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.