There are places you visit for a little over an hour but that you will remember forever. Kumbakonam, a strategic city in the Middle Ages and today little more than a crossroads of roads has been for me one of these.
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What to see in Pondicherry if you have a few hours. A former French colonial city, Pondicherry is famous for its colonial-style residential neighbourhoods, beautiful Bougainville and amazing croissant cafés!
Discover Auroville, India, the hippie ecovillage where people live without money, searching for a life without hatred and judgment.
If you want to deepen your knowledge of Dravidian culture and fill your eyes with traditional religious architecture, you must visit Tiruvannamalai and attend the rites and processions in honor of Shiva.
The city was born on a sacred mountain, Arunachala, where Shiva is said to have manifested himself as a large fiery phallus.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984, Mammalapuram is a charming city. The site of Mamallapuram Hill, with the lighthouse and the numerous Shiva temples of the Pallava dynasty, all entirely carved into the rock. The incredible butter ball of Krishna, a rock hovering over a slope which remains in balance despite all the laws of physics. The sultry warmth and hospitality of the people while I visit Arjuna’s Penance, one of the most important bas-reliefs in India.
The capital of Tamil Nadu welcomes me by making things clear: there is no room for haste here. Everything takes its time -if you stop trying to plan everything, the reward is just around the corner. I am enchanted by an Odissi dance show and spend a morning among alligators and cobras in a nature reserve outside the city.
We seldom care about what is happening in India, although it concerns us all very closely. With a population of nearly 1.4 billion, India is the second most populous country in the world and is on the verge of becoming the first. What is happening in India affects a large portion of humanity.
Did you know that, until 2014, over 700 million people did not have a bathroom in their homes or access to the most essential health services? In just 5 years, the Clean India project changed everything.
Did you know that Indian traditional medicine is curing coronavirus by bathing in cow’s feces and drinking urine? I must say that I am not at all surprised. Just a few months ago, during a trip to India, I was offered bread baked in dung. Dried cow dung is also used for heating and cooking. After all, it’s a natural and ecological energy source!
I visit two brick factories, one in the far north and one in the far south of the Indian subcontinent. The work is still manual and the labor is definitely underpaid. Since the early 2000s, several international scandals have hit Indian brick factories.
If you are looking for a deeper meaning, visit the holy city of Varanasi, in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Here thousand-year-old pyres burn the bodies of the dead to free them from the cycle of rebirth; here pilgrims plunge into the river Ganges to purify their souls and the sacred cows are guarded with kindness and care. Get lost in the city’s vegetable market and finish your tour with a visit to the Chaubepur brick factory and a quick stop at Sarnath Buddhist shrine, where Buddha began preaching after reaching enlightenment.
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