Genuine Hindu Karma
Kanniyakumari, Jan 2006: the Lands End of Southern India, meeting point of the Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean & Arabian Sea. (Check it out here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanyakumari_%28town%29)

I was with my late wife Sue (yes, it's me again, & I still haven't got my tee-shirt, Chizz!)

We were staying in Kerela & had taken a train down there for the day. There are two tiny islands, one with a memorial to a Hindu Guru, the other has a temple. You can get a ferry round trip to visit them, which we did. Got to first island after interminable queueing for the boat & disembarked to explore the temple. Beautiful place, we really liked it but time was getting on & we wanted to make sure that we could get the train back to our lovely 5* hotel. Problem here: we didn't know when the last train left - we'd been told 6pm, 9pm, 5.30pm, etc, no-one seemed to know (any veteran of India will be familiar with this).

I was starting to fret big time & realised we didn't have time to go to the second island. Sue thought differently & we argued whilst standing in the next ferry queue. This culminated with me spluttering, "But we have a lovely hotel to go back to, I don't want to get stranded in THIS FUCKING PLACE!" The tall, well-dressed Indian gentleman with his family in front of us turned round & asked me, in perfect clipped English, where I was from. "Er, London" I said, sheepishly. "Oh, I thought so" he sneered before turning his back on me. I felt about two inches high.

So we boarded the ferry & in my state of extreme stress & anxiety I decided to stand by the open door, fearing an impending disaster (you read about it in the papers - 200 pilgrims drowned in Indian ferry horror, etc). Got to the next island but stayed on board to go straight back to the mainland. On the way back we were going sideways to the waves which were crashing against the side, covering us with spray. Then one huge wave hit & covered us. Me, being stood right by the open door got totally soaked. Cue much hilarity from rest of passengers, laughing hysterically & pointing at me. Someone grabbed my camera & took a pic of me totally drenched. (here: pic)

We landed & traipsed our way back to the station - about a mile walk with me dripping a trail of water all the way. Every so often we'd pass a family of pilgrims who would point at me and fall about laughing. Word had obviously got round the whole town in about 10 minutes & they were overjoyed at the comeuppance of a stupid Westerner who had had the temerity to swear whilst standing on one of the most sacred Hindu places in the world & think he'd get away with it.

True story, true Karma.

yes, yes, length, width, etc...
( Dunks, Sat 23 Feb 2008, 12:17, Reply)