Continued obsession with trip to India...
Arrived in India on 3 June 2003...
I broke my foot two days prior to leaving the States. Doctor #1 had said that the trip was off....doctor #2 said that he'd get some crutches and an air cast for me and to finish packing!!
The innocents...layover in Amsterdam.
7 June
It's about 6:45 pm, which means it's an icky time of day. At 6:30, the house takes a deep breath as the lights go out and the fans slow for the daily power outage. It only lasts about 30 minutes, but time and heat work on very different scales here.
8 June
It is now 12 hours late and is my favorite time of day. The Irumkulangara temple (a devi temple) across the road is calling people to devotion with the daily Sanskrit litany. Large speakers amplify the chants throughout our upper class neighborhood.
This tree is one that is a favorite for worship among local women. There is also a Ganesh shrine, a serpent shrine, and the main devi shrine.
Taken from the rooftop of our house. This is the pond that is a regular presence at temples across this part of India. Teenage Brahmin boys bath here every afternoon and often try to peek in our windows while they are there.
We're heading to Kovalom Beach today (for the first time). It will be good to get out of the city and to do something different...though I'm not so pleased about the group outing.
later...
The beach and the waves were breathtaking. There were very long fishing boats hiked up onto the shore that could have been made by hand.
The beach vendors attacked up and were very good at making us feel guilty...I ended up buying some nice things. Garlic tiger prawns for dinner!!
Captures the intensity of the beach vendors. Poor Rachel hates this picture...but this is how most of us felt during the barrage.
10 June
I'm having an interesting time with my dichotomous feelings about this place. I know that I have only 2 months here and that I should embrace and enjoy every moment I have. On the other hand, home is such a wonderful thing...Erich...Jasmine...Frasier...yes, Frasier makes the list (za cat).
11 June
The monsoon has not yet arrived. I think it is now about 11 days late. It's rather amusing that each of the local papers predict that it is 2 days always...but they have been predicting this each day since we've arrived.
There are major water shortages all over the country. In some of the inland and northern states, there are hundreds of people dying because of the heat and lack of water. The temps have been pushing 45C (later determined to be 115F!!!). Here in Trivandrum, a coastal city, thing are just a bit cooler. We live in a house with fans in every room and a cook who boils AND filters our drinking water. It's extremely decadent and almost disgusting. All of these issues and problems and I must admit that I'm content with the delay of the monsoon...I'm a bit afraid of it. It's very selfish...hmm...I used to think that I was a very empathetic person. I wonder if this change in my self perspective is based upon the abnormally great deal of suffering with which we are surrounded by.
I finally went to see the ayurvedic bone specialist that Rajan has mentioned a few times. The guru looked at my foot for about 10 seconds and asked me to return in a few hours to get a "plaster". His assistants worked on me when I returned. They first disappeared into a back room that contained several huge cauldrons of medicines. One was particularly big and was full of a dark colored liquid. One of the assistants said that it was full of a medicine for coughs and that it had to be cooked for 3 more weeks in order to be ready. They then wrapped my foot with gauze dipped in an amber colored oil and a tincture that contained egg whites. Thus I left the Kalari (the gym out of which the guru works) with a very tight, slightly stiff plaster.
One of the rather sily things about this whole experience is that when I spoke to Rajan last night, he rather smugly mentioned that he'd been "working on" me to go to the bone specialist. This was rather annoying because the very first time he had mentioned his guru, I let him know that I was very interested...both for healing and the ayurvedic experience. I'm not sure if he just doesn't listen at all or if he was trying to convince himself of something. I really get the impression that he doesn't hear a word of what any woman has to say. He's a bit on the conservative side, even for South India.
I broke my foot two days prior to leaving the States. Doctor #1 had said that the trip was off....doctor #2 said that he'd get some crutches and an air cast for me and to finish packing!!
The innocents...layover in Amsterdam.
7 June
It's about 6:45 pm, which means it's an icky time of day. At 6:30, the house takes a deep breath as the lights go out and the fans slow for the daily power outage. It only lasts about 30 minutes, but time and heat work on very different scales here.
8 June
It is now 12 hours late and is my favorite time of day. The Irumkulangara temple (a devi temple) across the road is calling people to devotion with the daily Sanskrit litany. Large speakers amplify the chants throughout our upper class neighborhood.
This tree is one that is a favorite for worship among local women. There is also a Ganesh shrine, a serpent shrine, and the main devi shrine.
Taken from the rooftop of our house. This is the pond that is a regular presence at temples across this part of India. Teenage Brahmin boys bath here every afternoon and often try to peek in our windows while they are there.
We're heading to Kovalom Beach today (for the first time). It will be good to get out of the city and to do something different...though I'm not so pleased about the group outing.
later...
The beach and the waves were breathtaking. There were very long fishing boats hiked up onto the shore that could have been made by hand.
The beach vendors attacked up and were very good at making us feel guilty...I ended up buying some nice things. Garlic tiger prawns for dinner!!
Captures the intensity of the beach vendors. Poor Rachel hates this picture...but this is how most of us felt during the barrage.
10 June
I'm having an interesting time with my dichotomous feelings about this place. I know that I have only 2 months here and that I should embrace and enjoy every moment I have. On the other hand, home is such a wonderful thing...Erich...Jasmine...Frasier...yes, Frasier makes the list (za cat).
11 June
The monsoon has not yet arrived. I think it is now about 11 days late. It's rather amusing that each of the local papers predict that it is 2 days always...but they have been predicting this each day since we've arrived.
There are major water shortages all over the country. In some of the inland and northern states, there are hundreds of people dying because of the heat and lack of water. The temps have been pushing 45C (later determined to be 115F!!!). Here in Trivandrum, a coastal city, thing are just a bit cooler. We live in a house with fans in every room and a cook who boils AND filters our drinking water. It's extremely decadent and almost disgusting. All of these issues and problems and I must admit that I'm content with the delay of the monsoon...I'm a bit afraid of it. It's very selfish...hmm...I used to think that I was a very empathetic person. I wonder if this change in my self perspective is based upon the abnormally great deal of suffering with which we are surrounded by.
I finally went to see the ayurvedic bone specialist that Rajan has mentioned a few times. The guru looked at my foot for about 10 seconds and asked me to return in a few hours to get a "plaster". His assistants worked on me when I returned. They first disappeared into a back room that contained several huge cauldrons of medicines. One was particularly big and was full of a dark colored liquid. One of the assistants said that it was full of a medicine for coughs and that it had to be cooked for 3 more weeks in order to be ready. They then wrapped my foot with gauze dipped in an amber colored oil and a tincture that contained egg whites. Thus I left the Kalari (the gym out of which the guru works) with a very tight, slightly stiff plaster.
One of the rather sily things about this whole experience is that when I spoke to Rajan last night, he rather smugly mentioned that he'd been "working on" me to go to the bone specialist. This was rather annoying because the very first time he had mentioned his guru, I let him know that I was very interested...both for healing and the ayurvedic experience. I'm not sure if he just doesn't listen at all or if he was trying to convince himself of something. I really get the impression that he doesn't hear a word of what any woman has to say. He's a bit on the conservative side, even for South India.