Rubber Plantation

Rubber trees making pretty shade, pretty patterns on the bark, gooey white rubber sap.  Cups are metal; used to be coconut shells, apparently.  More picturesque, less practical.  True of so much in life.

Road Building

A new road was made in front of my house, with a combination of machines and people doing the work.  The edges were tidied by several women with these brooms - the only sort I've seen anywhere here - switches of something probably from a coconut palm.  Immediately after, the road was in use, still very sticky, causing cars to pull up significant chunks.  They returned a few days later and laid another layer, seeminig to last days instead of hours.

Me and Some Friends

In a village near town, at a "pond" at the temple.  The red and white stripes always indicate a temple (just off to the right of the photo) with the water very still, lots of petrol slick, and lots of little fish being caught by little boys, who will take them home and eat them.  Really, it's just a mosquito nest. And a full view of what I wear to work every day, which is super comfortable. 

Temple Functionary

At Friday night services at the big, tourist-filled temple, this fellow accompanies the silver container which has a shiva inside.  His job is to fan the air by the side "door", presumably to help shiva breathe, since the air is thick with smoke from burning ghee and candles and goodness knows what else.  Note the cell phone in his waistband. 

Sweet Tooth

So what do you think that pile of white stuff is on the plate, on the right, next  to (and on) the chipatis and beneath the meat stew? Sugar.  This is Uncle Alfred's plate (Dr. Alfred Chowmandary, D.V.M.), the second person I've met who piles sugar on everything he eats. The stew was delicious, medium-spicy, made by Alfred, hailed in the family as a great cook, which I agreed with, but was also given pause by his personal tastes.

Swimming at the Taj

A group of us from work and home spent a great day at the swimming pool at the Madurai Taj hotel.  There's a chain of these Taj hotels - the famous one being in Mumbai where last year's terrorist events took place - and they have all the luxuries any westerner would expect, with prices to match.  My favorite luxury was the enormous fluffy towels.  The pool, the view, the companions also were "Super" as any Indian would say. The cost was ok too: about $6.65 (4 pounds sterling) for the whole day. And we were allowed to bring our own food!

The Bride

A lovely young woman with an MSW, the daughter of a man who works in a fairly menial job at my office.  He's been here since 1998, and with his steady income has put his son through law school and his daughter through college as well.  The whole office was invited to her wedding and he made a special point to extend  invitations to me and some of the other foreigners, which several of us were delighted to accept.

Bride, Groom & Honored Guests

After the ceremony inside the temple, many photos taken in plain room beneath the lunch veranda.

Bride's Hand

Glass bangles, ready-made sticker tattoo, henna designs on the fingers. Fairly simple compared to the designs I saw at divali (the festival of lights in October) and some I've seen searching google.

Back of Bride's Head

They call these white flowers jasmine, and they smell wonderfully sweet.  The backing for the colorful paper design and chest covering is mostly dried palm leaves, which also is used for sewing it together.  The flowers themselves are tiny buds, individually sewn with thread into whatever shape is needed - cap for the head, chains down her back, the  shield sort of affair in front.

Wedding Lunch

One flight up, a nice view of the neighborhood, covered in woven palm fronds, rows and rows of tables for the wedding lunch, served on banana leaves.  People coming round doling out endless quantities of delicious, all vegetarian foods, with the omnipresent rice and about five "sides".  But don't drink the water.  Notice all the girls and women wear chains of jasmine in their hair.

Lunch Scene 2

Another Temple View

The Meenakshi Temple again.  Tonight I may go see the weekly ceremony where the god & goddess are put on a swing and songs are sung to them, with parrots saying "Meenakshi".

Signs of Balance

Both the crooked cross and the six pointed star are signs of balance.  These designs, painted, not in chalk as I formally thought, used to be in flour, to feed insects - a Buddhist practice.  Now they're just decoration at the entryway for most people, I'm told, though for some they also have other meanings, it's clear. 

Close Up

Laughing at the idea I could bear the heat of a non-air-conditioned room for 4 hours in this outfit, when I go to a christening on Friday evening, after a Hindu wedding in the morning.

Trying on Sarees - First

Heavy silk, very high quality, very hot.  Standing in front of the door to my room; wearing heavy gold chain, which weighs about 64 grams. 

Trying on Sarees - Second

Lightweight synthetic everyday saree; more comfortable than the heavy silk, but still not comfortable.  Of course, notice the electrical whatnot.

Bullocks & Cart

Another kind of cattle commonly seen around town, not always working.  A

quick check with google tells me the brahma, or brahmin bull, is a breed originally from India and considered the pinnacle of cattle. Hence, the name.

Bossy, My Neighbor

She's usually in the same road each morning on my way to work. Rather than show her eating garbage, her other main source of nutrition,  we see her here in a more pleasant aspect.  A close-up portrait would reveal one horn is painted red, the other green. Some of her friends have amulets around their necks.

Central Vegetable Market

They tell me most of the vegetables sold here are from farms which use raw sewage as fertilizer, so we don't buy anything here.  The rains have made the ground deep with muck mostly composed of human and cow waste, identifiable by the smell.  Pretty awful!

Eco-Chic

In the shop selling products made at Auroville, an organic ashram outside Pondicherry, also selling plastic jewelry. Unclear on the concept.

Rain Gear

Pouring rain, off and on all week.  The blueness of their plastic "hats" is from the blue tarp they are standing under.

Women's Cop Shop

There are various "all women" things - waiting rooms, cars on trains, and police stations too.  Perhaps when a woman comes to make a complaint of rape here, she won't be raped again. A story I've heard and read several times.  The police are not your friend in India.

Eating with Right Hand

Yes there are utensils provided in this hotel restaurant, but it's easier to do it this way.  The trick, taught to me the first day at work, is to push the food into the mouth with the thumb.  And notice there is naan on my plate - garlic naan at that.  Very unusual; it's a North Indian food, just as dhosas are South Indian.  Still delicious.

SOME TEMPLE ART - KHALI

Not far from my house; recognizable (to me anyway) as Khali by the necklace of skulls s/he always wears. S/he's also standing on a dead body but the fence around the temple was in the way.

Temple Art Too

A random temple in the center of Madurai, not the big famous one, nothing special, as it were, as big as a one story house.

RECYCLING CENTER and SOMEONE'S HOME

Almost all plastic bottles, collected mostly by people who clean in the streets.  It also has a couple of people, at least, living in there, which may be preferable to the open streets now, in the rainy season.

RECYCLING BINS

The first provision for recycling I've seen anywhere; this at the conference center in Pondicherry.  It had a couple of dozen crows on and in it as I approached to take the picture.  They flew off, not very far, waiting for me to back off.

BREAKFAST

On the right is idli, a rice-flour dumpling, covered in very spicy sauce; on the left is a mild cauliflower dish; in the middle is a fried lentil patty and lower left is a papadom - thin, deep fried, crispy wafer, also rice-flour based.  This was breakfast at the conference center in Pondicherry, quite ordinary by South Indian standards.