6-6-2024
Travelling is addictive. Especially when it's as easy and as cheap as here In India. You book a train from your room, get to the station and off you go. On the train, you have a bed, so you can doze off for hours while thundering to your destination. Unlike the Netherlands, you can eat anything on the train in India. In fact, vendors selling meals, tea and coffee regularly walk through the train. And the Indian Railways, via an app, allows you to order food from outside the train from local restaurants, which is then delivered to a station during a stop.
If there is coverage, you can use your mobile on the train to pick a nice hotel online. We usually just go there without booking online. Hotel owners on the spot usually offer lower rates than Booking.com, Trivago, Makemytrip, Goibibo and other booking sites. Moreover, they don't have to pay 15% of their sales on a search engine. If at all possible, we look for a hotel with a swimming pool. With the high temperatures and humidity here, it is really nice to take a dip during the afternoon.
On Tuesday 4 June, we left by train for Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of India and also the terminus of the train. This place used to belong to Kerala, but due to an exchange of territory (against Munnar) it is now a part of Tamil Nadu. Kanyakumari is very touristy place, but it was outside the holiday season this week, so it was very quiet. The hotel we had chosen, Hotel Singaar International, was, judging by the decor, the patterned glass, the beige tiles and the coves behind which the brown curtains were hung, built sometime in the early 1970s. We chose the ‘Super de Luxe’ room with a sea view, so we would be able to see sunrise the next morning. Little did I know then that Jaklien was indeed going to set the alarm clock at quarter to 6 to watch the clouds on the balcony a little before 6am.
The hotel garden really was a family paradise, with the palm trees and butterflies fluttering around. Chickens, guinea pigs, turkeys and other poultry in a sort of petting zoo and a little playground too. But those families were not there now. It was the first week out of season and, besides us, only three other rooms were occupied. The rooftop restaurant was being renovated, and breakfast was made to order, instead of being served buffet style.
Our room was on the fifth floor, at the very end of the corridor. The lights were not on, so we walked through a ghostly corridor to our room in the evening. It was really quiet. The only sound that penetrated our room was the singing from the church some five hundred metres away.
City of the rising sun
Kanyakumari is known for several things. First of all, the sunrise. The place is therefore called sunrise city. Furthermore, you have the TriSea point, the place where the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal meet. There is a pier here, from which you can get a good view of the sunset. Most eye-catching, however, are the Vivekenanda Rock Memorial and the immense statue of Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar. No less important is the memorial where Mahatma Gandhi's ashes stood before being scattered in the sea.
After a splash in the pool, we went exploring. although it was very quiet in the hotel, it got busy as we approached the coast. This part of India is a tourist hotspot and a place of pilgrimage for many. Especially because the three main structures of the city are so close together. Of the three, only the Gandhi memorial is on the mainland. So this is where we went first.
In a hall with photographs showing Gandhi's life's journey, the spot where his ashes stood is marked in the middle. Gandhi is still revered as a saint in India. The title ‘Mahatma’ means ‘venerable’, ‘great soul’. He was called so even in his lifetime (even before he returned to India after studying in England and working as a lawyer in South Africa). Gandhi is best known for his non-violent resistance to British rule (first in South Africa and later in India) and actions such as civil disobedience. Terms and modes of action that are still used worldwide today.
However, led by Prime Minister Modi's BJP, criticism of Gandhi is also increasingly resounding these days, alleging that his vision of a secular state in India did too little for the Hindu population and favoured the Muslims. Gandhi was always vehemently opposed to a two-state solution, and was very unhappy when the territory was split between India and Pakistan after the withdrawal of the British. He was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist on 30 January 1948.
The wandering monk
Our next stop was Vivekenanda Rock Memorial. Anyone who has ever read a book of so-called Eastern wisdom has undoubtedly come across his name. Swami Vivekenanda (1863-1902) was a Hindu monk and philosopher who was also influenced by Western religions and philosophy. He travelled around the world during his lifetime, lecturing on Hinduism. He was also important in spreading yoga around the world. He roamed all over India on foot, thus acquiring the nickname 'the Wandering Monk’.
You can reach the rock by boat. Throughout the day, two boats sail back and forth to the rock, each time completely filled with visitors. The queue to the entrance was hundreds of metres long. But this could be bypassed with a special ticket. For three hundred rupees (instead of the standard 75), you could bypass the queue and get on the next boat. Of course, we were willing to pay that. After all, it easily saves over an hour in the humid heat waiting for your turn. (Just to clarify: 300 rupees is about €3.30. So that's €2.50 more than the €0.80 of the standard fare).
It was crowded on the boat. The mandatory life jackets made it even hotter. The crossing was fairly rough, as the sea was quite rough. Simon suffers from seasickness quite easily, so we were glad when we could get off on the other side after ten minutes.
The rock memorial off the coast of Kanyakumari was built only in 1970, in honour of the Swami (teacher). The place was chosen because he is said to have visited it swimming across the narrow strait, and attained enlightenment here while meditating. On the rock is also a meditation room, where on the weekend before our visit -and the outcome of the Indian elections- Prime Minister Modi spent 45 hours fasting and meditating. Of course, we also went to meditate for a while. Focusing for 15 minutes on the ‘Om’ sign on the wall, the repeated chanting of ‘Om’ and then clearing your head as much as possible. Pretty hard not to let your eyes close then and slowly nod off. It was dark in the meditation hall, so when we got outside we had to get used to the bright sunlight again.
The second building on the island houses the footstep of Devi Kanya Kumari (Goddess the Virgin Kumari), an incarnation of the supreme goddess Mahadevi. She is the namesake of the city and it's surrounding region. Her purity is said to have left this footstep on the rock off the coast. And indeed, one could interpret the stain on the rock as a footprint.
Next to the rock with the Mandapam for Vivekenanda, is another rock. On it is a huge statue of the Tamil poet and philosopher Thiruvalluvar. The size of the statue and the base on which it stands is derived entirely from his main work Thirukkural, which describes the virtues that man should strive for. Built only in 2000, the statue survived the tsunami that engulfed half of Asia in 2004.
We would have loved to visit this rock too, but unfortunately the sea was too rough. The boats could not make the crossing and could not dock at the islet. We did see that a bridge is being worked on, to connect the two rocks. Then, in future, you will only have to make one crossing and the sculpture will always be accessible.
After sundown
For Indians, the day does not end when the sun goes down. Indeed, that's when life on the streets really begins. So we did wander around Kanyakumari in the evening. Everything looks different in the dark. For instance, we stumbled upon a temple from which we heard chanting. A typical Tamil temple. And a little outside the city, the entrance road to a large temple was illuminated and decorated with luminous images of gods. Churches are also highlighted to the full.
The first night in the hotel, there would be cricket on TV. Netherlands against Nepal. Well, we are not big sports fans. The sport we followed most intensively for a while was darts. But here in India, we join the mob and watch cricket. In the hotel was a bar, where, we expected, they would serve Kingfisher. And possibly would show cricket on a big screen. Unfortunately, it was also election results day and all places serving alcohol were closed by the government. So we had to make use of room service and watch the game in our room.
While enjoying a beer (unfortunately no Indian Kingfisher, but Dutch Amstel beer) and some nibbles, we sat through the entire match. And the Netherlands won, by six wickets.
We had also been watching the election results all day. Modi's BJP remained the largest party. But they fell far short of the 400-seat majority in the Lokh Saba that Modi was going for. Indeed, the BJP did not achieve a majority at all, so a coalition will have
to be formed. The INDIA coalition that includes the Congress party has almost as many seats as the BJP. Still, a Modi 3.0 government is expected to emerge. The big winner of these elections is democracy.
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