Pondicherry and Thiruvannamalai

Weekend in three sentences:

"Bread bread, mr. bread, bread breaded bread? "
        "French Quarter? Pshh, more like the French Eighth..."
                 "Is that East of Pondicherry?....don't overthink that one..."

AKA

Weekend of lovely company, endless good laughs, French food, colorful houses on winding streets, a little bit of beach action, and a spontaneous adventure to a mountain and a temple.

Hotel with a beach view. Check.

French food. check.

Wonderful company in wonderful little beachside neighborhoods: check.

Thiruvannamalai.
A random adventure that consisted of:
"Hey. Want to leave Pondy the last night?"
"Sure. Where to?"
"I dunno, open Lonely Planet."
"Thiruvannamalai....want to go here?"
"What's there?"
"Annamalaiyar Temple, one of the biggest Shivaite temples in India, and Arunachala Hill, where legend has it Shiva appeared as a column of fire."
"Yeah. sounds cool. let's go."

Thing about India, spontaneity seems to work wonders for travel.

After a three hour bus ride, we found a tiny hotel, dropped our stuff, and went exploring. We encountered wonderfully happy people, like these guys that threw colored powder all over us in honor of Ganesh:

The Annamalaiyar Temple was incredibly impressive. One of the biggest in India. (You can spot it in the background below.)
We climbed Arunachala Hill and found a cave. Still not sure if it was one of the caves we were supposed to find. But interesting nonetheless:

I think part of my insanity last week was a result of being in a loud crazy noisy polluted busy megacity for too long with no break.

Pondicherry was beautiful and relaxed and happy and clean and small and colorful and lovely, even outside of the ridiculously touristy and white-people-filled French Quarter.
And though Thiruvannamalai was noisy and crazy, it was much smaller than Hyderabad, and set in the middle of nowhere, and had that small(ish)-town happy feel, and the combination of these cities and the beautiful people I traveled with made me really unwind.
and breathe.
and realize that I only have two and a half months left here.
so I damn well better make the most of it.
and that I damn well better make the best of everything, actually.


Ahh India. you have the most complicated ways of teaching me lessons.

Possible Insanity

I've been in the most insane mindset lately. I'm simultaneously overwhelmed and bored and ecstatic and depressed and calm and angry and a million subtler other things.

I might be going insane?


Here: words.

Oh Heart of strange things
  of diagonal stretches and
      plucked harmonious heartstrings
Heart of simultaneous shriveling
   and expanding,
of aching and fluttering
Heart dripping in curry and spices
  contaminated by Indian breath
    saturated by Indian air
restless Heart of Hindustan--
     barely contained in my chest,
      Heart of silk and sarees;
      Heart of rolling tongues
     and sunkissed skin
     and winding roads.
my Heart---
    my Indian Heart---
                Om.
                   Namaste.




and here: picture.

are you satisfied? Do you need more proof of my insanity?
Of my endless swirling thoughts on everything and anything?
Jumbled together in a maddeningly tangled web of inextricable streams of ideas,
from how ice cream is made with buffalo milk here
to how deeply self conscious I feel whilst being stared at
to "hmm, I wonder where I can get a golden flower nose ring, like that beautiful old Indian woman with black eyes black hair bright smile wears so delicately"
 to climbing mango trees for Amma to pluck little green mangoes from precariously flexible branches
 to moshing at Indian metal shows (not kidding, it happened)
to the crunch crunch crunch of my feet on the crumbling pavement on my daily morning walk to the gate of Doyens Township, waiting for the guard to nod his head in a polite "Namaste" which I think he only started doing because I did it first, but nonetheless it makes me feel better---
all the time think think think what? who? where? self? not self? philosophy? purpose? you? her? he? them? world? people? billions! me? why? here? HERE! now! when? NOW! Today!!

see? I seriously am going crazy.



Eh.
You know what.
9,000 miles from home, from anything familiar,
surrounded by different languages, cultures, people, food, clothing, thought processes, songs, religions, social norms, expectations, even insects---

I don't mind.

I think I'm allowed to go a little crazy.