The four-day weekend

I spent the last four days in airports, cars and in Kanyakumari. Bless my Dad for his conferences. That seems to be the only way I get to go anywhere nice (work-related travel is always to some god forsaken medical college). So we flew to Trivandrum and drove down to Kanyakumari from there. It takes a full 3.5 hours of bouncing along dirt tracks passing themselves off as national highways, dodging cycles and lorries (often at the same time), being shaken up till your fillings fall off in deeply rutted roads, and being utterly charmed by the landscape to reach KK. Honestly they should just make the whole of Kerala and its border with TN a national park and tear down all the buildings (every single one of them an eyesore) and just let things be.
In KK we stayed at the Tamilnadu Hotel, which is right next to the beach. It had been recently spruced up because the CM was supposed to make a visit there but in the end he cancelled. So the rooms were neat and clean, plasma tv on the walls and belgian mirrors everywhere. But somehow this sprucing up didnt extend to proper running water in the bathroom. My Dad had a daily struggle with the man at Reception/Housekeeping trying to get them to turn the motor on; somehow I dont think he quite succeeded in convincing him (the Reception man) that things like having a bath everyday was a part of most people's daily routine.
Despite my Dad's conference we managed to see Padmanabapuram Palace (lovely place; surprisingly well maintained), Vivekananda Rock and Thiruvalluvar's Statue (overrated), Vattakottai (sweet little fort but surely forts were not so completely devoid of internal structures?), the Church of Our Lady of Ransom (white - by Berger Paints - Gothic church right on the beach, rather like icing on a cake), Kamaraj Memorial (nice photos but no dates), Gandhi Memorial (nothing new unfortunately), some waterfall - cant remember its name (very inviting looking, to stand under I mean, not to jump off) . I also managed to wake up early enough to walk up to the View Tower and see the sun rise (nice but couldnt see the 'plop' as my Dad calls it when the sun emerges from the sea).
As always when I am outside Madras, I was struck by how different culturally the rest of TN is. People seem more 'Tamil" here; for one thing, their language is purer and more musical that the variety spoken in Madras. They are also more gentle and brutal at the same time. Hard to explain really but its rural good manners, honesty and helpfulness mixed with an extraordinary close-mindedness and tolerance of and capacity for violence. Maybe Sherlock Holmes is right: villages are more scary places than cities.