Blog Number Five - a day in an Indian Siesta

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Hello again, well I am now a day off 2 months behind on my blog, I have a lot of catch up to do! Luckily I have a few mammoth train journeys over the next 3 weeks so will see if I can catch it all up, very doubtful I know! Here is my 5th offering...

24th October 2008
Blog Number Five - a day in an Indian Siesta

Chidambaram

So after a couple of days 'stranded' in Pondicherry we decided to take a day trip to the town of Chidambaram, famous for Nataraja, a temple complex that is one of the holiest Shiva sites in South India. We started out bright and early had a great buffet breakfast and headed up to the bus station. All the signs for the buses were in Hindi so we had to ask someone where we needed to go and he pointed to a bus that was slowly driving through the station with a man standing in the door way yelling 'Chidam Chidam Chidam Chidam...' so after a quick dash across the station, jump and squeeze onto the bus we were on our first local bus journey of the trip. We settled into our seats, opened the window and as soon as were we out of Pondicherry, the TV came on and the Bollywood movie started! I love Indian local buses! I think that is exactly what the buses in London need, a little Bollywood cheesy entertainment to keep you amused while you are stuck in traffic on a wintery rainy afternoon to brighten things up. The 2 hour journey turned into 3 and a half so at least we had entertainment! The countryside and coast line along the journey was interesting and the bus conductor pointed out that there was some evidence still remaining from the tsunami from a few years ago, villages that are now empty and places that still haven't been rebuilt although all the larger villages mostly have taken in people from the smaller villages that would now be lost. The land was all quite flat and at sea level as a lot of it is mangrove so you could really see how the wave went as far inland as it did.

After the long journey in the 40 degree heat, we got to Chidambaram and stopped at the first place we found which was a Veg hotel, to grab a cold drink before heading off to the temple. On the way we came across a small temple that was freshly painted and very small probably just for the local community worshipers. It was really nice to visit as there were no other tourists having a peep and we were able to stand back and just watch what was going on. In the larger temples non Hindus are generally not allowed into the inner sanctum so we have not been able to see what was going on. This temple was so small that there was no wall around the inner sanctum so we could see everything. One of the priests came out and gave us a blessing without asking for money, which was a nice change and he also explained that they were performing a fire ceremony. Worshipers were all trying to make there way to the front to receive blessings and leave their offerings, at one point a woman handed her baby up over the crowd to a priest who then took her into a small room with the deities in and the returned her to her mother and blessed her putting the black marks on her forehead and on her cheek. We briefly spoke to the mother and grandmother with the baby and she was two weeks old and this was her first visit to temple, they looked very very happy. We also spoke to another family (who I have named the smiley family) who wanted to just talk and have their photo taken but they were very nice so we didn't mind so much.

We then walked the rest of the way to the main temple to find that it closed from 12 noon till 4pm every day! Typical after a 3 and a half hour bus ride, now we had to wait another 3 hours as it was only 1pm. We decided that we wouldn't wait for it to open and would just walk the streets around the temple as it was pretty big, have lunch and then head back as we weren't going to wait around till 4pm. From the south gate to the east gate there was mainly just shops and markets, people selling veg and fruit, dry cereals, rice and flour and a few mechanical and hardware kinda shops. At the second gate we walked past a group of guys playing cricket. They of course wanted to talk to us and find out where we were from, they were even more happy to talk to us when I said I was from Australia as India had beaten us a few days before in the test match. They were very proud of their 'world champion beating team' and were very keen to find out who my favorite Indian Cricket player was. Satchin Tandulka was my reply which they were happy with, luckily as he is the only Indian player that I know! They also couldn't stop talking about Ricky Ponting, all Indians LOVE Ricky Ponting! By the gate here we also talked to a few priests that were playing this weird board game, we watched it for a while, but had no idea what was going on! It looked like something that was a cross between airhockey and backgamon. We then walked around to the west entrance which just had a bunch of shops and stalls and then onto the southern one again surrounded by shops and stalls and a gaggle of beggers. The streets surrounding the south of the temple were full of market stalls and people selling things off car bonnets and out of boots, tables and even bicycles! There were stalls selling everything you can think of and more! Clothes and bangles and cooking utensils and batteries and fireworks, you name it and they were selling it and there were whole families out together buying it!

By now we were really hungry so went back to the Veg hotel that we had a drink in earlier and it was really a place just for the locals. We were both given a palm leaf that we were told to wash with the water on the table and then a 'waiter' who was a big fat man wearing a lungie (material that men wear around their waists instead of trousers kinda like a sarong) with a dirty shirt that was missing the bottom half of buttons and untucked. He shuffled along with a bucket that had 3 pots in it and proceeded to slop 2 spoonfulls of the contents of each onto our palm leaves. He then shuffled away and then shuffled back with a big bucket of cooked rice, gave us a big scoop each. Then shuffled back with a dosa each, then a popadum each then an Idly each (kinda like a savoury bread shaped like a donut) he came back with the original bucket and gave us more of that and kept coming back with food until we couldn't possibly fit another thing in, but he still kept coming back with more! We ate so much food that it was 20 minutes before we could move! All that and it only cost us 60 Rupee - about 80p for both our meals and 2 cokes and it still remains as the best thali that I have had in two and a half months.

As the time was now 3:40 we thought we might as well head back and check out the temple, we got to the gate by 3:50 and waited patiently with all the other pilgrims and a big elephant for it to open. It kinda reminded me of waiting for the shop doors to open in a sale, there were people even tapping their watches to check the time and looking for the best route to get to where they needed to go. A priest then waddled up and unlocked the gate and people burst through dashing off to whoever it was they were needing to worship that given day. First thing in the temple we were greated by the blessing elephant, whole families were getting blessings and a few people got the babies blessed, the boys were more interested in the size of the elephant poo not too far away! We encountered a new scam that no-one has told us about yet where a priest asks you to sign a visiting book which you do and when you have finished he removes his hand to show you another column with a donation and of course everyone who has signed the book before you has donated more than 1000 rupee each! I of course put down 100 rupee and a little squiggle to put mine and Mike lines together. I am sure that the moment we walked away he added at least another 0 to it! We spent about an hour walking around and also went to another temple inside the grounds that was brilliantly decorated and had a different group of priests running around doing their thing. Of course they wouldn't let us into the main part of the temple but the outer part was nice enough.

We headed back to the bus and found the bus driving out the station with the man hanging out the door yelling 'Pondi Pondi Pondi Pondi...' and did a running jump onto it and away we were! After a 3 hour journey back we headed straight for a take away Pizza and an evening with the HBO and the Transformers movie! Very Indian!


Again for those of you not on facebook... here are links to my photos that I have posted for Chidambaram
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86182&l=e6356&id=528670733
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86186&l=7f9b0&id=528670733

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