My last destination in Tamil Nadu was the popular village of Mamallapuram, situated close to Chennai. So I had previously got a night train ticket from Trichy to Chennai. The capacity was full, but I managed to get a ticket using the tourist quota. I love travelling by night train, as it saves you a day and also a night in hotel!

I arrived at 5:30 in the morning to Chennai, and got a bus from there to Mamallapuram. I wanted to visit the Crocodile Bank in the middle of the way, and then carry on to Mamallapuram. Crocodile Bank was a lot of fun, and I saw various species of crocodiles there, as well as a snake show where they showed how they take poison from them. They also showed how they feed the crocodiles. It was fun, but obviously it does not come close to what you would see in the wild.

I then carried on to Mamallapuram, and found a room in a nice guesthouse. After taking a shower and some rest, I ventured out to buy a statue of Nataraja, a.k.a. Dancing Shiva. I had previously looked in some shops in Madurai, but hadn’t found anything with the quality I was looking for. I started looking around EVERY shop and seeing different models and haggling over prices. I saw so many shops (more than 20) and so many statues that I could tell if someone is bullshitting me or not.

So basically there were two distinct categories you could find: ones with lower quality and price, made in the North, and those which were called hand-made, had more details and were considerably more pricey. I quickly dismissed the first category, as they were sheer ugly. Unfortunately, the ones made in the South were not really delivering the quality I was expecting either. I have to mention though, that my expectations raised considerably higher when I saw the statues made in Tibet by the so-called Buddhist monks. Some of them were jaw-droppingly beautiful, but they came at hefty prices too. So seeing all that, I decided to not go for Nataraja, and instead shop for hand-made bronze statues of Buddha.

I came upon a shop owned by Javeed, a Kashmiri guy, where he had these beautiful statues of Buddha. The bigger they were and the more elaborate the work on them was, the higher and higher the price would go. They were not only statues, but they were pieces of art. Only a real artist can make such intricate details and even convey emotions by his craft. These statues are made by wax molding technique which results in fine details and accurate curvatures. Then skillful hands work on the body, carving the details and finish it by oxidizing it with different techniques and/or polishing it, to give different colors and looks to it. Some even try to make them look older, as it pleases some buyers. I became almost an expert by going around for hours and hours from one shop to the other!

So in Javeed’s shop, I really liked this statue of Meditating Buddha. It was indeed very beautiful. Its beauty should be seen closely, and a photo does not deliver really. I finally bought it. We then had a tea together and chitchatted for an hour or two. Over my trips, I have found the Kashmiri people to be very warm and friendly (and very cunning sellers). I then headed out and all the other shopkeepers (I was known all over the place by then!) were asking to see what I bought, and if I want to buy anything else!

One of the guys which I hadn’t been to his shop before invited me to show me some of his statues. I told him that I have already bought one and do not plan to buy another, but he insisted that it doesn’t matter and he just wants to show them to me since I’m so interested in Tibetan bronze statues. I went in and he brought me his collection which was very fascinating and one was more beautiful than the other. The face, that’s all it is about. You look at the face, and you see a character and its beauty. But eventually you see a very faint mood in the face: smiling, meditating, fierceness, etc. Then there is the details in the body, hands, feet, clothes, and most importantly the posture that matters. It’s a piece of art, not a souvenir that you are buying. So the story short, I came out of his shop even more in love with these bronze statues (but obviously didn’t buy any). I will look more into these statues, how they are made, what are the intricacies, messages they convey, different forms, etc. This also made me very eager to go and visit Tibet!

The next day, I went around to see a couple of temples and statues carved out of stones around Mamallapuram. When walking around the village, the shopkeepers were still pushing to sell their stuff to me! Anyways, I left Mamallapuram for Chennai to stay the night there and go the next morning to airport. The journey was long and dreadful, as I was stuck in the intercity traffic of Chennai for a couple of hours.

Next morning, I got my flight to Sri Lanka. As I was waiting in the airport to catch my flight, I started reading my guidebook to plan my trip. I had a rough plan based on my previous research, but nothing concrete. I wanted to go down south to do some snorkelling and watch sea turtles and whales, if possible. But when reading in the airport on my planned destination, I found out that it will be congested with tourists at this time of the year. I really do not like touristy places, as everything changes for the sake of attracting more tourists. Even the restaurants start serving continental food and wherever you go, you see tourists, instead of locals. And the locals that you see, want to make money out of you. Tourists just ruin the very spirit of a place. I am a tourist myself and I possibly have the same effect, but I hate it. Anyways, I decided to go and stay overnight in a town called Negombo (which is close to the airport), and from there head inland to see some of the rural life, cultural sites, and also possibly do some of the unbeaten tracks. We’ll see how it goes!

So I said goodbye to India and left it. Like last time, I enjoyed my stay in India a lot, and I am already dreaming of coming back, though I am pretty sure it wouldn’t be in near future. I think India has grown on me, and I feel greatly at home while staying there. It is not much similar to my country, Iran, but nevertheless for me it is very familiar. I am sure I will come back again and find India as charming as it is now!