Pondi, Auroville, Chidambaram, Thanjavur

Cyd and I just got back from a wonderful 6-day trip through Southern India:
January 8th - Kodaikanal to Pondicherry
January 9th - Pondicherry to Auroville
January 10th - Auroville
January 11th - Auroville to Chidambaram
January 12th - Chidambaram to Thanjavur
January 13th - Thanjavur to Kodaikanal


Pondicherry:


We took the night sleeper bus from Kodaikanal to Pondicherry, watching loud Bollywood films the entire way. In Pondicherry - which is an Indian city boasting a hint of France - we stumbled upon the Pongal Festival, a yearly event that celebrates harvest through the decoration of the sacred cows, community bonfires and beautifully intricate kolams. We came across a street where a stunning kolam drawing competition was taking place. There were absolutely breathtaking drawings all along the street, consisting of bright and glittering powders of every colour.  Some of the designs were geometrically intricate while others were pictures of animals, or people, but all were beautiful!

The beginnings of the drawings. They first draw dots to outline where they will fill in the lines and colours, and then fill it in.

Auroville:


Cyd and I spent a few days in Auroville, staying in the Sharnga Guest House (in the middle of the jungle, surrounded by giant banyan trees) and taking in the weird phenomenon that is Auroville. Auroville is a hippie community that was founded by "The Mother" in 1968 as a place for people to live without a nation, without a religion, without possessions, with only Divine Spirituality. The town is centered around the Matrimandir, a giant hollow gold golf ball, supposedly the universal center of spirituality, where people go to meditate. Basically, Auroville is a place where hippies and/or burnt out Westerners come to take a time out from their real lives.


When it was first founded, Auroville was an ecological desert, void of plants of any kind. Since then, there has been an incredible restoration effort, and now the rare "tropical dry evergreen forest", the indigenous forest type for this area, has been restored. Auroville also does tons of research and development of renewable/sustainable energies, and have built a solar bowl, solar power plants, solar water heaters, and solar pumps. They also have a multi-step water purification process, where the last step is to expose the water to Bach and Mozart music.


Cyd and I rented bicycles and went for a tour of a 10-acre organic farm, called Buddha Garden, which was started by a woman named Priya in 2000. When she began, the land was barren, and through a fertilizer system of spreading layers and layers of cow urine mixed with leaves over the entire property, she has turned it into a productive organic farm. With the help of volunteers, she now grows maize, basil, bananas, cashews, beans, squash and pumpkins, etc. Since her farm is organic, she is unable to use pesticides or herbicides. In order to combat the weeds, she plants the crops farther apart so that the pests can't spread from plant to plant as easily, and has raised beds to reduce weed-growth. They are also fully solar powered and use drip irrigation in order to reduce their water usage.


We then went and wandered around a vegan eco-village called Sadhana Forest. This village was built around a 70-acre forest restoration project, and recruits volunteers to work in the village. Volunteers help out with the reforestation project, tree nursery, kitchen, alternative construction sites, garden or any number of other odd jobs. The community is quite sustainable, boasting an organic farm, solar panels, sustainable thatched houses, water resource management and composting toilets. This community was one of the coolest things I have ever seen, and I have decided that I HAVE to go back and live there for a few months!

Sharnga Guest house, in Auroville. It was awesome!

The Matrimandir, universal centre of spirituality.

Bicycle we rented.

Sadhana Forest eco-village, their thatched living quarters.

Chidambaram and Mangroves "Floating Forest":


We took a bus from Auroville to Chidambaram. The city buses in India can be a lot of fun! In the parking lot, the bus was practically empty. As it began to slowly move its way out of the parking lot, people started hopping onto the moving bus. So by the time the bus actually reached the exit, it was packed with people, complete with teenage boys hitching a free ride by hanging onto the outside of the bus, being yelled at by the bus driver to get off. Buses don't stop for people to get on and off here. They just slow down a bit, and the people jump out and onto the moving bus. Cyd and I haven't quite reached this level of comfort yet with the buses here, and will only get onto a stopped bus in the terminal. The buses also play loud Bollywood music, so Cyd and I grooved along to the music all the way to Chidambaram.


The next day we met up with Karthik, a biologist with PHCC (one of the environmental organizations I've been working with). Karthik has been doing a mangrove reforestation project along the coastal areas near the town of Pichavaram. PHCC had asked me to go out for a day with Karthik, to learn all about the ecological significance of mangroves and his reforestation efforts, and then write a little report about it for their website.  So Karthik took us out on a little rowboat to explore and learn about the mangroves. These mangroves saved two villages from devastation during the 2003 Tsunami. The mangroves were very interesting to see, with their roots raised above the water, their abundance of birds, and their long seed pods that germinate while still on the tree and then float in the water, hoping to get rooted into the soft mud. We saw tons of birds, including:

-bittern
-brahminy kite
-little cormorant
-green parrot
-darter

-black ibis
-little egret

-great egret
-painted stork
-black-crowned night heron

-red-rumped swallow

-Asian palm swift

-common kingfisher

Not a great picture, but the bird is a black-capped night heron, my favourite of the birds we saw at the mangroves.

Fishing for shrimp. According to Karthik, shrimp farms are the main threat to mangrove forests.

When Cyd and I tried going to the Nataraja Temple (which just looks like a smaller version of the Meenakshi Temple), we had a very unnerving experience. We were sitting outside of the temple when a group of teenage girls came and asked us if they could have a picture taken with us. We said sure, and had our picture taken with them. Then while we were chatting with them, a teenage guy came over and asked us the same thing. We said no, because it is not culturally acceptable to let that happen. As we continued to chat with the girls, a large group began to form around us. In less then a minute, a group of about 50 people were crowding around us trying to take our pictures, trying to get in pictures with us, and we even had a few people try and give us their young children to hold so that they could get a picture of their child with us. It was quite overwhelming and intimidating, having 50 people trying to get as close as possible to us for the best picture, while shoving their children at us. So we ran out of the temple as fast as possible, missing the "fire ceremony" in the temple, which is the entire reason why people go to the city of Chidambaram. Now don't get me wrong, we weren't flattered at all by all this attention. It was not because these people thought we were good-looking, it was because they thought we were extremely weird and freakish looking. We were two young white women wandering around a small town that sees white people on a very rare basis.

We ended up going for tea with the lovely group of young women we had met in the temple. They were all first year engineering students in a nearby college, very sweet and intelligent young women. It was a very cool experience to chat with these girls, learning about their cultures and experiences of being young women in their culture, so different from our own.

The sweet girls that we chatted with at the temple, and then took out for tea. They bought us key chains with our names on them so that we would remember them, and insisted that we tell our friends about them.

 Thanjavur:

In Chidambaram we were staying in an incredibly cheap but sketchy hotel. So after one night in the hotel, we noticed red bumps all over our arms, sides of our faces, and backs, which we quickly determined were bed bug bites. So we got out of there as soon as possible! Our nerve-rattling experience in the temple, combined with the itchy bed bug bites, made us realize that we had overstayed our welcome in the town of Chidambaram, and decided to bus it to our next destination: Thanjavur. The city of Thanjavur proved to be home to my favourite temple yet, the Brihadishwara Temple. This temple was wonderful as it was a happy medium between Meenakshi temple (too touristy) and Nataraja Temple in Chidambaram (so few tourists that we got mobbed and had to escape). Unfortunately though my batteries died before I was able to take any pictures of it, so I'll hopefully be able to get some from Cyd. This thousand year old temple marks the height of the Chola kingdom, and is known for the gigantic 16-feet long and 13-feet high Nandi statue (sacred bull).

We then began our long trek back to Kodaikanal. We took city buses all the way from Thanjavur to Kodaikanal, a journey which took us 10 hours and required us to switch buses 5 times at various bus terminals along the way. All in all it was a successful and fun trip, and I'm excited for our next one, to Hampi, Goa and Kovalam, which begins on January 21st!

Kodai Pics:

View from the Vattakanal Cliffs.

A political poster that we found really funny. Notice how Jesus is telling the children "Happy Birthday to me...".

Chennai (Madras)

George and I took a mini-trip to Chennai from December 30th - January 3rd to pick up his niece Cydney. We took the overnight sleeper train (where we each get our own bunk on the train to sleep) from Dindigul to Chennai, which is the fifth most populated city in India, with a population of approximately 8.2 million. We stayed in a backpacker hotel called Broadlands, which was a funky place to stay with its multiple outdoor courtyards, roof-top bathroom stalls and mini tree-temple in the middle of the hotel's main courtyard. The trees in the courtyards were home to green parakeets and the outdoor sinks were inhabited by luminescent-looking geckos that would poke their heads out from under the sink when we were brushing our teeth at night. On New Year's Eve we managed to catch a fantastic fireworks display from the roof of the hotel.

Although the city of Chennai was culturally very interesting to experience, it was also quite disgusting. There are multiple rivers of sewage that run through town, with brownish methane bubbles emerging from the depths of the channels. It is impossible to walk past these sewage channels without plugging your nose, as the smell is nauseating. One of the channels dumps directly into the Bay of Bengal, where a few hundred metres down from the dumping zone is a popular beach and swimming spot for the locals.

But there are also beautiful, seemingly magical, parts of the city. While wandering through the downtown area, we stumbled upon a side alley that was full of flower vendors. As we walked down the narrow alley, there were massive piles of bright flowers pouring out of the shops on both sides. There were beautiful red, orange, pink, purple, and yellow flowers of every shade imaginable that the vendors wove together to sell for women to tie into their hair. They also wove elaborate patterns of flowers to sell to brides and grooms to wear at their weddings. There was such a sense of commerce in that ally, with people everywhere bartering to get the best-priced strings of flowers to tie into their girlfriend's, mother's or daughter's hair.

I would not generally consider myself to be overly girlie, but India has made me into a total mall-junkie. The vendors in Spencer's Plaza in Chennai had the most bright and colourful purses, scarves and earrings that I just couldn't resist. I usually try to escape from a mall as soon as I enter it, but the persistence of the vendors, combined with the beauty and colour of their fabrics, kept me in the mall, bargaining for hours over the price of a certain purse or piece of clothing (most of which are souvenirs to give to people back home, of course). It was actually kind of fun to partake in some friendly bartering with the energetic, eager-to-please vendors at the mall. When I finally emerged from the mall, not only did I have some beautiful items, but also felt like I'd just gotten a successful cultural lesson in Indian-style bartering.

Volunteering:
 I have still been working with the Vattakanal Conservation Trust here in Kodaikanal, writing up a report about the results of my interviews. I was also asked to do a presentation about proper garbage disposal to one of the classes at St. Peter's School in Kodaikanal, which I did yesterday. For the presentation I partnered up with a guy that works with kids at  local kresh here, who I figured would have a better idea of how to reach these kids. We created a presentation about the differences between recycle, compost and waste, and why it is important to separate them properly. We then went through each category, describing why it is dangerous to throw it into the stream or burn it, focusing on human health impacts. Finally, we described what should be done with the recycle, compost and waste, as the recyclable plastics and glass can be sold, and the compost can be put in a garden. The principal now wants us to present to the entire school when they all get back from winter holidays.

Pictures:

View from the road down the mountain.

The view from the roof of Broadlands, the hotel we were staying at. The mosque had call to prayer  5 times a day.

An extremely creepy looking Santa that was at a hotel we had dinner at.

A girl doing tight-rope walking at the beach. When I first saw it, I thought they were setting up for a beach volleyball game. Obviously that was not the case.

Gharials that we saw at the Snake Park at Guindy National Park, near Chennai. There were tons of snakes, crocodiles, geckos and lizards at the park.

The flower-selling ally.

Buying flowers.

The fort that we climbed up in Dindigul. It was originally built by the Madurai Nayak Kings in the 1600's, then became controlled by the British army in the 1800's.  

Dindigul Fort ruins.

Herding goats.

Dindigul's marketplace.

Madurai

Last week Vera and I went on a 2-day trip down to Madurai, a city with a population of approximately 2.5 million. Madurai is known as the "Temple City" due to the majestic and breathtaking  Meenakshi Temple that is centrally located in the city. The temple is named after the Hindu Goddess Meenakshi, who is said to be an incarnation of the Goddess Parvati. The temple consists of 12 gopuras, which are tall, soaring towers covered with thousands of colourful statues of people, dieties, animals, mythical creatures and monsters. 


Although the temple was gorgeous to see, what I found most interesting was the devotion that the visiting Hindus showed at the temple. They were praying, bringing gifts of coconuts and other fruits for the gods, the men were putting white powder on their foreheads to show their devotion, and many of the women were getting their heads shaved for that same purpose. I am not a religious person myself, and so seeing these people be so enthralled to be in this spiritual place, and seeing the pure devotion on their faces as they knelt and prayed to their gods, was something quite unique and interesting for me. 


I also went inside the temple and got blessed by an elephant. You put a coin in his trunk and he taps your head as a sign of being blessed. I also got a picture with the elephant's trunk on my head. His trunk was dripping snot though, and it got in my hair and was running down my face. Ewwwww!!! 


There were also some unpleasant parts of the Madurai experience. There are tons of beggars and street vendors that hang out around the temple, hoping to get some money from the "rich foreigners". As a white young woman, I was the perfect target for these people, most of whom are selling jewelery and purses. They followed me around constantly, and no matter how many times, and in how many ways I told them to take a hike, they refused to listen and continued to follow me, begging for me to buy their stuff. At any given time, I was being followed by around 5 vendors/beggars hoping for money. There were also the Kashmiri shop owners who would come up to me, pretending to be tour guides, saying that they could show me the best view of the temple. If you followed them, they'd just take you into their cloth shops and try to sell you their stuff. I had been told about them before going to Madurai, so i didn't fall for their scams.


There was one incidence though that really pulled at my heart strings. I bought a necklace from one of the street vendors, which turned out to be a terrible idea. There must be beggars who sit there watching for people who are willing to take out their wallet. So as soon as I finished buying the necklace, a mother signaled to her 5 young children, who all stood up and began to jump around me begging for money. It was just sad that these children had to beg at such a young age. You just have to learn here that you can't give money to all of the beggars. If I have coins (1-5 rupees) I will give them to beggars, which is pretty standard. But if I started giving 10 or more rupee bills to the beggars, then I am just promoting the idea that all white people are rich and willing to give lots of money. This is a system that Vera and George taught me, and it seems sensible. 


Here are some pictures:

There were many people biking around with huge loads of products on the back of their bikes. They are bringing them through the city for deliveries. It is amazing that this is how they make a living, they must be in great shape! 

Temple statues with 8-armed people.

Called an auto-rickshaw, this is a fun way to travel around the city. Its like a mini taxi.

Getting snotted on by the elephant.

These people are making a living by getting paid by tourists who want to weigh themselves. They sit there with a scale, accepting money in exchange for the chance to weigh yourself, and probably get a picture taken with you being appalled at how much you weigh, such as what I did!

This is a particularly beautiful looking Kolam design. Each morning in Madurai, the woman of the household will go out with white and sometimes coloured rice powder and draw a Kolam design in front of their house. The designs are passed down from generation to generation, and vary in complexity from simple white swirls or stars to large, colourful, intricate designs. Originally, these rice designs were supposed to be easy food for animals such as ants, birds and other little critters, thus inviting these other beings into one's home. It is a sign of invitation to welcome all into the home, especially the Goddess Lakshmi, the Goddess of Prosperity. I found these Kolam designs fascinating.

This little cutie is Spice, and is the adorable puppy of a stray dog that hangs out in George and Vera's orchard. The stray was abused, and so now she is very meek and terrified of humans. If they don't get her puppies used to humans early enough, they will become like their mother, and then will never be adopted. So we've been feeding and playing with Spice, trying to get her to trust humans so that we can find her a good home.

Volunteering

After settling into the Indian lifestyle for the first week or so, I have recently started my volunteer projects with the Vattakanal Conservation Trust. This organization is run by an eccentric old British couple who moved to India 2 decades ago, and since then have taken it upon themselves to try and fix the environmental problems that exist in this town. Through the establishment of a 15-person workforce, they have paid out-of-their pocket to coordinate projects that have improved the environment and enhanced the environmental awareness of the people within this town. I am currently assisting them with two of the seemingly endless number of projects that they have on the go:

1. Grassland Restoration: There is an invasive tree species here called wattle. It was initially introduced here back around the second world war in order to produce tannin and leather. After that industry died, the tree became commercially useless and instead became aggressive and invasive, taking over the grasslands, marshes and forests by pushing out the native species. So their project has been to remove the wattle in a certain area and restore it to the marshy grassland it once was. After removing the wattle trees, they then dig holes and plant plugs of grass. Also, they have a simple system in place to measure the water level. The idea is that the higher the water level is, the better the marsh restoration is going. I went out with them for a day to measure water levels, remove wattle and plant grasses.

The marsh that we are working on restoring.

Their simple method of measuring the water level. They drop the metal piece to the bottom of the tube on a string, bring it up, and then measure the wet length of the string. 

The grass clumps that I planted!

Me with my grasses.

While out for a hike, Vera and  I pulled out some wattle.

2. Litter Study: As I mentioned in my first post, I am also co-ordinating the production of a document that would include basic facts, photos, opinions, suggestions for improving and reducing the amount of litter in a certain part of Kodai. In this area, there are not enough garbage bins, and no garbage collection. Many of the houses are a half an hour walk away from the closest bin, and so their means of dumping their garbage is to throw it either into the nearby stream or forest. Where there are bins, they are overflowing because they are very rarely cleaned out, and the monkeys and dogs scavenge through and take out the garbage, spreading it everywhere. There are also many tourists that frequent the area, and the expression "take only pictures, leave only footprints" doesn't seem to apply to them. They have no qualms about buying bags of chips or cups of coffee and then throwing the wrappers/empty cups into the scenic forest they came to see. You can't really blame them though, as there are no garbage bins for miles away, and even if they put their garbage into the bus, the bus driver will sweep it out and down into the forest. 


So I have been interviewing tourists, shopkeepers, garbage collectors, and residents to get their ideas on improving the garbage situation in their township. Once the document is done, the Vattakanal Trust wants to bring it to a city council meeting. I hope that it will do some good, but right now the whole situation seems somewhat hopeless. 


Wildlife pics:

A little frog that was on the back of the toilet. You find wildlife in the weirdest of places here!

Biff the Gaur that often shows up in George and Vera's backyard. They don't need a lawnmower because he eats the grass in their yard. At one point he came close enough to the window that I could have reached out and touched him. Gaurs are huge, majestic, powerful beasts.

Senses

I have just recently realized what I love so much about India, what is exciting and different from North America: the senses are enhanced . Its brighter, smellier, louder, and tastier. Comparatively, the senses in North America are more subdued.

Taste: The food is much spicier. I have been eating traditional Indian food, such as dahl, dosa, curry, roti, mamosa. When I first got here, everything I ate made my mouth feel like it was on fire, with tears streaming down my face. I have since learned to mix yogurt with everything I eat in order to reduce the spiciness.

Smell: I am sure it comes as no surprise when I say that India is smelly. Yes, it is often garbage and uncleanliness that makes it smellier than North America, but not always. As I walk through town, I walk by tons of food stands, and the aroma of different foods that comes from these stands is mouth-watering.

Touch: Something that was new and unusual when I got to India was the fact that they eat food with their hands. Traditionally you get rice, and then a curry or sauce along with it. Then you mix the rice with the sauce, make a little ball, then pick it up and shove it into your mouth. No utensils required.
Something else that has been unusual for me has been the closeness between male friends here. It is quite common to see two straight guys walking down the street either holding hands, their arms draped over each other's shoulders, or a combination of the two. As a North American, it is almost comical to see straight men walking down the street practically embracing each other.

Sight: As you will see in my pictures, people dress very brightly in India. As you walk down the street, you will see an explosion of colour everywhere you turn. It is lovely and refreshing.

Sound: India is noisy. From the constant dog barking, to the Bollywood sounding cellphone ringtones, to the people in the market bartering prices of items, to the call to prayer, it is never quiet. Five times a day, someone comes onto the loudspeaker and sings the call to prayer, a song that carries all throughout the town. The best part though is that the dogs sing along, either by barking or by squealing in a high-pitched voice.

I just love it!

Here are some photos from the Sunday Market: