 |
 |
RETIREMENT & LIFESTYLE PLANNING | |
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
| ISSUE - 22 - Autumn 2005/2006 | |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The essence of India
Claudia Hyles , who escorted the National Gallery of Australia's 2005 Essence of India' tour, provides a snapshot of the history, spirituality and exotic sights, tastes and sounds that await travellers to India's south.
Most visitors to India arrive in Mumbai or Delhi, journey to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, continue into Rajasthan and perhaps on to Varanasi. The South is a gentler introduction, and it was my luck to start this way in l968. This life-changing journey begam in Madras, now known as Chennai, and so did the tour I led for the National Gallery in 2005. Since that first visit I have travelled to India many times and I feel a great responsibility to make sure my companions love it as I do. Indian friends are
introduced to the groups conservation architects, craft experts, writers and artists who add another fascinating and personal dimension. I supply reading lists and try to accommodate individual interests.
My first visit was an initiation into third class rail travel and extremely basic accommodation. Brilliant though I thought it at the time, thankfully third class rail no longer exists and accommodation these days can be as interesting as some of the tourist sites. Most hotels on the tour were 5-star and ranged from a converted early twentieth century bungalow at Karaikudi in the fascinating Chettinad region, a complex surrounding the hilltop mansion of a cotton-mill manager perched high over ancient Madurai and a houseboat near Aleppey to luxury beach cottages at Covelong.
Staying in modern comfort we contemplated the ancient dynasties of South India who built magnificent temples starting with the monolithic Pallava prototypes at Mahabalipuram. The Cholas who ruled from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries created masterpieces in stone in several Tamil Nadu towns and the Hoysalas in the modern-day state of Karnataka built smaller, more intimate temples covered in a lacework of astonishingly beautiful carving.
Too many temples can, however, result in a problem of spiritual indigestion and I aimed for a fine balance between old and new, sacred and secular. After viewing art of incredible refinement we visited a Dalit village. These people, formerly known as Untouchables, live in a beautifully neat and clean settlement where they create charming batik paintings of gods and goddesses, elephants and horses.
At Shravanabelagola, a site of religious retreat since third century BC, we climbed a huge rock to see the colossal 17-metre tenth century statue of the Jain saint Gomateshwara. In Cochin there were both the 16th century synagogue and the oldest church east of Suez to visit and, in Chennai, the tomb of Saint Thomas the Apostle. A modern contrast was Auroville, an international community established in l968. Many creative people live within its three kilometre radius and we visited a natural dye project run by a Spaniard and beautiful studio apartments of Swiss and French artists. Auroville is near Pondicherry, a French colony until just over 50 years ago. The town exudes colonial charm, with tumbling bougainvillea cascading over high ochre and white walls punctuated by ornate gateways. Robert Clive (1725-1774), one of the founders of British rule in India, started his Indian career in Madras and his old French foe, Dupleix, gazes out to sea from the promenade at Pondy.
The rulers of the former princely states no longer control their hereditary territories but many still live in ancestral palaces and maintain an active interest in the welfare of their former subjects. The Rajah of Tanjavur hosted a superb evening in his splendid 16th century palace. Escorted into the palace by trumpeters and standard-bearers dressed in red and white, we dined in a rooftop pavilion and were entertained by youthful dancers. By contrast, a day or so later, we lunched with the Rani of Pudukottai in a far more modest mansion, home in the l920s to the Australian wife of Rajah Martanda Tondaiman; the Rajah's portrait still presides over the dining-room.
We were travelling in October, a time for festivals, and found ourselves in Madurai, Mysore and Srirangam at special times. Some of us were included in private ceremonies in the unlikely venues of post office and hotel hair salon where employees honoured their workplace and tools of trade a franking machine or a hair-dryer. Prayers were said while a tray of oil lamps burned, incense filled the air and coconuts were cracked and we felt very honoured to be included. The outward celebration of faith is so much more a part of everyday life in India, no matter which religion.
It is almost a cliché to say India is full of contrasts but one must keep saying it! For example, the enchanting late nineteenth century paintings by Raja Ravi Varma contrasted with works by contemporary artists, or the distinctive highly ornamented iconic paintings of Tanjavur and magnificent Chola bronzes. A wonderful dinner in the beautiful ball-room of the old colonial Madras Club included a recital of Carnatic music, the classical music of southern India. In Cochin we saw Kathakali, the dance-drama of Kerala, and other forms of dance and music at Kalakshetra, the famous school in Madras. Brocade weaving, indigo dyeing, lost-wax bronze casting, tile-making and block-printing were among the craft techniques we were able to observe. Then there was busy, modern Bangalore, India's first Silicon Valley city, a great contrast to the gracious pace of Mysore, 140 kilometres down the road.
While convincing ourselves our heads were full of loftier thoughts and immune to the attraction of such superstition, we were entranced by the famous palmist in Madurai who gave readings with astounding accuracy. Whether we all make it to our 90s as predicted remains to be seen, but the past and the present he intuited were extraordinarily true. Another new and highly enjoyable experience was sampling ayurveda, a system of holistic medicine based on ancient texts. The oil massages alone would make a return trip worthwhile for some while the infinity pool on the edge of the Arabian Sea at Cochin was unforgettable. We felt truly pampered.
Years ago visitors to India had to have a foreigner's registration permit in order to consume alcohol and state governments still occasionally impose prohibition. Bars in hotels catering for naughty tourists were often gloomy places reached by a secret labyrinth of corridors. Now a growing wine industry and a generally more relaxed view of the demon drink allows for much more conviviality, watching the sun go down in beautiful surroundings while discussing some of the singular sights of the day life-size terracotta horses or real elephants, a backwater absolutely boiling with ducks, excellent shopping, emerald rice-fields, baroque mansions, huge gatherings of pilgrims the women dressed in vivid silken saris and flowers in their hair. One could go on forever...
... and I haven't even touched on South Indian food, which is both delicious and distinctive, fragrant with coconut and spices. A typical meal, eaten from a shining silvery plate or a glossy green banana leaf, starts as well as ends with something sweet.
At the outset a tiny taste sweetens and tempers one's mouth and, similarly, at the meal's end it signals a happy conclusion providing, perhaps, the perfect metaphor for a visit spent discovering the essence of South India.
More
The earliest National Gallery of Australia tour to India focused on textiles but the countless other ingredients that make up the wonderful feast of India led to the essence titles. Tours are fully-conducted and can be organised around any interests specific areas, food, the Raj, palaces, textiles, art, architecture and spirituality. The all-inclusive cost is around A$10,000. Further information:
Just Travel Ph (02) 6285 2644
Web www.justtravel.com.au
Email kerry@justtravel.com.au
|
|
|
Your Life, Your Retirement. PO Box 1150N Armadale North Victoria 3143 Australia
Phone: 613 9824 6901 - Fax: 613 9824 6362
Email: publisher@yourlifechoices.com.auIS PUBLISHED BY
Copyright Retirement Publishing Pty Ltd 2001 -- ISSN 1031-6620 ACN 088 049 218
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED No parts of this publication may be printed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the permission in writing from the publishers, with the exception of short extracts for review purposes.
PUBLISHERS NOTE While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information given in the publication, the publishers do not, in any way accept liability for inaccuracies or for loss of any kind, whether caused through editorial matter or in the form of claims made in advertisements.
Your Retirement is published by Retirement Publishing Pty. Ltd.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER No person should rely on contents of this publication or website without first obtaining advice from a qualified professional person. This publication is sold on the terms and understanding that (1) the publisher, authors, consultants and editors are not responsible for the results of any actions taken on the basis of information in this publication, nor for any omission from this publication; and (2) the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal accounting, professional or other advice or services. The publisher and the authors, consultants and editors expressly disclaim all and any liability and responsibility to any person, whether a purchaser or reader of this publication or not, in respect of anything, and of the consequences of anything done or omitted to be done by any such person in reliance, whether wholly or partially, upon the whole of any part of the contents of this publication. Without limiting the generality of the above no publisher, author, consultant or editor shall have any responsibility for any act or omission of any author, consultant or editor.
Financial
Security
