Happy Pongal

Rameshwaram, 15^th January 2011

WM: Greetings from Rameshwaram, a mere leap and a jump (if you’re a god) from Sri Lanka.  It’s an island, connected to the mainland by a road and rail bridge - crossing over you can see the sea lapping close to both sides of the road.  We arrived by bus, at the children’s instigation (they were bored with the back seat of cars; fair enough I say), yesterday afternoon.  And only about 200 rupees (approx. £3) for the lot of us to travel 170 km!

The bus ride was a relatively speedy and manageable affair @ 4 ½ hours from Madurai which was fortunate given the crush and the length of the WP’s femurs.  Everyone was well behaved, except for Wolfdad who nearly missed the bus’ departure while buying oranges and having a piss in the particularly fragrant bus-stand facilities and then did loud, Tamil chatting for most of the way. W slept, all hot and sweaty, across me and his seat and M did non-verbal reasoning and stared out of the window.

L: I did loud chatting with dad.  We chatted about sugar cane and Sri Lanka. Dad chatted to a Tamil man who was learning English.  He had a funny book of English phrases.  Dad was using it to learn useful Tamil phrases, like ‘It’s nothing serious, just rest required’, ‘You’re so rude’ and ‘She learns Geography’!  I’m writing a poem about bus rides now.

 I’m Mozzie Potter as I have a mosquito bite on my forehead.  Last night when we were tucked up in bed, we had a big drama.  All it was, was me losing my tooth (bottom canine); it was very bloody.  Today you can still see the blood stain on the sink.  The Indian tooth fairy was not reliable because she didn’t even bother to come.

WM: Pongal started yesterday – it’s a four day harvest festival that is especially big in Tamil Nadu, with lots of people travelling to spend time with their families (thus overcrowded buses and huge waiting lists for train travel) and many businesses and public facilities closed or going slow for the duration – just like Christmas in the UK.  It’s been a bit of a headache navigating the disruption but apart from the starving hungry Wolfgang (we’d managed not to have lunch on the way) arriving here yesterday afternoon with no food available till 7pm – aahhh!  I say thank goodness for bananas! - no major gliches so far. 

A big part of the Pongal celebrations is Pongal rice (a mushy, cooked rice made with sugar cane and ghee. M tried it this morning and says it was sooo sweet and gloopy, even by Indian standards ) so everywhere there are sugarcanes being sold on the street, strapped to mopeds, autos, cows eating the stuff, even elephants…. You also see Pongal Kollam patterns outside every house in the morning, a bit like the Rangoli patterns that you see in North India – patterns in bright powder, often symmetrical or repeating, featuring Pongal pots (the decorated clay pots overspilling with Pongal rice, think the magic porridge pot…), sugar cane, cows and flowers.

Soggy Wolfgang in Rameshwaram

Rameshwaram is a fishing town with a major temple that Hindus come from all over India to see.  Prior to the Sri Lankan civil war, you could catch a ferry there from here.  We almost have a seaview at the Hotel Seaview.   The seashore looks grey, desolate, windy, drizzly (a bit like South Devon coast out-of-season, only with more palm trees, no cream tea shops and even more rubbish) but when you go out, you realise how hot and steamy it is despite appearances, and the town ‘beach’ is not up to a great deal. Certainly not the place for a swim although along the south coast, there is a marine national park, and I believe turtles and manatees, but I don’t see quite how we’ll be seeing them…It does feel a little like being at the end of the world, one of those Last Stop places and must be susceptible to every typhoon going. 

The children are very excited as I have now sorted out the netbook to play DVDs - it’s been a long and frustrating wait but we now can watch the Simpsons again!  We’re going to have a Rameshwaram cinema matinee in our room of the Aristocats or even the Sound of Music given the rain and imminent night train.  They are all doing so well, coping with the travelling (they’re currently having a conversation about how much they’re looking forward to going on the night train tonight and what a good adventure night trains are…) and everything that throws up, but food is still is an issue, especially for the younger two.  As we go to places further off the tourist trail, they become more conservative and it’s a real challenge. M, of course, is happily eating idli and vadai with the best of them. 

W:I like chapatis but nothing else. 

M: Yesterday we had to starve until 7 o’clock.  We managed to miss lunch AGAIN! Bad things always turn out better as we found out.  We went to the temple to spend time till we could eat.  This worked out better than we thought as the guards to the main shrine liked Dad so much because he spoke Tamil that they let us all go in, where only Hindus are meant to go.  Dad got very excited at this huge privilege.  Dad had always wanted to see the main shrine, especially now after his work in the Delhi archives, and never expected to be let in.  There were very long corridors in the temple, very good for running.  The floors were all wet and on our way out, we saw people bathing in holy water.

WD: I stayed in the temple all evening as I was so surprised to be allowed in at all. It was worth staying a while longer to see the evening procession of the Goddess on a great golden palanquin being carried around the very long corridors that encircle the temple, with a decorated elephant and Ganesha on a smaller palanquin in front of her. Musicians and priests accompanied the men carrying the heavy palanquins with the dressed and garlanded deities, and a large crowd of pilgrims followed along behind.

Eating here is challenging for us all: lunch at the ‘Saravana High-Class Veg Restaurant’ left us wondering how delicious a ‘Low-Class’ veg place would have been.

Hmm, night train doesn’t fill the WPs with great joy (unlike the children) but the thought of Pondicherry food options is a source of delight.  We must make sure to wake up/get off the train at 4.45 am at Vallupuram, to make the connection to Pondicherry, otherwise we’ll end up in Chennai.

Happy Pongal everyone….