In Search of Inner Child (in Dindigul) & The Curious Case of 3 Frogs

I have been inactive on the blog scene for more than a week. It was a pre-planned seminar which we attended with a lot of anticipation. It was on "Healing of Inner Child" conducted by Capuchin (OFM, Cap) priests at a place called Dindigul (TN). I was accompanied by two persons, Br.Loyola Dominic and Sr.Remedia Fernandes of CSXNRIs. CSXNRIs stands for Cloistered Sisters of Ex-NRIs (NRI stands for Non-Resident Indians). Br. Loyola had, as always, a single point agenda, namely to explore the 'famous'  local eateries. (Come to think about it, that was his inner child issue) and Sr.Fernandes, although she started in right earnest with utmost sincerity, it was not long before she followed Br.Loyola in his foodie ways. I confess, I was too hungry not to have joined them and take equal share of the blame in the crime (without any sense of remorse or guilt) .

The visit to this, almost nondescript, place called Dindigul was far from adventurous. Though, I must say we tried hard to make it so. When we reached there, Sr.Remedia pointed out if this place could be googled at all. Through out our stay, we did not lose any opportunity to pass remarks on this town and its 'small stature' ranging from jocular to downright condescending. It may not be on a backpacker's map or on the menu of a high end travel services company but I  must say that the town was not all that bad. The roads were better than Bangalore at most places. The town  area had everything which one needs to have a decent life. There was even a mall (stop blinking, its true). Because of  scorching hot climate, we slept on the terrace along with other participants and the night sky was  just amazing. Its ages since I saw so many stars (hundreds of them) up there. the air was clean and fresh and the local people least intruding or annoying (unlike city folks). The day the seminar ended, we hired a cab and went up one of the hills, which  surround the town.  I tried to strike a conversation with Cabbie so that I could share the love of Christ with him but the man was a million miles away from this 'foreign language' called English. Hindi for him, of course, was like  from a galaxy far away from our own milky way. After initial 'pleasantries' , he asked me quite confidently, "where your country?". I thought 'I mean don't I even look an Indian'. Thoroughly offended, I  allowed him to drive through the hair-pin bends and did not bother him again. Its not his fault, He will obviously prefer his local language it was I who was handicapped in reaching out to him. The place he drove us to is called Sirumalai and that was one of the high points of our visit. The hills are as high as about 1700ft above sea level  (or so our learned cabbie  informed us) and this is where it got the most adventurous. We were drove past 18 hair pin bends and many a cloud to reach the summit. Remedia was the happiest as she got to 'eat' the clouds (For some people old habits die hard). This, inspite of trying the best food which this place is famous for viz, biriyani at the (locally) famous Venu Restaurant. We later on tried the other famous biriyani joint Thalapakati Biriyani also. In my opinion, former was much better than the latter, though it is Thalapakatti which is more famous. Must say, we ate like ravenous hogs.

After reaching back home, I thought of checking this place on the internet and (eureka, eureka!! ), the search engine found it with consummate ease. Not only was Dindigul on Google, it had a dedicated page on Wikipedia also. So much for our general knowledge. I was born & brought up in the capital city of New Delhi, and now lived in another big city, Bangalore. Sr.Remedia was NRI in Gulf for a long time (hence the  choice of congregation) before moving to Bangalore and Dominic also hails from the metropolitan city of Chennai. So all of us had the big city 'pomplex' , if I may call it that. Guess what Thalapakatti Biriyani had its own portal also and so did Venu Restaurant ( www.dindigulvenubiriyani.com ). Hence proved that broadband internet had arrived at Dindigul much before 3 ignorant city bred 'frogs' landed there for a week. In Hindi, there is this term 'Kuaen Ka Maindak' (Frog living in a Well). A frog living in a Well thinks that the Well which he inhabits is the biggest, the most sophisticated place in the world simply because he has never been able to go to (or bothered to check) the world outside. We were like three frogs embarking on a journey to a place,  we had not much of an idea about and nor did we bother to learn about. I had often thought to myself how would life be in small & sleepy towns. Infact one of my dreams has always been to drive cross country with my family to small locations and to live out of makeshift tents and do unplanned explorations with my son.Well, surely some day....Amen to that!

As for the seminar, it did not have a whole lot to offer us and by the time we came back we had more questions than before. We have been in the Charismatic Renewal for so many years that The Lord has been constantly doing His healing work in us in most beautiful of ways, ways that are beyond  reason and have helped us to grow in Love for Him and neighbor. This program was all about psychology and was more to do with cause and effect of / on human behavior and how to manage them. At the same, though I can't speak for the other two but I  did, actually pick up many psychological concepts which will help me in dealing with myself and also in my ministry work.