Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu - 12th Jan 2011

So the day begins with idli-sambhar breakfast at the canteen of the Pillar hospital where we’re staying. Everybody is upbeat, looking forward to the 1^st day of our campaign and what it holds in store.

We visited the tip of Kanyakumari before the main program later. Oh wow! What a sight! The Indian Ocean sparkled in all its glory with a sprinkling of boats here and there. You could see Vivekananda Rock in the distance, towering over the waves.. We’d be going there soon.

There’s this beautiful church where we are. White and so exquisitely built. We’ve clambered on to the 1^st level to get the view of the ocean.

.

But just standing there, drinking in the sweet n’ salty ocean breeze, you can help but forget about everything else. It just actually helps you live the moment coz staring out into the expanse, your breath is all there is. Sigh.. I could stay here for hours.

Now we’re on to literally our 1^st steps of the journey. We start off on foot to where the boats are to ferry us to Vivekananda Rock. Loooooong lines, but we’re given a little special treatment coz of our campaign. We get to jump the whole snaking part of it and head out with the front of the line. But what a crowd! Before boarding the boats, everybody has to take a life jacket and get on. Rakesh joked that he doesn’t need one because he knows how to swim and out of everyone, he’ll be the only one swimming for shore. Savita said that that may be so, but we’ll all grab his leg and it wont matter that we cant swim.  So the image would be like 20 people hooked on to Rakesh’s leg while he swims to land. You can’t outsmart us, Savita expressioned. You should have seen Rakesh’s expression.. It was such a quick response and he didn’t see it coming.Hehehe..

At Vivekananda Rock, we all went to the mandapas and looked around trying to take in the piece of history we were standing on. The whole place had a very peaceful vibe to it despite being so crowded. And the wind was something else, whipping on at top speed, especially in the center of the rock, probably because it was the most open space. But even that felt pleasant here. Enjoyable even.

At the main mandapa, everyone sat and meditated for a while on our campaign and prayed for its success and positive outcome. Those 15 minutes were very special.

We’re all wearing coordinated t-shirts of our campaign and it felt like a photo-op you couldn’t miss!

Community lunches are always fun. It’s never really about the food, but the company is what makes it so enjoyable. And here, most of us were having food we haven’t had before, or food we haven’t had here before (Like the original dosa or idli). It was fun to see people stuff themselves because they were served too much and didn’t want to waste food. Plus the coconut chutney was something else.. It’s probably so ordinary out here, but I really enjoyed it more than the normal person. Especially the khushboo of green chilli that came with every bite.

I hope, one day, we get into a food fight. Like all out. That would be the funnest.

After lunch, Rakesh got a few red bananas for us. We had seen them all over and kept wondering what they were like. Peeling them, Deepika, Joice & I were anticipating something kind of magical. And they tasted almost like regular bananas. But everyone was watching us holding the red skins, and we made all the appropriate faces, so it was still kind of cool.

The very first program of our campaign was in the evening. We had called all the locals in the area and it was encouraging to see they were a looooooot of kids. Our girls put on their dances and that was a wonderful kick-off to the event. We released some doves, as the ever graceful symbol of peace and liberty they are. Some of the kids also put up these really cute dances. All the while, everything stayed on the road of our message – Let there be peace.

There was this moment when some of the kids went up to Joice and started interacting with her. These young ones didn’t know anything else except Tamil, but it didn’t stop them from trying to forge communication with this new friend. It gave me a really happy feeling. There is no age to friendship, nor is there need to prescribe a language.

Towards the end, we lit a candle and handed it over to our compatriots here. It was the K2K candle, meant to spread our message and let the light of that message spread far and wide. This was one tradition we were gonna continue in each place.

Finally, Bishop Leo flagged off our campaign like people do when they wave a flag in front of cars when they’re starting a race. It was then that it truly felt like the beginning.