By Karen Middleton
March 04, 2008 09:58 pm
—
The Rev. Charley Alookaran, pastor of St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Athens, makes the long journey back to his native state Kerala, India, every year.
But this year it was more than an annual vacation to visit relatives. He became the tour guide on a religious pilgrimage of India for 11 of his St. Paul’s parishioners.
Alookaran, 48, has been pastor of St. Paul’s for nearly four years and is known affectionately as “Father Charley” to his flock.
While most of India is Hindu, 2.6 percent is Christian, and most of those Catholic, according to Alookaran. While 2.6 percent doesn’t sound like a large number, given India’s 1.1-billion population, it adds up to about 26 million Christians in the nation. Most Catholics in India live along the lower western states and in Calcutta.
The Apostle Thomas introduced Christianity to India in A.D. 52 and brought the gospel to its people until his death from being wounded with a lance in A.D. 72. St. Thomas is entombed in the Basilica of San Thome in the small chapel he built there.
When Alookaran learned that a group of his parishioners were interested in visiting the religious shrines of India, he put together a tour book for them and served as their guide.
Alookaran left on the 43-hour flight to India Jan. 2. The 11 St. Paul’s members followed Jan. 7.
“I never got caught up on my rest until I got back,” said St. Paul’s member Greg Beam, who made the trip with his wife, Connie.
“Because of the time sequences, you lose what day you’re in,” said John O’Neill, who made the trip with his wife, Nancy.
The length of the trip is accounted for by long layovers. The group flew from Nashville to J.F.K. International Airport to Dubai and from there to Kochi in the southwestern tip of India. Beam said the group flew United Arab Emirates Air and all seats on the airplane are equipped with TV monitors for watching movies all the way.
“This was really a pilgrimage, not a vacation,” said Beam. “Much of it was not easy, but was truly rewarding. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Alookaran’s family in India consists of his 84-year-old mother, two brothers and two sisters.
“I had three brothers and three sisters,” said Alookaran. “One of my brothers is also a priest in Brooklyn and I have another sister who is a nun. One sister has died.”
Welcoming feast
Alookaran’s family gathered at his mother’s home in Kerala for a welcoming feast when the 11 St. Paul’s people arrived five days after he.
“They served us a seven-course meal that they must have had to work for days to prepare,” said O’Neill.
The meal consisted of fish, a chicken dish, a beef dish in the shape of a heart, vegetables, rice, two more vegetables, and a bread made from a rice flower and raisins. For dessert was “rasagala,” a North India treat resembling a large donut hole, dipped in honey and served with ice cream.
“You’ve got to like rice because it’s in everything they make,” said Beam.
Alookaran said most people in India eat rice or a rice product at least three times a day.
“The kitchen was off the dining room and they all gathered in the kitchen to watch us eat,” said Beam. “They wouldn’t come out and eat until after we had eaten.”
“That is the custom in India,” said Alookaran.
The family also provided “garlands” for everyone, much as the Hawaiians greet visitors with leis. The garlands are made of brass foil from which are suspended medallions.
Some of the group enjoyed Indian beer, which Beam said is very good and available when bottled water isn’t.
The first stop on the pilgrimage was the place where St. Thomas came ashore and the different shrines erected to him throughout Kerala.
Elephant farm
“We also visited an elephant farm where they are trained for work and amusement,” said Beam.
Alookaran explained that elephants are used extensively in India for lifting logs and heavy construction materials and are always included in native ceremonies where they are employed in odd numbers, such a one, three and five. The elephants are draped in ceremonial decorations.
“The 68 elephants we saw are owned by a Hindu temple,” said Alookaran. He said that wealthy Indians make gifts of baby elephants to temples. The elephants are trained to work and they are rented out to people for heavy jobs and to appear at feasts in their full decorative garb. That is how the temples earn revenue to operate.
Visit with visionary
Also while in Kerala, the group went to see a visionary.
“This is a visionary that the Blessed Mother has been appearing to,” said Alookaran. “She said she has received a rosary from the Blessed Mother. She is a very humble woman. She just meets and talks with you. She won’t accept money from anyone.”
Alookaran said the woman is said to have had milk and honey seep from the palms of her hands and she has also displayed “stigmata,” or wounds to her hands, feet and side corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ.
At Chennai, formerly known as Madras, the group visited the spot where St. Thomas was martyred and buried.
In Goa, the group visited the Basilica of de Bom Jesus in which the remains of St. Francis Xavier are kept in a glass coffin for viewing. While in Goa, they also visited the grand Se Cathedral.
In Delhi, the group visited the Taj Mahal.
“It is a 120-mile trip to the Taj Mahal and it took five hours one way because of the terrible traffic,” said Greg.
In Kolkata, the group visited the motherhouse of Mother Teresa, who founded the order of Missionaries of Charity in 1950.
“Father Charley said mass at her tomb inside the chapel where she is buried,” said Greg.
Untapped resource
O’Neill observed that India is an untapped resource for the West.
“India is the largest Democracy in the world,” said O’Neill. “I don’t see what fascinates the West about China. It has 1.3 billion people but it is a very repressive society. In India, they have a Democracy that tries to improve conditions for its people. They are a very family-centric society. Once the sun sets, all you see is men out on the streets. All the women and children are inside.”
Alookaran said that still in India about 80 percent of marriages are arranged by parents using what could be called a “broker” who checks out references and backgrounds of eligible marriage partners. He said sometimes young people leave their state to earn higher degrees, such as an MBA or doctorate, and meet someone of their own choosing and bring that person home for approval.
He said Indian parents do not bind their children to the arranged match if they find someone else. However, the arranged marriage is usually achieved in very short order and the young couple then has to become acquainted after they have wed. They usually live with the groom’s parents, at least for a while.
Most property is inherited through male heirs, but if there are no male heirs, land or property is divided between daughters.
Alookaran said that divorce is extremely rare. While there is no official government mandate to limit the number of children, there are plentiful posters on the backs of cars, beside roads and on buildings encouraging couples to limit their families to two children.
Dense traffic
Cars and rickshaws share the roads with camels, elephants, camels, oxen, cattle, bicycles, motorcycles, a three-wheeled “meter-maid” type vehicle and all manner of human and animal-pulled carts.
“They all have signs on the back that say to blow the horn,” said O’Neill. “But with all the cacophony of noise and no road signs there is no road rage. They just accommodate each other. If two vehicles are coming on, they somehow decide who goes first. I believe that says a lot about the people who are unbelievably accommodating to each other.”
The group returned home on Jan. 19.
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