tidbits from india

I still have not been able to process everything that I saw in India. It was such an amazing country with beautiful people and I cannot explain all the emotions that I felt throughout my stay. After the YMCA visit I had one day before I left for a three-night homestay in a rural village. On that free day I went with Semester at Sea to Kancheepuram, the city of temples, and to Mamallapuram, the main city for silk weaving. That day was nice just to get out and drive through India and being able to see the countryside and some cities besides Chennai. By the way, the streets of Chennai are like a circus gone wild. Traveling through the roads into town was like a video game come to life. There were no rules, and it was a race to the finish line. On the roads the dividing line played no part for it was expected that with a honk of the horn you could switch sides and pass the player in front of you. The streets bustled with green and red buses that were stuffed to the brim. They packaged the sweaty bodies in tight with women on one side and the men on the other. The buses shared the streets with the cars, the cars with the motorcycles, the motorcycles with the rickshaws, the rickshaws with the bicycles. Oh, and not to forget the pedestrians that weaved their way along with the flow. Everyone drove with a determined end in sight and they would run over you if you did not move. The horn on their wheel was their cure-all, for when they honked they gave their warning of their illegal move and proceeded on with business. Surprisingly I was not uncomfortable with the driving in any sense. I enjoyed the open air from the tiny rickshaws and I found pleasure in their weaving in and out on the roads. There was no hostility in the driving, as the race did not seem competitive, rather it was a fun way to proceed with getting from one place to the other.
Once we made it out of the Chennai area the landscape turned to fields of green with the occasional grazing ox on the side of the road eating the scraps of garbage that had been collected from over the years. It was such an interesting concept to me that the country is so beautiful yet there was so much trash. I know it may sound odd, but in a way it fit the scenery for when passing the shops and buildings on the streets the people that bustled throughout the city wore beautiful colors. The women all wore saris that somehow complemented every womanly curve, and with each color imaginable, they created a Crayola assortment of life that lit up the roads. The garbage played its role as well as it was just as colorful and added a punch to the ornaments that decorated the streets.
Kancheepuram was interesting. The temples reminded me of my own Roman and Greek history as the reliefs carved into the structures depicted scenes of processions of people. With my classical history I know that the temples that are now white washed stone and marble were once upon a time painted with bright colors, but I had never been able to fully imagine the way they would be…that is until now. The temples in India were so colorful with their reds, blues, greens, oranges and yellows, that they seemed almost cheesy or overdone. If not painted the stone carvings were phenomenal. One of the temples was so tall, like a layer cake with 40 tiers. The temple had monkeys playing on the outside carvings, which was very much like a vision from the jungle book.
In Mamallapuram I saw an ancient shore temple as well as this giant stone ball that is oddly placed due to gravity. It is way to difficult to try and explain the phenomenon, but it was like an 80 foot wide marble floating on a hill. This monument was within a park that had monkeys and vendors swarming. The vendors used their guilty stories to make you buy their goods and the monkeys just wreaked havoc running around scaring the tourists. One man was dressed in an outfit appearing like a gypsy and he had a monkey on a leash. This monkey was quite possibly the most frightening thing I have ever seen. It had on clothes, makeup and jewelry. Of course I felt sorry for it, performing all day to make a few rupees, but I mean it was creepy. As Vince put it perfectly, “That is no Abu!”
Speaking of Vince, he, Kara and I were together for the next 72 hours. The three of us knew each other through mutual friends on the ship, but it wasn’t until our homestay in Erode did we get to know each other and form what I like to refer to as the tripod. The night after the temple visits we all left for the overnight train, set for our journey to the rural south of India. The train station had people packed in like sardines, waiting for their destinations to appear on the overhead board. After a frantic following of our group leaders to our boarding platform we boarded the train to Erode and found ourselves in a private sleeper car that fit 15 or so people. The train was no luxury by any means, but it was suitable for our needs and fun to experience the local means of travel.
Because we were not yet tired and everyone in our car wanted to get to know one another, we played a name game (Lydia- Lysol, Marissa- Macaroni Salad, Kara- Kangaroo, Vince- Inappropriate…) and then we resorted to the ever-pleasing game of Go Fish. A train guard came to talk to us crazy kids who were awake as the other passengers slept away and we tried to explain to him where we came from and where we were going. With the language barrier and Vince’s lies the man walked away believing that we were 700 students living on a fishing boat that went around the world and we went fishing all day long. It was hilarious, but I am sure you had to be there to find it entertaining…
Once we finally settled into bed we parted to our respective compartments. I was in a section with four beds- two bunk beds, and across Vince and Taylor slept on bunks that ran across the hall (I know this makes no sense). There were no doors in the compartments, only curtains, so we pushed our luggage under the more spacious four bed curtained rooms and slept with our passports as theft is common. I was just waiting for someone to reach through the curtain that night and grab at my feet hoping that they could find some treasure but that didn’t happen and I slept just fine for the 4 hours that we had left.
When we arrived in Erode our group of 30 was split up 10 people going to one place and 20 to the other. I was in the group of 20 that went to Jayaramapuram, which was a farming village outside of Erode. Our cars held 10 people apiece but somehow mine only had like 6 of us as passengers that began the union of the tripod. We went to the farm and stayed in the home of Mr. Jayaraman, the man the village is named after. The house was open and spacious with rooms with floor mats lay out for beds and an indoor atrium to have tea and conversation.
We took tours of their farm, seeing the different fruits they grew then distributed throughout the community. They basically provided stablity for the town as the fruit they grew was sold to the village and the coconut hide was turned to rope and the sugarcane was exported. We visited their local factories as well as school and weaving facilities. After we returned I had an afternoon nap before heading out to their market.
The village market was filled with colors- the sarees, the fabric, the fruit and vegetables. We each made some purchases without the hassle of bargaining as the community was not used to tourists and the idea of bartering and cheating money out of the unsuspecting. It was a very different experience to walk around the village market rather than a city; it offered a completely different feeling.
That night we ate our dinners, which by the way were so great. I forgot to mention the point that we ate with our hands, sat on the floor and walked around barefoot. It was fabulous. I think I may take to it upon returning home. I really enjoyed the Indian food. The spices were great, we had a different variety of banana at each meal and we ate off of giant banana leaves that played the role of plates.
We stayed up late that night discussion politics and religion with our younger host Purni. Random conversations are as follow:
“The US should leave the conflict in the Middle East and let it continue,” said Purni, “for without the conflict in the middle east the US would be in trouble”. My host for 3 days was a mother of two and a modern woman. Still dressed in a saree but with a short, non-traditional haircut, she was a well-educated woman and a prime resource for discussion. When the topic of politics came up she passionately expressed a very international view about the world and looked at the interest of the other. She informed us that America must pull out of the war and quit wasting our money because if we were to succeed and peace came across the Middle East, the US would have bigger problems ahead. The conflict between the Sunnis and the Shiites has been around for centuries. Their conflict along with the numerous others have been power struggles that make up their history. If they were to all get along and unite, they would be a force that the world could not destroy. If all the conflict were resolved, the US, along with the rest of the world, would be under the control of the Middle East powers. It just makes you think…Also with religion Purni said of Hinduism that God is like electricity. He takes on different forms in different situations but you cannot see or explain where it comes from. This was Purni’s explanation of the Hindu God that they believed in. It was fascinating to learn that they believe in all gods including the modern day Christian god for historically speaking it makes sense that the one God took on each different form for each different set of people. This one transformative God takes the form of the war god, the good luck god, the god of aggression or love and many others. It is up to the person to form a more personal attachment with the God that they would like to identify with, but they believe that they are all one in the same.
We spoke about arranged marriage, Saddam Hussein, President Bush, US war funding and other controversial topics. It was very interesting and very hard to pull myself away from once it reached 1 am.
The second day we left the farm and went into Erode visiting a few schools including one for children with polio. It was definitely a memorable experience and it was amazing to see the children perform tae kwon do and dances for us. We received bindis and had jasmine flowers put in our hair so even though we were not Indians, we were decorated as though we were.
One of our guides took a liking to Vince. I should mention that Vince is in the process of growing out a very sparse mustache and our guide (who was referred to as Moosh, which means mustache) had a very large and filled out one. So once Vince asked about tips to grow out a great mustache like Moosh’s, the man was intrigued by him. Soon enough he was holding Vince’s hand or rested his around his shoulder, as male affection is very common and was a sign of friends. I understand it is a cultural thing, but even if Vince will never admit it his arm looked so limp and awkward every time Moosh took hold. Haha…it was so funny. Also, evidently Vince looks like Dhoni, a famous Indian cricket player, so for the rest of the stay he went around saying that he was Dhoni and with his fake Indian accent he even we so far as to tell some school children that is who he was and as soon as they heard the dispersed to grab their cricket equipment. When they returned Vince fessed up and offered jellybeans in return for his fib.
With the rest of the day we were shuttle around from place to place seeing a pit weaving center and a medicinal factory and then finally we returned to another sleeper train. This time we were not alone in or compartment and Kara and I had to take the wall bunks. Not ready for bed but forced to keep our chatter to a minimum Vince, Kara and I all scrunched onto one bed and closed the curtain so that we could gossip about our time.
On the last day in Chennai a group of us went shopping. We started out with 8, but because the rickshaws are crazy and the drivers are liars, we were split up. Molly, Vince and I began our shopping and miraculously we found Kara later on. We bought some music, found a cricket magazine with “Vince” in it (aka Dhoni) and bought the rest of our random items like hand beaded shoes and bags. We later found a great antique shop that Vince and I took a great liking to as the owner told us stories and loved the fact that we loved antiques.
While shopping most of the time I didn’t care enough to bargain because it was so cheap. Vince found it entertaining to fight with the people and even said to one carpet seller that if he wanted to spend 60 dollars on a carpet he would be better of laying down 60 one-dollar bills and making a carpet of money because he would never walk on it. Where he comes up with these comebacks I have no idea, but the were worth the laughs.
India was fabulous. My favorite stop by far. Ah I have so much more…hopefully I will write it down.