The Smile of Murugan

Michael Wood offers a touching and humorous account of his journey of more than a thousand miles, through the temples and holy shrines of Southern India. He recounts his transportation into another world and time where ancient rituals at the spritual heart of India are still observed today.

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Some time in the future you will come back here to Chindambaram and you will make a pilgrimage, said the astrologer to Michael Wood as they sat in a small airless house in Tamil Nadu. It is the most important thing you will do. Four years later Michael found himself on a pilgrim bus heading southwards on a journey of more than a thousand miles through the temples and holy shrines of Southern India. The bone-shaking bus, its aisle crammed with passengers on folding chairs and its video showing glimpses of old films through a blaring snowstorm of white static, would transport him into another world and time where the rituals at the spiritual heart of India are still observed as they were a thousand years ago, existing side by side with all the trappings of the modern world. As his many admirers know, Michael Wood is the perfect travelling companion, eyes and ears wide open, knowledgeable yet eager to learn. His touching and humorous account of this inner and outer journey captures both the life-enhancing spirit of Hinduism and the essence of India itself.