Thanjavur

Fishing Village

Chalk Drawing Outside Home

Fighting Turkeys

Taking a Holy Dip in a Tank

Jan. 6, 2013-Fishing Village

When the guide says, "I've never seen anything like that," you know it's quite a spectacle. As we left Pondicheri we began to follow a seemingly endless moving human rainbow of pilgrims walking (some barefoot) to a temple three miles away. Our luck, it's a once a year occurrence. For their dedication the faithful receive a blessing at the temple & are given a commemorative calendar.

We're headed to Thanjavur, the Rice Bowl of the region. It will be a 10-12 hour trip depending on stops along the way. Charles is into spontaneity & we are prepared for photo ops as he sees fit.  We even stopped for "bulla carts." That translates as a cart pulled by bulls (oxen) They're steered by ropes through their noses & I asked how old the bulls were when the noses were pierced. It's done around age two. They're also castrated. That's why those huge beasts with killer horns are so docile. Un-castrated bulls are donated to the temple.

A fishing village was on our schedule & it was a treat to mingle with the ever smiling people all of whom wanted to be photographed. Key is letting them see their picture afterwards. What did they do before digital cameras? Charles told us NOT to pay them. It is tourists who create the expectation for money leading to discomforting situations where tourists are surrounded by aggressive beggars. Poverty is evident but everyone has an ID card issued by the government. {eople below the poverty line are given ration cards so they can get free food. Begging in these parts isn’t the norm.

As we walked through the village towards the beach we passed a primary school. It's required to have one such school every three kilometers. Education is free & compulsory to age fourteen. Several people in the village are paying to send their children to universities where they'll be the first generation in the family to reach that level of education

We reached the beach as the fishing boats were coming in. They're now using fiberglass boats provided by the government after the tsunami wiped them out. Charles cautioned us to watch our step on the sand as there might be human excrement there. He did a shoe inspection before we boarded the bus. Sure enough David had to go to the shoe wash (just a spigot) & be supervised while he rid himself of the "crap." As we were leaving we stopped at a house to watch a mother & daughter create the beautifully colorful holy design at their doorstep. They use chalk dust in much the same way as a Buddhist mandala is made dripping the chalk from their hands held over the ground as a design appears as if by magic. We also learned a secret to the care & maintenance of the exquisite Indian women's hair. The younger woman told us she used coconut oil & hibiscus to keep her hair clean & shiny.

Part of the countryside through which we drove was very remote but we passed a couple of new looking modern medical centers. It was encouraging to see.

About Charles & India Today

Since we had a long ride Charles filled us in on personal information. He was born on a tea plantation in Kerala & was used to the sometimes cold climate at 7-8,00 ft elevation.  He said that monsoons were a nightmare & often dumped 1,000 inches of rain in the season.His parents were 4th generation Anglican & he's the youngest of seven siblings. Nine were born but two died. His father managed the plantation & his mother picked tea. After primary school Charles went to boarding school free.

He dropped out of school for a year during which time his parents had him take care of their cows & collect wood for the family. After a year of that he returned to school. He's the only one of his family to go to university. He graduated with a BA in history & in his student days he lived in a hostel & slept on the floor. He was a hundred miles from home & missed his family terribly.

He continued his education when he moved to Chennai & lived with an uncle for post graduate training in tourist travel. He obtained a scholarship, studied French & English & graduated with distinction.

This is his 25th year as guide. He's been with OAT since 2009. He's forty-eight years old. He married at twenty-eight & although it wasn't an arranged marriage, the family had to approve. His wife taught primary school at a convent & due to the meager salary chose to stay home after marriage. His wife had been Catholic but is now Protestant.  They have one son who is eighteen & is studying engineering & computer science. He calls his son daily to ask if he's read the Bible that day & if he went to church. Quite the helicopter dad.

It was their choice to have only one child. In 1970 Indira Ghandi introduced family planning. Now there's  a shortage of females. Even though they're the ones who care for parents they still cost a dowry when they marry. Scans were used to determine the sex of a baby but since the shortage of girls the government has banned such scans. Now the government pays an incentive for girls. Most of the problem is in the north where there are 1000 boys to 700 girls. There the men pay a dowry.

Although it's a male dominated society they've had a female president. Now there's a 30% requirement in Parliament for females. There are some elections only women can run in. The rape in Delhi had more press coverage in the North than South. Sex offenses are reported in the press but sex isn't generally discussed. There's an attempt to introduce more sex education in a country where the sexes are segregated in school & men don't look directly into the eyes of a woman. Charles' son is in a co-ed school now but is still expected not to make eye contact with women. Even married couples are discouraged from sitting next to each other in public & shouldn't hold hands. And this is the country that has an erotic temple & the Kama Sutra. Here culture trumps freedom.  Hidden things create mystery & some interpret it as making women off limits & more exotic. Rape is a vicious crime of violence & no excuses are made for it.

Homosexuality is still illegal & it's common for families to disown gay children. But help might be on the way. The Supreme Court will be ruling on the legality soon. The GLBT movement is in its infancy here.  Transgender people aren't "accepted" but are invited to parties to perform. In the North it's thought they bring good luck to  the family. Not so in the South. In April in Tamil Naru the state where we've been, there's a major celebration & transgender festival. There are a few noted trans people in India. One is an engineer & one an actor.

There's a big HIV problem with three million infected. There's a move to promote condoms & they're provided for sex workers. The infection rate has been reduced. Prostitution is  illegal but some areas like one in Mumbai are licensed.

On to another Indian phenomenon, the caste system. This class system was  introduced after the arrival of the Aryan tribes around 2000BC & is based on skin color.  Originally there were four categories. Brahmins were the highest & intellectuals. They were said to come out of the head of Brahma. The second caste came out of the shoulder of Brahma & were warriors. The third class came from the stomach of Brahama & comprised the business community. The fourth was from the legs of Brahama & were menial laborers. Eventually it evolved that due to what was seen to be the "unclean" nature of their work, some in the fourth caste became untouchables.  They were workers who, for example, collected trash.  Any society has discrimination but Hindus used the caste system as a caveat to be a good human being so in the next life you'd be rewarded by being re-born into a higher caste. Now there are 4500 sub-castes. I guess they thought more is better. Sometimes caste is part of a family name but it's hard to tell now. As far as the priesthood goes all priests are Brahmans but not all Brahmans are priests.

We stopped at a local market to buy vegetables as we made our way to lunch . Tomorrow we're stopping at an orphanage supported by OAT & Grand Circle Tours. At the one we'll visit there are 150 girls & 120 boys. There's a primary school on site shared with villagers. The older children go to secondary school in the village. The OAT/Grand Circle Foundation gets $10 from each tour booked & distributes the money to schools around the world where they send trips. As I shopped I hesitated  to touch the produce until I knew what the custom was. As it turned out the buyer put their selection in a bowl. It was transferred to a scale, dumped into a bag Charles had given us, & a fee was set. We didn't bargain but they were honest & David got change one time. Sometimes the vendor added extra or took away to balance the scale. David got an extra ear of corn & a man nearby told him it was "for hospitality."  We got many a side to side head bobble meaning we'd given them the correct payment & thanking us for the business

Our lunch was delightful & David got to taste Charles' food & experience native Indian spicy. Not a problem. He said it was flavorful as well as hot. It was during that stop I realized there was proof that God is female. Not only did they have Western toilets, but the floors were dry, & they provided rolls of toilet paper!

As we left we saw two male turkeys trying to win the favor of a female & the right to play a rousing game of Scrabble.Those of you who read my emails from our Rhine River cruise may recall that our guide euphemistically referred to the sexual shenanigans of the royals as "playing Scrabble." One observer suggested placing wagers but we had to leave before a winner was declared. Film to follow.

On the way to our hotel we paused at a huge water tank (swimming pool) where men &  women bathed & did laundry. Charles said it's not about cleanliness as much as ritual cleanliness & belief. The water is piped in from a river but is pretty stagnant. Twelve shrines surround the pool representing the twelve signs of the zodiac. An elderly man had finished his bath & was sitting on the steps carefully smoothing out the seams of the white shirt he'd just washed. He obviously took a great deal of pride in himself & went about the task with dignity. This bathing experience contrasts with the one we saw earlier in the day. Men were bathing in a river within sight of crocodiles. So far there haven't been any “incidents.”

Techno...Not

Last night was a comedy of errors when we tried to go to bed. David attached himself to his CPAP machine & I read for a bit before turning out the light. Indian hotel rooms have few outlets & it was our plight that those within reach of his plug were controlled by my light switch. When I turned off the light all power to those outlets ceased & David was literally left breathless. Fortunately we travel with a 25 foot extension cord & adapters so he ran the connection to a plug on the opposite side of the room. The trick was for him not to trip on the cord during his mid-night forays to the bathroom.

We're staying at the Sangram Hotel. It's probably a three-star but will be fine for the two nights we're here. So far we've had several blackouts. During one I started singing "Happy Birthday" & it caught on. The lights came on before the song ended & we applauded. Wi-fi is also dicey. It comes & goes unrelated to the blackouts. But we found the socket for the CPAP that works independently. Dinner was preceded by a cocktail hour with Charles providing Scotch. There was something about the antiseptic smell in the room that disagreed with me so I went up to our room until dinner time.

I'm exhausted despite cat napping on the bus & the heat is getting to me. My stomach is also funny from the amount of different spices it's being assaulted with delicious though they are. I just stopped taking amoxycillin after the root canal so I don't think I have Delhi Belly yet. In the end dinner would have been worth skipping. Each meal has begun with tomato soup & this was no different except this soup was awful. Tomato soup might be the watermelon of India. In China we had watermelon to look forward to at the end of each meal. The woman across from me had the same offended expression as I did when she tasted it. I don't think any of us finished the soup. I chose to have a white dinner which consisted of rice & plain pasta. It was “be kind to tummy night for me.” Reports from others on most buffet selections were less than stellar. I left dinner early, showered, & am ready to turn in when I send this out.

Tomorrow we'll tour some of the 36 Hindu temples in the area.

Toby