Traveling from Kottayam to Kanyakumari took six and a half hours, an average of forty kilometers an hour for a distance of close to two fifty kilometers. While my other travels so far have averaged about seventy kilometers an hour, this reflects the state’s infrastructure problem.

So we arrived in Kanyakumari. Reaching the southern most tip of India was both exciting and painful. It was exciting because we were at a place in India where three seas merge to become one, the famous Vivekananda Rock memorial that people visit from all over the country, and the fact we could witness both sunset and sunrise on the ocean from the same point. On the other hand, the visit was painful because of the abject poverty, which doesn’t go unnoticed just as you enter the city. The place is not kept clean even though there is much influx of visitors each day, which should generate good income for a city so important, and attractive.

I felt that the youth had no opportunities in this town. They are on the streets selling goods, collecting parking fees, with no decent income needed to care for their families. I selected a kid on the street for my voice of the youth series, this kid was responsible for collecting rupees hundred from each vehicle that entered the city of Kanyakamari. It is sad to see a youth with such potential, wasting his precious youth on the streets all day long.

On the positive note I was able to sit and meditate at the rock memorial and on our way back we discovered a beautiful Ram temple worth a visit. The temple was beautiful and the meal, the best we have had so far on our trip to the south at restaurant named Chitra Hotel, inside the campus for the temple.