Dolphin Bay Fire Dance/ The Little Maharaja

DEC 27 --- JAN 2
Varkala becomes ‘home’ for a week….In my need to unwind, I submit to the scene and fall into an easy routine. On my first visit to India in 1982 Varkala was so remote and unknown it was a nudist beach…. Now it’s very different but once I accept it for what it is the scene is quite curious in itself. Late afternoon the beach is crowded , scores of gringos lapping up the sun, playing frisby, buying carefully cut pineapple from the fruit sellers or sugary white poison from chai walli’s giant steel tea cannister. (sadly served in nasty plastic instead of the earthenware cups of yore) Around sunset, the dogs, who all look related, and have been lazily curled up on the beach all day begin to stir ….. ‘right chaps!’ says the Top Dog, ‘time for some grub!’ and off they trot in single file, to the clifftop. Pretty soon, but with less sense of purpose, the touristas follow suit. The clifftop restaurants display the most magnificent array of fish you’ve ever seen. … Swordfish as long as your arm, ‘ butterfish’ , Red Snapper and enormous tiger prawns. All vie with each other for your custom. One evening a tall self-assured Indian man in a brightly coloured orange shirt persuades us, with his big smile and friendly, easy-going manner, to take the front seat at ‘Dolphin Bay’. Ziraj has a big presence and a large wingspan, which he frequently uses as he waves his arms around to the music like huge albatrose in flight. It turns out this happy-go-lucky chap is the owner, and also, as he casually informs us, a film-maker too. As we wait for our food he bounces back and forth between soliciting new customers and seranading us with Malayalum songs! As we wait for our food he pulls up a chair which, like his english, he uses intermittently and by way of introduction tells us silly jokes about arranged marriage …. one can be almost sure this young man is dodging the draft! As we wait for our food, it’s hard to imagine what kind of films he makes? he seems committed, writing 4 hours a day in his native Maliyali, his last one was called ‘The Stranger’ and he admits it was strange!
As we wait for our food, we overflow our frothy Lime Sodas with a teaspoon of sugar, as we wait for our food, we are promised a Jamaican Firedance, yes dancer coming soon (like the food!) Dancer or no I am getting hypoglycemic and irritable and about to jump up and take a bite from the raw fish display when finally …. at long last the food arrives “so sorry, all fresh, takes time!” (did they catch the fish themselves?) “Yes my father is a fisherman” says Ziraj, whose family turns out to be in big construcion business! Of course it is mouth wateringly delicious, how could it not be, a fried roach would have been tasty at that point. Maybe it is all a ploy to keep us sitting in the front seats waiting for the “Fire Dance”…. Coming soon, (all the way from Jamaica?) A flaming torch is lit and stuck on the pathway dangerously close to the papier mache nativity scene. At around 10pm the fine featured, long haired, lanky young man standing behind the counter gutting fish and squering prawns disappears. Moments later the music pumps up and he re-emerges bare chest glittering with gold and sparkling red. He starts gyrating Michael Jackson style to the smoothe deep techno beats occasionally blowing fire from the torch stuck precariously behind him on the pathway….. I have visions of New York’s hip-hop boys in Times Square. He’s a nutty spaced out hindu kid called Dibou and he’s a good dancer, soon he’s joined by his muslim friend Shah, and the 2 of them dance crazily on the path infront of the restaurant as astounded onlookers try to get by, and their sensitive christian co-worker Thomas, picks up the slack. As with everything else, religion seems at ease here in Kerala, these boys all work side by side and are good friends. They’re all poor boys with aspirations, Dibou wants to be an artist and dancer, he loves Tupaq, although he’s never heard his music! Thomas is a writer and wants to act, Shah, well, he’d be the DJ.
We spend most evenings at Dolphin Bay …. I get used to waiting long hours for my food and playing with my lime sodas! Their cheerful company adjusts my attitude! I talk to Ziraj about the Gandhigiri project, he smiles when I mention Munnabhai but seems to dismiss the film quite quickly. I press him on it but he doesn’t have much to say and I realize he is more interested in his own Malayali films. I begin to see that here in Kerala where the native tongue is Malayalum they have a very strong culture of their own and the Hindi films of Bollywood are not seen as much. Nonetheless I still manage to get some interesting reactions to my project.

THE LITTLE MAHARAJA

At breakfast one morning we are next to a table of well dressed young Indian men. I recognize the clipped sounds of Hindi and guess they are ‘tourists’ from Bombay, “here to watch the girls!” I joke…. the good looking one invite us to join them. His name is Omar, alias Mark, he’s young, dapper and very flirtatious with the self assured confidence that only the wealthy possess. His cousin lives in Tokyo, the friend lives in Bangkok and he is based in Paris, all in the family business, gems…. he is the boss of course. With a playboy’s casual ease he braggs about his visits to Buddha Bar on the Champs Elysees and with an eye on Corinne’s silky blonde hair hints at his adventures with western women! He shows us photos of himself wearing enough bling to sink a ship, the enormous heirloom emerald necklace is usually locked up in the vault! Yes his great grandfather was commissioned by the Maharaja of Jaipur to find gems for the Maharanis necklace and gems had been the family business ever since. Omar hints there is enough in the coffers for the next few gererations.
When I mention the Gandhigiri project it causes quite a reaction. He seems to vehemently dislike Gandhi! He tells us the story of Bhagat Singh and his 2 fellow freedom fighters who were hung in the 1920’s for lobbing a bomb into a British Government office, Omar and his friends seem to think Gandhi could have intervened to save their lives.( I make a mental note to investigate this further online.) He blames Gandhi for ‘hindering’ the industrial development of India by focusing on rural developement, he is intensely nationalistic and proud of the global recognition India is receiving today.But I can’t help thinking altough Omar (alias Mark) os singing the praises of this newly developed India, he does not live here! He lives Paris and wears European designer clothes and Swiss made watches. Even if he did live here he is a ‘King’ to whom nothing is denied, he is the decendant of the private jeweller of the Maharaja of Jaipur. I later remember that these ‘Princely States’ received special privaleges under the British Raj and had some of the worst poverty in the whole of India. Even today, Rajestan, home of the Rajputs, remains one of the poorest states with a literacy rate of only 38% almost half the national average. Gandhi fought to get them to join the campaign for an independent and unified India, but ultimately with Independence the Maharajas had to relinquish their extravagant riches and eventually lost their sovereign status, power and prestige. Or did they? perhaps much of their wealth ended up in a Swiss bank account....those riches never seem to reach the lower classes. What has been most evident to me on my return to India is that even today, although there has been a massive increase in vehicles, cell phones and technology in general, the poverty seems unchanged. The increased wealth in the cities does not seem to be signigicantly reaching the lower castes or classes.

Kerala Calling.... Elephantails....

27 DEC-- JAN
We catch our first white “Ambassador Classic” Kerala cab from the airport through Trivandrum to the rail station, passing street procession on the way, people body painted in yellow and black stripes with tiger masks, some in cages…. Later I find out this is called ‘Poolikali’ or ‘Tiger Games’ But we’re headed for Varkala, the beachof choice for India weary tourists to strip down to their bikinis , soak up the sun and eat ‘gringo’ food. Although ready for a beach, I’m also sceptical of this scene …. So unreal somehow, since we’ve only just arrived I don’t feel a burning desire to ‘escape’ India yet.
Varkala is a cliff top lined with tourist stores and restaurants, bungalows and bamboo cottages. Some 80 or so steps down below is the beach upon which the local lads can gaze from above at the scantily clad girls ….. a bit like being in a fish bowl really! All usual local sensitivities seem suspended here, especially at this time of year when young sun seeking Euros fly in for New Year and prices double. But still, these Keralans seem pretty cool and laid back.
Arriving just before the big New Year rush we manaage to snag a nice room with balcony breeze included, at Oceanic. But by far the best part of the deal is the elephant outside our window!.His name is Rajive, and although he’s a working elephant he’s here with his mahout Sunil for a month to give rides to the gringos. Each morning I eagerly await the soft padding gentle swaying step that lands Rajive beneath our window. It’s shower time….the hose is turned on, Sunil gives instructions in his lilting Malayalum …. ‘Step back, right, a little more! Over here, back a bit' “aleyaleyaley” the splash of water as it drips from the leathery skin, the flapping of happy ears and swishing tail. As his trunk is filled with water the elephant swings it up and sprays all over his back, a process that’s gleefully repeated several times until shower time is over and breakfast begins. I sit on the balcony watching mesmerized as he chomps his way through large piles of palm fronds and occasional banana treats, delicately manoevering them with his curling trunk. I’m amazed at how man and elephant seem to speak the same language, and how this huge wild beast seems so calm and placid even around children who want to stroke him or climb unsteadily onto his back. On our final morning in Varkala, the second day of the New Year and Rajive gets a serious bath! This requires 2 men, one to hose and one to scrub! I watch as he lowers on one knee making a step for Sunil to climb up on his back and scrub behind his ears and down his forehead. Rajive patiently lols from one large padded foot to the next for his pedicure, turns around for a tail splash and around again to allow his trunk to be scrubbed clean and around his solumn pre-historic eyes. Even his tusks are scrubbed clean and the big brass rings around them given a polish. I find myself wondering if he enjoys such pampering like a human would? or is it just a longer wait for breakfast!

Clooneybhai in Transit.....

2/27TH DECEMBER
It's a tight race to pick up our bags, eat and get to the bus station, we arrive to find the bus is late. I talk the the nice gentleman who helped with my bags, he asks about the Lend-a-hand-India T-shirt I'm wearing, so I tell him about the project. He says in his day it was part of the school system to do some kind of 'Community ' service every week, but these days the children don't do it emphasis has been put on academic studies instead. I explain that one of the major components of the Vignan Ashram IBT training is to work on community projects, taking their newly aquired knowledge into the villages and putting their skill to practical use. The graduates are well positioned to seek employment in different fields.
The coach arrives, this is a first for me! a sleeping coach! As we climb cautiously on there's a slightly cheesy smell, but 12 neatly arranged bunk beds with curtains drawn in private cubicles, clean sheets and blankets, a bottle of water and a reading lamp! I feel like a school kid climbing into the bunk and whispering across the aisle to Corinne. Although it's a bumpy ride, amazingly I do have some dream-filled sleep as we roar through the night arriving in Mumbai at 6am in time for our Trivandrum flight.
THe 'Jet' airways domestic terminal is strangely slick and air-conditioned to sub zero temperatures, chai costs 25 Rupees instead of 5, but News is complimentary care of local newspapers and TV networks. There on the front page I notice it..."Clooney wants Munnabai too" ... the Hollywood superstar has expressed a desire to watch the Sanjay Dutt starrer' ..... Yes Clooney seems interested in the film and director Rajkumar Hirani is already working on a sequel, Munnabhai Goes To America!! WOW!! and as icing on the cake, some scenes from Lage Raho Munnabhai suddenly flash across the TV screen above our heads. I ask the young girl next to me about it, she says it is becoming the most popular film in India! She says some doctors had staged a ' Gandhigiri' style protest, with flowers and 'get well' cards in true Munnabhai style.

Ellora and Ajanta

25 DECEMBER
" Be Clean, Be Quiet, Be Respectful" reads the prominent notice in the dirty hallway of this Muslim Gentleman's hotel ... But we are woken at 6am this Sunday morning by a cacophany of male shoats and screams reverberating round the empty halls. SHAHID!! HASSAN!! AMIR!! Off to an outing and no concern for their neighbours!
Our Christmas gift... there's a room at the Sri Maya! We move, breakfast gleefully on the balcony and hit the bumpy road to Ellora. We arrive, assaulted by touts ..... postcards, Ellora guide books, maps of India, miniature cave carvings 'here Madam, just looking, just looking!' Swarms of families, kids, just looking, just looking. The Kailash Temple... almost too magnificent to be true, hewn out of the rockface in AD 700, believed to have taken 7000 men 150 years to build!.... splendidly ornate, awe-inspiringly beautiful. Enormous sculptures, Shiva dancing in the Cosmic circle, Boar-headed Vishnu, all manner of voluptuous Devis and half human creatures, surrounded by a hundred elephant heads. Tales of the Ramayana, Mahabarata and adventures of Krishna line the dim collonades. It is unbeleivable ...... and unbeleivably packed, 'photo please, photo please' at every corner... Corinne, the tall blonde one, steals the limelight to grace the albums of every Indian family! While I lurk in the shadows trying not to get caught.
As we move away from the baroque extravaganza of the Hindu temple , the Buddhist caves begin to get more austere.In a dark hall sunlight flickers on a serene central statue sitting under a huge domed ceiling, the inside of a gigantic rib cage? The heat outside is stiffling, but inside it's cool and slightly damp. The earliest caves have only a Stupa to represent the Buddha. The Jain caves have amazing intricately carved lace-like columns and austere naked statues of the standing Mahavira. The scope and magnitude is quite overwhelming, 32 caves in all, Hindu, Buddhist and Jain, 3 religions sitting side by side for over 5 centuries, the monks and holy men of all three working simultaneously on these caves, a testament to India's history of religious tolerance.
As the sun is setting we go to the Muslim Fort Daulatabad, "The City of Fortune" build on a 200 m high hill that had been known as Devagiri, the Hill of the Gods. Now we're even more the object of attention as we climb past the intricate 'Chand Minar', Tower of the Moon and through the massive walls and barbed doors of this moated fortress. School kids are entranced by us, boys want photos, babies stare over their father's shoulders, wide-kohl-eyed. One mad Sultan built this fort and marched the entire population of Delhi 1100 km south to make it his new capital... many died on the way, and those that survived slowly slunk back north to Delhi, leaving the fort sitting red in the embers of the setting sun.
26TH DECEMBER
On the road to Ajanta we're stuffed in the backseat of our 'Classic Tours' bus with Rafael, an American Jew and a spiritual councilor living in Jerusalem for many years. We had 3 hours of conversation about India, religion, gods and gurus. What is it, this spiritual counciling? the modern doctor of the soul? One of his clients works with traumatized war victims, a job which often puts her in an emotionally and depressed state... with meditation he works to bring her back to balance. He has been involved for many years with Jewish mystical teachings, something I know very little about. Although he said it was hard to explain simply, ones life becomes structured around a complex set of practices, but the highest teaching sees the divine in every aspect of daily existence. This sounds familiar, Imran was saying the same thing about Sufism a few days ago. I wonder why the world has such severe religious clashes when ultimately 'all roads lead to the same God' and in so many cases religions do sit side by side without violence. Gandhi was known for embracing all religions in his search for Truth. "For me the different religions are beautiful flowers from the same garden, or they are branches of the same majestic tree. Therefore they are equally true, though being received and interpreted through human instruments equally imperfect."
Rafael had been to visit 'Amma', one of the few female gurus in India. Known as the 'hugging mother', her darshan or blessing consists of giving thousands of people hugs in all night sessions. Her 'gift' was recognised in childhood, her parents being afraid of it, wanted to disown her and there were many attempts on her life. She is said to have healed a leper by licking his wounds.
At last we arrived in Ajanta, 2 hours late... I bargain with our special 'tour manager' to allow us more time at the caves.... reluctantly he agrees to an extra hour. First we must line up in the midday sun for the special(?) 'pollution free buses', then wait for our jumpy little tour manager to get the tickets. THe bees swarm around ... touts, tourists, coachloads of school kids, families, milling, oggling, hassling ....
Once inside the 'Maharanis' are carried up on chairs with 4 pole bearers, but mere mortals like us must climb the steep steps to the caves. Long lines to see the major caves, much pushing and shoving and smelly feet! We see the first few then the renegade gringos break away promising to return by 4pm.
These caves pre-date Ellora, 30 in all, cut into the rock around a horseshoe shaped ridge between 200BC and 65AD. The oldest ones, some of the earliest buddhist caves in which a footprint, a stupa or a wheel of Dharma represents the Buddha.... incredible to believe today but Gautama Buddha asked his followers not to make images of him. In the gloomy caves Ajanta's famous fresco-like murals radiate a warm antique saffron and rusty brown with a golden hue. Jataka tales, scenes of princes and kings, the Buddha and his disciples, a princess surrounded by her attendants. It seems almost sacreligious that these caves are packed with noisy indian families disturbing their centuries of silence, but their serene beauty admonishes my haughty condescention .... 'these caves are their birthright not yours!'
As we move round the horseshoe the crowds seem more dense, the afternoon heat more intense, the 'hellowhatsyourname' more relentless. We check the watch, it's time to start back, wading through the sea of people... oh for a sedan chair! Reaching the parking lot we start to panic, where is our bus?? so many of them, what was it called? .... are we stranded? At last to our relief we spot Rafael and the renegade group of Calcutta Indians, waiting patiently in the bus. It's 4.15, it's 4.30 .... we wait... and wait... beginning to mumble our complaints. At last around 5pm our 'tour manager' saunters up with the rest of the group, grinning! We're about to say something when a voice comes from behind in a thick Indian english " What dee helll dooo yooo tink yooo are dooowing Yaar!" then our Calcutta lady looses it, the tour manager soon looses his grin as all hell is let loose in a tirade of Hindi! She's furious and won't let up as we all pile onto the bus. We're off toot sweet... belting through the backstreets and jumping over the bumps and watching the clock since we have a nightbus to Mumbai at 8pm. Suddenly the bus slows down and stops, everyone shifts uncomfortably,what now! the boys in the backseat tell us a car has broken down and we're going to tow it! ... I stride to the front of the bus and in my best queen's english address the tour manager " Excuse me, but some of us need to get back for the night bus to Mumbai" "yes, yes, just one moment maa'm," ..... "we need to leave NOW!" ..... Madame Calcutta starts clapping, THANK YOU! she announces as the door slams shut and at last we're back on the road to Aurangabad.