Final Thoughts...

I've been back in the UK for just over a week now, moving back into my flat and reassimilating to life back in Oxford, so it's about time I posted my final blog update to finish things off.

My first impressions of being back in the UK - it's sooo cold!!! Hard to think that only a few days ago I was sipping lime sodas under the coconut palms in Mysore. But despite England being cold and grey, I've just enjoyed a Sunday lunch in Woodstock and walked through the grounds of Blenheim palace, all of which reminds me how beautiful England can be.

What I can definitely say is that I absolutely LOVE India - it's such a fascinating, colourful, crazy, complex country that gets under your skin and the more I go there the more I'm addicted. There are of course some less pleasant things about India - it can be frustrating, dirty, dusty, smelly, the apparent lack of order, the poverty...

But the negative things just make you appreciate the good things more, and so these are some of the things I love:

• Coconut chutney, aubergine curry, paneer masala, thalis, biryani, dhal, fish curry, masala dosa, parothas, chai, fresh mangoes, bananas, pineaples... South Indian food in particular is delicious, usually spicy and you really don't miss eating meat because the vegetable dishes are so good. Even at the simplest road side cafe you will get something cheap and fresh.





Masala dosa and coconut chutney - the ultimate Indian breakfast for Rs 30 (that's about 40p)


• The sunshine!



• How friendly, tolerant and hospitable Indian people are - and the friends I've made.




• Where else do you get buses and autorickshaws decorated with garlands of flowers or cows dyed pink and yellow with painted horns? Every day seems an excuse to decorate or embellish everything with flowers, paint and celebrate colour. Even the piles of fruit and veg in the market seem stacked for optimal colour and effect.




• Religion and spirituality is everywhere in India, from the great temples in Tamil Nadu to the humblest roadside shrine. Whilst it's hard to understand what goes on in an Indian temple or the 100s of Hindu gods, the basic philosophy of this ancient religion - that we are all essentially divine and all one - is something that strikes a chord with me. For Indians religion or spirituality is so much a part of everyday life, which is something most of us have lost in the West - just taking time to contemplate something that is outside our day to day existence and perhaps special or divine is I think important.

What I definitely know is that I'll go back...

ॐ

Back to Mysore

For my last couple of days in India I go back to Mysore to catch up with some of the Raleigh folks - Gavin, Mark, Vijay, Deepak, Amanda and fellow Kebepura PMs Helen and Zoe who are also back for a few days. Mysore is comfortingly familiar, so it feels a bit like coming home. On the way from the station I can't help noticing that in true Indian style all the cows are luminous yellow - this is for the Pongal (harvest) festival and they have been coloured with tumeric dye. Some owners have gone even further so there are pink and orange cows too... I will miss all this colour back in the UK!


Helen and I climb up Chamundi Hill again, this time without full backpacks and camping gear, so it feels a bit less like hard work and we can take some time to admire the view and the Chamundeshwari temple at the top.


My last two days in Mysore go all too quickly so after a final trip to Devaraja market to take in all the sights and smells and another pedicure at the Windflower where I'm staying, (I'm getting far too fond of pedicures), I'm on the train back to Bangalore for my last night in India.

Kovalam, Kerala

It's good to get back in to more of a routine, albeit a relaxed one, which goes something like this... 7:00 get up, cup of green tea (note cup of tea is very important); 7:30 - 9:30 yoga; 9:30 breakfast; 10:30 ish onwards - relax, read book, beach, swim, shop; 5:00 - 6:30 yoga and meditation; 7:30 ish dinner; 10-11 ish bed.

This is me being relaxed and yogic...


There are 12 of us doing yoga, all pretty experienced, (about half are yoga teachers), plus teacher Neville. I like his style of yoga, relaxed and flowing, and I don't feel too intimidated by all the professionals! Am a bit stiff at first, particularly in my shoulders, most likely a result of heaving my backpack on and off so many Indian buses, but the stiffness soon goes and my 'down dog' and headstands are improving. It's funny to be surrounded by westerners again and Kovalam sometimes feels like an Indian version of the Costa del Sol, but it's still India and our yoga group is lovely.


At the weekend we have a break so 4 of us, (Sue 2, Maggie, Marena and I), decide to take a backwaters boat trip from Alleppey. I share a boat with Marena, which we decide will be the 'meditation boat', although we seem to spend most of the time eating some very delicious veg curries and seafood.


Travelling through the backwaters is beautiful and so relaxing. In our smaller 2 person boat we are able to visit some of the narrower canals and witness the village life on the water. And we do manage some mediation - at sunset we walk through the rice paddies and sit in a friendly villager's back garden to watch the sun go down, and at dawn we watch the sunrise over the water.

Madurai

Next stop is Madurai and the Sri Meenakshi temple, which was memorable from my first visit to India over 10 years ago. In Madurai I meet up with Siva (another Raleigh HCV) who lives in the city - we were on the Kebepura project together. Siva worked for ten years on a flower stall in the temple, so is the perfect guide. Here is a picture of him at his old workplace...


The temple is being repainted so the outside gopurams (entrance towers) are shrouded in bamboo scaffolding, but much of the painting inside is completed - the ceilings and columns are brightly painted with patterns and murals. The temple is a vast complex, although not as big as the one in Trichy, and once inside it is dark and very atmospheric.


In the evening I have dinner with Siva's family. We get there by riding on the backs of motorbikes with friends (Raja and Russia) through the crowded Madurai streets, dodging buses and autos in the dark. I hang on tight and emerge windswept but still in one piece at the other end. His mother prepares dosas, (because Siva has told her I like them!), also coconut chutney and some biryani. Siva's father is a weaver, so they live in the weaving district - their house is surrounded by small warehouses with looms working in to the night making towels. I also visit their local temple and the night school where Siva helps teach. Here he is showing me how to touch type with a Tamil keyboard...


The next day it's another bus journey - 6 hours to Kanyakumari, the tip of India. I'm getting quite used to travelling on Indian buses, although they are pretty basic crowded and the road driving is just crazy. Rs 90 (just over £1) isn't bad for a 6 hour journey and they are always on time! However I feel pretty frazzled and sandblasted after this one, so by the time I get to Kanykumari I have the energy to watch the sunset over the sea and then it's back to the hotel for dinner and bed. I meet two Danish girls who are travelling in the opposite direction to me.

Next day it's a relatively short (3 hour) bus journey to Kovalam in Kerala and my yoga holiday. So I'm now in an internet cafe next to the beach. Aaah, time to chill out...

Pondicherry to Trichy

From Pondicherry I take a day trip to Tiruvannamalai to see the Arunachala temple and Sri Ramana Ashram. This place is mentioned in the book I've been reading 'A Search in Secret India' (thanks Aroop!). Written in 1930, the author ends up in Arunachala after searching India for a guru. He meets Sri Ramana Maharishi and is impressed by his philosophy and approach to life. Both the temple and the ashram do have a certain special energy about them - they sit at the foot of Arunachala hill which in Hindu mythology is where Siva appeared as a column of fire creating the original symbol of the lingam. At the temple I meet an Indian family who are taking their son there to be blessed. Both father and son have their heads shaved. Despite stilted English and a complete lack of Tamil on my part we have a good chat.


Also most of the temple vistors are wearing red because it is the 'Om Shakti' festival. I've chosen today to wear a bright green t-shirt, so couldn't stick out more!


On my last day in Pondy I meet up with Raleigh 'host country venturers' Vieni, Manju and Jagad who live in the nearby town of Villapuram. It's fantastic to see them all again.


Vieni cooks us biryani for lunch (those in alpha 2 will remember how good her chicken biryani is!) and afterwards we go back to Vieni's village to meet countless friends and relatives. Someone shins up a coconut palm so we each have a fresh coconut to drink. After that it's back to Manju's house to meet more relatives and a chapati dinner. I'm overwhelmed by their hospitality, it's lovely.


Now it's New Year's Eve and I'm at my next port of call, Tiruchirappalli or Trichy, where I've visited yet more temples - the Rock Fort temple and the Sri Ranganathaswamy temple complex. The latter is massive, possibly the largest in India, with many 'sub' temples surrounding 7 concentric walled courtyards. It's quite confusing. I meet up with a German lady, Anita, so we negotiate the Rock Fort steps and Trichy's bus system together.


Hmm, not sure how I'll be celebrating the New Year - by the sound of it the hotel has some dodgy disco music going...

Christmas in Pondicherry

After 5 hours by train to Chennai, an auto across town and another 3 hour bus journey I arrive in Pondicherry. The best thing about my arrival is my guest house room, which is a sort of French colonial boudoir with Indian touches. It has pink walls, stained glass windows with wooden shutters and a high ceiling with lilac beams and a big old swishy ceiling fan. On the walls are silk paintings of Krishna.


On Christmas morning I visit the Sri Aurobindo ashram which is just around the corner. The ashram has a beautiful shaded courtyard and visitors file round the samadhi (or shrine) where Sri Aurobindo and his disciple 'The Mother' are buried. There isn't alot else to see apart from the ashram bookshop, but the courtyard is a relaxing place to sit and contemplate. Most of the ashram life now goes on in Auroville, a community for 'a new way of living' about 12 km from Pondicherry. It all sounds a bit wierd, but I meet an Italian guy over Christmas lunch who is staying there, so decide to pay a visit to find out more.


Just down the road from the ashram is a Hindu temple dedicated to the elephant god Ganesh. It's quite a narrow street, but outside the temple is a real live elephant who blesses the devotees. For Rs 20 I buy an offering of a coconut, some grass and bananas in a basket and for another Rs 10 a 'fast track' entry ticket so I don't have to join the long queue! Once inside my coconut is smashed and the priest makes a puja for me at the Sri Ganesh shrine. I then get my basket back with the broken coconut and bananas. On the way out I can offer these to the temple elephant who then blesses me with his trunk. I'm not sure what it all means but the ritual is very enjoyable and a different way to celebrate Christmas day...

End of Raleigh

Well my 13 weeks with Raleigh have finised and I'm now in Bangalore having said goodbye to the last of our group, Antje and Jerry, this morning. The final phase sped by and the last few days have been full of emotional farewells - first with all the venturers and then with all the staff members. But I have lots of new friends to keep in touch with! Today has been the first time I've been truly on my own for almost 3 months and although it feels a bit strange I'm quite enjoying the freedom.

Bangalore is a very westernised city, full of shopping malls, offices and cafes, so occasionally it almost feels like London, although it's hot and sunny, so certainly not London in December. I had a pedicure yesterday (what decadence!) with Jo and my hair cut today so I'm feeling a bit tidier - interestingly Bangalore is the first place in India I've come across women's hair salons as most Indian women grow their hair long and don't get it cut. I also braved the Bangalore railway station 'computerised' booking office to book some onward train tickets. This involves the very Indian system of shambolic queuing to make an enquiry and then filling out a paper form with the train details you want before more queuing at another counter to pay and actually get the ticket. In true Indian style I manage to do a bit of queue barging myself to find out the train times - sometimes being female and a foreigner has its advantages ;-)

So tomorrow I'm off to Pondicherry for Christmas and then on to Trichy and Madurai for the temples. I'm also hoping to catch up with Raleigh host country venturers Manju and Siva en route. Then in January it's a full 2 weeks of relaxing yoga in Kerala.

In the meantime a big HAPPY CHRISTMAS to everyone back home!