Saturday - one last day

On our last full day we checked out early and climbed aboard our trusty bus to head north to Chennai. About half an hour after we started we ran into some mechanical difficulties and had to pull over and spend some time at a small cluster of roadside shops. Several mechanics later we were back on the road to the World Heritage site of Mamallapuram, an extraordinary archaeological site built some 1400 years ago and featuring one of the world’s largest bas relief sculptures. The site also has a gigantic boulder seemingly precariously balanced, but that has stood for centuries. We took the obligatory silly group photos and enjoyed the tour conducted by a local guide who called himself Shiva (but promised he wasn’t “the destroyer”).

After the tour we reboarded the bus and made our way to the Park Hotel in Chennai for our last night.

But first, shopping.

A group of intrepid shoppers headed into town in search of the fabled Indian gold bangle bracelets. Our first two stops educated us (prices of bangles fluctuated with the daily gold market – which already priced some of us out of the market – and the prices further varied by the workmanship involved in the bracelet.) Having realized we were shopping in the wrong league, we took our driver Anandh’s advice and headed to T. Nagar, a crazy, teeming market district that featured stalls at which we found plenty of costume jewelry (think: some combo of Faneuil Hall and Downtown Crossing on steroids). We also got to stand and watch life pass by for a while and take in a last few moments of our Indian adventure.

We ended the evening on the roofdeck by the pool enjoying the Park’s famous Saturday night kebab BBQ. We took a few moments to formally thank the wonderful Pradeep Gulati, who lived with us for the 10 days, guided us through all sorts of adventures, assured we were well fed and safe, and was undoubtedly glad to get home to Delhi and to his family, including daughters Sana and Naina, who missed him.

We were up at 3:30 the next morning for a 4:15 bus ride to the airport and the beginning of our 24-hour journey home. We lost Graham in London as he headed to Madrid and his next adventure, and the rest of us arrived, bedraggled but happy, at Logan at 7:30 p.m. Sunday night. As a last treat, we were greeted by Errol Flynn (seriously), a customs officer and colleague of Kelsey’s Aunt Colleen, who gave us the VIP treatment as we jumped through the last few hoops between us and our family members.

All were delivered happy, healthy, tired and full of fantastic memories and ideas about how to help the groups and schools we worked with.

In all, a tremendous experience for this group and a fantastic first step for Brooks in India.

Namaste from North Andover.

Friday - Fishermen, sightseeing and an elephant

Today we visited a village I’ve seen spelled 3 ways, so I choose “Anumandaikuppam” – I know the suffix means “fishing village”, so I feel safe with that. One of the intents was too see a village that had been ravaged by tsunami and to hear about that, but to be honest, 3 years later as they are now engaged in normal daily life, that seemed a little trite. Instead, we simply enjoyed the experience of seeing yet another way of life – completely dependent on the whims of the sea (which are less predictable post-tsunami, the men said). On the beach we saw the various types of boats these men use – the old style, 4-5 logs lashed together which surf over the top of the waves (one hopes), the middle style, all wood in a more traditional long rowboat form, and the post-tsunami model, same shape as #2, but fiberglass coated to make them lighter yet hardier.

The rhythm of life is the same here – early morning they leave to fish – some 25-30 kms out to see with a variety of nets seeking a variety of marine life – and then after 8 hours or so they come back to the beach, hand off the fish to the middleman (who they have contacted via cell phone from at sea – a distinct change in traditional procedures!), the rest and fix nets and other equipment for the rest of the day.

The people of the village had become used to visitors, though they hadn’t had any for a while. Nonetheless, they were nothing but welcoming to us (the norm in India), and answered all of our questions through the stalwart Pradeep and our Tamil translator for the day, Mr. Ghosh (Namesake students take note – what part of the country do you think he is from??) After spending time at the shore we proceeded several hundred meters inland to see the new housing built by some of the relief organizations that came in after the wave hit. They are concrete cube houses set at least 50 meters back (by law). The mood – vibe if you want to get all hippy about it – by the sea was productive and peaceful. The new construction did not have that feeling. Despite the best intentions of the relief workers, there is still some ongoing tension between those who have relocated to the concrete homes and those who want to be on the beach, close to their boats and their livelihood as they have always been. It’s hard to know when it’s right to counter someone’s wishes “for their own good”.

We had a chance to visit the village school and the playground built through funds children in other parts of the country had raised. The kids, of course, are always a highlight – many cute pictures were snapped.

After that we returned to Pondicherry and had a tour of a fascinating handmade paper business run by the Aurobindo Ashram (see entry above about the prophet, and presumably you’ve diligently Googled him by now …) Seeing the process by which the people go from t-shirt scraps they have retrieved from a nearby factory to some of the most beautiful designer papers you’ve ever seen – with almost no waste at all – was extraordinary. Not only did the kids learn about a production process, but they saw a wonderful model of recycling and recycling again, from the water used to soak the cloth bits to the trimmings of the big squares of paper – it all gets reused. As an aside, we saw a monkey there, which I put on my critter life list. I'll figure out what kind once I get Internet access again!

We then toured the city a bit, noting the stark contrast (gee, have I used that catchphrase enough??) between the Tamil side of the town and the area known as “White Town”, and not due to the color of the buildings… The area the French occupied remains distinct in its character, though the French occupation ended in the ’50s. It is quiet, clean, colonial in architecture, and altogether lovely. The Tamil side feels much more like India – hot, crowded, dynamic, diverse and exciting. It’s nice to have both to balance between!

Next we had a visit to the Ganesh temple, where for a few rupees one may be blessed by Ranee the holy elephant, who takes the coins in her trunk (literally, you drop it into what I assume is the nostril), tucks it away in there (it jingles like a purse when she shakes it), then gives you a plunk on the head as a blessing. Graham, who has been desperate for elephant interaction, was a bit freaked by the process, particularly the coins in the nostril part. I’m not sure his blessing actually counted, he shied away so much.

We had ‘coconut water’ out of fresh coconuts beheaded by an authoritative lady with a sharp knife (who tried to rip us off with old dried out coconuts until Pradeep intervened), saw the Aurobindo Ashram and witnessed the devotees meditating as we strolled around the tomb of the prophet, and then hit the Promenade for lunch, which was a spectacular buffet and even better dessert, and headed shopping – another great adventure.

Our day was topped off by a delicious dinner at our hotel, the de l’Orient, featuring some local musicians playing various flutes to aid our digestion as we ate our way through the menu. The students opted for Pizza Hut (around the corner), and all were happy. The kids went off and had fun in their rooms, and the adults (including Pradeep) met up with a recently relocated French couple and enjoyed some fine conversation.

Another amazing and full day.

Tomorrow is our last full day in India. It is unfathomable.

Thursday: South down the East Coast Road

Today we left Chennai and took a 3-hour bus ride south on the East Coast Road (sort of like India’s Route 6 on the Cape..) to Pondicherry, a holdover from the French colonial effort in this part of the subcontinent. The people in this part of the country are Tamils – they are physically quite different from farther north, and speak a different language and rarely have English or Hindi. They are more religious, and ornate colorful temples (and little “porta-temples” on random corners) are everywhere. There is also a concentration of Christians here – mostly with the last names of apostles and other Biblical figures (I met someone named George and Paul and thought the Beatles were the influence, but met a David and a Thomas and figured it out).

The ride south on the bus was like every other ride everywhere here- if you close your eyes for a moment you’ll miss something astounding. From trucks and busses crammed with people and goods to families precariously perched on motorbikes to ox-drawn carts going through major toll booths (imagine the Mass. Pike)… and once you have that in your mind, add cows permitted to wander undisturbed through traffic and meandering the median, safe in their holy status. Today we passed shrimp farms, spirulina farms, rice paddies and salt mines. “Back to the salt mines” and “holy cow!” have much more meaning to us now!

At lunchtime we arrived a Udavi School in Auroville, just beside Pondicherry. Auroville was started in 1968 as an experiment in peaceful community living (that is simplistic - please look at the Web site for more). People from 124 different countries came here to live a peaceful, accepting existence. Since then it has grown into a large set of townships including people from all over the world with skills to add to the community. This school is an effort to reach the children of the 13 local Tamil villages in this region, who otherwise might not get school at all, and certainly would live their lives at a subsistence level only. The school has 30 teachers and 40 volunteers who teach the 250 students on the beautiful campus, exposing them to art, language, dance, reading, English, maths, science and more. They may attend this school for 50 rupees a year (just over $1), make their own uniforms, and the experience they get is tremendous. Unlike schools we have seen which are quite rigid and teaching for a particular set of tests, this school offers teachers nearly complete autonomy. The volunteers are people who come from all over the world to immerse themselves in this very peaceful spiritual life, and they add so much (for example, the students are coached in volleyball by a Russian Olympic coach called Vladimir…)

At Udavi we arrived in time to eat lunch with the kids in their communal fashion (though we got spoons, as they typically scoop their food with the fingers of their right hand; plates are scraped onto a stone where the campus dog feasts), then toured the campus, then met to begin our service project, whitewashing a new wall for painting. During that project same of the girls brought out kollam powder and showed us how it is their tradition to make designs using this chalky powder outside their homes each morning. It is a skill typically practiced by women, though some boys joined in too (including Mr. Walczak and Erik!) The end results are gorgeous shapes which essentially wish guests to and occupants of the house a good day. After the labor we talked about our lives in a group, and then the Udavi students (9th graders) did a piece of classical Indian dance for us that was astounding.

Once that was over we all crammed into our bus and rode 10 minutes to a beautiful beach owned by Auroville (therefore not public), where we got our suits on and finally swam in the ocean. In Mumbai it is not done, so this was a huge relief on a very hot day!

After swimming we moved on to Pondi to an amazing heritage hotel, the de l’Orient, which I will post pictures of later. Suffice it to say it is extraordinarily beautiful and peaceful, and the French food is tremendous!

Tomorrow, a fishing village obliterated by the 12/05 tsunami that is nearly rebuilt. It will be a chance for the kids to hear about the tsunami from eyewitnesses and see the havoc it wrought.