The tip of the subcontinent: Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu
It is two hours before dawn in Kanyakumari and I wake up to what sounds like a teenage party, with yelling and blasting music. I get up to reprimand but come to the sleepy realization that everyone in the entire hotel is awake, the pre-party is in full swing, I am wrong - it is not the middle of the night, it is morning - and it's time to put on our sunday best and go to the party. The grey morning is delightfully cool (babies are in ski masks - we figure that's how they retrain their internal thermometers from an early age - and people are shivering) and hundreds (maybe over a thousand) people await the auspicious event - sunrise over the turbulent convergence of the three seas. School kids in uniform on a field trip line up against the wall, teenagers eye each other, and everybody stands around drinking chai from the bicycle chai-wallas and snapping photos with their cell phones. Vendors selling plastic shell junk and the Indian equivalent of dollar stores line the streets. It feels like a blend of the Santa Cruz County Fair and Venice Beach, but then morning pujas are performed at small shrines and brightly colored sarees and dupattas blow in the wind and the whole crowd is cheering and clapping when the sun finally peaks over the cumulous clouds in the distance. Cheering for the sunrise! I love this country!
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