Phheww! Finally the bus ride ended. My ears were ringing with echoes of the bus horns (cumulatively, they were sounding for roughly 40% of the journey) and of tiny babies with loud screams (a survival advantage no doubt in this noisy part of the world) , my head pounding and a slight nausea was only starting to settle.
My day trip to the barely pronunciable holy town of 'Tiruvannamalai', about 85 km south of Vellore was thankfully over! I had intended to give myself an immersion into the Hindu spiritual side of India by visiting one of the holiest temples around in Tamil Nadu, the evocation of which alone, the rubric had mentioned, would be enough to bring one closer to a higher state of being. The Arunachanaleswar temple complex(named after the fire form of Shiva, who is said to have appeared at the hill overlooking the temple in the form of a column of fire to defy other deities like Vishnu and establish himself as supreme) is undoubtedly very impressive- covering about 23 acres at the heart of the town and with massive 200 foot Gopurams (pyramid-shaped pillars at each corner). Scattered around the entrance were sadhus, invalids (lots of polio, blind prople and many without limbs) asking for alms and women and children. The atmosphere was indeed electric. After the short moment of panic regarding where I should leave my sandals, my eyes fell on a sign saying 'chapel stand' which initially I did not register as a grammatical error for 'chappal (sandal) stand'. Stalls selling various items like coconuts, bananas, limes, ghee, incense, milk, flowers, etc for offerings were shouting out for business and some were even offering to look after my shoes! Some of you may know about my mosque experience in Rabat Morrocco....no way was I going to risk walking back bare feet. I settled for the safer-looking 'chapel stand' for a rupee...a great deal for safety of mind! The next obstacle was the fiery hot basalt stones....my virgin soles are still stinging from the caloric trauma they were subjected to for a good half an hour! Next I decided to experience dharshan...or prayer. There were 2 queues- one for 'general' dharshan and one for 'special' dharshan. For a mere Rs 20, you get to get face to face with the holiest of the holies at this temple- an ancient shiva lingam from before the 11th century, The general crowd have to make do with a quick peek from a narrow doorway, whilst the paying crowd get to squeeze into small room filled with greasy fumes from burning ghee and incense and with dharshan performed by no less than 3 priests. Funny how you have to pay to reach sublimation I thought...Anyhow, may the mercy of Shiva be on me for the rest of the trip...
Next I tried climbing Mount Arunachaleswar, the 800m high hill overlooking the town and temple and from where great views are to be had. In soaring 39 degree temperature, and with only a litre of water with me, I started feeling slightly hypovolaemic (dizzy) about a third of the way up and had to content myself with the views from here. There were also a couple of refreshing meditation caves on the way where I stopped to cool down- I'm not sure my troubled phycical state allowed my soul the peace needed for it to reflect on itself.
The return trip by bus was as described above. Imagine 2 hours on a bus similar to those 1970s model United Bus Service buses that they used to give us at Royal College Curepipe (my secondary school in Mauritius) to avoid the hefty costs of troubled tenager-induced property damage....those with 2 seats on one side and three on the other, except here there was no defined number of 'standing' places...people were literally hanging from the doors! I was lucky to have a seat I suppose....
All in all, an exciting day!