Saturday, February 23, 2008

Margery

Team 63 gathered at 7am in the “Upper Room” for a light-hearted breakfast as tourists on a well-earned holiday. Anne and Eula were the “Spice Girls” once again. We alighted our waiting coach at 7:45 heading west on a 60 km adventure past unfamiliar sections of Chennai past a garbage dump haven for water buffalo, oxen, and probably Templeton of Charlotte’s Web fame, a few lakes, a Medical College and the usual ebb and flow of ordinary life with which we had become familiar. We merged onto a Federal tollway with 3 workers per toll booth – one to collect the money, one to count it, and a third to issue the receipt.

Meanwhile, Stephen gave us a running commentary as we shared our personal agendas for our free time. Alone the way, were gleaming new engineering universities which Steven informed us abound in Tamil Nadu so that there’s a surplus of 15000 seats each year. Peter commented that India would need engineers badly in the future for all the infra structure projects needed in India. Other modern sites included the Honeywell and Hundai plants, the latter a pioneering multinational. Trucks idled by the roadside waiting to transport the new cars. But the further from Chennai we traveled, the more rural the landscape with rice paddies and fruit orchards.

We paused to view a memorial park to Raviv Ghandi with a slab indicating the spot where he had been assassinated by a Sri Lanken woman during a speech in 1993.

Our first stop were the temples in Kanchipuram, a capital during the dynastic period, where temples abound as natural havens for the kings as it was taboo to attack them. The first of our four temples for this day was Sri Kamakshi identified as a site for worshipping parvathi by the carved lion, his vehicle. Built in the 16th Century it was in a traditional square with four main entrances facing North, South, East, and West, with the main entrance to the East. Although we are barred from the holiest of areas, the vimana, we could walk around the sacred inner perimeter but without shoes. A calming reflecting pool, the “Holy Tank”, serves as a bathing area for the priests. The decorated elephants with bells were also being bathed. They are treated with reverence as they’re considered gods of good luck. Rae, Brigit, Jennifer, Peter, and Margery volunteered to shimmy up their prickly legs to ride in style as if we’d been doing it for years. It was a strange sensation to look down from such a precarious height.

Next stop, the Sri Ekambaranatha Temple of the Mango had lost its tree four years ago. Helen and Peter speculate as to how they’d repaint the towering main entrance. Helen and Rae, aka the Bindy Sisters, plotted to ditch the spy in the blue shirt shadowing them and taking pictures. Helen’s “Evil Eye” gesture did the trick. The 540 pillars in this temple are elaborately carved. An inverted lotus serves as a sacrificial alter. The carved bull outside the holiest area indicated that Shiva’s idol was within. Waiting pilgrims are encouraged to walk backwards – a yoga practice – for relaxating themselves before worshipping. Brahams or priests sported a string across one shoulder as they strolled about their domain. A Neem tree for offerings was outside laden with carved cradles and figures left by childless couples hoping for fertility.

Varadarajaswami Temple honoring Vishnu featured a wedding hall within 100 pillars carved from single stones carted from 200 km away. A tortoise platform is used for ritual performances of Vishnu’s marriage to Lachsmi. Modern couples hold their nuptials down below.

The oldest temple, Kailashnatha, honoring Shiva dated from the 8th Century and being carved from sandstone were well-weathered. The walls contained 58 panels depicting mythological stories. The vegetable paints which had once been vibrant were worn away.

Templed out at lunch time, we were refreshed by a sumptuous buffet. Peter left to return to Chennai for a meeting to trace his father in the town he’d left as a young man for England after we shopped at a silk weaving shop with exotic cloth scarves, table linens, pillow covers, etc. We were generous in our purchases as who knew when we’d encounter such high quality silks again.

On the 2 ½ hour drive to the Lotus Hotel we began to anticipate warm showers and French cuisine in Pondecherry. We checked into our rooms to refresh then walked to the Ashram – a veritable botanical garden for meditation. Signs cautioned visitors to observe silence for the worshippers. This center had been founded in 1927 by Aurobindo who had received enlightenment there. He and the Mother also founded Auroville, an international meditation community which we will visit tomorrow.

We crossed into Pondecherry after our bus inspection. It is a unique remnant of French culture. The city itself has two parts – Indian and French. We walked into the latter where most of the street noise disappeared, the roads were paved with paving stones, were straight and clean and bore French names like Rue Saint Louis. The trade off was that life was concealed behind closed doors. Helen, aka India Moon, lamented, “We miss the cows.” We walked to the promenade along the Bay of Bengal and were refreshed in the sea air. We visited a tent full of craft stalls then ordered a table for huit with Kingfishers all around at Le Rendezvous Roof Garden. Stephen recalled when he met “god.” He had filled us in with a course on the major Hindu epic sagas of the gods, The Mahabharata on the exploits of Vishnu and The Ramayana on the conflicts between the gods usually resolved with cunning as opposed to strength. He also described the three main deities, Brahma the creator, Vishnu, the preserver, and Shiva, the destroyer.

“India happens to be a rich country inhabited by very poor people” Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh