Butterflies, Boats and Bas Relief

Our visit to India is rapidly coming to a conclusion and it feels as though we have only described a very small part of the impressions, sights and experiences that we have had. This post will do little to remedy that. But I will try to cram some of the things we've seen and done into the next couple of paragraph, along with some random thoughts.

Yesterday, we visited Auroville, a so-called city of the future. It was started by the spiritual leader of an Ashram in Pondichery known as "Mother" in the 1970's. It was designed to be a community in which new self-sustaining technologies would be developed and serve as a model for future communities. About 1500 people from 80 countries are currently in residence. From what I was able to determine from my visit, the city of the future will have bad roads and there will be many goats. There will also be a lot of butterflies. Pretty cool looking ones at that.

We finally arrived at our beach-front resort last night. Except for the appalling lack of fruity cocktails with paper umbrellas, it is all that I was hoping for. Of particular interest to me is the small fishing village located just south of the resort. A photographer's paradise.

Today we visited a truly extraordinary site: a 7th century temple complex carved entirely from an immense granite outcropping. It contains the largest bas relief carving in the world - about 750 meters long. Pictures cannot really describe the scale and refinement of the carvings. I am not surprised that this was the first place named by the UN as a World Heritage site. There was a troupe of Langur macaques there, as well, but the photo gods conspired against me and I failed to get any pictures of them. Our guide would tell me that this is my karma, but I still think it was just bad timing.

Tomorrow we are heading back to Madras (or Chennai... whatever), where we will begin the last frantic round of shopping before our departure early Sunday morning. I have no idea how we are going to get all of this plunder home with us, but if anyone can pack it all into three bags, then Carol can.

Random notes:

• Madras is the only city in India that has banned cows (and goats) from the city center. This was one difference that I did not notice until our guide pointed it out to us. Now, I find that I miss seeing them.
• India has 18 official languages, and recognizes 35 distinct dialects. There has been a concerted effort on the part of the central government to have everyone learn Hindi. This effort has failed miserably. To facilitate communication across the country, English (with a fair sprinkling of Hindi and Tamil) is often used as a bridge language. It is quite disconcerting to be watching the news (in English) on television and then to suddenly realize half way through a news item that you have no idea what they are saying. I think most Indians must experience this same feeling.
• Most of the small villages that we saw were primitive, but most displayed tell-tale signs of their place in time: electrical wires, packaged food items, painted signs, plastics, etc. About a week ago we visited a small village that was located not that far from the city of Bhubaneswar. Walking the half kilometer down a dirt track from our bus to the village was like taking a journey back 500 years. With the exception of a red tricycle that we spotted outside a hut, we saw no evidence of technologies, clothing or other artifacts that did not exist in the 16th century. It was a remarkable feeling to walk through this living time capsule.
• The bedside tables of the hotels that we have stayed at all contained Hindi or Krishna texts. Not a Gideon Bible to be found anywhere.