Pongal Beach Madness
January 18th, 2008
Yesterday, after a long and tiring day at Assisi, we spent the afternoon touring three churches in Chennai, including the Santhome Cathedral Basilica. A popular pilgrimmage site, St. Thomas was buried there. It was lovely to tour around in the warm sun, but I was feeling dizzy and woozy — maybe from the nonstop day at Assisi — and so I had to go slow.
After chugging some Sprite and eating a few tea biscuits, I felt good enough to continue onto Marina Beach — the second largest beach in the world. With it being the third and final day of Pongal, the beach would be a popular destination for people. Stephen suggested it would be a great place to “go see the crowds.”
Now, when he said this, I imagined it’d be like the colorful people-watching on the boardwalks of the Jersey Shore. But Stephen’s “crowds” actually turned out to be about 400,000 people, as estimated by the local newspaper. Throw in us 10 Westerners into the mix, and it got interesting.
We attracted curious stares and wild waves as soon as we stepped out of our van and onto the street. As we walk the long way down to the water, crowds of people surrounded us, shaking our hands as we wished them a Happy Pongal. Groups of folks followed us, asking to take our picture, and for us to take theirs. By the time we got down to the water, we were fully encircled by at least 100 people — maybe more. Finally three horse mounted policemen had to come to break up the crowd. It was so trippy — a lot of energy to take in, but a lot of fun to be a part of.
I ended up taking more video of the experience that photos. (And uploading video hasn’t worked for me). So here are a few that don’t really illustrate the Pongal Beach Madness, but are fun nonetheless.
This group of teenagers was one of dozens of clutches of people who stopped us along our walk.
A shot of one of the policemen breaking up the crowd. That little blonde head with the clip of flowers belongs to our dear Roma, an inspiration at 80 years old. She’s a retired nurse from Australia, and this is her 9th (and likely final) Global Volunteers trip. She says our India team (team #60!) is one of the best she’s experienced.
