Monday, February 23, 2009

Parotas, on the way to Tiru


After we left Ganeshpuri and the Nityananda shrine, we flew from Mumbai to Chennai (now Madras), in the state of Tamil Nadu. We spent the night at the Radisson, a good choice in India. That's where we discovered India is in love with Jon Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams' music. The server in the Regency Club played it loudly over and over and said it was the latest rage.

The next morning, after I received an ayurvedic foot massage that came complimentary with the room and Marty ate another dosa, we set off for a four hour drive to Thiruvannamalai (known as Tiru). Tiru is a small town in southern India, famous for its gigantic Shiva temple, Mount Arunachula, and the ashram of the great sage, Ramana Maharshi who died in 1950.

Along the way, our driver, another man named Ganesh, continuously beeped. It was so irritating that we were so relieved to pull off to a road side chai shop. Marty decided to eat whatever the man at the grill was making, because it was in the shape of a pizza. These "little pizzas" were later identified as parotas. This lunch was proving to be both fascinating and dangerous for our health.

The whole time the cook is making the parotas, you'll see a man brushing his teeth and washing up right behind him. Watch how the cook 'manhandles' the food after and serves it to us on a banana leaf.


We also ate the guavas that a woman was selling by the road. YUM! The chai was delicious too. We'll have a video on how to make that later from Rishikesh. We eventually made our way to the Sparsa EcoResort, a perfect place to stay while visiting Tiru.

No comments:

Post a Comment