Wednesday, September 21, 2011

DIL SE

From Madurai city we traveled 20 K to a small village named Oomachikulum and stayed 4 days with a beautiful family of adopted children in an ashram call DIL SE. It was beautiful. We were fed traditional south Indian three times daily. It was a treat the village was beautiful. No all consuming rubbish piles, healthy looking dogs, blue skies devoid of the city smog, cute dirt trails and concrete and tree Kohlis. The children were adorable and called us brother and sister and ANTIE! horrendously i can't remember all there names but those that come to mind are the cheeky boys who took hundreds of photos of themselves daily with our camera, Yogesh, Angu Swami and Saravanan. The new kid Viramani was an insane little guy who on occation really lost his head, when we had a spotaneous dance party one night. He let loose like a true Indian dancing the limbo under some impossible invissible pole with his tiny eyes searching the wall behind him. Vera was sweet. Viccy was the married sister staying still at Dil Se boysterous and strong and her husband who drove a dirty great Indian sports bike. Dirty great Indian sports bikes are great. There are five odd children i've missed including the beautiful older sister who sand lovely songs and prayers on Chandra Bose's (dad's) whim and to her brothers and sisters to entertain them. The others were the four or perhaps more beautiful girls who were more reserved than the boys and had many chores throughout the day time and of course school to attend. The eldest brother at home was Karthik Bose who was ultra sweet. On medical camp day, which occurs once a month Karthick was in charge of stiring the great pot that feed 300 hungry villagers that day a georgous rice biriyani, Gold and I got to cut vegies with standing knive that you would hold down with one leg and pulse tomatos with our palms. Karthik drove us around in the Dil Se Ricksaw and guided us around madurai city and through the splendid Meenakshi Temple Comple and the Ghandi ji Museum. Very appropriate as the Dil Se is a totally GHANDIAN affair. Ghandian is a beautifully concept of all religeons are one. There is no conflict there is no hate, that sort of jive.

Confussingly enough other children came and went during the days (the Dil Se kids are quite popular) The neigbours kids four boys strong and an multipul girls who hid behind there Kohli when i arrived roped me into a cricket match in the feild next to Dil Se. I played a spendid game with some stunnng wickets and catches naturally. The children were ver impressed and i heard nothing but cricket from them for the next few days 'SIR when will you come play cricket?' and 'very good our cricket friend'.

During the mass cook that day my brothers had me drawing their portraits and soon eough the cricket team insisted also. Indians are very nice about my scetch books. They grasp them tightly and say 'OHHHHH SUPER!' and 'very nice' and take my hand to shake it.

We played snap
We danced
We cooked
We certainly ate
We relaxed
We washed clothes and they were dry again in minutes
We painted a mural on the classroom/bedroom wall for the kids featuring Dil Se rickshaw, Tiger (the dog) and Daisy ( the cow)
We preyed for Krishnas birthday
We wished Chandra Bose and Mama Ji happy anniversary
and we finally said our goodbyes in a great big family circle.
We must go back and see our brothers and sisters regularly. I miss them now and i miss the peace in the village.

Sigh


I have photos to add to this but it will be much later as my laptop has died forever and i need to extract his HD

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Indian art woiks







GANESHA







Sunny









Vishnu






Rick










GOLD









Leopold Cafe Mumbai











Veiw at Ahmedabad. Brilliant people watching balcony. I have videos. STAY AT THE CADELAC HOTEL IN AHMEDABAD! NO TUKTUK COMMISSIONS!!








The Red Shield Mumbai, dining hall








The Boring Museum Chochin








Saturday, September 17, 2011




Ernakulum to Madurai

NAMASTE BITCHES

So we went to Ernakulum, it was comfortable and relativelt Indian. The regular city buzz and honk HONK loud 'yesssssss sir!' 'havealoook veryhappy price' we stayed at Jhon's residency which was beautiful and clean and deep yellow. There was a chia wallah outside the front door making breakfast effortless and cheap and deidedly upright every morning. Late night chia also a big plus.

Government bus Ernakulum KL to Madurai City Tamil Nadu State. We to the late night to save on a hotel room and got about 20 minutes sleep colectively on the 10 hour drive. LOUDEST BUS EVER!. Government busses overnight is probably just a shit idea. So uncomfortable. You really would be better off standing that is until you collapse in the alsie. Thank GOD for the earplugs we brought in Ernakulum from one of the hardware stores. I couldhave litteraly died from the noise. It's that bad.

We were welcomed to Madurai by swarms of tuktuk drivers at 4 in the morning so we faught with them and proceeded to walk to the city centre were we watched the sunrise over a strange dusty old western looking town full of tired Indians and over the tops of the delecately carved, harshly sun damaged and ancient wooded buildings, with swinging prlour bar doorways and all you could see the peeks of the enormos towers of the Meenakshi Temple at the geographic centre of the city.

We walked around the bahemouth temple at sun down drinking 7up and reveling in the government enforced silence ( not technically silence, not silence at all just no rickshaws or scooters honking at one another and a surprising lack of wallahs)

We stayed at an awful hotel the Gengai. There is little to no difference between at least the anemnities or cleanliness of the hotels we stay in. We have been I think for our budget extremely lucky with our accomodations and still i'm sure i only ever rate either AMAZING or SHIT HOLE. There is no middle ground for me. if a place has no character it can't be amazing it is a default shit hole. The Gengai was a depressing shit hole and no one should stay there. Madurai is alright and the temple is fantastical but I would suggest you stay out of the city where there is real oxygen and healthy, non rabid animals. India is beautiful outside the big cities.

We left Madurai City the next morning.