How do you like India?

When asked this question my response was, 'Depends on the day.' A good day in India is difficult, a bad one, extremely difficult to soul crushing. Being in India one tries to be philosophical and see how one is being 'tested'. It seems I had a three day 'bad day' bender in Madurai. It started with the overnight train ride. In the past I've enjoyed the lull of the train, looking out the window till dark, reading, knitting. All this was going to plan, until I started getting sick (diarrhea) in the middle of the night. It was messy, tedious and dreadful. Then I got to Madurai which was about the same. Why is it that the most holiest of cities are also the dirtiest? Varanase/Benares is also filthy, but it has the Ganges, the ghats can be quite magical. That's not how Meenakshi temple was to me. It was interesting, there were moments. Maybe because I was sick. Or I was sick and it was loud and the city was dirty. The temple was kind of dirty. Or I didn't understand what all the ritual was about. It was really hot. Maybe I'm not as interested as I thought I would be in 'temple life'.

I ended up spending most of the time in the hotel room, which had a window facing an air shaft, but AC, a flat screen TV with remote,  and a surprisingly comfortable bed. I sat inside watching movies after going to the temple in the morning. On the way back from the morning temple visit, which you must enter barefoot. I would go to the recommended veg place to get something to eat then go back to the hotel room, scrub my feet, watch movies, knit, doze, while the food moved through me and out in a gurglie sick kind of way. Not a great way to spend a 'holiday'.

Meenakshi temple is dedicated to Shiva's partner/consort of the same name. It is considered a 'woman's temple' and pilgrammages are made to enhance female fertility. It is said there are a thousand pillars and I can tell you there are at least half as many vendors selling Hindu memorabilia, prasad (offerings), flower garlands and kid's toys (fertility?). There were a fair amount of kids there, I guess proof of answered  prayers to Meenakshi? The kids seemed to treat it as a Disneyland of sorts. There is even an elephant there, a very cute elephant, that blesses the person who gives him rupees with a tap on the head with his trunk. Blessings can be bought it seems, even from elephants.

I was very busy at the temple too, busy feeling sorry for myself. I hit the wall of India and I wanted to be gone. I didn't care for the town, it seemed more dirty and functional than anything else. And the calm roof top restaurant at the nearby hotel at dusk didn't cure me either. Leaving cured me. Of course the Mr. Magoo of a driver I had to take me to the airport hit someone (brushed really) and the guy came after the driver half a block later. Lots of yelling and pounding on the hood ensued. Perfect way to end the trip. I am beginning to feel there is some karmic debt I need to pay here, mostly via my intestines.

Otherwise the return to Mysore was fairly uneventful. Waiting for the driver 45 minutes at the Bangalore airport, a flat tire 45 minutes outside of Mysore. It was his second flat of the trip, he told me. "Very unlucky trip", he said. How true, how true... Maybe this is 'special Shiva test for white lady'?

It was very good to drive through the Green Hotel's gates...whew! What a relief to be treated well, friendly chats with the staff and my few friends staying here. *sigh* Immodium made me more optimistic and ready yet again to do battle with the many armed god of India.