My trip to India, Part 2

Friday, 24th January 2003

Iit was a pleasant evening and Roopa was charming and the food was as good, if not better than any I have yet to taste. It was interesting to see how our idea of wealth and what it means to be rich differs in different countries, maybe not what it means but the trappings of wealth shall we say.

Other than that the day as I remember it was a very relaxing day that involved an inter college competition that we got to watch. It was interesting and writing this on Sunday evening I understand we won but graceacly excepted second place as we were the hosts. :o)

Watched a documentary on infanticide which was very interesting, and would be a very good moral debate topic a s I suspect there really is no answer. Yes it is wrong, but is it any more wrong than abortion and frankly what other choice do these families have…

Stayed up until two watching Alex, Gina, Amy, and Tristan attempt to play cheat, perhaps the worse cheat players on the face of the planet. Also caught bits of MTV Asia's music awards which was very strange.

Saturday, 25th January 2003
Up at the crack of dawn to travel to the mountains, It was an unbelievable trip the roads where dreadfull and the journey seems to take for hours, which it did in fact do… So that's probably why. Anyway stopped off at a coffee research plantation which was hot but cooler than Madurai so that was nice and we pondered around the plantation being interested and genuinely had a good time. Back in the coach and off to our destination, which was in fact seven thousand feet above sea level. It involved an unbelievable road and some of the most bizarre traffic you ever did see.

I should probably take a minute to write about the traffic here. When I went for dinner at Roopa's I asked her husband if it was necessary to have a test before you get a car licence, he said it was but as soon as you got it you forgot about all the rules and just got on with getting from a to b. This seems to involve one law, the use of the Horn. You sound your horn if you are bearing down on pedestrians, or to remind the lorry, bus, whatever that is bearing down on you that you are here. The strangest bit about it all is it seems to sort of work. The pedestrians move out of the way, not in any great hurry or as if their lives depended on it, they just walk a bit closer to the kerb and the driver misses them. Coming down and the mountain roads it would seem that you toot your horn if you want someone to get out of your way, again it seems to work. It is terrifying but it does work. Looking to get hold of some accident statistics but I suspect that is a vain hope. Coming down back into Madaruai we, a large bus, were overtaken more times than I want to think about, and probably only by half a dozen times by cars. The rest of the time it was by busses, Horns blazing on the other side of the road, just hoping that oncoming traffic would get out of their way, it worked but it scares to death.

So the roads themselves were single roads, no real room for two lanes of traffic, so you stopped when you meet something coming the other way and inched past each other. Tthe drop had to be seen to be believed. We arrived at the guest house feeling shattered shaken and in need of some time to quietly gather ourselves. To change our respective undergarments and generally clean ourselves up. Unfortunately there was some disagreement about the sleeping arrangements which resulted in Heather and David de-camping to a local hotel. Needless to say we all vented some spleen and got quite a lot off our respective chests. We meet up again later that evening for food, which was a disaster. The problem was we were a party of sixteen. Which frankly no one wants descending on you with no notice, it would be annoying in the Britain let alone India. We had decided between us that we wanted Italian food as a treat having suffered survived a week in India. Unfortunately our rouge guide failed to mention that the Italian restaurant in Kondai Kanal is only open in season. We found somewhere else which was a little shabby but when in India, as teh saying goes. We altered our expectations and we had dinner. Which was western but unfortunately they had not banked on sixteen people, hungry people at that, appearing and wanting to eat all at once. The kitchen wasn't cut out to be able to handle it, the staff neither. So it all ended in disaster. I suspect most people got some sort of food just not quite enough.

Back to the cottage for a sit around the camp fire and some chat about childrens TV, strange that this should be a bonding experience, or maybe not. It would seem that for our generation, the childrens TV chat is something uniquely comforting and safe. I suppose that psychologists would have a field day.

Sunday, 26th January 2003
Bitterly cold night, so didn't get a good nights sleep at all. Most of the group awoke at eight to take part in an act of Christian worship. Not being a Christian and in no way being capable of functioning at that hour I declined. Why is it though that I felt I should attend. If a group of Jewish friends or Muslim friends where having a service I would not feel I had to attend them, why then should it be different for Christian friends. Not so much guilt, the next step down or some such thing, but definitely on the guilt stairway.

Shopping and sight seeing, brought nothing as the closest analogy I can make is that it reminded me of Hunstanton, enough said I feel… Travelled down the mountain, which was pretty much as interesting as coming up, just not quite as long. It was Republic day and the roads where full of busses taking people back to the city, mostly on the wrong side of the road and at break neck speed. Again interesting to say the least :o)

Monday 27th January 2003

What today, not sure, more lecture this time on Indian folk religion and custom, very interesting parallels with what I know about mainly welsh folk custom, first part of harvest venerated and such like, yet again, very interesting.

Spent about half an hour sleeping which ruined me for the afternoon shopping. In two minds as to whether to go or not but I did and I really enjoyed it, brought some tailor made pj's and a couple of shirts all for Rs1800 which is about £24. Having just worked that out not terrible sure I got a good deal, but I guess that will depend on whether I wear them or throw them in the back of the cupboard. Had I thought about it I would have made the top of the pj's longer, never mind. Enjoyable amble around Maduari almost know my way around… All most.

Big day tomorrow, going on a trip out, that on paper at least will be a long hot tiring day, bit apprehensive, not so much about me I have little doubt I shall be fine. The worse that will befall me is a headache and possible some reddened skin. Far more worried about the tempers of the rest of the group, it has become obvious who the group will turn on should they loose their collective tempers. I don't feel I want to be anywhere near it when and if that is what happens.

Tuesday 28th January 2003
I must be coming to the end of the trip as my entries are slowly getting shorter as I become more tied. There is no doubt that I am weary, not so much of the company as surprisingly it is still fresh, but just of India. The watching what you eat, the lack of what in the west we would take as home comforts. Those like running water, as it is so hot I have to think about whether I have drunk enough liquid and where that liquid is coming from, no tea as such as there is no safe milk and frankly the climate is too hot. As well there is a water shortage developing in Maduari, the rains this year were very much down on other years and there just isn't enough to go round. Looks like it will be a poor harvest and bottled water is becoming more expensive, all in all it makes you realise how much you take water for granted.

Food, I haven't eaten as much or as regularly since I was in halls last year, I lived off toast for much of the last six months my body is not use to real food and certainly not Indian. I long for something western but I don't quite know what, probably un-melted chocolate. That is not to take anything away from the food here, I have eaten most of the dishes and by and large they have been very nice. It just would be nice to have some chips or a pizza or a roast dinner, none of which would really work in this climate but there you go.

Home entertainments, I am by nature someone who listens to music a lot. I have a vast collection of tapes, cd's and mp3's. I miss them, I miss them all. I miss being able to put music on and just relax with a book (I'll get to books in a moment), without a book, I guess I just miss being able to relax. It again comes down to climate and the fact I am not really cut out for hot weather, let the skinny hairless people enjoy the heat, I be here come the next ice age with a natural fur coat and protective layer of fat grinning from ear to ear.

Going to get a bit computery now, I have become quickly use to a broadband, always on, always there connection. I miss the computers and the internet and the talker and the home network and working out what to add next and where I will find the money for it all and well just geeky stuff generally. I need to be plugged in again…

Books, said I would get back to books, I miss my books, I miss everyone else's books. I miss the college library, I miss reading. Not read a page since I've been here partly as a cunning survival technique, mosquitoes are attracted to lights, if I don't have a light on they wont come near me. So most evenings I have sat in darkness, either typing out this journal or just gone straight to sleep.

Sleep, I miss sleep. I don't feel I have had a proper nights sleep since I got here. It is becoming a blasted nuisance, I must be sleeping. There is just no way I would have been able to function out here had I not been sleeping, but I just don't ever feel rested. Again I guess it is the climate.

So I suppose I should outline what I did today, another long coach ride out to the villages to see rural religion. We travelled quite far out and got to somewhere non of us can remember the name of it at this time but there may or may not have been tigers. Some how I doudt it, but there may have been… I was excited, see the pictures of tigers paw prints here, see Jacob being eaten by a tiger here (not really). Anyway to the point, the village life was a real eye opener. I think we are all used to city life now, maybe not completely comfortable with it but we can traverse town and go up the road on our own with little problems.

Small diversion, to let you know how the last five minutes of my life have gone… As I was typing the last sentence I realised I had not deleted the pictures on the smart card of my camera, so it being a simple task I reached for the camera and knocked a glass, I almost caught it but it slipped out of my fingers and onto the titled floor, as that happened Anna knocked on my door requesting me to go down and find a lizard. Life in India is really surreal at times.

So back to the village, yes right, that's right, we are all Maduari wise if you will now. We have adapted. Seeing the village with its crude houses and simplistic life style was a real eye opener. There are still parts of the world who don't have running water, electricity, and all the things we take for granted. They earn what little money they can by collecting honey, wild medicinal flowers and carrying goods up the hills. I suppose they are happy, but I imagine it is a happiness that would be difficult to gauge by our standards.