Advertisement
we left Varkala on Sunday morning, and were waiting at the station for the train to Allepey. we were approached by a lady who asked if we were on our way to an ashram. There is an ashram in between Varkala and Allepey, I forge the full proper name, but it is known as Amma's Ashram. Amma means mother in Malayalam and Amma is one of the worlds only female guru's. She is literally considered a saint by many devoutees.
She is very famous in this area and a bit all over India i think. We were planning on maybe visiting the ashram on a day trip from Allepey. However, this lady told us that Amma heself was there that day, but then would be leaving to go on tour the day after. Amma's 'thing' is that she hugs people. Thousands of people queue up for hours in order to receive a hug from her. There are some incredible stories about her curing cancer, singing lullabys in obscure russian dialects to this lady who had lost her mum etc etc.
the lady who met us at the train station told us if we came with her to the ashram, she could organise for us to jump the queue and get one of these famous hugs. It's called "darshan" in hindu philosophy, i have been reading a book about this sort of thing. It means a sort of blessing from a holy person (but is much more complicated than that, i am very interested in learning more about the spirituality of india but it is bizare and very complicated).
this lady, Sathiya, told us more unlikeley stories about Amma. Apparantly she was born in the lotus position and was singing in several languages at age six months. She never eats,drinks or goes to the toilet (although she is rather chuby and look particularly wel fed to be honest). I think it is true that she does do marathon hugging sessions, sometimes for 24 hours solid without eating and drinking. The stories got more and more bizarre, including how Amma avoided an arranged marriage as a teenager by "changing her form". we realised this lady might be a tiny bit crazy. You do meet people here, indians but more often westerners who have gone just a little bit tooooo transcendental. but she seemed harmless, and we though we might as well visit whilst Amma was there and get the free hug.
we decided to get off the train early and go to the ashram with her, completing our journey to allepey on a later train around 6pm.
we had met a group of lads in Varkala, who played music in a chill out bar there. as it happened they were also on the train to Allepey. we told them we were visiting the ashram. they were a bit worried. they said people go there for one day and end up staying for years! we assured them we would not disappear into Amma's bossom. to make sure, they offered to take our backpacks with them to a place to stay in Allepey, and said they would come after us if we did not arrive that evening!!
in the rickshaw on the way from the train station to the ashram, we realised Sathiya might be even more crazy than we suspected. she told us that when she was previously living near the ashram, she had had some things stolen from her accomodation by her landlord, and had reported him to the police. she told us that since this she did not like to travel alone in the area and that is why she had asked to come with her to the ashram that day. okaaaaay, i didn't think we would be much good for protection, but by now it seemed she might be just a little bit paranoid...
anyway, the ashram was quite nice i suppose. i have never been to another ashram so i don't know ho to compare. there were many westerners and indian people there to see Amma. in a huge hall, Amma was on the stage, large video screens showed her hugging as the people came up. we had a lovely lunch for 15rs and then Sathiya barged through all the people, security and queues to get us up on stage.
there were a lot of westerners in white sari's organising the queue and so on. although they all appeared calm ans serene on the surface, you could see actually they were all really stressed at having to manage all these people. Sathiya was extremely bossy and ignored them all, ushering us past all the patiently queuing indian people (the only time i have ever seen indian queueing nicely i think!!).
some people started to give us instructions on how to approach Amma. it all started to seem a bit complicated for a hug!!! then i realised, with my new found knowledge of all this, that Sathiya had brought us not to the "darshan" queue, but the "prassad" queue!!! how obvious?!?!? prassad means "offering", and this was actually the queue for more experienced devoutees who had already had a least one "darshan". what a faux paus!!!! doing a prassad involves giving Amma some little rolled up bits of paper in a very specific way into her hand that requires several practices.....
by the this time Monica was freaking out a little bit. we had been patient with all Sathiya's stories and determined to maintain an open mind. however, Monica could stand it no more, it's cleary all bollox anyway, she explained. i could not disagree but decided i would persevere a bit, and see if i could get my hug, so i asked one of the "Prassad Queue Managers" (she actually had a laminate badge with that on it). how i could "receive darshan" (get a hug). she explained a needed a token from the westerners darshan token office. okay. i went to locate the westerners darshan token office and approached a desk labelled "westerners darshan tokens". ah, no he said, the office is upstairs....? to cut a long story short i wandered around the ashram trying to locate this office, most people were just too spaced out (sorry, i mean transcendental) to really register what i was saying. i saw one guy meditate for about 15 minutes over his lunch before he ate it. then he took a photo of it.
anyway, it turned out that westerners could not get a hug, or even a token for a hug, until after 8pm that night. we thought this was risking it a bit, and the boys would be there by then in a rescue mission.
so we decided to have a juice, and leave. we went to the juice stall.... and were directed to join the queue for a juice token! i kid you not. we paid for a our token and then queued again at the actual juice counter to exchange the token for a juice. man, i did not know spirituality, or hugging, involved so much bureaucracy!!!
anyway. we ran away. as it was too eary for the train we decided to go to the bus station. here starts another long and detailed stories concerning the logistics of bus stations. if you just logged on for a quick glance you might want to take a break now or make a cuppa or something.
so buses. yes. aaahhh lovely indian buses. i have spoken in some detail about trains (which i genuinely do love now) but i feel i have left out any bus stories.
bus stations can seem impossible. many buses coming and going, all the signs in the local language, hoards of people rushing about. however, in most bus stations we have been in so far, there has been some sense of order. as the buses are getting ready to leave either the driver or the conductor. or both will call out the destination... "pushkarpushkarpushkarpushkar!!!!" "madikerimadikerimadikerimadikeri...." it can be a bit hard to make out as they continuously shout it with no gaps or breaks for breath. but you can generally make it out eventually. or you can go to the enquiries desk and they will tell you what bus stand number it will be which narrows it down a bit, as the bus
might depart from a stand near the one he tells you.
as Karunagapilli bus station no one was calling the buses. however, there
was an enquiries office. behind the enquiries desk were about 5 or 6 people. one of them was on the telephone. the other 4 or 5 people appeared to be doing nothing. so we asked "allepey?" they all indicated the man on the telephone. we tried again "allepey? which bus?". they ignored us and indicated to wait for the man on the phone to complete his call. we patiently waited for the actual enquiries man. once he finished the call we asked "which bus allepey?". he replied "i don't know! ask someone!" he indicated the general crowd of passengers waiting by the bus stands......
there were no announcements or anything, but every so often, on some completely unseen or heard signal, a group of people would suddenly rush over to a bus and get on it. i have no idea at all how they knew that the bus was getting ready to depart. all we could do was as each bus started moving, run up to it and shout at the driver "ALLEPEY?!?!?". after we had done this 4 or 5 times to the reply "nahi" each time, some kind people waiting pointed out a bus - "that is the bus to allepey", we gratefully thanked then and boarded. to confirm once we got on the bus, i asked the conductor "allepey?". he gave the most non-commital head wobble i have seen to date. i decided to take it for a yes.
the bus was extremely hot and uncomfortable. however i still managd to sleep! a skill i hope to develop further in india is an ability to sleep in almost any circumstances. you see whole families asleep on the platform at train stations, rickshaw-wallahs asleep in their rickshaws, the cycle ones are practically levitating as they spread themselves over the seat and handlebars of the cycle. indian's do not seem to need to be comfortable. the buses are ancient and feel constantly like they are about to vibrate themselves to pieces. the brakes seem to work only in the "on" or "off" position. old people remain standing, getting thrown about at all angles and not looking perturbed whilst i can barely stay on my seat....
anyway we arrived in Allepey and we are staying in a really nice quiet place, it is near to the town but feels out of the way. they keep birds, have an ostrich, some turkeys and other fowl and also some rabbits and guinea pigs!!! it's quite charming. in the evening a friend of the people who run it (another of friend of these people we met in Varkala) came over and played guitar and sang some songs. it's was all very nice.
Allepey is desribed in the lonely planet as like venice, as it has several canals. i have not been to venice but i am convinced it is not much like allepey! maybe there is a slight feel of amsterdam about it.... but even that is pushing it. its a nice town though, not quite so chaotic as others, and very friendly. in india, people smile a lot, and even more so here in the south. it seems everyone is pleased to see you, but they are not so pushy and nosy as up north. small children are either delighted to see us, or really shy. "what's your name?", "where from?", "how long india?" standard questions.
no photos today, haven't taken many, it was not allowed inside the ashram. if you want to know more about all this darshan bollocks, erm , i mean, find out more about Amma's amazing spiritual gifts look at http://www.amritapuri.org/amma/who/darshan/ actually i beleive she does a lot of very good charity work etc, and it all seemed nice there, no-one asked for money or anything like that, i don't think it is a cult really, but people are so willing to beleive almost anything here.... i met an english guy who seemed really down to earth, but he beleived everything, "she's the real deal" he explained.
and if anyone is interested the book i am currently reading is called "Sadhus : Going beyond the dreadlocks" by Patrick Levy. Bit heavy going a first but v v interesting when it gets going.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.115s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 6; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0567s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
beetboxer
Ladventure of Brian and Jenna
we just left allepy 6 days ago...
Have you seen the giant bats that hang over the south canal??? If you arent afraid of them, along the south canal between the main part of town and the beach there is a section of the canal where thousands upon thousands of the biggest bats i have ever seen. They hang out in large trees over the canal and you know you are in the right spot when you see piles of guano on the ground everywhere around the base of trees. Good luck and watch out for crazy spaced-out crazzies...(sorry i meant tracendental).