Official holiday.... out of the blue

I am sitting on the porch not really doing much but browsing internet in Thanjore right now. I am here on a business trip to supervise and oversee our census surveys that “were supposed to start” today in a village here. I wrote “were supposed to start” because I am not sure if it really is going to start today. It seems that today is a 100th anniversary of the founder of DMK political party and all fo the sudden, the government declared today as a national holiday!!! Strange.... I can see the road from where I am sitting right now, but most stores are closed. The town looks very quiet... and everyone seems to be on a holiday mood :) I am not sure what my plans are for the day, but I guess we will have one meeting in the afternoon as scheduled (unless someone objects)... not sure, really. Things are so random sometimes in India that it is quite amusing.

Mapala (son in law)

Mapala is a very important concept in Tamil Brahmin families (or just Arvind’s family??). Mapala is a Tamil word for son in law. Son in laws are treated extremely well in families here. It seems like Mapala comes first and then father, mother, etc… in terms of priority given within a family. It also feels like people go out of their way to make sure Mapalas are happy. I do not the reason why this is the case, but maybe in a way, they are still the ‘guests’ of the house and not truly a part of the family. Just like guests are treated with more care then family members, Mapalas are also treated in a similar way. Unfortunately, I cannot think of a concrete example from the top of my head, but it is definitely the case. One example (not a very good example but oh well…, I can’t seem to come up with any now) may be something that happened just now. Arvind’s father was looking for yesterday’s newspaper. (Note: He just LOVES newspapers and cannot go without reading the newspaper even for a day. If he goes on a trip and cannot read during that time, after he comes back from the trip, he will go through all the papers that he missed reading even if the news is not ‘news’ anymore. Moreover, he keeps all the newspapers without recycling them. He has stacks and stacks of old papers from years ago…. or so I heard.) He asked me where it was and I had no clue. I just told him your Mapala was reading it yesterday and I don’t know where he put it after that. He eventually found it in one of the rooms and told me, “Oh well, what to do?? Mapala was reading it in the room,” and that was the end of the story. A few weeks ago, the same thing happened and although I don’t remember clearly, I must have said something like I saw Arvind reading it. Arvind’s father was a bit upset saying, “Where is it?? He always takes it somewhere and does not return it properly, etc, etc…” Yes, Arvind’s father is definitely one of a kind (very different!), but maybe this difference in the reaction came from this whole Mapala concept, who knows. Just as a footnote, often times, they are not even called by their names, but called as ‘Mapala’, just like all the respected people are called not by their names but by their position in the family like, mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, etc.

Private Tamil Lessons

These days, I am going to Thatha and Patti's place (Arvind's grandfather and grandmother) after work. Unless it is too late, I go there for a workout at their gym and then for a Tamil lesson from Thatha. Thatha is a great Tamil teacher!! Everyday, I am learning 1-2 sentences in Tamil that are frequently used in everyday life. He is very forgetful so he repeats the same things over and over again and this is actually a great thing for me because I am ‘forced to’ (not ‘forced’ in the literal sense but you know what I mean…) listen to the same sentences over and over again and also I am ‘forced to’ repeat the sentences myself over and over again :) Recently, Mami (Arvind's grandfather and grandmother’s live-in maid) joined Thatha in teaching me Tamil. Since she cannot speak English at all, she is providing me with an even better opportunity to learn Tamil. Let’s see how much I can learn in the next several months…!

Locked out!

This weekend, Arvind and I locked ourselves out from our apartment... Both amma and anna were out of station and we just stepped out of the apartment to say hi to thatha and patti without taking the keys. What was ironic about this whole incident is that thatha kept saying that we should stay with them over the weekend but we kept refusing because it will be inconvenient for us, but it turned out that we had no other choice but to stay with them for the entire weekend. It turned out to be a nice weekend, just relaxing and chilling. One thing I was a bit worried about througout the stay was the concept of yechel. In a Tamil brahmin community, there is this concept called yechel which means that anything you eat from (like plates, utensils, your right hand if your hand touches your mouth) is considered dirty and you have to make sure that these do not come into direct contact with the non-yechel things (like common plates, dishes, cooking utensils, pots and pans, etc). In Patti's household, this yechel is very strictly followed, so I was very consious when eating. The concept itself is pretty straightforward once you think about it but since eating is something that you do without thinking too much, it gets quite confusing. Also since there are also some cultural differences between Japan and Tamil brahmins, it makes me even more difficult & confusing to follow the ways. For example, if you don't want your right hand to become yechel (eg. if you want to directly eat something like chips from the common plate), people will just throw the food into their mouth. In Japan, it is extremely disrespectable to throw the food, even if you are throwing into your mouth, so I find it quite difficult to follow this custom. Also, in order for the left hand to not be yechel (eg so that you can use left hand to get second servings, etc), you cannot touch your plate with your left hand. In Japan, it is often not respectable, if you DON'T put your left hand to hold the plate lightly.

What I found was interesting was when Arvind moved his plate a bit to his side (position A) to get the second servings of something that was placed a bit far from where he was sitting. After he put the food on his plate, he moved his plate back to the original position. Patti spilled water on the place his plate was (position A). I thought she did that by mistake, like accidently tipping the cup, but actually she did that on purpose to purify the place (position A) where yechel plate was placed. Very interesting... I think it will take time for me to fully get accustomed to this custom.

ホッケー・スティック

今朝、ammaがあーびんのホッケー・スティックを持ってベランダを出たり入ったりしていたので、何をしているのかな、と思い、聞いてみたら、まだ朝のシャワーを浴びていないので、洗濯されたきれいな服・タオルには直接触ってはいけないんだと説明されました。もちろん、何か宗教に関係した理由があるからこのような事をしているのです。あーびんのおばあちゃまはとてもtraditionalなのでこのようなことをされると耳にしたことはありましたが、まさかammaまでこの風習を守っているとはびっくりしました。このようにインドで生活していると、普段の生活の中でちょっとしたことからインド独特な文化・習慣を垣間見ます。

Puneへ

出張先のPuneから帰ってきました。どたばたと忙しい出張でした。月曜日の夜に着き、色んなごたごたがあった後、やっとホテルにチェックイン。ごたごたというのは、Chennaiオフィスから4人、ミーティングのために同じ飛行機に乗ってPuneにきたのはいいものの、タクシーだと思ってお金を払った後連れて行かれたのは、Shared　Van。エアコンは効かないし、窓はあまり開かないし、蚊がたくさん車の中にいたのでものすごい勢いで刺されるし、運転手はいい加減で初めに行ってほしかったホテルをは通り過ぎるし、もうひとつのdestinationであったゲストハウスはではちゃんと行くかな、と思ったら、ここだといって何もないところに下ろされそうになるし、本当に初日は散々でした。翌日は、タイム・マネージメントはどうなってるの？？と思いたくなるような長時間のミーティング。午前10時半から午後7時半までのミーティングのはずが、夜の8時の時点で全プレゼンの２５％を終えただけ。私と同僚はラッキーなことに飛行機の時間が迫ってきていたので、9時にはミーティングを退散。夜中の1時ごろにやっとマドラスに帰ってきました。ほんとに、やれやれ、という感じの出張でした。

Eclipse

Yesterday was a solar eclipse (around 6pm in Chennai time). Too bad that I missed it, but the interesting thing happened after I came back home from the office. Arvind and I went to his grandparents’ place just to show our face to them but when we went there, his grandmother kept asking whether we’ve had shower or not. Of course, we haven’t taken shower because we immediately left home after I cam back from office. She kept asking why not?, why we haven’t taken shower? etc… That was when I was told that eclipse is a very auspicious event and very religious people will take shower both before and after the eclipse. They will also have to finish their food 6 hrs before the eclipse so that their stomach will be completely empty when the eclipse happens. Also men who lost their parents (i.e. whose parents are deceased) should do a special prayer during that time. Certain stars (i.e. people with certain horoscopes) will be affected negatively by this eclipse, so usually a priest does a small prayer to get rid of the evil that may affect these people. I saw a priest leaving Arvind’s aunt/uncle’s place yesterday and I later found out that the priest was doing a prayer for their grandchildren who have this horoscope. According to amma, these days, people don’t follow these things that strictly but they do follow things like not eating before the eclipse (4 hrs before instead of 6 hrs before) and doing prayers for those people who have a horoscope that may be affected, etc. Arvind wanted to drink beer yesterday because it has been a while since he drank last and also because it was Friday night, but since it was eclipse, he asked for permission to drink at home (actually he does this everytime since anna is religious and we don’t want to offend him but taking permission was especially important yesterday because it was eclipse yesterday). It seems anna did not really like the idea, but amma was okay with it because he will only drink after the eclipse (not during eclipse which is the auspicious time), so he ‘sort of’ got the permission and drank. Everything was really interesting :)

Back from South Tamil Nadu Trip

I just came back from my business trip few days back. I went to Madurai, Tanjore (and its surrounding villages) and Trichy. It was such a hectic trip! But I managed to squeeze in some trips to some of the tourist attractions including Meenakshi Temple in Madurai and the Big Temple (as my colleagues called it) in Tanjore. Unfortunately, Meenakshi Temple was under renovation (repainting was being conducted) so I could not see the Kopurams (the towers) except one. They were covered by coverings made from coconut leaves. I could not see the main parts of the temple either because I am a foreigner (only Hindus were allowed in these main parts)… The temple staff told me that I need to show them my marriage certificate to be allowed inside. If these things happen when I am with Arvind’s family, somebody will definitely fight for me so that I can also come inside with them, but since they were not there this time, I was waiting outside with the other foreigners. Maybe from now on, I should carry around a copy of my marriage certificate… Aside from this small disappointing field trip to Meenakshi Temple, I had a great time touring around the rural villages.

Farewell Lunch

Today, I went to a farewell lunch for the Japanese intern with my office colleagues. We went to a nice restaurant (non Indian food) and had a nice meal together. It was a treat for all of us because we had a very important meeting in the morning and the meeting went very well. His work was really good and he was an expert in the field that no one on our team has in depth knowledge about, so I am sure he will be greatly missed. Of course, for me, it was just nice to have another Japanese person around (I was speaking at least some Japanese everyday – something that I never did in Ithaca because I was not in that kind of environment) so things will probably feel a bit different on Monday, I guess. For dinner, again, I went out, this time with Amma, Anna and Arvind to the Alumni Club. We went there pretty late so by the time we finished, it was almost 10:30pm! A bit late even for Indian standards…

Anna's Back!

Anna came back from Aadi Kailash/Om Parvat. He was on a pilgrimage/trekking trip for several weeks. He showed me many pictures during his trip and it sure did looked interesting. When Arvind and I have time (we just have to make time since I am getting more and more busy with work), we have to do something like this…

Demonstration Against a Liquor Shop

One day, when Arvind and I were going shopping, we came accross a demonstration against a local liquor shop. It seems that in India, many men (husbands) drink up all the money in the house to purchase liquor. This demonstration was by the wives of these husbands who wanted this local liquor shop to leave their neighborhood. Really interesting.

First Thanjavur Trip

This is the except I wrote when I just came back from Thanjavur.... but I could not upload it until now... so here it is:

Yesterday, I arrived in Thanjavur early in the morning (around 6am). We took the overnight train from Chennai to Thanjavur in the 3rd Class Air Conditioned compartment. It was pretty pleasant trip. After we reached in Thajavur, we checked in to a hotel (a very nice hotel in fact - there is toilet paper :) and had some rest until around 9am when we got up again to have breakfast and headed to office. Our office had nothing in it, no furniture at all. So we arranged for some local staff to buy lots of furniture and little office goods and by the end of the day, the office looked quite cozy and nice. The entire day, I was not doing much... just working on my report that I was working on in Chennai so basically my trip this time was not to do work at the field but to get accustomed to the environment here.

Mangoes and international telephone booth

Yesterday, I tried to update my blog but my remote internet access was not working properly and was not able to do it... anyway, yesterday, Arvind showed me a mango picker who was collecting mangoes from a mango tree that stands right in front of our balcony. He clearly picked mangoes from the tree with a long stick with a sac attached to it in the end and when the bag was full, he would detach the bag from the stick and slowly lower the bad to the watchman who were waiting at the bottom of tree to collect the mangoes. Amma told me that those mangoes will be distributed equally among all the residents in the apartments. Since the mangoes were still green, they are suitable for mango pickles - it was an interesting sight.

I also took a picture of one of the telephone booths that I go to make international calls. Since we do not have international telephone connection at home, I have to go to one of these booths to make international calls :)

Tomorrow, I will be going to Thanjavur and Pattukottai for a business field trip. This will be my first time going anyway without a family, so Arvind and Amma are very worried for me. I think it will be a great experience for me - and besides I will be with my boss/colleague so I am sure I will have a great time. I will take an overnight train, stay there for one night and the next day, I will again take an overnight train to come back to Chennai :) Thatha (Arvind's grandfather) told me he will be coming with me (FYI, he is 93 years old) because Pattukottai is his hometown :) He told me that he will take me around :) Of course, he can't come but it's really nice to know that he has a very positive view about everything.

To the beach

Today, most people at work went on a company trip to Mahabalipuram, but I stayed back to finish work and to instead take a long weekend. Since I do not have to go to work tomorrow, Arvind and I decided to go out for dinner. We actually wanted to go to Hot Breads, one of my favorite bakery cafes in town, but for some reason, the store that we were looking for had vanished and the other store (in another location) did not have anything but sweets, so we settled on Carnival, another bakery café. I had a veg quiche and a veg bun although I could not eat them fully because it was too hot… So as usual, I came back home to have some mangos & yogurt with granola, one of my favorite foods in India. After dinner, Arvind’s friend, Jana picked us up and we all went to the beach to chill out. It was great. The weather was nice and there were not too many people on the beach, so we had a nice really nice time.

By the way, there is a gas shortage in Chennai right now and there are long queues at gas stations. Since the cars that are lining up to get the gasolines are blocking the roads, the traffic is worse than usual. These pictures were taken when I got stuck in traffic the other day.

Work started

I started working in my new workplace from yesterday. It is a research job but now, I am not doing much. The entire day yesterday, I just went through lots of documents to catch up on what is going on at the centre and today, I began working on a paper that I need to present in a week or so. The office is very close by, so I can technically walk to office but for now, Arvind is taking me by bike (scooter). He drops me off at office around 9am, I work for several hours and come home for lunch and leave around 6pm. A pretty peaceful life. The funny thing is that there is a Japanese guy who is interning at our research centre! His term is only a month so he will be leaving around the middle of July, but it was a pleasant surprise :) There are a few more foreigners working although I've only talked to one another person. I took a picture of my office but it is a bit dark so I will take the picture again during day time and upload it as soon as I take it.

First entry! - In India

Finally, we are in Chennai. The last few days in Ithaca was just too busy packing and selling stuff that we cannot carry to India, so we slept throughout our journey. Since we arrived very early in the morning on the 28th, Logu, our uncle/aunt's driver, picked us up at the airport. He dropped us off at Amma's place and Arvind had his long awaited meal, Dosai. Today (29th), we went to Balaji mama's place for Thatha's (Amma's side) religious function (something like anniversary to honor his death) and met all Arvind's relatives on Amma's side. We had a good time, good meal and good rest. The highlight of the day was, of course, shopping! Lots of awesome stuff for such a reasonable price! I LOVE my INDIA~~! By the way, for those people who have no clue what I am talking about, check this out: http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=2eua92fsJpg