My Wanderings in India Come to an End: Kanyakumari

[continuation of July 31, 2004 email]

Kanyakumari

My fellow passengers in a second class sleeper car on the train ride from Coimbature to Kanyakumari.

After 6 hours' sleep in a pretty seedy hotel room (chosen because it was right across the street from the train station) I got up at 4am, cleaned up as best I could in the nasty bathroom, and saddled up with my overfull backpack on my back and my smaller daypack carried in front of me. I had a quick glass of chai at the stand in front of the station, found my name on the train's reservation list and discovered that thankfully my wait-listed ticket purchased in Ooty had indeed been assigned a seat, and walked to the platform to wait for the train to arrive. It pulled into Coimbature right on time at 4:50, and I found the train coach I was supposed to be on with the help of an Indian man waiting alongside me. The passengers in the sleeper car I was riding in were still slumbering with the benches pulled down as bed berths; I stashed my stuff in the upper berth corresponding to my seat number and climbed up to sprawl over my pack and hunker into the bunk, got out my Ramana Maharshi book and wondered if I was going to be riding in this uncomfortable position for the next twelve hours.

Brilliant sunrise witnessed from the train heading through South India to Kanyakumari.

South India scene: banana grove in the rising morning mist.

Within the next hour chai vendors started walking through the cars and people started to wake up; eventually the guy sleeping on the bottom berth got up and put the seats out and I could climb down and sit upright and look out the window to see fields of coconut palms, rice paddies, and villagers bathing in rivers pass by. This was part of the plan: I'd felt like I needed to ride the Indian railway system some more before my India journey was over; since the train I'd taken from Rishikesh on the way to Dharamsala in early May I'd only been riding buses.

Brilliant green fields seen from the train window as it heads for Kanyakumari and the southern tip of India.

South India scene: crossing a river.

South India scene: rice paddies and banana groves.

South India scene: emerald rice fields and a majestic mountain.

The 12 1/2 hour train ride passed nicely. During the morning a pretty young woman named Deepti from Kochi sat down across from me. She was a second year engineering student whose parents live and work in Dubai and we chatted for a couple of hours about what life was like for her as a twenty-year old woman and student (not much of the fun American college students enjoy), and what her hopes for the future were (getting a good engineering job, finding a good husband who her parents approve of). She was such a sweet, goodhearted person--and unusually confident in herself that as an Indian female she felt comfortable talking to me in public like that.

Finally I arrived at Kanyakumari around 5:30pm. This is "land's end" of India, the southernmost point of the Indian subcontinent, where three oceans meet. As one of the hustling self-appointed guides informed me (before asking for rupees), you can see the difference in the color of each of the seas; the Arabian Sea to the west is dark blue, the Indian Ocean to the south is green, and the Bay of Bengal to the east is blue.

The lookout area of the beach of Kanyakumari, particularly popular at sunset.

Indian families finding a good place to enjoy the sunset.

Sundown at the "Land's End" of India.

I got in just in time to take a short taxi ride to the western beach and watch the sunset--there's something about watching the sun slip over the edge of the ocean. I was glad to finally be there. (One of the unusual things about Kanyakumari is that at the full moon one can see the moon rise up over the ocean from directly behind the sun as it sets--something I'll have to see on my next trip to India.)

Fishing boats on the edge of Kanyakumari (with the statue of Thiruvalluvar and the Vivekananda Memorial visible offshore).

The strip of road frequented by tourists leading to the Gandhi Memorial and Vivekananda Museum.

The Gandhi Memorial where the ashes of the great Indian political and spiritual leader and advocate of nonviolence are interred.

Part of the Kanyakumari beach (the large red-striped building on the left is the Kummari Amman Temple, which I visited).

The next morning I got up early and watched a beautiful sunrise from the roof of my hotel, looking out at the ocean and noticing the surrounding the town. Kanyakumari is a place of pilgrimage with an old Hindu temple (the Kumari Amman temple) dedicated to the virgin goddess Devi Kanya, an incarnation of Parvati (the wife of Shiva); a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi where some of his ashes were stored before being scattered in the sea; and the Vivekananda Memorial, built on one of two rocky islands just offshore (on the other island is a 100 foot statue of Thiruvalluvar, a 2000 year old Tamil Nadu saint). I found myself moved by the story of Swami Vivekananda. Kanyakumari is where he sat and meditated in 1892, preparing himself to go to the United States and deliver his famous speech at the 1893 Parliament of Religions in Chicago in which he began, "Sisters and Brothers of America..." (to be met by a standing ovation; many consider that speech to be the beginning of the intense interest in Eastern spirituality in the West, which continues to increase to this day--including the steady growth of yoga's popularity). At the Wandering Monk Museum, which memorializes Vivekananda travels all over India during the years before he went to Chicago, I read about the man's brilliant life and devotion to the people of India, his belief that all religions approach the same truth, and that the wisdom of Vedanta could make an important contribution to Western understanding. I felt deeply inspired by the life of the man and remembered why India is such an amazing place with such a rich spiritual tradition and what incredible human beings have lived and explored the mysteries of spirit here. Later I visited the Gandhi Memorial and got a tour from a priest at the Kumari Amman temple, where I poured ritual ginger oil on the alter and paid my respects to the gods; afterwards I stood outside for a long time gazing out at the oceans as it grew dark.

Boarding the tugboat to go visit the Vivekananda Memorial and see the Statue of Thiruvalluvar.

Short boat ride out from Kanyakumari to visit the memorials.

Statue of Thiruvalluvar, one of the great Tamil saints.

After wandering the length and breadth of India as a monk for several years, the brilliant Swami Vivekananda arrived at Kanyakumari and swam out to sit on these rocks for three days and contemplate whether or not to go to America and share the spiritual wisdom of India with the West (he did make a historic visit to the first World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893).

Walking up the steps of the Vivekananda Memorial.

Looking toward Kanyakumari and the India subcontinent from the offshore Vivekananda Memorial.

Looking out from the hotel balcony at dawn on the morning I left Kanyakumari.