India

                   Intuition, dreams and the inevitable coincidence are all awakened in the 

                   soul of the traveller to India. Doors open on the expected unexpected and

                   likely they will be marked with numbers that add up to your personal number

                   that has pursued you from your street address to your airplane seat allocation.

                   This is India where you will hear echoes of the aum in the roar of the streets 

                   and be singled out by brahmin priests for blessings or donations. 

Kerala January 2011

                                                                                                                                                                    Sunset at Kovalam Beach Kerala, with a coincidence of sun and beach ball.

The Leaning Kovalam Beach

Directed by Luschino Visconti Kovalam

More Visconti - Beach Boys Kovalam

My patron Saint Hannuman - Kovalam 

Chinese fishing nets at Cochin

The earliest Christian church in India 1513 contains the first grave of Vaco de Gama

Now a backpackers and a shop this was Vasco de Gama's house way back in the 1600s 

The early cemetery seems an appropriate site for the Kerala Tourist Board's 
slogan God's own Country. Note the accuracy of the distance indicator.

and when they say old cemetery they mean old cemetery - Cochin

But right around the corner - Psychedelia

and Cochin municipal humour

and the entrance to the Nederlands Governor's Palace given a brush of Dutch courage.

Kerala may be God's own country but its no contradiction that its also Lenin's and
 socialist parties compete for attention with wall art and hammer and sickle flags

while chalk art on the streets announces the route of the Cochin Mardi Gras

the vehicular ferry heading off for 

 Fishing boats keep a sharp eye on the  spot where arab dhows deposited Saint Thomas.

 a sacred site indeed but dampened rather by the grotesqueries of San Petrine tat.

Twin brothers and friend guard the spot where Thomas Didemus (the Twin) stepped ashore.

back at my Cochin guesthouse typical Keralan multi-faith dialogue on the mantlepiece.

On board one of the thatch covered barges plying the waterways

Chennai January 2011

The Railway Station Chennai 

The Aglo Indian facade of the old Madras Musem

Inside the Museum the hall of bronzes are the highlight of the collection

In the grounds of the Museum no less graceful bronzes

 

On the banks of the no longer attractive Adyar River, the world headquarters of Theosophy

In the great hall Madam Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott

Victorian classicism on the long verandah

natural classicism in the extensive botanical garden

  

a garden seat marks the spot where JJ Krishnamurti renounced his messiahship

C.K. Balagoplan one of India's living treasures of dance stands at an outdoor stage in the grounds of the Kalakshetra College established by theosophist and Senator Rukmini Devi.

A 30 year old image of Balagopalan in his famous role as Hannuman

Balagoplan's dancer daughter Prithvijay with her mother and father 

In Bala's home, an image of his patron god Hannuman embracing his lord Rama.

Tiruchirappalli January 2011

One of many gopurams (towers) of the great Ranganathaswamy Temple at Tiruchirappalli.
The temple on an island in the holy river Kauvery is the largest Hindu temple in the world.

Detail of Lord Vishnu enthroned on the great Naga

                                                                                                                                                                     Very old carved columns in the Temple Trichy. Parts of the temple date from 9th century AD

In the temple I encounter a clutch of black robed pilgrims happy to be photographed on their merry way across country to the great Ayappa Temple in the tiger-infested jungles of Kerala.

 An embodiment of the Hindu Trinity Trichy

After this elderly supplicant, I was also given holy water and a flower 

by the puzzled priest. Too difficult to explain that the deity of this tempietto

was none other than my patron saint Hannuman - the monkey god.

One impecunious Brahmin priest was happy to take me to some 

hindus only areas and was delighted by my thankyou donation.

I was flattered by the attentions of a solitary monkey who walked 

with us most of the way, along the high walls above us. Monkeys 

are highly attuned to the thought waves of adherents of Hannuman
or suspicious of non hindus in hindu areas of their favourite temples.

In one gate and out the other - Ranganathaswamy Temple Trichy

Elsewhere in town my fascination for appropriately inappropriate signs continued

Neon Jesus - Trichy Church

Master of Fairy Floss - Trichy markets