Guruvayoor. On elephants and temples.
My exposure to Kerala temples would not have been complete without a trip to Guruvayoor. Krishna temple in this town follows the tradition of not allowing certain people to enter it. In this case the singled out for non-entry group is non-Hindus. By definition if you are white – you are non-Hindu. "Some animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than the others." There is some complicated procedure to gain access to the temple, but without it nothing can persuade the priests to allow a foreigner to enter. I was warned in advance, so I did not bother embarrassing myself by trying to get in. It is not a first time that I was not allowed to a temple in Kerala on the basis on my skin color/religion.
Guruvayoor is a famous pilgrimage center with its Krishna temple drawing scores of devotees. According to the legend, Shiva freed his place to let Krishna to have his temple there. The Shiva temple is just a kilometer away from Krishna temple and it has no limitations on foreigner entrance.
Guruvayoor was full of people. It is a place full of hotels and sellers. All life of the city revolves around temple. Among the hundreds of people wondering around I have not met a single foreigner for two days we were there. I can't recall any other place where I have been stared at that much.
There is a big roofed space in front of the temple. People sit and sleep there. One end of it is the stage. Every day there are speeches, dances, and music happening. I've been told that in order to graduate from, for example, dancing school one must perform on that stage in front of god and all the people. During the night many people who cannot afford a hotel sleep under that roof.
Town of Guruvayoor is also famous for its popadams – dry bread things that get crunchy after being deep-fried. I ventured out on my own while Manoj went to the temple to do a bit of popadams' shopping. Outside the temple I got accosted by few Tamil girls – I have never seen a mallu (Kerala person) begging on the street. All beggars I've seen in Kerala are not local (no offence, just an observation).Being in India (or in Ukraine) teaches not to take human suffering close to heart. You can't help everyone. Giving money to a street child in India can be embarrassing if not outright dangerous. The minute the kids see money in your hand, you will be surrounded by a crown of them, all asking for money.
With the help of my non-existent Malayalam I got my 'uru musambi juisse' (one orange juice). Malayalam is the language of Kerala. It borrowed many English words. Many of these borrowed words get modified in a very particular way: the last consonant gets longer and firmer. For example, glass becomes 'glaSS', car – 'caRR', etc. Sometimes I could get away by using English word modified this way to make myself understood.
The trip to Guruvayoor would not have been complete without visiting the elephants. Two-kilometer drive outside the town brought us to a place where all temple elephants are kept – all 62 of them. In the middle of the territory we found a 600-year old house with carvings. It used to house a family of 65, and now being converted into museum. Its old kitchen is still being used for preparation of food and aurvedic medicine for elephants. One of the keepers giving us a tour of the facilities showed the rice soup being made for a very old elephant who lost his teeth to age.
In Guruvayoor I saw more elephants than during my whole prior life. Some of them were working on clearing the woods, but mainly they earn money by being attraction for the tourists. The keeping conditions could be better, but they are certainly better than conditions in a zoo.
I never knew that there are many different types of elephants: long legged from Indian North, short and cute from Assam, medium size with big floppy ears from Kerala.
Before leaving we complemented on a beautiful frescoes in the old house. "Those
are new", told us our guide with pride, "Made them for a movie. It
is very popular place for movies". I just hope they did not forget to mention
this fact to the BBC TV crew that was suppose to shoot a documentary there or
the new legend will be born.
©Lidia Bhaskar, 2003