Reflections from India and thoughts & prayers for Japan

Shore Temple at Mamalapurum

Where to begin?  So much has transpired in the last week or so, both within our travels and in situations around the world, it's hard to know what to begin with.  Prior to arriving in India, I was preparing myself to see and experience a wide range of extremities: extreme poverty, intense over-crowded settings, lack of personal space, smells, dirt, etc.  In looking back at our time in India, it exceeded my expectations, and in the area we were in, these things were all tempered.  Before we even arrived at the harbor, you could smell a distinct, indescribable smell of India.  Many people mentioned that hours before we came to dock, the smell was in the air.  When I opened up our window shade, we had arrived, but to my surprise I saw rows and rows of Ford cars lined up, ready to be shipped (later we found out they headed to South Africa).  It was an odd but foreshadowing sight to welcome us to this country.

From the intense heat and dust, to the crazy rickshaw rides, we thoroughly enjoyed our time in India.  A lot of people chose to travel to different parts of the country including Agra and Varanasi (Taj Mahal and Ganges River), but we decided to stay in South India.  We were in Chennai, in the state of Tamil Nadu (apparently one of the wealthiest states in the nation).  On our first day we took a city orientation tour, which included a stop and a fort museum where colonial items and a church were preserved.  Then we were off to St. Thomas Cathedral, where supposedly the tomb of St. Thomas was buried.  It was a very interesting (and Western) introduction to Chennai and India that left me a little perplexed.  We got to drive through the town, see Marina Beach, which is the 2nd longest beach in the world, and finally we got to stop at an amazing Hindu Temple called, Kapalishvara Temple in the Mylapore area.  That was an amazing site.  We watched people smash coconuts onto the ground in a certain area, as an offering to remove evil spirits from their lives.  The complex was a bit of a courtyard with lots of other little temples around.  There was even one section where cows were milling around, and yes, this was in the middle of the city.  That was something that will stay with me, seeing cows, donkeys, and other large animals lounging, walking, pulling carts alongside cars, motorcycles, rickshaws, and buses in a pretty metropolitan area.  It was SO interesting.  We also visited a special needs school called, SANKALP.  We got to meet the founders, three women who created this school for children with autism, and another school for children with learning disabilities including dyslexia.  That was a powerful experience as well.

Hands down, the food in India has been my favorite thus far.  Although cautious, we were able to fully explore the spice-infused offerings and were not disappointed.  The first place we tried for dinner was great - we had chicken biriyani, rice, curries, etc, all served on a banana leaf on a tin plate to be consumed with our hands, well our right hand to be exact (it's rude to eat or use your left hand there).  It was awesome.  The following day we went to a chain restaurant called Saravana Bhavan (which, coincidentally has a location in Sunnyvale, CA, about 20 minutes away from where we live!)  Again, the food was amazing.  This is a vegetarian restaurant, but after eating here (a number of times), I did not miss eating meat, and felt fully satisfied, and not gross afterwards.  We tried dosas, which are a large thin crepe-like wraps that taste like a parmesan sourdough cheese crisp.  You dip it into a variety of sauces, and of course, eat it with your hands.  It was delicious.

Another highlight of our time here was our trip to Mamallapurum, which are ancient temples near the shore about 1 1/2 hours south of Chennai.  Our driver, Raja, took us down and was great.  There were huge original 7th century temples and stone statues carved out of a single rock called the Five Rathas.  We spent quite a bit of time here thinking these were all there was to see.  Then we found out that there were many more spots to see.  My favorite was the Shore Temple which was overlooking the beach and the water.  It was incredible to see such a beautiful temple so close to the shore, preserved and in tact for so long.  Amazing and awe-inspiring.

And, no trip to India would be complete without the experience of looking, shopping, and bargaining.  It is, after all, the home of many great and beautiful things we purchase and consume in the United States.  We got to see a variety of places from street vendors to state of the art westernized malls.  One thing to note, whenever going anywhere, if you appear in the least to be a tourist, your rickshaw or cab driver will take you to a 'shop' where they get commissions and perks for bringing customers.  The first night we got roped in and a few overpriced items were purchased by our group members, but after seeing the prices at the malls and shops we realized these shops were very overpriced.  It's part of the experience though, everyone had a story like this, where they wanted to go somewhere and were taken to one or two 'tourist shops' along the way.

I know this post is getting long, but I cannot leave without mentioning the tragedy in Japan.  It was interesting because while we were in Chennai a few of my colleagues and I were trying to buy a Japan Rail Pass because you can only purchase them before arriving in the country.  Due to a variety of random but fortuitous circumstances we weren't able to buy them, and afterwards just thought that it wasn't meant to be.  Three days later, news of the earthquake and tsunami came, and it was mind blowing.  It's hard to describe the feeling of being at sea, supposedly on our way to this country, and seeing what has happened there.  Our shipboard community has been in the process of making 1,000 paper  peace cranes for travels Hiroshima, and now that project has taken on new meaning.  We don't know for sure what this will mean for our voyage to Japan, but more importantly we are holding in our hearts and minds a peaceful recovery for them from the devastation.  With a huge world event such as this, we also learned that the ship is able to receive satellite news - so we have Aljazeera News on our TVs in our cabins now (which, by the way, is such a succinct, different, uncluttered, and direct approach to worldwide news).  Seeing the images and hearing stories riles up our interests in helping out if we do end up going to Japan.  Many people are talking about and asking how we can provide support or relief, and it's nice to see that interest amongst the community.  We will see what happens next…but in the meantime, our hearts and prayers are with all those who were affected by the earthquake and tsunami.