A temple for breakfast, a temple for dinner

Dear Sam,

I did get off at Madurai. Had to wake up Darathi though. Promised her that I'd say goodbye. Got a veeery shabby little single room for the night for 460 Rupee at some "Hotel International" -.-.

Anywho, war dann gegen 8 Uhr auf dem Weg zum Tempel.

Madurai! A typical Indian town with a glorious history and currently with narrow streets winding down to the center of attraction, quasi, the temple. It was the capital of the Pandya dynasty (between 300 BC - 400 AD). The shops were still closed while I was walking down the streets. May be because it was Sunday. I could picture how it would look like on a Friday with 25,000 visitors! The street-hawkers and the Dhabas (or whatever they call it in Madurai) were already busy though. Had my morning tea at a small tea stall down the Town Hall road, took a brief right turn and then a left turn and then ...

And then there it was! A breathtaking, magnificent, artistic beauty! Yes, I was expecting a temple; we have a temple for breakfast, a temple for lunch, a temple for dinner here at Tamilnadu. But this? I had to compare Sri Meenakshi temple with the Taj mahal. they don't exaggerate at all when they are calling it the Taj of the South. The Taj is of course a wonder. All white, as pure as snow, teardrop in marbles (etc. etc.) ... Whereas Sri Meenakshi is pink, blue, yellow, red, green, brown, violet, purple ... I believe the architects were strictly commanded to apply all the colors visible to the human eye!

I went through the Western gate. I counted. An at least 10 storied high pyramidish tower.This entrance is regarded as the head of a human body. The Eastern tower with its two entrances are told to be the feet, the Southern and the Northern ones the left and the right hand respectively. In the middle there is a water tank right beside a shrine with a golden dome which is regarded as the stomach. Warum auch immer! There are 6 more gates, all decorated with hundreds of sculptures of Gods and Goddesses and Angels (!) and Demons. I think I saw two feminine sculptures with their Dhotis halfway down their thighs with pubes showing and all :-P. You won't miss them once you're there.You are a guy, LOL!

A part of the temple is out of bounds for non-hindus and guess who's been in there? Yeah, me! Jealous? Hey I'm originally a Bangladeshi and speak well enough Hindi and my name is Charu which is a Hindu name after all.

As you already know, the concept of personal space is absent in India. So expect the usual pushing and queue-jumping like at Tifanys or Foodcourt or CCD or everywhere else. So, at last, when I arrived the small cave like Kilikoondu Mandapam (can also be the Sri Meenakshi Mandapam, not sure :-/... but I was in both) , the priest prayed for me and gave me some Kumkum on my hand. It's a ritual thing and I was walking around with a red smudge on my forehead all day long.Trust me, I looked in each and every way like a local. But somehow, they knew. They always know! Creepy.

You know that I'm in search for any spiritual experience. My problem is, I'm too scientific a person to encounter something like that. I guess. May be it's a bit fraudish wearing that fake Rudraksha Mala around my neck. Well, it's a fake.

I don't understand why religion has such a great power! It always had! The history of this Sri Meenakshi Temple goes back almost 3000 years back to the Pandyas. It was then extended, annexed and newer shrines were built by 60 (!? so I heard) generations of the Nayak dynasty throughout 800 years. Why did they do this? Over 3000 years? Was it just out of the devotion for the three-breasted Meenakshi? Just because she would get rid of this abnormality after getting married to the Sundareswar Siva? Why do Gods and Goddesses need to marry? Or may be it's just us, humans? Who want to see and show the best part of ourselves through Gods and Goddesses! May be that's why they get married, create children, need to get fed offerings by the devotees? May be Gods and Goddesses are no less or more human than humans themselves? I don't know. Let's discuss this matter when we are both back in Germany, drinking beer at Biergarten on an idle Friday afternoon, feeling sooo superior to our fellow mateys because we had spent a long time in India and know sooo much more than them about life and the Creation! LOL!

I took a bus to the Cape at noon. After 6 hours of bumpy ride and a severe pain in the ass (literally) I reached Kanyakumari. But the window side view was really amazing. I think I saw the southern rest of the Eastern Ghats (so said the map at least). Did I mention that Darathi was texting me all this time?

I found a double room for 400 Rs. Was reasonable given the fact that it was the cheapest around the Kovallam road and they don't have single romms. Made my day. I'm kidding.

Then I had another temple for dinner. This time it was Devi Kumari, the virgin Goddess. An Avatar of ... oh wait, what? Yes, Parvati again :-). She could not get married to Shiva because the place was occupied by thousand Demons. So she got mad and defeated them single-handedly. Wow! Does this kick-ass Goddess need to get married if she can beat the crap out of thousands of Demons? I think Parvati is too awesome for Shiva. She is like Katniss, or even Hermione ... battling Voldemort and his Deatheaters! I'm becoming a fan of Parvati you know! No kidding!

Oh, btw, the men have to take off their shirts in this Kumari Amman Temple. Oh how much I wished you were there ;-)

<3 - TZ
05.05.13