South India 2015

As we began to plan our fourth trip to the subcontinent, we decided it was time to explore South India…

From Mumbai to Chennai via the southern tip of India: we visited Goa, some sites of Karnataka we had not seen before, toured the Western Ghats, got bored in Kerala before getting our fill of temples in Tamil Nadu.

Full map of all South India 2015 pages

Other Things

Thinking of our next destination: Italy and Portugal come to mind, or maybe the time has finally come for a US road trip…

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Kerala and Tamil Nadu

(vero;2016-May-01)

Chosing pictures of Kerala and Tamil Nadu was not easy. To start with, we did not enjoy Kerala as much as expected and do not have that many “good” shots of this state. Then, for Tamil Nadu, the state of so many temples, we had photos of gopurams, carvings and sculptures galore but thought it might get a bit boring after a while. We hope you will enjoy our selection, a mix of architecture, landscape and street scenes.

Kerala Backwaters: some of the water channels were overgrown with water hyacinths, attracting many herons.

Alleppey, Kerala: billboard of the Jos Alukkas Jewellers. The Alukkas are a famous Jeweller family from Kerala and their shops are ubiquitous in the south of India. What attracted our attention was that there were 3 different Alukkas outlets: Joy Alukkas, Jos Alukkas and Francis Alukkas. So we inquired at one of them and were told that the Alukkas company was founded in 1956 by the father. Then came 5 sons. The eldest, Joy learnt the ropes from his father and founded his own retail outlet in 1987, making it a real family business. However, as time went, two of his brothers, Jos and Francis decided to split, and established each their own company, all now competing against each other.

Fort Cochin, Kerala: we were really tempted to call for the live demonstration!

Fort Cochin, Kerala: pick your god, Christ in good company, as colourful as Ganesh and the others.

Kottayam, Kerala: we wondered at this poster of Lenin, but it should not have been a surprise … The state of Kerala was created in 1956 and its first freely elected government in 1957 was communist. Since then, the communist party has been on and off in charge of the state. The current government is held since 2011 by the Indian National Congress.

Trivandrum, Kerala: don't be fooled, the much praised Anantha Padmanabhaswamy temple is not for you if you are not an hindu. Unlike other temples, it is not a question of being allowed to enter the inner sanctuary or not. Here you cannot even pass the first door: very frustrating. The Kuthiramalika palace next door turned out to be as disappointing, dilapidated and totally uninteresting. At the end, this tall and colourful wooden figure standing in the street leading to the temple was the best thing to see in the temple area.

Trivandrum, Kerala: could be us in Trivandrum. We did not like the place …

Trivandrum, Kerala:.… except for this, the Napier Museum. Named after a former governor of Madras, it was built in the 19th century and shelters the Government Arts and Crafts Museum with some very nice exhibits. The highlight of our visit to Kerala's capital which if you ask us, is not enough to recommend a visit to this city.

Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu: tourists queuing for the boat trip to the Vivekananda Memorial.

Madurai, Tamil Nadu: reflection of the west gopuram of Meenakshi temple in the glass front of the ICICI bank.

Madurai, Tamil Nadu: sculpture in Puthu Mandapam, a former entrance hall to the Meenakshi temple with many pillars and great carvings, now a busy clothing market.

Madurai, Tamil Nadu: appetising food cart in the evening. Note the car battery providing light.

Tamil Nadu: many women adorn their hair with fragrant flower garlands, like this one made with jasmine buds. A very nice memory which we connect to this part of India.

Trichy, Tamil Nadu: view from the Rock Fort Temple on the colourful houses some 80 meters below.

Trichy, Tamil Nadu: one of many sculptures in the Sri Ranganathaswamy temple.

Tamil Nadu: we saw this fascinating insect, a praying mantis, while we were visiting the temple of Gangakondacholapuram, a mouthful meaning “the town of the Chola who conquered the Ganga”.

Tamil Nadu: there is no way you can escape this woman in Tamil Nadu. Her name is Jayalalithaa Jayaram and she is the incumbent Chief Minister. Born in 1948, she was a successful actress before entering politics in 1982 with the AIADMK party - All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. She held the post of propaganda secretary before becoming the party leader in 1989 and serving a first term as Chief Minister in 1991. She has been involved and even convicted in several corruption cases, but somehow she remains popular and has started a 5th term in 2015, after having been elected with a landslide victory: 88% votes of 74.4% turnout. She is everywhere, on walls, banners, and we saw her picture supporting many popular projects such as AC bus stops, water fountains, food distribution, etc.

Darasuram, Tamil Nadu: this sculpture in the Airavateswara Temple is a representation of the myth of Lingodbhavamurti, the origin of the worship of the lingam. Vishnu and Brahma were once quarrelling about who was the architect of the Universe when suddenly a huge fire pillar appeared, so huge that they could not see the end or the beginning of it. They decided that whoever finds the start or end of this fire will be recognised as greater than the other. Brahma took the form of a swan and flew upwards to look for the end of the pillar, and Vishnu took the form of a boar and dived below to find its source. However, neither was successful and both were compelled to recognise that this pillar might be out of this world and have originated from a power mightier than them. At that moment, Shiva appeared and stepped out of the lingam, thus asserting his superiority and proving that he is the Creator of the Universe.

Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu: a colourful gopuram, so typical of south Indian temples.

Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu: carvings on the inner walls of the east gopuram of the Nataraja temple depicting the 108 sacred positions of classical Tamil dance.

Tranquebar, Tamil Nadu: a former Danish post, the village has still a few churches, all very well maintained. This is where the German protestant missionary Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg was sent by the Danish king to evangelise South India in 1705. He learnt Tamil, and printed the first translation of the New Testament in an Asian language in 1715. He died 1719 in Europe, aged 36.

Tranquebar, Tamil Nadu: this place, badly hit by the tsunami in 2004, had a feeling of end of the world. The picture shows a Hindu temple right on the shore.

Pondicherry: the French quarter, very pleasant, with its clean and grand houses. People do not really live here, many buildings are occupied/renovated by various ashrams or NGOs, making the whole a kind of artificial open air museum. This picture shows the statue of France's saint patron, Jeanne d'Arc, facing the Church of Our Lady of the Angels, built 1865 as a gift from Napoleon III. There are many Christian schools and institutions in Pondy, an important heritage of the colonial past.

Pondicherry, soooo French… and a rather strange place, so devoid of any “Indian” activity -- indeed it feels almost like a ghost town and only wakes up in the evening when the whole town takes a stroll along the beach, enjoying the sea breezes. But just a few steps away, over the canal, the Tamil quarter is as lively as any Indian town…

Gingee, Tamil Nadu: a great day trip from Tiruvannamalai, Gingee fort, high above the plains, provides sweeping views and plenty to explore.

Gingee Fort, Tamil Nadu: view on Kalyana Mahal from Rajagiri Hill.

Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu: fancy being a celebrity? Such huge billboards are all over Tamil cities. They are put up by friends or family — and sometimes by the person concerned itself — to celebrate any event, like a birthday, the purchase of a new car, the birth of a baby, the success to an exam, a wedding, you name it. And it is good for everyone: you do not only picture the person you want to congratulate, but also yourself. On this picture, for example, five friends, each featured with his own photo, congratulate B. Srinivasan for his birthday… Very weird!

Vellore, Tamil Nadu: built around 1565, the pillared marriage hall of the Jalakanteshwara Temple inside the fort is adorned with many fine and detailed carvings such as this one.

Vellore, Tamil Nadu: old habits die hard, men pissing in unison against the wall of Vellore's bus station.

Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu: rock carving of Arjuna's penance or the Descent of the Ganges. It shows the penance of the wise man Bhagaritha (standing on one leg above the temple on the left part of the carving), who asked the Ganges to fall to the Earth to cleanse the sinful remains of his relatives. During the monsoon, the water flowing through the natural vertical cleft, probably renders a convincing representation of the mighty river. Note the carving of a cat, making penance to an audience of mice, just in front of the big elephant.

Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu: we stayed three days in the town and everyday, we could see this man, here rummaging for food, wandering absent-minded through the throngs of tourists. We have noticed that any fence or wall painted with red and white stripes — or red and black as on this picture — signalises the presence of a holy place, temple or shrine, behind it.

Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu: the much photographed boulder, known as Krishna's Butter Ball.

Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu: Indian tourists on the beach. They are not great swimmers but always enjoy a splash, in full clothes of course.

Chennai, Tamil Nadu: St Andrew's Kirk, consecrated in 1821, was inspired by the church of St Martin in the Fields in London.

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