people and enter the inner sanctums where you see gold topped deities. So many people – ten thousand visitors a day! – and yet the atmosphere is serene. Hindus offer their respects to the deities, bowing and holding their hands together over their heads. There’s an enormous line for “free darshan” – where they get blessed by a swami.
A museum is attached to the temple. An interesting place – a hall with 1000 pillars! Here I saw some painted friezes and a good display of deities.

As I walked out toward the exit I saw an interesting sight. Sitting on a large rectangular lawn were lines of women (dressed in beautiful saris with strings of jasmin flowers pinned in their hair) decorating brass lamps. At one end was a stage where a group of people were singing, accompanied by an assortment of instruments. It was wonderful to watch this for a while.

In Madurai the best places for dinner I found were the rooftop restaurants of the hotels. You get good views of the temple, but it gets dark by 6:45 so all you see are the lights. On my first evening in Madurai a group of English ‘bikers’ invited me join them for dinner. This group of around 15 people are exploring South India on bikes! They were a fun bunch, superfriendly, and kept me entertained with their stories.

The next morning I got an email from my Mysore travel buddies – Sandy and Anita – and found out that they were in Madurai at a hotel near mine! So we got together and did some catching up. They had been hoping to do volunteer work in Kanchipuram, but it hadn’t worked out. So they are hoping to find volunteer opportunities here. Anyway, it turned out that they were planning to go to Rameswaram the next day which coincidentally was what I was going to do. Rameswaram is a detour. It’s at the end of a narrow peninsula going east and it would mean returning to Madurai to resume my route toward Chennai from where I’ll fly out.

Thank heavens I had company to Rameswaram! First of all, why would one go to this town? We had two reasons. One was its famous temple, and two, its geographical location. The town is actually on an island. You go on this very narrow peninsula where you can see the sea on either side of the road, then cross the famous Indira Gandhi Bridge to get to the town. Sri Lanka is just across the water – 33km away. Well, when we got off the bus and headed for our hotel we were instantly disappointed. The town had not even a shred of charm. It was just a jumble of chaos. Even our hotel was a disappointment. But, there were no upscale hotels or upscale anything here for that matter. We found ourselves looking at our watches, wondering how to fill the time. It’s hard to believe that this town has such a rich history. Lord Rama left from here to go to Lanka to rescue Sita from Ravana. And after killing Ravana, when Rama returned to India he performed a puja at a temple a few kilometers from Rameswaram.

The Ramanathaswamy temple in Rameswaram – also an example of Dravidian architecture – is quite special. It has four corridors lined with pillars that have amazing carvings. The most interesting thing about this temple is that it has 22 theerthams (tanks) which devotees believe have special powers. In fact for Hindus who are Shaivites (worshippers of Shiva) and Vaishnavaites (worshippers of Vishnu) this temple is one of the most important pilgrimage centers. They come from all over India – rich and poor – and bathe in the theerthums, then go for ‘dharshan’.

After visiting the temple Sandy, Anita, and I went for a walk along the coast. We were surprised to find a ‘promenade’ which led to a jetty with lots of boats. Sandy had heard that these boats were part of the Tsunami donations and previously small, flat wooden boats used to be used by the fishermen. We returned to town, had an early dinner at the ‘classiest’ restaurant we could find, and returned to our hotel. We spent the evening sharing our photos of India.

The next day we were up early and made a beeline for the bus to Madurai. In Madurai I spent the afternoon figuring out my train and hotel for my next destination – Trichy. But by the evening I began to feel awful. I got to bed early but got the chills and couldn’t get warm. My body was hot and I was miserable. I spent all day yesterday in bed. I couldn’t do much of anything. It made me terribly homesick. I longed for my home. I longed for Daryl’s comfort and coffee and butternut squash soup – mild. I couldn’t tolerate anything spicy. In fact I had no appetite. I knew I had to eat so I forced myself out of bed and went out to get bananas and water. Out on the street everything about India grated on me. I was extra sensitive to the blaring horns and the odors of rotting trash and the gross personal habits of the locals. The effort of going outside exhausted me. I got back in bed and slept all day. I was worried that if I got worse I might need to see a doctor. But thank heavens I had a good sleep and this morning felt considerably better. I went outside this morning to see if I could find Anita and Sandy and I didn’t hate India like I did yesterday!


I have one more week in this country. I plan to go to Trichy tomorrow ( Wednesday), then to Pondicherry for two, maybe three days, then Tiruvanemallai, and then to Chennai (Madras).