Varkala

From Kumily we made our way to the coast again to a town called Varkala. We settled into a beach resort type hotel and decided to take a walk down the beach. The contrasts were amazing. At the entrance to the southern beach (where we were staying) there is a place where Indians come to pay respect and give blessings to their deceased relatives. There are swamis (priests) set up under dried palm fronds where they go about attracting business like a typical shopkeeper; gesticulating wildly and calling out to carloads of family's arriving to pay respects to their family member. Since there are five or six swami operations, competition can become a bit fearce (but friendly and seemingly fair). Locals sit with their chosen swami, say prayers, perform rituals at the swami's direction, and prepare an offering on a banana leaf. The offering is set aflame and then carried out by the family to either the crows or to the sea. In the last picture you can see the contrast of westerners sunning themselves in revealing bikini's while locals are making their blessings. An interesting lack of awareness of what is happening around them. That said, here we are photographing the whole experience from our hotel! As we walked farther down the beach it got whiter and whiter (and nakeder and nakeder...can I make that a word?). The end of the beach is 100% westerners. The beach is at the base of a steep cliff which is being eroded away.On the cliff top, the Tibetans and Kashmiris refugees sell their goods, desperately trying to lure in customers. The clifftop consists of about 300 meters of what we refered to as a "hippie strip mall". No offense to hippies. But it was wacky to see shop after shop catering to consumer spirituality. Westerners doing yoga on the beach and then hiking up the cliff for a beer, fresh sea food and some good old fashioned clothes and trinket shopping, chakra adjusting.... reaching enlightenment through massage and the right look. It is a weird western bastardization of India and it's spiritual traditions...and is quite the scene. We ventured back to the seclusion of our beach hotel swimming pool and finishing off some great short stories by Vikram Chandra. We enjoyed ourselves - a little r and r - but we're looking forward to getting reconnected to a more authentic India.