Varkala – the endless sea

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Ginger

I ended my trip but began the Indian blog posts, with Varanasi. Time to backtrack now, almost to the beginning. The first stop on the trip was in Kerala–Thiruvananthapuram (a name that I am inordinately fond of, having gone to great lengths to memorize it, but you can call it Trivandrum for short). I’m going to skip Thiruvananthapuram, but I may backtrack here later; I have some pretty neat pictures of a wonderful wooden palace two hours deep into Tamil Nadu but still part of Kerala. But somehow I sense you’re probably pretty tired of architectural wonders.

So let’s skip that for now. Let’s go to the beach.

We arrived early in Varkala, about 10:30 in the morning. We understood that our room would probably not be ready. This was fine. We were happy just to sit near the ocean with nothing to do.

We did not expect to find a serious game of tug-of-war going on just on the other side of our hotel. Wonderful, I thought, that the hotel was organizing games for the guests. But… there was something odd about this particular game. For one thing, where were the women? The children?

Come to that, where were the tourists?

This was no game. This was, it turned out, the local fishermen earning their daily keep. There were two heavy ropes, each being pulled by some ten or twelve men.

As the rope came in, the group on the rock wall moved closer and closer to the one on the beach.

They coiled the rope behind them. At the end of the rope was the end of a very large net, and this too they gathered behind them.

Now both groups, close together, pulled in earnest.

A man riding a kind of a–surfboard?–helped guide in the far edge of the net.

As the net was pulled in, the catch became visible–an abundance of small silver fish.

The fishermen scooped up most of the fish into a basket.

There ensued a heated discussion with a man who, like us tourists, had been only a bystander until this moment. Now emotions ran high.

You didn’t have to speak Malayam to understand that a negotiation was in process. The buyer turned in disgust to leave. One of the fishermen ran after him. More discussion, calmer this time. A price was agreed. Two men took the basket, following the buyer off the beach. The fishermen divided up their gear and the remaining fish. The catch of the day had been disposed of.

Dan and I checked into our room and then went for a walk along the beach. If they could photoshop reality, they would make it look something like this.

The sun, as it usually does, set.

We stopped along the way for a drink (a surprisingly good mojito).

And then later, we had dinner by candlelight on the beach.

Views near Golden Grove

Posted on April 6, 2014 by Ginger

Dan and I are back on Block Island this weekend, where the weather is crisp and fresh, cool and sunny. And so I interrupt this torrent of blogging about our trip to India to bring you last night’s beautiful sunset on Block Island, Rhode Island, taken, as usual, from the deck of our home here.

We are truly blessed with a wonderful location with ocean and pond views all around at the very northern edge of the island.

Khajuraho, part 3

Posted on April 3, 2014 by Ginger

More delicious eye candy from Khajuraho!

I’m pretty sure that the next one is a deity, dancing. But who?

And finally, this beautiful couple epitomizes for me everything I love about these carvings. I like to think they are gods–perhaps Shiva and Parvathi–but anyhow, they seem to be someone important. And they love each other, that’s clear. Look how his hand gently touches her breast, how hers rests lightly on his shoulder. They have so much personality, so much liveliness. Such exquisite detailing that it’s hard to believe they are just two of ten thousand adorning these temples. Hard to believe they are a thousand years old and not just created yesterday. Hard to believe they are made out of stone.

Khajuraho, part 2

Posted on April 2, 2014 by Ginger

I wish I could share these photographs with you in a very large size. It’s impractical in a blog format–some folks have different bandwidths–but contact me if you’re interested.

Here are some details from another temple.

I love how the central figures in these compositions are flanked on either side by sinuous women displaying their curves.

Below you can see the texture of the wall as a whole, and then a closer look at the detail.

Finally, a god and goddess… I think these may be Shiva and Parvathi.

More great Khajuraho images are still on the way!

Khajuraho, part 1

Posted on April 2, 2014 by Ginger

The temples of Khajuraho were built during the Chandella dynasty, which lasted from about 950 until about 1050 A.D. That is, this stunning group of monuments, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is about a thousand years old. There are some twenty main structures and more smaller ones.

For what might be the first time since I started writing this blog, I am at a loss to know how to present this material. I am at a loss even to tell you whether what we saw the day we were in Khajuraho was architecture…or sculpture…or poetry.

The beauty of these temples works at every level of detail. To show you what I mean, I am going to zoom in on a couple of the rounded cylindrical forms that make up the walls of this temple. Look for a woman bent backwards to examine the sole of her foot. In the first picture, she is on the right-hand column in the middle row of figures.

Now look at the figures all around her. They are all exquisitely detailed, all different, all perfect. Now imagine this kind of sculpture covering the entire building–covering twenty entire buildings. The place is simply, literally breathtaking.

Here I need to insert a word about the subject matter of the sculptures. There are gods. There are animals. There are mythical creatures. But most of all there are people. The people are engaged in what UNESCO is pleased to call “all aspects of life.” Which, that is to say, includes rather explicit portrayals of sex in permutations that might occasionally surprise even an adult. However, the sculptures are not about sex. They are (according to UNESCO) about the Tantric doctrine in which the mating of the male principle (form and potential) and female principle (energy) creates the entire world. I have, after some thought, not included explicit subject matter in this blog. The statues are, every one of them, gorgeous. I want all readers to feel comfortable about looking at what I post here.

Ready? Let’s get started with one of the earlier temples…

What I love about this picture is the procession of people, some on horseback, that marches along the bottom. But the whole building is full of interesting details.

The last statue is inside the temple. Isn’t she lovely? And after a thousand years you can still count each individual bead in her necklace.

Varanasi – river, early morning

Posted on April 2, 2014 by Ginger

This series of posts about Varanasi has been long–but the city is unique, and no series of posts however long can fully do justice to the immensity of it. And so the time comes to conclude and move on. And what better way to do this than to post a series of pictures that to my mind show the beauty of the city bathed in splendid early morning light and dancing with the river!

Happy memories!

Varanasi – the Nepali temple

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Ginger

I can’t believe it’s been a month since I’ve posted anything here. Time flies! Time to get busy!

The Nepali temple in Varanasi could be the single most unique spot in a city that is arguably composed entirely of unique spots. But–Nepal? Really?

Yes!

There is evidence to suggest that the property was actually transferred by the ruler of Varanashi–then called Kashi–to the Nepalese king back in 1843. And the temple itself is a replica of the famous Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu.

Look at the workmanship in the wood carving!

Many of the other details are also quite charming.

And from the temple’s platform, we had a unique perspective of the city’s quotidian life: visitors walking along the ghats; a tired pilgrim stopping for a rest; an Indian tour group, perhaps a family.

Varanasi – doorways and decorations

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Ginger

Decorations is probably not the right word. All the small and large, bright and cheerful, old and new decorative items placed near doorways in Varanasi are, I believe, religious in nature. It’s not like having pink flamingos in the yard. It’s more like having a statue of the virgin Mary in the yard.

But still, that said, these are wonderful to behold, even for a non-Indian non-Hindu like me who doesn’t know a tenth of the symbolism.

Take this one, for example. Probably the Hindi script explains it. Probably any person on the street could have explained it. I don’t know what it is–but I love the colors and the composition.

The next one I do understand a bit of.

That is, I’m not sure about the statue at the top, though he’s almost certainly a god. Likewise the person at the bottom left. The blue person at the bottom right, though, is, I believe, Krishna playing his flute. So since Krishna is an incarnation of Vishnu, perhaps this is a shrine to Vishnu.

Here’s an elaborate one. (I’m not going to guess.)

I believe the next two are representations of the monkey king Hanuman. The second one surely is (can you see the monkey-like features of the nose and jaw?); and they are both in similar poses, carrying two little people on their shoulders.

Here’s a more elaborate rendition of Hanuman. Hanuman is believed to be an incarnation of the god Shiva, founder of the city of Varanasi. Hanuman symbolizes strength and perseverance in the face of obstacles.

This next one is sweet–a representation of Ganesha, the elephant-headed god of good luck and good beginnings, the remover of obstacles. He appears at the entryway to many of the houses. He is popular everywhere, but particularly in Varanasi because he is the son of Shiva, founder of the city.

Here’s a bell, a simple enough object yet beautifully integrated into the fabric of the street. And it too has a scene in bas relief below it.

The next doorway is, I believe, the entrance to a local temple.

Finally, we come to the winged lions. I don’t know what to make of them. Two of these flank either side of an elaborately decorated doorway. They are not a common symbol in Hinduism but neither are they unheard-of. Why here? And is the building they guard a temple? To whom? People’s comings and goings give no clue.

Varanasi – pedestrian streets

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Ginger

The oldest part of Varanasi is a maze of pedestrian streets. Now, Varanasi has been continuously inhabited since about 1200 BC, but you will be happy to know that the old part of the city is not that old, mostly dating from the eighteenth century. Still, the streets are quite narrow. And traffic here–pedestrian and especially motorbike–can be quite as intense and daunting as vehicular traffic in other parts of India, and just as loud. And just as scary. A person could get killed here–but this is Varanasi. At least you’d go directly to Paradise. And too, this is India. It all works out without actual injury.

All photographs in this blog post were taken when I felt safe enough to do so. Which is to say, when there was very little traffic, none of it with wheels.

Here are two young men with a vehicular assault weapon.

And here are a sampling of the kind of narrow streets they might be using it on. Note that these are NOT one-way streets.

I particularly like this last one, which appears to suggest that the street would like to get even narrower, had someone not shored up the buildings on either side.

On this street near the crematorium, wood is piled to the height of a building.

Next, we look at some typical shopping streets. As you can see, motorbikes are everywhere. One nice feature is the benches and seats along the street–suggesting that an exhausted and harried pedestrian might refresh himself by sitting down. And perhaps the tea-wallah will be along in a few minutes with a refreshing drink.

Shops in Varanasi

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Ginger

It’s hard to know how to unravel the complex city of Varanasi. There is so much energy here. But here’s what I’m going to try: Having discussed a single merchant–the seller of silk shawls–I’ll move to shops, and from there to streets, doorways and decorations, then the Nepali temple, buildings, and finally larger land views. Somewhere in there, if I don’t start getting too anxious to move on, there’s a nice little digression on animals.

So then, picture yourself on a narrow street. Two of you can walk side by side, but only if you’re pretty friendly. It is a pedestrian street, which is generally a nice feature, but in Varanasi, pedestrian also includes bicycles, motor bikes, and motor cycles, whose drivers are not going to let a mere few hundred walkers get in their way. There are also carts and occasionally animals. And so there is a chaos of sound, mostly horns blaring Watch out!, but also conversations, bells, and other unidentifiable noises. People too are pushing to get by. Or stopping so that you have to push to get by. It is intense. Your heart is pumping adrenalin; you don’t want to lose your group. Or–never mind the group–you are in constant fear of getting run over.

And here, on every side, are the most interesting tiny shops. What are these people doing? What are they selling? Often you can’t figure it out in just the second and a half you have before you will be surrounded by swarms of strangers and lost forever.