Chillin' in Madurai with Meenakshi

Quote of the day - "Hinduism has millions of gods. Other religions have one, two, maybe three gods maximum."

Madurai is a city of temples, most famously the Meenakshi Amman temple. Meenakshi (meaning fish-eyed, apparently a compliment in Tamil culture) is an incarnation of Shiva's consort, Parvati, and this massive 17th century temple complex is named for her. There are 4 large gates, 1 in each cardinal direction, absolutely covered with brightly painted carvings of Hindu gods and goddesses. The complex was build over the course of 100 years and contains a number of halls, shrines to Shiva and Meenakshi, a golden lotus pool and a hall of 1000 distinct pillars. Normally there is an elephant who will bless you in return for an offering but, our guide explained that she is in the jungle for a 42 day vacation. I have heard that temple work can be stressful for the elephants so, as disappointed as I am that I couldn't be blessed by an elephant, I don't begrudge her some time off. There was a bedazzled bullock in one of the halls accepting prayers and offerings. What can animals possibly make of being dressed up and painted and prayed to in a temple? How does any of that fit with their basic eat, drink, sleep, eliminate, seek affection concepts of the world?

We spent the evening waiting for an idol of Shiva to come out on or with a camel to be put to bed with Meenakshi. We were told it would happen at 7:15 or 7:30 but all we ever got was a glimpse of camel head and repeated promises of "10 more minutes." After an hour we understood it was 10 more Indian minutes or perhaps 10 more camel minutes. Certainly not 10 more chronological minutes, so we left.

The tourism in Madurai is mostly about the temple so it appeals mainly to Hindu tourists. It feels much more like the north than the other cities I have seen in the south. There is significant freneticism in the air when there is a critical mass of Hindus that I haven't found with the other religious groups in India. Muslims, Sikhs and Christians are comparatively laid back here.

It also means that the restaurants around the temple cater to Indians, not foreigners. No English staff, no menus, just dosa masala or dosa plain. It reminded me of the classic SNL cheeseburger skit. "Dosa, dosa, dosa, dosa, dosa, Pepsi." We all dutifully hand sanitized and handi-wiped our grubby little mitts to keep tummy bugs at bay only to have buddy plunk down banana leaves in front of us and plop our dosas down in front of us with his bare hands and, as we had already noted, there was no soap at the hand wash for him to have washed them. "So much for cleaning our hands" observed K. We ate our dosas Indian style, with our bare right hands and mixed up the cinnamon, chilies and oil dip with our fingers while the staff lined up to watch the white guys eat dosa. It was absolutely delicious and, best of all, I didn't get Delhi belly from it.