Rameshawaram. Battle for your soul.
Rameshwaram is one of the places many Hindus go to perform the last rites of the dead. Ashes are immersed in the shallow bone-strewn sand near the Ramnathaswamy Shiva Temple where Rama along with the rescued Sita are believed to have performed an offering (puja) after their victory in the war against the super-intelligent Ravana.
I'm not sure how and when Rameshwaram became a popular place for immersing ashes but there's an industry built around it which involve a lot of rituals, and it's often a few days after some one near or dear has died and the loss is usually fresh. As the person drives back from the temple towards the mainland, on the left side of the roads are a where you find the above messages on the walls.
If you are a Hindu, not sure that your rituals have saved the souls of the newly departed, the above messages are for you in your language.
There's something disturbing in this message that I cannot nail. There's something disturbing that you see more BJP flags than anywhere else in Tamil Nadu fluttering here (LK Advani should love this place, perfect dirt for his lotus to bloom into a blooming nuisance). There's something disturbing that the church does not have a steeple but concrete scaffolding that's designed to place the idol higher than the famous temple nearby. And close by is a mosque with the longest stick you can imagine instead of a minaret and a head above the idol on the church, with the largest speakers one can imagine.
Religions are testosterone driven males showing off who has the biggest dick. Thankfully, the rest of us have Pastafarian.
Trivia: Cane and Abel (Known here as Habeel and Qabeel and not a cheap paperback you find in Wheelers and Higginbothams) are believed to be buried here at a Dargah.
