Am Anfang ist der Name dieser indischen Stadt ein wirklich unaussprechlicher Zungenbrecher… ich blamiere mich bei jedem Versuch, es trotzdem zu tun… und dennoch… irgendwann meistert man den Rhythmus des Wortes und dann erklingt die Melodie wie eine Schaukel, die an einem Baum im Abendwind fröhlich hin- und herschwingt… Tiruvannnnnamalai… Tiruvannnnnnnamalai…. dein Name ist so zart und lieblich wie die Augen von Sri Ramana Maharshi, der Mann, der dich geprägt hat wie kein anderer. Der Mann auf dem nachfolgenden Bild ist er.

Take a closer look at the picture and observe how it makes you feel.

There is actually nothing more to say about it. I think his cheerful smile if full of unprecedented depth of love and compassion. His skin looks so soft and delicate. He shows himself as he is, with wrinkles, with age spots, with bare skin. His face is naturally beautiful and he is shining so much from the inside that it blows me away every time. He looks directly into my eyes and his energy flows into me and touches me in the core.

It is said that he preferred to be silent rather than speak. I think that's pretty cool about him, too.

So, Tiruvannamalai, this city with the melodic name is special in many ways. There are many special places there. I discovered and particularly loved two of these special places on my India trip:

The "Wild Child Café" and the "Inner Child Restaurant"

A place becomes a special place when it gives you a special feeling. The Wild Child Café and the Inner Child Restaurant are such places. These places are much more than just food places - of course, this is also a part, and the vegetarian food there is damn delicious, but I have experienced there qualities like security, relaxation, community, limitlessness, progress, creativity, upheaval, unconventionality and freedom.

A few snapshots from my memory when I think back of these special places:

1. During breakfast in the lovingly designed garden of the Wild Child Cafe, I see an adult woman inspecting a tree. She touches the trunk and then decides to climb up on the tree. She makes herself comfortable between the branches high up and leans into the tree as if it was a cozy hammock. Her legs are swinging carefree left and right in the wind, she closes her eyes and relaxes. The guests around continue to have breakfast cheerfully and without any comment.

2. I am observing the table group on the other side of the garden path in the Wild Child Cafe. The regular guests surrounding the tables are starting into the day together here every morning. They create abstract pieces of art on drawing paper with colorful watercolors and black ink and marvel at each other's creations. Suddenly, a man dips the pen into the inkwell and carefully paints a moustache onto the face of the Frenchwoman sitting opposite him. The moustache suits the woman extraordinarily well on her delicate facial features. Everyone marvels at the transformation. It is like a mix of gender-specific characteristics resulting in a completely new, unique, living human art form. The woman still wears the moustache when leaving the cafe and I tell her that she should wear the beard more often, because it suits her really well.

3. I enter the Inner Child Restaurant for the first time with my friend Tatiana and on the right side we are greeted by a reddish shiny wooden bookcase. It is full of books about Ramana, Osho, yoga and many other topics that are interesting for spiritual India fans. Tatiana and I smile at each other because we understand each other without any words and feel that we will return to this place more often in the course of the week. We know that we will delve into deep conversations here and discover new treasures together in the still unknown books, while we eat the delicious veggie burgers with fries and BBQ sauce. Hah, life can be so beautiful.

4. The owner of both restaurants, Prem, sits at our table in the garden and explains to Tatiana, Aaron and me how he came up with the name of his two venues. Prem is an Indian man in his early thirties, born in Tiruvannamalai and decided to break through the social corset of forced marriage, compulsion to start a family and pressure to have a job with as much status as possible (doctors and lawyers are very popular). He reports that he attended seminars to heal his inner child and wanted to create a place with the cafe where there is room for wildness, enjoyment and healing. He lives in one of the guest rooms of the cafe and cooks the scrambled eggs for breakfast himself when his cook is on vacation. He makes no secret about the fact that he has had difficult times in life and therefore wanted to create a place for people who also may be going through difficult times to offer them refuge and peace. And delicious food 😁

Thanks, Tiruvannamalai...

Tiruvannamalai, if you would be a human being, I gently would take your hands into mine and lovingly press them saying "Thank you" to you wordlessly in my thoughts. I would look into your eyes and smile so that you can feel that I like you and that you have touched my heart. It was a pleasure. See you next time.

Link to the Instagram profile of The Inner Child Restaurant

Link to the Instagram profile of Wild Child Cafe

Lots of Love,

Your Salome