Halloween in Trivandrum

Even though we are half-way across the world, we couldn't miss Halloween. Luckily, we had two hotel rooms across the hall from each other and the kids dressed up and trick-or-treated between us. Unbenownst to them, we had stocked up on Kit-Kats earlier in the day (which had be kept in the fridge, like all chocolate in India, unless you want mush!)

Kobi is a King in Indian Pajamas, a colored cardboard crown and a sword that his sisters bargained for at a bazaar (from 150 down to 80 rupees, with some bangles and hair clips thrown in)


Trick or treating at room 307.


Here we find a Halloween pirate, a visiting dignitary, a King and an Indian Princess wandering the halls of the Muthoot Plaza Hotel in Trivandrum.

To the tip of India

Friends: It looks like our photos on this post were scrambled...I'll re-post as soon as I can! -JA



Waking in Madurai, we began our drive through the southern part of Tamil Nadu as the landscape became more coastal and more affluent. It sometimes seemed like there were more colleges than people...The state of TN is filled with them, mainly dental and engineering colleges.

We call this architectural style "Indo-Disneyland" with catholic accents.


Here's a common sight on the Indian roadway:



The truck may be one lane wide, but the load may be three! Those are the Western Ghats (mountain range) in the background.


After passing through several miles of windmills generating power for the state, we found the countryside becoming more coastal and more affluent as we approached the southern tip of India. When we arrived at Kanniyakimuri, "land's end", we took in the sights:


It must have been the end of the workday, because fishermen like these were streaming in from the open sea.


Everyone on the ferry boat to Kanniyakimuri marvelled at Tenzin's magnetic attraction for babies.


At the very tip of the country, where the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean all meet, we found throngs of Indian tourists on pilgramage. We joined them on the boat to the shrines off the coast. This spot was made famous by Vivekananda, the "wandering swami", who travelled all over India preaching peace and togetherness. He swam out to these rocks to meditate in 1892.


The island on the left is a shrine to the Goddess Durga, where Kobi made a prayer "Please God let me swim in oceans" and a memorial to Vivekananda. The island on the right holds a statue of Thiruvalluvar, a poet in the Tamil language who is so famous that his poems are written on the walls of city buses.

The Sri Meenakshi Temple in Madurai

Meenakshi is the "fish-eyed" goddess, and she is an incarnation of Parvati who is the wife of Shiva (remember Brahama, Vishnu and Shiva are the three primary gods in Hinduism -- the creator, the preserver and the destroyer. )

Her temple is a huge draw in South India in Madurai. We had a wonderful guide who was able to help us undersatnd some of what was going on -- one group of women sat waiting to be blessed, as the married daughter entered her last weeks of pregnancy. Another group, rather formally seated on the floor, was the first meeting between a prospective bride and groom, with all relatives present as well. We got caught in a wedding procession, pictured below. We spent several hours at the temple and we weren't even allowed into the sacred area itself (non-Hindus may not enter).

Although Meenakshi is the star here, with lots of fish-eye graphic motifs, there was even more action on the outer rim. First there was a lively bazaar where the temple rents space to souvenir vendors, and then several corridors with shrines to other gods, like Ganesh, and Shiva's mount, a bull named Nandi. Lotus blossom sculpture had been worked into the floor, and people would lay down in the middle of the crowd and stretch their hands out on the carved petals. A fertility image of a woman standing while giving birth was especially popular, from the amount of oil and flowers at her feet. We saw a man leading a toddler and an exhausted-looking woman holding a newborn to the shrine -- evidentally to give thanks. I had to pick Kobi up and squeeze him on the spot.



The famous gopuram of the Sri Meenakshi temple. I always thought this was the temple itself, but it's just a tower of sculpture over the gate.


Here's a closeup from the same photo.
Aren't digital cameras cool?


We pass a local wedding -- it's customary to have your wedding at the temple if you can't afford to hire a hall.


Karma and Ganesh, the remover of obstacles.


Bangle sellers at the temple bazaar push the tight bracelets up a woman's arm. Karma bought two dozen metal bangles here for 50 rupees.


Kobi likes getting blessed by elephants. He is becoming a temple regular.

The Aravind Eye Institute

Before we left the States, Mark spotted an article in the Wall Street Journal about the passing of Dr.G. Venkataswamy, who had created a world-class eye hospital in India which served people from all walks of life.

Now in Madurai, Mark sought out the Aravind Eye Institute and took Tenzin, Maggie and Karma there for a tour. They met Deepa, the neice of Dr. V., and learned a lot about how the clinic has grown in its' 30 years, and where it is going. The Institute began when Dr. V retired from his teaching career and focused on his dream -- to eradicate unneccesary blindness in India. The facility that he created, and that his family now runs, is a model blend of compassionate care and forward-thinking business practices that allow them to care for the poor, yet still support the business operations by attracting paying customers who know their excellent record. The philosophy of the center was inspired by Sri Aurobindo, one of the major spiritual leaders of the last century, who encouraged service as a way to "transcendence". During the visit, we learned that Dr. V had first considered going into Sri Aurobindo's ashram when he retired. But he was influenced by "The Mother" (Sri Aurobindo's spiritual partner) who directed him to spend his energies building an eye clinic instead. To learn more about this remarkable place, see their website at www.aravind.org.

Mark came back from this visit positively energized!


Part of their mission is to create systems that can be taught to other medical facilities, improving the productivity and quality of care. This building is one of several sites that they have in South India.


Deepa and the kids pose in front of the mission statement posted at the entrance to one of the Insitute's buildings.

A note from Maggie

Hello everyone! How are you all?

If any of you have the time to contact us we would love it. I feel very isolated from the world right now and I miss everyone. Also if anyone from India is able to contact me that would be great!

Today we climbed 800 steps, up and down to get to a Ganesh temple. Ganesh is the remover of obstacles and a whimsical humorous god. Out of all the Hindu gods he is my favorite. Then we went to a Vishnu temple and it was amazing. The center tower (there were 49) was plated in gold and unfortunately non-Hindus like ourselves were not allowed into the center buildings. What was lucky was that we had two men who were very smart and had very good English who gave us a tour of the places we could go in. They told us a lot about the mythology, which was really good because right now I'm studying it. Very loosly, because there are over like 13 million Hindu gods. We did learn that supposedly when men start thinking like animals that Vishnu will supposedly be reincarnated on earth for the tenth time with a horsefase and wipe out all of humanity. Pleasant, isn't that? Then we went to see an idea for some new environmentally friendly toilets. And we also visited some villages where I got some pictures of baby goats, which I adore.

Bye bye
- Maggie

Trichy

Today was a great day. We began with a visit to Ganesh's Rock Temple and then the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, both in Trichy. Then Mark, Maggie and Tenzin visited a self-composting toilet project in a nearby village.


Mark and Kobi at the top of the Rock Temple (Karma counted, it's 417 steps, one-way.)


Karma being blessed by Lakshmi, the temple elephant

Maybe Maggie or Mark or Tenzin will write about their visit to the village, but we thought you'd enjoy this photo of a helpful poster explaining how to use the self-composting toilets, both sit-down and squatting:

Karma tells about our day in Trichy

We are in Trichy. Today, we went to breakfast at the breakfast buffet downstairs in the hotel. It wasn't that good, but we ate cereal, toast and croissants. After breakfast, our Dad wanted us to see a music video that his dental staff made. It's supposed to be the kind of thing where you vote on which idea for children's dental care you like best. Maggie, Tenzin and I went upstairs to get ready to go to a few temples after we saw the music videos and then we left and went to the first temple.

The first temple was a little temple carved out of rock, but it was on top of a huge staircase with 417 steps, which we had to climb. When you first get out of your car to enter a temple, you take off your shoes (we put them in the car because our last pair of shoes got stolen when we left them outside the last time we went to a temple) and you can leave them at the temple door. It was really muddy when we got out of the car with our bare feet and we tiptoed to the temple door. When we got inside the door, we were blessed by a very large elephant. The elephant's trunk was shaved so it looked like leopard print, and it also had chalk designs on its' trunk. To get blessed by the elephant, we had to put our heads down and the elephant's owner (called a mahout) said a word which I didn't understand and the elephant touched our heads with the tip of his trunk. Then we started walking up the steps.

When we got to the top of the stairs, we went into the temple. The temple is a small room with a hallway surrounding it. Inside the room, we watched a priest and a statue Ganesh. After he prayed, the priest took ashes on his thumb from a bowl that someone was holding and put a little ashes on each person's forehead. Then he gave the men strings of grass to put around their neck, and he gave the women flowers. Me and my sister pressed our flowers and our Dad got a packet of ashes from the priest[sort in a kechtup packet shape.] Then we enjoyed the view (and it's a really amazing thing to see a bird from a bird's eye view.)

Ganesh is the elephant god. He has a man's body and an elephant head because his father didn't recognize him after a long trip (like 10 or 20 years) and Ganesh wouldn't let him in because he was a faithful guard, so his father cut off his head, but then his mother came out and told his father that it was his son, and one of the very few things that Ganesh's father was afraid of was his wife's anger. So he asked if there was anything he could do, and she said yes, he could go and get a head from the first living thing that he found and put it on his son's shoulders. I'm not sure what people pray to Ganesh for. Each god in India is prayed to for different things, like getting a good grade or having more money or being healed. There are thousands of gods in India.

The second temple was called the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple. The town was built around the temple. There are seven circles, with a wall and a gate, and the golden shrine is in the middle. This is a temple for Vishnu, who is the preserver in Hinduism. The other two main gods are Brahma, the creator, and then Shiva, the destroyer. Vishnu came to life as a cowherder named Krishna, who played the flute to call his cows. It is believed that there will be 10 incarnations of Vishnu, and we are in the era of the 9th incarnation right now. The 9th incarnation is Krishna. The 10th incarnation is supposedly a little like the apocalypse in Christianity --- it means that the world is being destroyed. They don't know when the 10th incarnation will come. It might be in a year, in a month, or in a century, or in a millennium.

At the temple, we spent a few hours listening to a guide talking. He showed us different areas, like the barn where they keep the animals that are donated by people who come to worship. Tenzin, my brother, got his own tour guide, that a lot of people seemed to know. One of the temples was all white because of mourning for the priests who jumped off the top in protest because for a hundred years they didn't have to pay taxes but then all of a sudden the new ruler made them pay the taxes for the past 100 years all in one day because he worshiped Shiva and didn't like the temple to Vishnu.

One part was the "temple of 1000 pillars" but there are really only 960 because they believe it would be wrong to do something "perfect" as that is only for the gods to do. So once a year on the festival, they put up 40 palm tree trunks in the courtyard to finish the temple and make it 1000 pillars. Vishnu sleeps on a bed made by a giant cobra, which shades him while he sleeps. The cobra has 5 heads for the five elements, fire air water sky earth.

We were not allowed to go into the temple because we are not Hindu.

After we left that temple we drove back to the hotel and ordered room service and had fried rice and spaghetti and four orders of French fries. All this time on the way back home, my little brother Kobi had been asleep.

Our feet got so dirty we had to wash them for millennium years.

Friday Market in Mapusa, Goa

We have to say goodbye to Uncle Matt today, so we decide to follow him as far as the Friday market in Mapusa (which is pronounced Mopsa) because we hear it is more local and less touristy (and thus cheaper) than the Wednesday Anjuna market. It turns out that this was good advice.

Mapusa is a medium-size commercial center of about 50,000 people. Sound familiar? The center "square" is a parking lot surrounded by dozens of little shops. The Friday market fills three alleys with stands selling mostly cheap western clothing, household items, and foodstuffs, but it also has a few sellers of crafts and textiles that appeal to visitors.

These first few vendors are very aggressive....they clipped silvery anklets on Karma when she stopped for a moment, and we couldn't get them off her....they'll drape something around you and pull their hands away when you try to give it back. We bought several things from them...including the anklets....after Karma and Mark drove a hard bargain and the lady showed us how to take the anklets off.


In the next alley it was fish....


In spite of appearances, these birds are alive...for now.

Shopping done, we were all sad to say goodbye to Matt....and we think he showed incredible stamina and grace to survive a whole week traveling with the six of us! We wish he could stay!


Bye Matt! Thanks for coming to India!

On the ride back to Fort Tiracol...


A common sight on the roads of Goa. Hippies from some part of the Western world.


Kobi falls asleep on Mark's arm, in the rearview mirror.



Heating tar to patch holes caused by monsoon rains.


Harvesting sand from the bottom of the river, to sell to construction projects. The women carry the sand from the boats to the trucks in huge baskets on their heads.

Before we get on the ferry, we take another dip in the Arabian Sea...though Jen stays on shore to defend our stuff from the packs of wild dogs. Really.


Walking out to a sandbar in the Arabian Sea.


Karma finds some baby clams.

About our visit to Chennai

Mark wrote the following after our five days in Chennai:

I had the great opportunity to extend warm greetings from the City of Denver to their sister city, Chennai, during our visit to this coastal city located on the Sea of Bengal in Tamil Nadu.

Chennai is a large commercial and industrial centre, and is known for its cultural heritage and temple architecture. It is also a hub for south Indian classical music and dance performances. Our patron for this part of the Chennai visit was our good friend John Hickenlooper, Mayor of Denver. John helped us with the appropriate introductory letters and small gifts of thanks to the local representatives, and arranged for meetings with the municipal and State political leadership and as well as Denver's Human Service partner "Udavum Karangal" .

When we arrived, the by-elections were underway. Recounts were on throughout the region as there were some Mayor Daley-like voting irregularities that required a number of districts to redo the election. As is true in all Democratic lands, sometimes things go bump in the night for the current political leadership. Chennai's Mayor was already out of office as his term expired and he wasn't asked by his party to seek re-election. We did visit both the Mayor's office and the Chief Minister (Governor) of Tamil Nadu office which are both located in Chennai.

Our most important and meaningful visit was with the the nonprofit organization, Udavum Karangal “My Helping Hands" and its founder Pappa Vidyaakar. Helping Hands has a long history of helping orphans and poor villagers. Pappa Vidyaakar gave me a tour of their operations in the Chennai area and then I visited the new homes that were being constructed with funds provided by the great citizens of Denver in response to the tsunami that devastated many villages along the coastline in Tamil Nadu. Denver and Colorado citizens donated over $ 70,000 and sent it in support of "My Helping Hands" construction of new homes for one of the many small coastal village that had been destroyed in the tsunami. The construction was moving along quite nicely and there was excitement in the temporary thatched roof community adjoining the construction site.

Denver's Sister Cities International is an outstanding program run by Dan Sundaresan who oversees this impressive operation along with a dedicated Board and staff . Dan will be attending the opening of the new homes on the two year anniversary of the tsunami, December 26th. -Good work Denver.

My visit with Pappa Vidyaakar was inspiring - he is a truly great human being and has built an incredible network of support for orphans and the mentally handicapped. He is treating with care, compassion and kindness India's most needy. The scope and quality of his programs is world class, and if anyone is traveling in India, this is a person and organization that you must visit. To learn more about their Dream, Determination and Drive please take a look at their web site: http://www.udavumkarangal.org
Chennai was also an important visit as our good friend Ravi (Ganesan Ravishanker) arranged for us to meet with part of his family that live here in Chennai. Their friendship allowed us to better understand this fascinating community and they helped us plan a wonderful tour through Tamil Nadu where we learned so much about the people and culture. Thank you!

-Mark

Traveling to Pondicherry

Saying goodbye to Mamallapuram, we head south, beginning our "South India Roadtrip", as we plan to drive all the way to the tip of India through this south-eastern state of Tamil Nadu, and then follow the western coast north through the state of Kerala. A note here about how important state borders are in India. Generally, state borders were created here because people in each area speak a different language, for example, Tamil in Tamil Nadu and Malayalam in Kerala. So people have great loyalty to their state, and systems in each can be quite different.

As we travel south in Tamil Nadu, we see the areas that were devasted by the Tsunami in December 2004. Even in the city of Chennai, the urban "Marina Beach" suffered losses as families were out playing cricket in the public park...but here in the rural areas to the south of the city, you can see how the clusters of fisherman who live right on the edge of the sea were just wiped out by the wave. Along the way we see temporary villages that have been set up while various programs and the government gradually rebuild the housing and put a higher level of infastructure in place. It clearly takes a long time. Here's a photo:


This is a colony of refugee housing for Tsunami victims -- a grid of these woven huts sits near the road, while in the distance, we can see concrete housing rising for the refugees.

Further down the road, we make a visit to the refugee housing that is being constructed by Udavam Karangal (the "Helping Hands" program in Chennai) with funding from people in Denver Colorado who gave to the relief effort. We are impressed with the resources that are being well-used in this project -- the new village will have electricity and plumbing...and stucco houses which will withstand the weather. Here's a photo of one of the houses under construction:


Tiny but solid, this house represents a leap in housing quality for the local fishing families. The detached bathroom is shown to the left -- with working plumbing.

Here's a photo of where this group of refugees is now living, near the construction site:


By the end of 2006, these families will move out of this temporary village on the beach.


It's amazing how far money that's donated in America can go in India, but the challenge is the oversight of how the money is spent, because there is a widespread culture of graft and corruption here. In this case, the constant presence of a supervisor from Helping Hands in Chennai is the reassurance that the dollars are spent as they are intended.

After our tour of the refugee project, we are back on the road to Pondicherry.

Pondicherry has an interesting history -- in this area which was long held by the British (all of Tamil Nadu), there is a little costal area that was carved out by the French. At times, it looked as though the French might oust the British from South India, but ultimately, politics back in Europe rather than military might or strategy in India, determined that France would be a minor player in India. Pondicherry is determinedly French. The street names, the customs, the police uniforms.l...and of course, the bakeries.



Our hotel is off Rue Dumas.

We drive into town to find that today is a Muslim holiday called Ramzan, and the promenade on the waterfront is soon shut down as families wander the boardwalk.


For a few hours before sunset, this area is packed with families strolling at the edge of the sea. Swimming is forbidden by the government in Pondicherry, because the waves are too rough, but some people cross the rocks and get their feet wet.


Kobi joins in the fun by climbing a statue of Gandhi walking.

Pondicherry has much of the bustling feeling that we saw in Hyderabad -- though not to that degree -- and we see lots of construction and government improvements to roads and parks. We book into a hip hotel in a renovated French mansion that has a teak loft where the kids sleep, while mom and dad take the 4-poster -- the hotel opened last year. Here's a park under construction, which is the gold standard of kids' playgrounds in India -- the traffic park:



They're building a mini-mountain in this park, with a winding road around the edge that kids will be able to drive up in their play cars.


On the park sidewalk, a family has set up house...perhaps one of the construction workers. Here, a child in uniform is getting ready to head to school (where all girls must wear pigtail braids by decree.)


This picture shows an upscale sidewalk outside the Promenade Hotel in Pondicherry. There are is an open ditch running between the sidewalk and the road, with a few bridges across it. This evening, the drains in this neighborhood clog and overflow, flooding the street.

Relaxing on the beach at Mamallapuram

We decide to take a day to just relax -- on the beach and in the pool. We all dip our toes in the Bay of Bengal -- the water is almost hot.


Kobi watches and plays in the sand.


Maggie makes a friend from Bangalore (and California).


Maggie is invited to ride a boat -- she's in there somewhere.


Karma watches Maggie in the boat.

Helping Hands in Chennai

Sunday morning, Mark visits the social service program called Udavum Karangal, which means Helping Hands. He comes away amazed at the breadth of services they offer, to people of all ages. The founder, Pappa Vidyaaker, walks him through their campus, and seems to have a warm connection with both the staff and clients everywhere. Here are some photos:


Mark with Vidyaaker, the founder and leader of Udavum Karangal.


The language of respect is heard loud and clear as you tour the beautiful grounds of the campus. Here is a leafy gazebo in a garden.


Kids play on a merry-go-round on the beautiful playground at the school/orphanage.


There's a lightness about the place, like the playful fish wrought in iron at this building.


There are lots of programs for kids -- for kids with HIV, kids with disabilities, orphans of different ages.


All these toddlers made their way over to me when I came to visit their playroom.


Each program has their own area and they are all beautifully maintained.


If you'd like to know more, see their website at www.udavumkarangal.org.

The stone carvings of Mamallapuram

On Saturday, we head south of Chennai to see the religious carvings of the Pallava dynasty, which ruled this part of India from the 5th to the 9th century.

The monuments have been carved out of rock where it stands...and rough natural boulders stand in line with temples, relief scenes and shrines.


You might want to try this with any large rocks you have lying around the backyard. This shows a scene called "Arjuna's Penance", and that's Arjuna (from the Mahabharata) standing on one leg.

This site is a major tourist attraction for Indians, who pose in groups under the giant "Krishna's Butter Ball" which appears to be teetering on a rock slope. We take our turn.


Tenzin is really getting strong these days.


Karma Not to be outdone, Mark rescues a few small children from the crushing weight of the boulder.


We've taken many photos of the ubiquitous pepsi ads which blanket every spare wall in India, mostly because our friend Jim does their marketing...wow, Jim, your reach is impressive! Here's a shot of a few carts at the stone carvings.


Finally, we get a good shot of a the Pepsi logos.

Later, we visit the "Five Rathas", more carvings from boulders in the landscape.


It's amazing how these move from rough rock to ornate detail...this was created around 650 AD.


Nice Kitty.


Mark carries Kobi when he gets hot from running around.


Back in Chennai, we are excited that it is finally Diwali! We visit the bustling Kapalishvara temple in Mylapore, the historic section of Chennai (the Greeks visited here in the 2nd century). It's jammed with families who have brought armfulls of food and other offerings to be blessed by the priests at various shrines.


Families dressed in their best at the temple for Diwali.


The spectacular gopuram (tower at the gate) of the temple is lit with neon at the top.

Finally, we drive home surrounded by the sounds of fireworks, and stop several times in the street as they fill with people setting off "crackers" and sparklers. The sky is full of color, and the ground is full of smoke. For days, the papers have stories of hospitals and doctors beseiged by people with respiratory problems...but for now, it is very exciting and beautiful.