Blogs from Tamil Nadu, India, Asia - page 5

I needed a local adventure, so off I went in the auto rickshaw with my friend Anand driving. The destination was Alagar Koil, an important temple dedicated to Vishnu situated at the base of the Alagar hills. I planned to walk to the top where I would see a temple dedicated to Murugan. And as plans go, everything got changed around. We had to have tea, of course, so we stopped at an upscale stall where I drank tea with the guys reading newspapers. It was a rural road, pleasing with paddy fields and coconut palms here and there, and houses spaced far enough apart to assure me that we weren’t in the busy city. It was still busy enough. Friday is market day. Goats, hundreds of them, clustered in a mass huddle with their owners ... read more

I really enjoy “hanging” with an auto rickshaw driver I met last year, Anand. He loves hauling foreigners around Madurai, showing them the least visited places, especially outside the city. This morning I asked him to take me to the Narasimha Temple nearby, a very old temple with a lion-headed deity. I’ve visited him before, and the deity has always captured my heart when I stare at his black head and powerful eyes. But it was the journey there and back that gave the surprises. The early morning light was just right on a nearby temple situated on a bed of granite. “Stop stop! The light is good!” We pulled over and I began snapping photos of the buildings. Then I noticed several men moving about in the open area beyond. They were setting up the ... read more

“I don’t want to die!” That’s what I screamed when my driver Muthu decided to make me happy by turning around on the highway and heading back to a temple that I had spotted. He was driving me from Auroville to Madurai. As always, I had my eyes peeled for interesting temples along the road. I’ve got a weakness for Ayyanar temples, and through the low scrub trees I saw the telltale horses rearing into the sky. I was in the backseat, friend Vinod was in the front with Muthu. Vinod had been driving when I spotted the sculptures and casually said, “Ayyanar.” “You want to see?” Muthu asked. “It’s too much trouble. Never mind.” I saw there was no place to cross the median to go back on the other side of the four-lane highway, ... read more

“They look like vultures, not eagles.” I was with my driver Muthu, viewing a sign commemorating the spot where the priests used to feed the “eagles” that came daily to the hilltop temple of Thirukalukundram. “No, no, they are eagles,” he insisted. After all, the temple’s name includes a shortened version of the Tamil word for eagle, “kalugu.” The sign depicted a priest feeding two white birds whose heads looked very much like vultures. And from my later internet research, I learned that they were indeed Egyptian vultures. Everyday since “forever,” a pair had come to this place to receive the food offerings. But for the last 15 years they haven’t come. It would have been nice to see the birds and the feeding. Nonetheless, Muthu and I trudged up the 539 steps to visit the ... read more

Retour en arrière. Date : 11 janvier dernier. Etat d’esprit : le cœur léger et le bagage mince, j’étais heureux d’enfin quitter Paris. Lieu : Charles-de-Gaulle. Je réalise cette envie de départ sans billet retour, sans date avérée qui serait une contrainte. Je peux rentrer dans 15 jours (peu probable, sauf catastrophe humanitaire, fuite de gaz ou diarrhée sévère !), dans un mois ou dans trois mois. J’ai juste fixé un délai maxi pour retrouver Tom durant les vacances de printemps. J’aurai toujours le choix dans la date (Haha !) et le choix du lieu (ça marche moins…). Je veux être libre, libéré, libertin, libertaire, même si tout cela n’est que temporaire et pas forcément dans le bon ordre ? Cette liberté cérébrale m’est vite retirée par des contraintes réglementaires dès l’enregistrement de mon sac. On ... read more