Christmas Eve in Kodaikanal
Before I get back into the transcribing business (had the urge to write-- what can I say?), there's a bit to mention that preceded what I've already wrote. This way I'll avoid further confusing matters with befores and afters and in betweens. So:
After Sivinanda we crossed from Kerala to Tamil Nadu (states), headed for the very southern tip of India on which sits a town called Kanyakumari. It's a pilgrim/tourist site and, for me at least, was mostly worth going there for the sake of having been. Especially it's the southernmost point I've been so far! What silly abstract things we (or perhaps it's just me?) worry about. There were monuments to Gandhi and Vivekananda, another popular spiritual figure cum influential person important in India history, about a half-century prior to Gandhi. It felt nice to see the ocean; made me miss home. Other than that, not too much to speak of.
Next stop was Madurai, a city of a million plus with an amazing temple complex. A distinctly Indian feeling city . . . . After two days, we left for Kodaikanal, where we ended up staying for four fairly relaxed days and nights, the last night being Christmas Eve.
Written Dec. 24, 10:30pm:
_____________________________________________________
spending Christmas outside the usual context surrounding it has afforded me the opportunity to reflect on it from a different perspective. Just being apart from Christmas in a Christmas-focused place, this has happened naturally as I observe what I miss and what I'm glad to be missing and so see with fresh eyes what I do and do not value about this holiday season of ours. A few such observations: I miss the sense of it being a special time of the year, but not the lines and traffic that come with it. I miss the spirit of giving, as in people saying, "Oh have a heart, it's Christmas," and other such examples of us treating one another well; of course it would be even better if this went on throughout the year . . . . I don't miss the rampant commercials and commercialism that, if you'll excuse my language, bastardizes this spirit. I miss egg-nog (especially yours, Terry!). I miss Christmas music-- or rather, I miss some of it. I don't miss being force-fed excesses of the worst of it everywhere I go. That is, I don't miss "Jingle Bells".
This evening Christoph and I went to a local Protestant Christmas Eve service, conducted in Tamil, the language of the state of Tamil Nadu. We arrived about twenty minutes early, to scope things out, get a seat in the back from which we could excuse ourselves without commotion, etc. A number of people were already there, sitting in silence while a man played familiar Christmas songs on the organ, through crackling speakers. It was just wonderful-- I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It's amazing how beautiful "Noel" can sound when you haven't heard it six times a day since Thanksgiving (I don't suppose I'd heard it at all since last Christmas . . . ). There were a few songs that seemed out of place to my ears-- the tune that to me is "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" for one-- but mostly all the best of the traditional Christmas carolling music.
Actually, I haven't been entirely without Christmas music the past days . . . as if my brain is tuned into radio waves from across the globe, hits such as "White Christmas" have been popping into my head out of nowhere. Or maybe it's being psychically transmitted to me from the Christmas observing world! Or maybe it's that I'm so conditioned to Christmas music this time of year that even in the absence of actual Christmas music it surfaces in my mind automatically-- kind of like an itch in an amputated limb (okay, not really).
Anyhow, before I go on, let me take a step back to establish where I am at the moment. As I indicate in the
title, I'm in a town called Kodaikanal. Kodai, as it is called for short, has turned out to be a good place to spend Christmas for two main reasons. The first is that, as a hill station at 2100m (roughly 7000 ft.) of elevation, it's actually pretty cold up here, at night anyways. Okay, not by the (mis)standards I've come to know in Boston, but relative to both the rest of India as well as southern California its chilly; today I put on a warm hat, which makes this the coldest Christmas in memory (though I'm told I've known colder . . . ). The second reason is the fact that, perhaps partly due to the fact that this town was originally established by missionaries (by Americans no less, in the 1840s), there seems to be an unusually high Christian population compared to India at large. There must be almost a dozen churches in and around town here, in this town of about thirty-thousand.
Even so, it doesn't feel much at all the way it does in the US, as you might have gathered from what I said above. "Merry Christmas" is seldom heard, even on Christmas Eve. Same with "Happy holidays" and the lot. I've only noticed one Christmas tree-- in the semi-fancy hotel near to where we are staying, and outside this Christmas lights aren't anywhere to be seen. Or Santa Claus, or Santa hats, or reindeer stuff. I have seen one Santa in India actually-- after evening Satsang our last night at Sivananda (a little over a week ago now) we were treated to some Indian Christmas caroling. Perhaps it was naive of me, but upon hearing there would be carollers I was expect something not entirely different from what I have known. This was not the case: the carollers consisted of a few adults and several dozen early adolescent aged kids (or so they appeared). Their carolling involved one of the adults banging a drum really hard repeatedly at a fast pace, while the others shouted together loudly-- I think entirely without pretense of singing. Meanwhile another adult, wearing a Santa mask that covered his whole face (and dressed otherwise in Indian garb, as were the rest) danced to all this with exaggerated side to side hip movements. The mask itself was interesting-- it looked more like the Kris Kringle, "Night Before Christmas" Santa than the massive fake-beard, shopping-mall Santa were come to expect in the US. It seemed odd to think that Indian children might imagine an old white man bringing them things. I mean strange besides all the improbabilities--that is, if this happens at all, which I don't know.
_________________________________________
UNBELIEVABLE!!!!! It happened AGAIN!!! I just lost another half of an entry. I can't believe it. Nor do I really care to correct it at this point. Summary: the service itself was pretty similar to a Western religious service, I think-- though I don't know what was said. I expected it to be more different because of the above mentioned
caroling and some wild Bollywood style evangelism I saw a few weeks ago. Wow, I think that was as good the three paragraphs I had before anyhow. I would do better to write this in haiku . . .
Christmas itself was good. Most of it was spent in transit, but I was able to call home to many of you all at the annual Herzik Christmas Eve party, which was just wonderful. The day of transit ended with a jury-rigged first night of Hannukah ceremony with some Israelis. I always liked it when one of the days of Hannukah fell on Christmas!
--Josh
After Sivinanda we crossed from Kerala to Tamil Nadu (states), headed for the very southern tip of India on which sits a town called Kanyakumari. It's a pilgrim/tourist site and, for me at least, was mostly worth going there for the sake of having been. Especially it's the southernmost point I've been so far! What silly abstract things we (or perhaps it's just me?) worry about. There were monuments to Gandhi and Vivekananda, another popular spiritual figure cum influential person important in India history, about a half-century prior to Gandhi. It felt nice to see the ocean; made me miss home. Other than that, not too much to speak of.
Next stop was Madurai, a city of a million plus with an amazing temple complex. A distinctly Indian feeling city . . . . After two days, we left for Kodaikanal, where we ended up staying for four fairly relaxed days and nights, the last night being Christmas Eve.
Written Dec. 24, 10:30pm:
_____________________________________________________
spending Christmas outside the usual context surrounding it has afforded me the opportunity to reflect on it from a different perspective. Just being apart from Christmas in a Christmas-focused place, this has happened naturally as I observe what I miss and what I'm glad to be missing and so see with fresh eyes what I do and do not value about this holiday season of ours. A few such observations: I miss the sense of it being a special time of the year, but not the lines and traffic that come with it. I miss the spirit of giving, as in people saying, "Oh have a heart, it's Christmas," and other such examples of us treating one another well; of course it would be even better if this went on throughout the year . . . . I don't miss the rampant commercials and commercialism that, if you'll excuse my language, bastardizes this spirit. I miss egg-nog (especially yours, Terry!). I miss Christmas music-- or rather, I miss some of it. I don't miss being force-fed excesses of the worst of it everywhere I go. That is, I don't miss "Jingle Bells".
This evening Christoph and I went to a local Protestant Christmas Eve service, conducted in Tamil, the language of the state of Tamil Nadu. We arrived about twenty minutes early, to scope things out, get a seat in the back from which we could excuse ourselves without commotion, etc. A number of people were already there, sitting in silence while a man played familiar Christmas songs on the organ, through crackling speakers. It was just wonderful-- I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It's amazing how beautiful "Noel" can sound when you haven't heard it six times a day since Thanksgiving (I don't suppose I'd heard it at all since last Christmas . . . ). There were a few songs that seemed out of place to my ears-- the tune that to me is "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" for one-- but mostly all the best of the traditional Christmas carolling music.
Actually, I haven't been entirely without Christmas music the past days . . . as if my brain is tuned into radio waves from across the globe, hits such as "White Christmas" have been popping into my head out of nowhere. Or maybe it's being psychically transmitted to me from the Christmas observing world! Or maybe it's that I'm so conditioned to Christmas music this time of year that even in the absence of actual Christmas music it surfaces in my mind automatically-- kind of like an itch in an amputated limb (okay, not really).
Anyhow, before I go on, let me take a step back to establish where I am at the moment. As I indicate in the
title, I'm in a town called Kodaikanal. Kodai, as it is called for short, has turned out to be a good place to spend Christmas for two main reasons. The first is that, as a hill station at 2100m (roughly 7000 ft.) of elevation, it's actually pretty cold up here, at night anyways. Okay, not by the (mis)standards I've come to know in Boston, but relative to both the rest of India as well as southern California its chilly; today I put on a warm hat, which makes this the coldest Christmas in memory (though I'm told I've known colder . . . ). The second reason is the fact that, perhaps partly due to the fact that this town was originally established by missionaries (by Americans no less, in the 1840s), there seems to be an unusually high Christian population compared to India at large. There must be almost a dozen churches in and around town here, in this town of about thirty-thousand.Even so, it doesn't feel much at all the way it does in the US, as you might have gathered from what I said above. "Merry Christmas" is seldom heard, even on Christmas Eve. Same with "Happy holidays" and the lot. I've only noticed one Christmas tree-- in the semi-fancy hotel near to where we are staying, and outside this Christmas lights aren't anywhere to be seen. Or Santa Claus, or Santa hats, or reindeer stuff. I have seen one Santa in India actually-- after evening Satsang our last night at Sivananda (a little over a week ago now) we were treated to some Indian Christmas caroling. Perhaps it was naive of me, but upon hearing there would be carollers I was expect something not entirely different from what I have known. This was not the case: the carollers consisted of a few adults and several dozen early adolescent aged kids (or so they appeared). Their carolling involved one of the adults banging a drum really hard repeatedly at a fast pace, while the others shouted together loudly-- I think entirely without pretense of singing. Meanwhile another adult, wearing a Santa mask that covered his whole face (and dressed otherwise in Indian garb, as were the rest) danced to all this with exaggerated side to side hip movements. The mask itself was interesting-- it looked more like the Kris Kringle, "Night Before Christmas" Santa than the massive fake-beard, shopping-mall Santa were come to expect in the US. It seemed odd to think that Indian children might imagine an old white man bringing them things. I mean strange besides all the improbabilities--that is, if this happens at all, which I don't know.
_________________________________________
UNBELIEVABLE!!!!! It happened AGAIN!!! I just lost another half of an entry. I can't believe it. Nor do I really care to correct it at this point. Summary: the service itself was pretty similar to a Western religious service, I think-- though I don't know what was said. I expected it to be more different because of the above mentioned
caroling and some wild Bollywood style evangelism I saw a few weeks ago. Wow, I think that was as good the three paragraphs I had before anyhow. I would do better to write this in haiku . . .Christmas itself was good. Most of it was spent in transit, but I was able to call home to many of you all at the annual Herzik Christmas Eve party, which was just wonderful. The day of transit ended with a jury-rigged first night of Hannukah ceremony with some Israelis. I always liked it when one of the days of Hannukah fell on Christmas!
--Josh
posted by Josh at 11:40 PM
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