South to Mamallapuram

Like Chennai, Mamallapuram is located on the east coast of India, in the state of Tamil Nadu.  Both have sandy beaches on the Bay of Bengal.  However, while Chennai is a major population center, Mamallapuram is a delightfully compact small town set in a region dominated by farming villages.

On Friday, the second day of our land tour, we drove south and reached the outskirts of Mamallapuram in the middle of the afternoon.  Before going into the town itself, we made a visit to the KVS Bharath Madha Nursery and Primary School.  This school was recently selected to receive support from the Grand Circle Foundation.  (OAT is division of Grand Circle.)

Jaisingh had already given us some interesting facts about education in India.  Girls and women can get free education at government-supported schools and universities, all the way through the doctoral level.  For men, the situation is slightly more complicated.  The cost of education is based on caste.  For boys and men from the lower castes (as well as for dalits, formerly known as untouchables), all education is free at “normal,” i.e. government-supported, schools.  However, boys and men from higher castes must pay for their education, with the amount determined by their caste.  

In addition to the normal schools, private educational institutions abound in India.  The majority of private schools are associated with Christian, especially Roman Catholic, churches.  Because they are generally considered to be superior to normal schools, they attract many students from middle- and upper-class families, regardless of their religion.

The private school we visited was not religious in nature.  As its founder and director explained, he started the school following the death of his wife 30 years ago using money from a family trust.  The goal was to provide a good education to poor children living in nearby farming villages.  The school is quite small, with a couple of rustic buildings, a student body of thirty or forty and a faculty of three teachers. The children at the school range in age from 4 to 11.  Boys and girls are in separate classes. The majority of the children pay nothing for their education, books, uniforms, and supplies.  For those few boys from higher caste families, the fee is 6000 rupees (approximately $90) per year.

When we arrived near the end of the school day, the children, all dressed in neat uniforms, were eagerly awaiting us.  Most spoke or understood some English (English instruction is part of the curriculum).  The former educators in our group were invited teach the children songs or games.  After being out of the classroom for a while, I relished the opportunity to step into the teacher role again. 

After the school visit, a real surprise was awaiting us.  Our Mamallapuram hotel for the next three nights was the Radisson Blu Temple Bay, a gorgeous resort on the shores of the Bay of Bengal.  The rooms were spacious and luxuriously decorated.  Balconies overlooked tropical gardens.  A long curving swimming pool (in fact, the longest in India) snaked through the property with chairs for poolside lounging set up under the palm trees.  I could immediately picture myself spending winters here.  And that was before I’d even seen the beach! 

At the Radisson Blu Temple Bay - paradise!

Complimentary high tea was being served by the infinity pool shortly after our arrival.  I hurried down to investigate.  There were no tea sandwiches, but from the Anglo-Indian array of snacks, I chose some savory fried items (onion pakoras, and cheese-stuffed pastry rolls), which looked more interesting than the English biscuits.  A sense of wellbeing settled over me as I sipped my milky masala chai and gazed out over the infinity pool to the rolling waves of the bay.  Yes, I thought with a sigh, I could get used to this.

Looking out at the Bay of Bengal as the sun sinks towards the horizon