We arrived in Chennai after a long bus ride, complete with a bizarre showing of a loud Tamil movie depicting stripers, pimps and a gruesome car accident; not exactly your usual bus ride entertainment! OK, I’ll be serious now. Chennai, more commonly known as Madras, is an awesome city. It has very beautiful architecture that depicts the contrasts of India very adequately. There are buildings that make one feel like you are walking through the streets of London because of the still very evident British influence, with the exception of the ghastly sewage smell that envelops the atmosphere of the entire city. What is most beautiful however is that next to those “European buildings” stand tall Hindu temples with elaborate carvings of their gods and deities. Crowds of people trickle in and out of the temples through out the day, bare-footed, with flowers in their heads, devotedly praising their gods. Since it is a coastal city, the spirit of the people there is light hearted and the pace of life is slower than in Bangalore. Perhaps it was because I visited during Independence Day weekend but people just seem happier there. On Friday night we went out to a Tapas bar were the “cool people” hang, it was great to see the bar scene in an Indian city. The girls were actually wearing western clothes there which was quite a contrast from the women on the streets just outside wearing their silk saris, their long black hair oiled and braided down their backs, and their sparkling bindis in the middle of their forehead (I think it looks almost like a star illuminating their dark, mysterious eyes). I doubt I’ll start wearing bindis and oiling my hair but I think the Indian style is much more feminine and beautiful.
One of the days we took a tour to the near by towns of Kanchipuram and Mahabalipuram in the Bay of Bengal. There stand rock cut temples of the 7th, the 16th and 17th centuries. In Kanchipuram we visited a few temples that were astonishing because of the 59-meter high, intricately carved rocks that sat on top of them. They were actually carved out of a sole rock. Inside, there were beautiful wooden statuses of exotic looking gods adorned with golden jewelry. One of the temples is the very famous Vishnu temple, which includes a beautifully sculpted 1000 pillar hall over looking a lake. Now only 97 of the pillars remain.
I must say the only awful part of these visits was the fact THAT I HAD TO REMOVE MY SHOES and this time I had NO SOCKS, eek! I was so paranoid of getting some sort of bacteria infection on my foot. As I walked through the temples, rather than thinking, “wow this is beautiful”, I was thinking, “Oh my God what if they have chop off my foot, aaahhh!” When I got back to the bus I squished out my entire bottle of hand sanitizer and my entire bottle of water on my feet. Haha. Not to worry though, my feet are fine, “THANK YOU LORD” =)
In Mahabalipuram we visited the Five Rathas, which are rock cut temples resembling chariots. The temples are from the mid 600s and the place is considered to be a world heritage site. We also visited the Shore Temple dedicated to the god Shiva, which faces the Bay of Bengal. It was constructed in the middle of the 7th century. There used to stand eight of these temples but through the years, they have been swallowed up by the sea; today only two remain.
A great part of the tour was visiting a silk factory where we saw people working on huge medal machines as they wove bright silk threads into beautiful Saris with very elaborate designs. One silk Sari takes 12 days to make and what is most impressive and a true shame is that although some Saris are quite expensive, others that take just as long to make are only about 1000 Rupees, which convert to about $30; you’d think they would be much more expensive knowing the long and hard hours people put into them.
Finally we visited the beach on the Bay of Bengal where we were able to sprinkle our feet with the cold, dark blue waters of the Indian Ocean. The tour was a total of 12 hours long, the weather was very hot and the bus driver obnoxiously honked 5 out of the 6 hours of travel. Even so, the tour was well worth it and it was truly amazing to visit those magnificent temples, to see the method of making such beautiful silk fabrics, and at last looking out into the Indian Ocean.
Back in Chennai, another highlight of the trip was that we were able to meet different Indian families. They were all good friends of Premilla, the teacher who planned the entire trip for us and who is a native of Chennai. Again I experienced the contrasts of India. In one apartment complex, there were Catholics, Hindus, and Muslims. Some had huge pictures of Jesus crucified up on their walls, others were wearing the Hijad and had rectangular carpets on the floor where they pray towards Mecca and the Hindus had colorful pictures and statues of elephant gods and snakes gods decorating their homes. The beauty of it all is that what they had in common was their kindness and their hospitality, welcoming us foreigners with smiles, completely interested in our perspectives and what we had to say about our stay in India.
Story: We visited one of Premilla’s girl friends that lives with her 25 year old daughter. After the usual “hello how are you” conversation, the lady says: “Premilla how exciting is it that it’s almost time for my daughter Nythia to get married?” Premilla proceeds to say: “Oh, did you find one already?” I was like WHAT? Later I asked Premilla if she perhaps was referring to a dress or a place to hold the wedding. OH NO! They were talking about a man! Yep…while we westerners worry about love at first site or the one and only, these ladies wait around at home until their mommies find them a suitable catch.
But for the feature story: I visited Premilla’s temple with her, like her “Sunday church”. I can say it was the strangest form of prayer and offering I have ever witnessed or even imagined. On our way to the temple we bought Jasmine flowers to put on our heads. That was great, my hair ended up smelling amazing. It reminded me of the smell of my room in Managua where the jasmine tree stands outside my window blessing my room with that wonderful smell. Anyways, we arrived at the temple, which was very pretty; it had mosaic paintings on the ceilings and very colorful columns depicting gods and deities in acrobatic positions. We were asked to take our shoes off AGAIN (I will certainly not miss walking barefoot on dirty, dirty floors, but I certainly felt that I should be respectful to this woman’s house of worship). We walked around the first temple house to where the statue of her favorite god, the snake god, stood. The rock statue of this snake twirls around five small rocks resembling tall volcano pits. Premilla then took out some raw eggs from a plastic bag and started cracking each egg into the volcano pits. That’s not all, then a flock of black ravens swooped in to suck out the egg from the volcano pits… No comment: I’m trying to be culturally sensitive.
When I spoke to my mother the next day, she asked: Oh goodness, you didn’t pray there did you? Haha. No mother, I did not pray there! I was just a tourist with a camera and a very transparent expression of confusion.
Disclaimer: My friend Suparna who is sitting next to me right now, assures me that not all Hindus partake in these peculiar rituals and was equally perplexed at the sight.
The bus ride back from Chennai, which was during the day on Sunday, was stunning! The road was surrounded by huge rock mountains and miles and miles of coconut tree plantations. The whole trip was very eye opening and lots of fun.
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