At the very tip of India

On the southern most tip of India was Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari. I visited this wind swept pilgrimage destination before the rows of souvenir stalls were constructed. I sheltered under a stone structure erected near the ocean but was interrupted by hawkers selling bottles of sand. Chanting like mantras, they claimed the bottles’ contents came from sand by the three seas—the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean which converged at India’s southern point.

The Shore Temple – Mamallapuram

I headed to the beach to catch the sea breeze on a sweltering thirty-four degree afternoon. I waded into the warm ocean that offered some relief when I spied the Shore Temple on an outcrop of land jutting into the Bay of Bengal.

Pondy’s beachfront

I cooled off in a beach side restaurant because it wasn’t only the thirty-two degree heat that had me wilting, but the high humidity drenching my skin. I sat talking to a Mumbai visitor while the Bay of Bengal beckoned.