Sri Ramanasramam

Arrived safely in Tiruvannamalai at 4:15am Monday after some hairy travel experiences, not the least of which was a small fender bender at the bus stand involving the bus I was in and another bus backing into a spot next to the one we were vacating. This happened in Bangaluru. I wasn't even mildly disturbed since I had spent the previous hour and a half anxious about getting on the right bus to the right destination with all my bags and myself in one piece. I had carefully memorized the Tamil Nadu spelling of Tiruvannamalai, or at least the shape of the last letter, and did not see it on the bus that should have been mine. I asked the conductor and he said "yes" this was the bus to Tiruvannamalai, but I'd been foolled before by an official at this very stand, so I wasn't sure until I saw my neatly typed name on his list. Whew! So once I got myself installed on the bus with all my bags wedged anywhere they would fit alongside giant baskets and bags of god knows what all from other passengers and two brand new tires placed neatly on top of my suitcase, I was glad to be on the right bus, nevermind the bump, scrape, crunch of metal, ensuing cursing and flailing by the driver. We were only delayed 20 minutes by that incident. A few minutes later, still within a half mile of where we started from, a small child emerged from the rear of the bus, crying and wanting to get off. There was some lively discussion among the passengers and the driver, he got off, followed by a man, the bus was turned off and we waited awhile. I didn't know if the kid had to pee, or had lost his mother, but we waited and then drove off without him, unless he got back on at the back door when I wasn't looking. So then we had a very long, bumpy screechy trip with deafening horn blowing periodically and slamming on of breaks and carreening back and forth to miss obstacles on the road including oncoming traffic. Arrived and was deposited by a kind but overcharging (the 8km ride cost more than the 5 hour bus here) rickshaw driver at this very peaceful ashram pictured above. I waited 3 hours for the office to open so that I could inquire about a room only to find there was no room at the inn. I spent the morning listening to a strange bird call and when it got lighter I saw the giant peafowl atop the roof of the ashram. There was also a monkey or two and several very sweet dogs, one of whom was brave enough to run right over to me for an ear and head massage. The mountain in the background is the famous holy Arunchala where it is said Ram, Vishnu and Siva were arguing about who was more powerful and Ram sent a column of light through this mountain to show his degree of power.