BOLLYWOOD!

The top grossing film in Indian history, and an EPIC (3 hours including intermission) bigenerational tale of love, loss, anger, fear, deciete, forgiveness, reincarnation, family, and every other possible human emotion. Oh and musical! And the fact that the whole movie was in Hindi...didn't matter. I can see why Indians love their cinema: an afternoon spent in the cool A/C as temperatures soar outside, munching on sweet cardimon flavored popcorn and running through the entire gambit of human emotions, and then ending it all in an extended, upbeat dance number!

And yes, all us four of us white Amerians left the cinema singing....OM SHANTI OM!

Last blog in India

Wow, I simultaneously thought that this trip would never be over, and the three weeks friggin' flew by! Three weeks ago seems so far away now...a totally different world. It is REALLY strange to me to think that all my friends and family are doing the same things that they were when I started the trip. My life has been so effected and altered it is hard to imagine going back and things being the same....

So yesterday we arrived in the mighty city of Bombay, after a three hour sweaty ride in a cab, getting lost and getting into an arguement with the cab driver (ah india, the country were nothing runs smoothly!). This city has a life of its own. The wealthiest city in India (and it is still the wealthiest even though 55% of the population lives in slums!), the home of Bollywood, and a city where Britan distinctly left its mark. Again the Europofile rears its ugly head, but I think this has been my favorite city so far, and the place I feel most comfortable. That may simply because they have side walks and I don't have to fight traffic/people/cow dung to go for a walk.

I am going to keep this short though, and sign off from India, because this is our last day (and the last few days it rained so much and we were stuck inside) and I want to get out there and enjoy it. Do some strolling, some shopping...and go to see a bollywood movie in the cinema, a fitting end to the trip I think! We are going to go and see the film that is sweeping the nation right now (just as we just swept the nation...see the parallels!), called Om Shanti Om.

Namaste from India, but keep any eye out because we will up load photos and videos when we get home! We CAN'T wait to see you all!

Enter...the Dravidians

The most startling thing about the south, besides the constant rain (though it is not monsoon season) are the spectacular temple complexes, built in a southern indian or Dravidian style. This is the one that rises above the city we are currently in, Madurai.



These temples are like NOTHING we saw in the north, and like nothing I have ever seen before in my life. This may start to sound westernist (and doubly bad because I am an anthro major....), and totally naive, but I did grow up on a western education. Because all of Europe and the Americans and all the Jewish and Muslim world is monotheistic (or basically...though I have given a lot of thought to the saints of catholicism, just "secret" polythism? Ah the blasphemy I speak...) I had this idea of polytheism as gone. The great polytheistic religions of the ancient world are gone, the Egyptians, the Greecians, the Romans etc. I had this really ass backwards idea that polythism was some how pushed to the sidelines. And then I came here.

The temple complex here in Madurai is a Hindu pilgramage site. For one, it is MASSIVE, 16 acres I do believe....and there are tons and tons of people there. I forced the boys out of bed at around 6 in the morning so that we could get there before some of the crowds, and it was still busseling. Lots and lots of people in Khadis, which are the orange home spun robs that Ghandi wore, and that many pilgrams wear. In fact it is said that it was here in Madurai, in 1921, that Ghandi decided to shead his normal cloths and only wear Khadi. But I digress. This massive temple complex that was thronging with people even in the early hours of the morning was simply amazing to behold. So many alters to different gods, so many different prayers, ash on people's heads, red dye touched between their eyes, kissing the ground....there was even an elephant blessing people. Yes you read that right. This is probably the first pilgramage site I have even been too, and the whole town is centered around catering to pilgrams and helping them to fulfill their religous rights.

Amungst the massive towers covered in colorfully painted gods and goddesses (I can't wait to get bryan's pictures up, the artistry is fantastic!) and all the colorfully dressed pilgrams, it is an amazing site to see: polytheism alive and kicking!

Ode to the Head Bobble

Oh ambiguous head bobble
What is the meaning? Amam (yes, in Tamil), Hamz (yes, in Hindi)
or is it ilai (no, in Tamil), inakar (no, in Hindi)
I ask a question...
Answer: Head bobble.
Will I get the item I asked for?
I am never sure. I look for some clue on his face.
I ask, "okay"?
His head weaves side to side with fluid abiguity.
What does this mean? Is his head loose and going to fall from his shoulders?
Why does it move so?
Like the plastic hula dancer on the dashboard of my car.
I wait for an afirmative...a negative.
But all I get is a loosened head and neck, a slight roll of the eyes.
Will I get what I asked for?
Only lord Ganesh knows!

Food

I haven't addressed the issue of food at all during these blogs. I totally appologize for that, and thanks Steph for bringing it up!

I mostly haven't brought it up, because it is rather uneventful...and I mean that in the BEST POSSIBLE way. Because the country is mostly Hindu and Muslim, and cows are sacred in Hindu (hence the roaming the streets) and pigs are concidered dirty animals in Muslim tradition....well, most of the country is vegetarian. Which make ME extremely happy. Since I am about to embark to Argentina, to the land of beef, where people are going to not understand me when I say I don't eat meet...it is so nice to be somewhere where my eating habits are more like the norm.

Most places say Vegatarian, or Pure Vegatarian, which means with no eggs...since to eat an egg is preventing a life. The spices here are wonderful, tons of cilantro, corriander, ginger, cumin, anise, masala etc. And you can tell all the ingrediants are fresh, the markets here are beautiful. In the north we ate lots of Aloo Palak (potatos and spinach), Gohbi Masala (Coliflower Masala), Channa Masala (chickpea masala) and stuff with Paneer (which is cheese curd). Then you eat that with Chipatti bread or naan...and you eat it all with your hands. Down here in the south we have been having lots of Dosas (which a big pieces of "bread" stuffed with various things....like I had an onion dosa for breakfast...poor bryan!) and there is much more cuisine yet to explore!

Unfortunately I don't have any really weird crazy food storys to relate. Haven't eaten anything terribly strange, accept for the large amount of cheese curd. I mean how weird can vegitables get?

Sick Boy

I woke up in Puduchery and ran to the bathroom. My first time catching something real, not the cold we all shared, in India was about to start.

Lots of diahrea in the morning and I was still feeling ok by 10am. I drank water and hung around the hotel room instead of going out anywhere just so I'd have a bathroom nearby. Upset stomach and lots of trips to the bathroom plagued me until noon but luckily I wasn't vomitting.

Around noon Jen and I ventured out to get something to eat, I had been drinking lots of water but my stomach was cramped and I wanted to try eating since I hadn't lost anything from my stomach yet. Slightly dizzy in the heat, with all my blood feeling like it's in my gut, we made it to Rendezvous Cafe. And after a fun trip to the bathroom I could put down only a couple of bites.

I slept the greater portion of the afternoon away and was ok enough to join everyone and our new friends for a dinner at L'e Space Cafe. My mango chicken was excellent even though I still couldn't eat more than a couple of pieces. Only one small trip to the bathroom now.

The next day things were back to normal, my stomach still wasn't up to speed but I hadn't used the bathroom and was feeling better than the day before. However, I have little red spots on my arms and neck and a few on my face.

The red spots on my skin look like bug bites but they don't itch. After a couple days there were more red spots than before and the original ones had become darker than when they first arrived.

I did lots of searching at an Internet Cafe in Trichy when we had some downtime due to lots of rain. From what I can find using a lot of different sites attempting to self diagnose I'm assuming I've aquired some kind of mosquito borne virus.

The top 2 viruses that match my symptoms are Chikungunya (a new comer to the virus world) and Dengue Fever (classic break-bone fever). Both viruses are common in the areas we've traveled, trasmitted via mosquito bites, and can't seem to be treated with anything but lots of rest. If this is what I really have I'm assuming it's a mild case or I haven't hit the worst of it yet because it's been much weaker than the flu (for which I'm vacinated).

I wish I could upload pictures ( this internet cafe doesn't allow that ) so you can seem my lovely red spots all over my arms and neck, with a sprinkle of them on my face as well. Hopefully I'll still be alive by the time I get home and spot free!

Uneventful?

So after a very pleasent evening with our English friends, and a good midnight puke (yes, my first one....it may have been because I left some of the ice in my drink....i thought I was tough....I am not so tough) we got a late, lazy start this morning. Just as a side note, the south is WAY more laid back than the north. People are not attacking us with the same determination...but also NOTHING is in English, it is ALL in Tamil, which presents a problem, since none of us have even SEEN the language prior to this trip.

Headed to the bus station, found out there were no direct buses to our next destination, Trichy (check out the wiki entry, it has the Tamil "spelling"), and had to take a local bus to Villapuram, which was quite a trip! I mean we had our massive back packs on our laps, and where squished in with people filling the isles and spilling out the doors. And let me tell you, the Indian (even the ones sitting right next to you) are not shy about STARING! So that hour long trip was crazy, hindu techno music blaring, flashing neon Ganeshes, and bangles hanging from everywhere....

But eventually we arrived in Trichy, honestly with very little eventfulness....and honestly, we are all kind of nervious. Nothing is ever that simple...where is the hassel, the challange, the unasked for adventure....Honestly, what is India doing to us to make us think this way!

For some pictures of what we are going to see tomorrow and in the next few days, take a look at my southern india post from earlier.