Blogs from Tamil Nadu, India, Asia - page 149

Mamallpuram is beautiful little coastal village 60km away from Chennai. It is famous for its ancient rock carvings. Took a taxi from Chennai airport and arrived in Mamallpuram at midnight. Tamil music was blearing out of the taxi. My first impression of the south: humid, different language, less hassles and nicer smells. Wandered aimlessly around the village looking for a place to stay but the guesthouses were either closed or charged "tired-dirty-western" rates, no thank you. Eventually I stumbled across a young man who was sleeping in an internet cafe, so I joined him. Slept underneath a computer, clutching my belongings, wrapped around a mosquitoe neat while being eaten alive by the brave, I must have tasty blood. After the best sleep of my life the helpful young man showed me into my room where I ... read more

Hi All! Once again, thanks for your comments and notes...they are such a joy right now. I cannot even begin to tell you how much. Oh, and I won't be getting any belly button rings soon...sorry! ;) Last night and tonight we are staying in a hotel in the city of Thanjavur. While I love the host family experience, the hotel has been a welcome relief...reliable hot water in and of itself is so wonderful. While I don't have my own room, it is still a welcome night off from being "on" all the time. I did, however, have the requisite "American families are distant and shallow, we have too much divorce and all of that is seeping in and hurting our culture" conversation (aka lecture) at lunch yet again. I must say that topic, along ... read more

The white bull waits impatiently before a closed gate. He has a red garland tied to his horns and vermillion on his forehead - applied by the priest at the Muniyandisami temple. Behind the privileged temple bull stands a winding line of edgy beasts, reined in by their keepers. Beyond the gate, young men in kabbadi jerseys wait for their hour of glory. Some of them will carry home their prize while some will be carried home dead or injured. The announcer says the sport would start 10 am sharp. The matadors are drunk with excitement. The less adventurous climb the makeshift galleries after paying the gatekeepers. Jallikattu, the bull run that marks the end of Pongal festivities in Tamil Nadu in India, is about to start in this village near Madurai. Many surrounding villages celebrated ... read more

wow, we have made it to the very tip of india! Kanyakumari seems like it should be a sleepy little beach town, but instead it is bustling with activity because of its popularity with pilgrims. many Hindus make their way down here to visit the Kumari Amman Temple and to bathe in the oceans. yes, we said oceans... because Kanyakumari is the point where three oceans merge together: the Bay of Bengal, the India Ocean, and the Arabian Sea. supposedly, sometime in april, one can see both the sunset and the moonrise over the ocean simultaneously - we might just have to stay longer to see that! we visited the temple which is actually quite small and nothing special (we were not allowed to take pictures, and it is surrounded by really tall walls to protect ... read more

Prasanna and Santhana put up traditional decorations in their yard which announced to the neighborhood that an auspicious event was taking place in their home. (I'm not sure, but I don't think it's specific just to weddings, but to any "auspicious" event.) Side note: "Auspicious" is not really a word that I'm particularly familiar with, but it's used often in India. Looking it up in my thesaurus (after using the spell checker), I find that it means: favorable, positive, promising, fortunate, propitious, lucky and good. There was a canopy of woven banana leaves that covered over not only the entrance to the yard, but the whole yard. (you can’t tell this from the photo, only the part over the gate is visible). At the two sides of the gate there were two full sized banana trees ... read more