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‹ Previous (26/10/2008) MONTH Next (2008-12-25)› ‹ Previous (2009-08-29 - Nepal) COUNTRY Next (2009-09-19 - Pakistan)› India Puducherry (see on map) 29/11/2008:
We have been driving for eight days about 2200 km through the east coast, in order to arrive in the south of India, where we will celebrate the anniversary of Alexandra here about four days and where we will find with David, Maria and the fathers of these some days later. If the memory does not fail me, this stage the covered longest distance will have been in less time of all the journey; and naturally, there are different factors that can justify it. On a part, have circulating through one of the best roads of India, little gone for lorries and of two lanes all the while, except for some hundred of kilometres in the state of Orissa, where the road was to means to build since some years ago, as if the money to keep building the road had evaporated, probably because of the corruption. It has also contributed to this marathon of kilometres, the fact of in the east coast of India there not being too many monuments to visit (in comparison in the North, West and south of India), perhaps because the kingdoms that governed the coast of the Sea of Flare were less powerful; or because the low plains of the east had less quarries from where to extract rocks and of where to build monuments that held the crossing of the time; or because many of the temples that in spite of everything ascended, were destroyed by the exerted Muslims who in the sixteenth century arrived to the east coast, little before its decay. In any case, it would be unimaginable that in 2000 kilometres there was not any point of interest to visit, and in fact there are some, although we only visit three, all of them in the state of Orissa. First we visit Kornak, some calm people where the impressive temple of the sun is, built in the 13th century for a king of Orissa, probably to celebrate a military victory on the Muslims. After visiting the temple, we direct did eventually beach that is extended in front of Kornak, and where for the first time from Turkey we could observe the captivating immensity of the blue sea again. Naturally I could not resist of making a bath, but I went out from minuscule granites of sand which the desires of trying it at the moment again were passed me so breaded. The day after Kornak we visit Puri, at few kilometres of Kornak, but with a completely different atmosphere, then Puri is one of the most important centres of Hindu pilgrimage of India, being the temple of Jagannath Mandir the main attraction, that has the closed entry to the not hinduistas ones. In any case, it was worthwhile to walk through the wide avenue full of small trades that during the hinduistas celebrations they must be of pilgrims to burst. On the other hand, Puri was one of the points of India where I felt more intimidated by the hinduista religion. It had the sensation that the pilgrims or people of the people were directed to me with aggressiveness and intolerance for not being hinduista, as if they were declaring for me that our place was not there. So, having interpreted this message which receiving seemed to me, we go next towards the city of Bhubaneswar, capital of Orissa. Anyway, despite being the capital (or maybe because of that), I only got lost an afternoon through the south of the city, where there are spread different hinduistas temples built during the 9 and 10 centuries. Among these pretty temples, I had the occasion of attending different hinduistas ceremonies, that later, during the journey they made me think quite a lot. While we passed statues (of about 10 meters of high one) of the Dios Hanuman, or monkey]> God of long one on different great occasions, I convinced me that the Hinduism is one of the most superstitious religions of the world. On occasions also we passed with big posters along the road announcing Gurus, as the one who announces a business, with Hindu sentences that I interpret as: 'he believes in me, it pays and you will have the paradise'. In fact, the majority of temples in India are deprived and are financed with the particular donations, in some cases compiling millions of rupiahs, when it thinks that a temple helps comply with your desires. But one of the aspects that more surprises me, apart from observing a thousand and one ways different to adore the hinduistas Gods, is the ceremonies in which a guru makes repeat different mantras to a person, while it blesses it and it makes him throw himself flowers, foods and water above forms drawn in the ground, or on flames or figures of gods. To good insurance that with these hypnotic ceremonies, the faithful one finishes the guru thinking any positive message that says it, finishing the session with a completely reinforced personality and capable of confronting any challenge that the life stations it, even if it is to cure an illness. In fact, I am convinced that the hinduistas ones are so superstitious and they have so much faith with its religion that some of the illnesses that have can get to cure, in the same way that the innocuous tablets can cure if they have associated a placebo effect, and in the same way that any other technique based on the faith of the results of the technique: homeopathy, acupuncture... (with pardon for expressing this opinion that is so personal). Anyway, I did not pass myself all the journey meditating, we were also quite a lot of while conversing and the rest of time enjoying the landscape, in general infinite plains of green colour, cultivated in small lots, and separated by ranks of palm trees or other tropical trees. Also, we kept observing as as we advanced towards the south, the sky kept being blurred, even that two days before arriving to the destination it started to pour with rain. It felt that it was rained, in fact did some months that had not seen the rain and the selfcaravan needed a good wash, but on the other hand, it worried us that we had not chosen a bad place to celebrate the anniversary of Alexandra, for we were arriving in the south of the coast of the Sea of Flare without the season of the monsoons in this region having finished. Besides, that it little afterwards of his starting to pour with rain, we enter of full in a deep puddle of water and when going out discovered horrified that the horn of the car had been wetted and it was not familiar. It was impossible to drive without horn, the instrument is more important to drive the Indian, for example, as could we tell the lorries of our arriving and their stopping driving in zig-zag through the middle of the road? o that did they not change lane unexpectedly? Really it was suicidal to drive without horn, so, taking advantage of his already darkening, we park in a gasstation to be able to continue the day after with the dried horn. The following day and today we have kept advancing towards the south under the rain, observing many flooded areas and quite a lot of people for the sides of the road looking at the waters accumulated since bridges or positions high of the road. In fact, seeing so many impressed people impressed more than simply observing the brown waters, because we did not know whether the areas flooded before were part of a gap or river. In fact, we could only value the excepcionalidad of the situation when we had clear references of what was abnormal, as the flooded streets, the homes with the incoming water for the door, or the motorway covered of water (always the contrary lanes). 05/12/2008:
When we have reached Puducherry (the city was called Pondicherry one year earlier) the rains had been finished, but everywhere signals of the storm were observed with flooded streets and quite a lot of trees and fallen branches. In fact, we were very fortunate that from our arrival the rain only came a few times, afterwards leaving a splendid sun that dried all the streets and our humid autocaravan. So, we have been able to enjoy six days of rest, one of the main desires for Alexandra for her anniversary, that frequently complained about not taking holidays in our journey. Even though, as incredible as it might seem, the Romans had visited Puducherry about 2500 years ago, the main influence of the city is French, country that dominated four enclaves in India from the ends of the 12th century up to 1956, when it yielded the territories to India, 8 years later of its independence. Although the city is at present occupied by Indians, the atmosphere in the French part is calm and relaxed, with streets flanked by trees, pretty mansions of French style and a popular avenue separating the city from the sea, that continuously cracks against an artificial cliff of rocks. The city has churches and a cathedral as different attractions, but what caught the attention of us more was a temple dedicated to Ganesh, out of which there was an elephant that we visited almost every day. The elephant, called Lakshmi (deity of the prosperity), was a female of about 18 years (a baby even, commented the keeper) that gave blessings to all the ones that delivered a coin or a bank note. At first it was difficult to approach to the big animal and to leave to fall a coin in one of the two orifices of the trompet, in whose end she was holding put the other coins until the keeper claimed them. Later, however, we take sufficient confidence to leave that the animal passed the trompet over our head (as a sign of blessing) or to approach us more and to caress the forehead of soft skin and thorny hairs. Very near to Puducherry, there is another attraction, the town of Auroville, which we did not visit because the day that we had the intention I came down ill. In spite of everything, we had previously visited one of the projects and could make an idea about the philosophy of the people and the community. Auroville is a foundation of the government of India, that it has bought lands so that people arriving from all the world can develop positive projects for the humanity. Although the project intended to be for 50.000 individuals, the current population is of about 1500 adults and about 500 children, originating from 44 different nationalities, although the great majority (40%) are of Indian origin. We specifically visited Abraham and Yorit (original from Israel), which five years ago initiated the project of Sadhana forest, with the philosophy of generating an environmental impact, planting trees and contributing towards decreasing the CO2 of the atmosphere. Helping them develop the project, they always had working among them from 10 to 80 volunteers that came from all the world with the intention of remaining a minimum of two weeks, enjoying free accommodation in exchange working (4 hours a day for 5 days per week), and paying some 2€/day for the cost of the food. In the same way, many other similar projects are being developed in Auroville, and many other could develop if there were more people in the world ready to give up the system to help the humanity (Auroville would provide lands and a minimum economic aid to develop initiatives). Anyway, according to my individual vision, even if the Aurovill people think to have given up the system, the community does not stop being another subsystem with some rules that also have to be accepted and that can also be unfair through some sectors of the mini-society (for example, the alcohol and the drugs are prohibited). In spite of everything, I think that the subsystem Auroville is better socially in ecological terms and probably (they aspire towards a society less competitive and without fear), although, I also think that if the subsystem were converted in system (for example a whole country dominated), it would end up having the same problems (or more) as any other existing system (For example, a country that wanted to expel all the drinkers of alcohol should confront great internal and external conflicts). So, according to my opinion, it is very positive that they exist many of these projects or mini-subsystems, that, on the other hand, will be still tied up with the global system through internet, books and minimum technology. Although, according to its status, Auroville is a project that wants to create harmony among humanity independent of religion, Auroville was founded by "the mother", a pupil Frenchwoman and collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, both philosophers or hinduist gurus who through the yoga worked a spiritual evolution of the humanity to join it to the divine one. Like this explained us an old woman that we met casually, which worked as professor of languages (she was speaking Spanish very well) for the Ashram of "the mother" and of Sri Aurobindo. Although the philosophy of the Ashram was too much esoteric for me (and of course for Alexandra also) and too much centred in the adoration of the deceased guru, Lata was a good guide to visit some places of the Ashram, where "the mother" and Sri Aurobindo, in the middle of luxurious gifts of ivory and three surprising heads of tiger had lived together. Equally, Lata also facilitated us the entry in the dining rooms of the Ashram, which served very tasty and very economic food to hundreds of people, some of which original from other countries. Finally, i only have to explain that the day before yesterday (on 3 of December) we celebrated the anniversary of Alexandra dining in a good restaurant, eating fish after such a long time. Anyway, despite being the most expensive food paid in the last months, yesterday I was a whole day in bed with diarrhoea and a terrible headache (probably by the dehydration) and today, also although I was not so bad as to prevent our road towards Bangalore. During the dinner of the anniversary, as one year ago in Etiopia, the subject of getting married came out again. Maybe the subject came out because we had put on the ring of gold that we had given as a present, but that we had taken off as we separated in Pakistan; although the real reason of the conversation of marriage did not stop being practical. There are still lacking some months, but our journey to America every time is nearer, in the same way that our obligatory separation comes close if Alexandra does not obtain a visa to enter the United States (the Romanians have it more complicated). The only way of avoiding it would be a wedding between us, that I do not see in a complete way bad. Already does about two years and a half that we are together and, although we still have some disagreements, do not seem that these are an impediment to follow our communal life as until now. Besides, the last weeks i have been refreshing some aspects of the Buddhist philosophy and there are some changes that I want to apply to my communal life with Alexandra. I think that at present I have managed to come off the material possessions quite a lot and this is the reason for which it was not a great emotional setback to have the portable computer broken and its data in a temporary way; in the same way that every time it annoys me less that the Indians touch the car, they try to open or even they take off the adhesives. So, it seems that I am learning to forgive some attitudes of the Indians towards us, although until now I had not been capable of forgiving certain attitudes of Alexandra towards me. For example, normally I return more than unbearable when Alexandra is unbearable, or I turn hyper-hysterical when Alexandra catches an attack of hysteria. The behaviour should changing, I know it, but like this as I have already changed other aspects of me, I think that I can also change that, and to be able to be more understanding with the emotional up and downs of Alexandra in order to improve more ours communal life. And if really I can do these changes, why is should not think again about marrying? In fact, we only need to go to an India institution and to have two witnesses for person, perhaps we will ask David, Maria and their parents to be our witnesses* * some days later Alexandra looked for more details to marry in India and results that is not at all easy. So, we will have to leave it for when we return to Europe and meanwhile to study the procedure to carry out her visa for the United States. Bangalore (see on map) 11/12/2008:
As many other cities of India, Bangalore is known like this during the british colonisation but now they changed the name to the old used name: Bengaluru; but people keep using the name of Bangalore, because when one is accustomed to a nomenclature, any other variant seems ridiculous (Also it happened with Calcutta-Kolcata or Pondicherry-Puducherry). In any case, the popular origin of the name of Bangalore or Bengaluru yes that it has a certain point of absurdity, for it means "city of the boiled beans", a name that was granted by a king that got lost through the forest during a dispatch of hunt. Tired and wretched, the king found the home of an old woman that could only serve boiled beans , but so good was the food that the king decided to found a city on those places in honour of the devoured boiled beans. Anyway, leaving its name aside, Bangalore is known as the Silicon Valley of India and is therefore one of the most modern cities of the country, and maybe one of the less stressful (as to minimum for us). We parked in a calm street that crossed the park of Cubbon and in company of David and Maria, whom we met the day after arriving, we walked different days for the area of the MG street (Mahatma Gandhi), where there are different shops, restaurants and coffees very snobish and completely far from our budgets. Anyway, yesterday we moved away from the mall of Bangalore and dragged ourselves through small alleys with small shops, up to the big market of the city, out of which there were many shops of fruits and vegetables extended on the ground. Almost by error we lower to the inferior level of the market and we found ourselves in the middle of an impressive show full of colour (and fragrances), for all the area was full of vendors of flowers and garlands and women who sewed them in line or in other interesting forms. At dawn yesterday, the parents of David (José and Mariam) and those of Maria (Ramon and Mary)arrived, to celebrate with their children the Christmas holidays;it was already almost two years that they had gone out of home. Today they have presented themselves at the autocaravan and without having slept all night, they have started to make exhibition of the best Spanish humour, taking out the gifts of Christmas with a certain anticipation: my new computer and two couples of filters for the car, that i had not found out of Europe. The eight of us have gone for a walk through the MG road where the parents have started to take contact with the Indian culture and returned afterwards to the hotel (having to negotiate the prices of rickshaws in a very hard way), where they had us reserved a good party. the parents had brought different bottles of cava, packets of sausages, bread and sweets of Christmas, products that we had not tried for almost two years. I started to devour and to drink (together with David and Maria and Alexandra, although until now she was not too much lover of the Spanish products) with so much avidity that I forgot to take some photo of the event myself. Definitely, for me Bangalore will not be the city of the boiled beans, but the city of the paprika-flavoured red pork sausage, the ham and the cava (delicious). And already by night and half drunk, we have returned to the autocaravan, where tomorrow we will travel again towards Puducherry, towards where with a nocturnal bus will arrive our friends. Madurai (see on map) 18/12/2008:
We have been traveling a week through the south of India with the parents of David and those of Maria. It has been a new way of travelling, since with their comments we have noticed aspects that were already normal for us: the people sleeping on th street, dirty (not so evident in the south), the rothen smell or spices (that i don’t feel), the street vendors that scream the name of their products, the oily street food, the glittery announcements of films or jewelery, the statues (of politicians) have stairs up to their heads to be able to put flowers over their neks, the men covering the legs with just a peace of cloth, the colourfull saris of the women, the rickswhas bycicle driven by very thin men, the hungry dogs with the hair fallen, the cows in the middle of the road, the peregrins loaded with the statue of some god accompanied by loud music, the peregrins with the face painted in different colours and forms, some with no hair (also women), the extravagant hindu rituals, the magnificent temples that we always have to visit without shoes, walking on top of all kinds of shit and offerings (how different from the very clean mosques where we also had to walk without shoes). First we visit Mallapuram, a city that was an important sea harbour among the 7 and 9 centuries, during which magnificent temples and reliefs in the stony mountains of the surroundings were sculpted. Next we passed again Puducherry, where Lakshmi, which was touched by Hindus as if really it was a deity touching the trompet and then touching their eyes and mouths as to be purified. We had luck, during a visit to the elephant there was a holiday on which Lakshmi was decorated with some showy tunics for the body and the head; afterwards she was introduced in the temple, at the same time the happy female elephant play the trompet to the rhythm of other trumpets; and finally she presided over a procession through the town that honoured a deity of gold covered of offerings. In Puducherry, apart from walking through all the French neighbourhood, we also visited a cathedral, where it surprised us that the Indian believers touched the statues of Jesus or the virgin Maria with the same superstition that did the Hindus. A couple of days later we reached Chitambaram, where there is a big temple with some very high doorways (situated to the four cardinal points) covered with different figures of Hindu deities painted with showy colours. Some similar doorways we found in other temples of villages that we crossed, and also in Trichy, the following city that we had visited and that has a temple (Sri Ranganathaswamy) with a doorway or gopuram that raises 73 meters of height. At the same time, the temple of Sri Ranganathaswamy is one of the biggest of India, covering 60 hectares framed by seven concentric walls that contain total of 21 gopurams. Also Madurai, the last city visited until now, contains a magnificent temple with four big gopurams or doorways, which we were very unfortunate for not seeing, for they were covered with a very high scaffold of trunks and leaves of palm tree. As they told us, every 15 years and for four months the gopurams are covered and are painted again, right before some great celebrations. Anyway, we could visit a pretty market where there were many tailors working, which took up an entry of the temple under pretty sculpted columns and statues of gods. During the visit to one of these Hindu temples, the comment that the Hindu Gods are worshiped in the same way that the Christian saints came up. Afterwards I reflected a little more and Alexandra was annoyed by the odious comparisons that i did, although for me it had a lot of logic. On a part, there are as many Hindu Gods as saint there is in the Christianity (more or less), each with its function (some help the wealth, others to a specific profession, others to cure...). In the same way, every temple is dedicated to a God, as every church is it to a different saint. In both prints and statues (of saints or Gods) are sold by religions, the paints or statues are adorned, donations or offerings are done, and in important holidays they are taken to walk in carriages followed by procession and music. Equally, a Ganesh temple (for example) does not have the same "force" as the one of another temple, in the same way, that the mother of God of the church of the neighbourhood does not have the same "force" as the saint Maria de Lourdes (that's why the temples or churches receive more or less wandering according to the "force" of its Gods or saints). The parallelism follows with the different histories either legends that every saint or God has, and the preferences that the believers have for a saint or God particularly. On the other hand, the believers also do penitence in front of the saints or Gods, some walking on knees in the processions and the other ones cutting the hair or fasting. the faithful ones of both religions are also blessed, some with blessed water and the other ones with paint or ash. At the end of these reflections i did not think any longer that Hindus were so superstitious, and for example i did not find strange that in some temples we were told off different times for photos, the same way that the faithful Catholics would feel if in the middle of a mass a group of Japanese entered all shooting their camera. I was also reflecting on other aspects these days, because of the comment of a friend who after reading the first weeks of the journey to India attacked me for i was writing the diary under a too occidental and maybe negative vision. I already answered my friend that all the world is influenced by a culture or another, and that if you want to write a personal story (without being a historical or social document) you have to describe your sensations that will always be influenced by your culture or last history. In any case, I also reflected, around the 3 months that soon will do that we are in India, and for the way how I describe the country in the diary, which sometimes can make think that we are not enjoying India or the Indians. It is true that many times we find India incomprehensible, but it is also true that India surprises us day by day for the difference of its culture in comparison with ours and the previous visited countries. A subcontinent is isolated with its traditions, religious rituals, media, own literature, music, films (Bollywood)... and with little contact with west. So, India does not stop being a vitamin for the mind - although sometimes its taste can be bitter - to expand the conscience of the world being very different, rich and interesting of knowing. One may not miss then, that we have plans to keep knowing some weeks more this enormous country, understandable also for its great measure and for its innumerable monuments that it has. Varkala (see on map) 19/12/2008:
Today we have had a good and a bad experience with India. The good one has happened in the morning, when, with relative easiness, we have managed to fill with butane the nine carboys of campingaz to make work the stove and the fridge. For the readers it will not be at all extraordinary to wait for the carboys only two hours to have them ready, but for us, after the experience of Rajastan, where we had to search during a day and a half to fill the carboys, has been a good experience. The bad experience has arrived an hour later, at three, little after Kollam going out towards Tenkasi. We had been circulating with relative comfort through the roads of the south of the Índia, under a fine rain, when suddenly we have found a poster of cut road. We have passed it, for a couple of lorries and buses have kept circulating through the road ignoring the poster. Anyway, a hundred metres further on we have stopped and we have asked to some men next to the road about the directions. at the beginning one has said us that we followed, but others have said us that we should move back the hundred of metres and to give a turn through a village in the interior. So, I have decided paying attention to the majority a few kilometres thinking that we should only divert. But the kilometres went north, instead of east, and every time that we asked about the address to Kollam they told us that it was behind, but when explaining "cut road" they said us to follow ahead, towards the mountains that the road has started to thread. Although it was strange that almost no car circulated those paths. we only crossed a bus with pilgrims, and in contrary direction occasional truks and 4x4 with more pilgrims. In any case, with the finished rain, the landscape of tropical mountain turned very interesting, although the road was small and every kilometre was worsening. According to the map, we were close to a peak of 2000 meters, with the crossing of mountain surpassing the thousand meters. In different points we found a toll of mountain or forest rate, but we were convinced that we did not have to pay them because we did not want to be there, we miss all without too many problems. When lowering of the mountain for the other side we started to cross many more buses and 4x4, the majority full of pilgrims that we thought that they would have had some holiday in the middle of the tropical forest. After about two hours and a half and having circulated about 40 or 50 kilometres, we arrived at last to a village that did not appear on the map but that all the people through the path had mentioned us. We thought that our adventure would be about to finish, but we were not even to the half, for from this village, the road worsened a lot, very much, being glad of having done the modifications of the autocaravan in Nepal then for sure that we would have scraped the ground in many points, which reminded us of the worst African nightmares. There was one, by luck situated on descent, that it was completely muddied that complicated very much the crossing of the lorries, buses, and cars that were piling up - or simply it prevented them from crossing. Once this crossing has been passed we were informed that we still had about two or three hours on the way, and some other ones, kept passing confirming to us that the main road, was indeed cut. We informed them about the road continuing in the same way for quite a lot of kilometres, and there being a very complicated crossing, without mentioning to them that possibly they could not cross it and that they should remain, caught between tens of lorries and buses, to sleep there. In fact, we had had luck of being some of the first cars that we had had to take the alternative crossing, because some hours later the procession of vehicles should be mortal. Looking at the map, I realised that if the main road was cut crossing the mountains, the only way of crossing them was diverting for hundreds of kilometres, the one that we had taken being the shortest path, of about 70 or 80 kilometres that it took us about 6 hours to go. It could have been worse, but this experience cannot be qualified in any other way but bad. ‹ Previous (26/10/2008) MONTH Next (2008-12-25)› ‹ Previous (2009-08-29 - Nepal) COUNTRY Next (2009-09-19 - Pakistan)› |
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