India

I seem to be stuck in Varkala. I had only planned to be here for two or three days, and now I’ve been here five days and don’t want to leave. I have also been joined by Helena, a friend I met back in Mussoorie. It is nice to have a friend [...]

Mata Amritanandamayi, now called Amma, was born into a poor fishing family in a village in Kerala in 1953. From an early age she showed exceptional empathy for others. She began to comfort those who were suffering by hugging them. In her early twenties she developed a following which steadily grew. [...]

Just 45 minutes South of Varkala is the state capital of Thiruvananthapuram (or Thrivandrum for short). My friend Helena and I headed there on Wednesday. We arrived around mid-day, found a hotel and set out accross the city. One of our first stops was a restaurant which serves South Indian ‘thali’. [...]

On Saturday morning I finally managed to tear myself away from Varkala for good. I headed a few hours north to the city of Cochin. I took a ferry accross the bay to Fort Cochin, which lies at the end of a long peninsula. There I found well kept Dutch and Portuguese [...]

Today is the harvest festival of Pongal, which is celebrated here in Tamil Nadu. I am currently in a small town called Mamallapuram, about 45 km south of Madras, which is famous for it’s rock carving. There are temples and carvings dating from the 7th Century. Modern Mamallapuram is packed with large [...]

In Mamallapuram I made friends with a group of painters from Rajastan. They have a little studio, where they sit on the porch and paint the day away. On my first night in town, we hit it off by speaking Hindi. That night was a celebration in Rajastan, and the invited me [...]

Sri Aurobindo and The Mother were spiritual teachers who settled in Pondicherry. Although their philosphy grew out of Hindu scriptues, it trancended any one religion to speak to a universal divinity.
Auroville is a large planned community started by The Mother. She meant for it to be a place where anybody could come to [...]

On a side street, next to the District Court, I found a chai and a somosa cart next to each other. I squeezed between them to join others on a bench along the wall. Over my shoulder was a small hole in the wall, where Advocates would poke there heads out and shout [...]

I returned to Chennai before leaving Tamil Nadu. I wanted to see more of the city, since my last visit had been so short. Unfortunately, I had a fever and muscle aches, and spent most of my one full day waiting in the doctor’s office.