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| Clare and Wanda at the palace on route to the Kanyakumali |
Fridays are the day off at Sivananda Ashrams
throughout the world. In Kerala this gave us the opportunity to explore down
into the furthest most southerly point of this continent. India’s cape is known
as Kanyakumari after the virgin Goddess. Legends tell of this princess that
fell in love with Siva who was too deep in meditation to notice her. She
performed many austerities in attempts to attract his attention eventually
doing so. He was overwhelmed by her strength of character and personality and
agreed to a marriage but told her they would have to wait until a later
incarnation. Furious the princess hurled the pre-prepared wedding feast into
the sea – leaving the sand multicoloured as it washed ashore. These days the
local temple is devoted to the virgin goddess Kumari.
It was to Kanyakumari that Swami Vivekananda
came in 1892 before leaving India to address the World Congress on Religion in
Chicago and Mahatma Gandi’s cremated ashes were brought here immediately after
his assassination in 1948, the ashes were then scattered in the sea – on Gandis
birthday each year, October 2nd, the sun shines directly onto a
black marble square on which his ash urn had stood.
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| The Sivananda gang stop for breakfast Idlis and tea |
So although Kanyakumari has no harbour or
port, there are many pretty hideous monuments at various points as well as
sun-rise and sun-set viewing points that look remarkably like concrete
multi-story car parks. The Gandi memorial building is a pink fluff of a
building, is in sad decay but taking pride of place almost at the very tip.
There is no information about Gandi apart from an extremely brief few lines
about his life. From the top are magnificient views all around or the sea below
and a birds eye view of the tourist market below.
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| Gandi memorial building and many shells for sale |
I have to say I was itching
to get down there in amongst the wheelers and dealers, tiffin and chai stalls,
the large groups of neatly uniformed school children and the saffron robed sadhus.
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| View from Gandi memorial |
First though we had to get to the sea. Luckily
it is possible to get to the mutli-coloured sandy beach and the rocks beyond to
look out at the confluence of three oceans – The Arabian sea to the right, the
Indian Ocean to the left and the Bay of Bengal in front.
We went down here
about an hour before sunset as the air started to cool from a very heavy and
humid day with a light warm breeze that did little to relieve our soaring body
temperatures. The ecstatic atmosphere on the beach took me by surprise as I
descended the steps onto the sand. From the steps I could see and hear a mass
of people, many young men, women, school girls and boys and families all
screaming, splashing and running into the water exuberantly. I stood amongst
them absorbing this feeling for a few minutes and it was quite exhilarating! It
was a small quite packed beach with a line of floats to prevent people swimming
out to far onto the rocks beyond but these did nothing to prevent packs of
teenage lads with more energy and enthusiasm than I have seen in a while from
running and diving head long under and over the waves and bouys out onto the
rocks – every now and then a huge cheer would go up, those on the rocks all
raising their arms in a cheer, all faces wide with laughter. It was so
exciting! I can still feel the electricity buzzing though me as I watched, I
have carried away the very moving exuberance.
I went to stand on the rocks beyond the beach
to look out to sea and was moved to tears by the sense of expansion, openness
and seeming eternity in front of me – a incomprehensible feeling and totally
unexpected. The end of a land mass so huge, down which we had just journeyed
and a sea so lively, wild and open. The air was fresh and clean and everyone
was affected by it, every person there high on this amazing experience. I had to
climb into the water, over rocks and through unpredictable waves, everyone had
all their clothes on – this is India- so did I, my wet trousers clung to my
legs as the waves swelled around me. The family on the rock behind gasped into
life a a wave rather larger than expected tried to topple me – I was rock solid
though and had a grin on my face that spread from ear to ear! I looked back and
saw Clare and Satveer equally grinned to extreme as we had a lasting fill of
the extraordinary countrys Southern most tip.
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| Thats it - the tip and beyond nothing |
As with all things in India, other people
travelling to Indias bottom with us, saw a different Kanyakumari. It is
possible to just see the beggars, it is extremely distressing, there are many
people whos lives appear so challenged by physical deformity that you wonder
how anything is possible for them. You can only give them money, I can’t
understand this, just have to respond to their requests for a few rupees.
Then there are the huge amounts of shell
ornaments, piles of shells strung together to make curtains, hangings, key
rings and all manner of other decorative objects – some people are distressed
at the stripping of these enormous quantities of shells from the beaches. Oh and the aquarium .. well we turned the other way as we walked past.
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