Summer Vacation

When I was sick the other day (I'm better now, thank you for asking), I went to stop by the little stall next to my house to pick up a few things.  I was looking forward to this because A#1) I didn't want to walk all the way to town and B#2) I had learned all sorts of new Tamil things to say including, "I'm sick", "lemons" and "sugar" and the man and wife who run the store are always so happy when I ask for things in Tamil.  But, to my surprise, the shop was shut; I have never seen it shut!  I looked around and noticed that a lot of other shops were shut as well.

I was forced to get my supplies from a different stall, where the man only knows of me because I'm the only white woman who lives in town.  I didn't even tell him I was sick and he wasn't impressed with my Tamil 'cause he hasn't witnessed the progression of my language skills.  He just kept asking if I was from California.  And he didnt have lemons.  I asked where my friends went and he said, "tourist".  I figured this meant they went on vacation.

Taking their cue, and because work for me has slowed down A LOT, I decided to take a vacation of my own and get the Efros outta here!  This late in the game, all the trains out of town are completely booked (everyone is trying to leave 'hotter' Chennai!) but Jacob informed me of a secret tourist trick.  Apparently, if you are a tourist, you can just bypass all the lines and tatkal (a last minute release of train tickets that starts only 48 hrs before the train leaves) and go to this tiny office in the train station to request a train ticket.  I went yesterday before work and it worked!  I got a confirmed seat on a sleeper class train to Kochi and a ticket back home!

So tomorrow night, I'm heading to Kerala.  I've wanted to visit Kerala since college when I first heard about this small communist state with a 91% literacy rate (COMMUNISM!) and I just finished reading The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (recommended) for the second time, which takes place in Kerala, so it's really perfect timing.  I haven't planned a lot, but hope to include a boat trip down the backwaters, which is supposed to be one of those 1000 things to do before you die, and a visit to Jew Town!

Bon Voyage!

உடல் சரியில்லை (Body not well)

I'm sick :o( Literal translation, 'body not well'. I think all my gallivanting around 'hotter' Chennai on Saturday plus a late night of cheering on CSK (yeah, they won!) has lead to a vicious head cold, complete with nasty cough. Udal seriyillai, indeed! 

One of the problems with having a cold in India (well, apart from the obvious lack of matzah ball soup) is that, as with everything, everyone has a different opinion about why you are sick and what you should do. And they love to share.

"You are not well?" they ask. Why aren't you taking any tablets? Judy thinks it's from the air conditioner, and that I need antibiotics. According to her, if you have a head cold and don't take antibiotics, it will affect your whole body. Vanitha thinks it's because I ate the ginger cake that Jacob made. Mani says I should go home and take rest (I love that Indian English phrase- 'take rest'). Bharathi thinks I need paracetamol (tylenol), Alex says brandy, and Jacob says lemon juice.  The only person who made me feel better was Geetha, the tea lady.  With her sweet concerned face, she asked in broken English if I was ok.  When I responded in Tamil, she was so happy I was speaking Tamil that her face just lit up and she started smiling and laughing, which of course made me smile.  I swear, I think I love her!  

Taking my own advice, I scored some codeine cough syrup from the “pharmacy” and will be drinking that tonight (cheers, Amol!). And I guess Maggi noodles will have to be my Indian substitute for Jewish penicillin.

I Roar for CSK!!!

In lieu of missing The Superbowl, March Madness, NFL Draft, and UofM's spring game, I've taken to watching Indian Premiere League Cricket.  IPL is somewhat new here and involves teams from within India playing each other in short Twenty20 matches.  I'm not about to explain to you what this means, but just know that the games are 3-4 hrs instead of the usual test matches that can take days!  My team, Chennai Super Kings (CSK), has come from behind to make it into the IPL Finals, which is tomorrow.

 I have managed to learn the basic rules of scoring and getting out, etc, but there is still a lot I don't understand (leg bye- what?!) and it's just not as interesting as other sports (except for golf, which isn't really a sport anyways).  But the real attraction to rooting for CSK is that it combines my two favorite things; love of India (Tamil Nadu specifically) and organized sports induced unity.   Plus, their team colors are blue and yellow, how could I not root for them?!

I got so caught up that the other night I stayed up past my bedtime, on a school night, by myself, to watch CSK beat the defending champion Deccan Chargers in the semi-finals.  Since I dont have a TV, I followed the online crincinfo.com play-by-play.  It was just like watching the UofM games on ESPN Gamecast, minus the cute field graphics.  Tomorrow night I'll be watching the match at some sports bar with Jacob, Shyam, and Hamsa, hopefully surrounded by crazed CSK fans.  I feel pretty lucky to be here for this!

Here is a pic of me with my cool new CSK waterbottle:

Little Bastard

I walked home from the bus stop by a different route today because I needed to get some ice cream (I needed it). I usually only walk that way in the mornings, past the family/families who all wave and salute good morning (Auntie! Auntie!). When the grandma in the family saw me coming, she immediately stopped drinking her coffee and got up off her chair to call me over so I could sit in her chair, and yes, drink her coffee. Being polite, I accepted both offers. All the girl children came out from god knows where to surround me. The old woman doesn't speak any English, but loves to ask me a ton of questions, hoping I some how understand her Tamil. I just shrug, wobble my head and smile and try to guess what she's asking, while simultaneously shaking hands with all the kids. She calls over the eldest of the children/grandchildren, who I learned the other day has just completed the 9th standard (she's probably 14 or 15?), who grudgingly translates into English all the things she's dying say to me.

I learn that she (the old woman) has 2 sisters and 6 brothers, that her husband works at a fancy hotel and then possibly which kids belong to whom. I recognize all the kids except for one little girl. You can tell that they are related by their faces, but all the relations are explained as “sister son” or “bother cousin” etc, so, despite the English translation, I am no better off. It's summer holiday, so the kids are all out of school. Together, we count to 5 in both English and Tamil, which I can do.

There is also a young boy, who I learn will be starting pre-school. I dont know how old he is (I'm horrible at guessing kids' ages, especially Indian kids) but he can walk and talk a little bit. Upon seeing me every morning, he alternates between being terrified and overjoyed, usually the later. Today he seemed rather agitated and kept yelling, at no one in particular as far as I could tell, “Otha! Otha!” Because I have rude friends, I know the meaning of this word. Depending on it's usage, it can mean f**k or f**king or damn, or even bastard, it's kind of an all purpose BAD word. I figure I'm probably hearing wrong, but he keeps saying it and the rest of the kids keep looking at each other and giggling. The old woman gives me an inquisitive look and the older daughter asks if I know what this means. I say, in Tamil, “Ama, theriyum” (yes, I know it) and this causes even more laughter!! I give the kid a disapproving look while clicking my tongue. But, since everyone else seems to be encouraging it, and because let's face it, swearing is fun, the kid keeps at it and I just laugh along with everyone else.

I tell the woman the coffee was good, nalla irrukku, thank her, nandri, and get up to leave. I wave goodbye to everyone and tell them I'll see them again in the morning. Some of the girls walk with me a bit and we do the usual back and forth exchange of waving and “bye”'s until we're nearly at my house. Knowing they will all be waiting for me in the morning seals the deal on my decision to get up a half hour early tomorrow so I can wear a sari to work. I will wear the purple one, in honor of my cousin Stacey's birthday!

Hot, Hotter, Hottest!

Anyone who has ever lived here will tell you that Chennai has three seasons; Hot, Hotter, and Hottest!!  And then they will laugh.  My supervisor, Dr. Sathish, told me this on the first day that we met, back in Jan (Hot).  I was happy, having just come from freezing Lucknow, and even colder Michigan/Boston!  Everyone kept warning me that summer was coming and that I will hate it.  Well, it's mid April, and summer is now just beginning (Hotter), and yeah, I hate it.

I finally looked up the weather in Chennai to find that is has routinely been 38-40 C, which, to my surprise, is over 100 F!!  I should have known this already, since in the hospital 38 C constitues a low grade fever.  But I think my brain isn't working properly because I am so far away from BMC (not like my brain worked any better over there!).  Add in the 85-90% humidity and it's like a sauna over here!

Yesterday after work, Jacob was பக் பக் பக் (Tamil equivalent of yap yap yap) so I missed my bus.  While waiting at the bus stand, just standing still, in the shade, at 6pm, I was dripping sweat.  After 25 min, the bus finally came and, remembering the lessons learned from my previous bus groping, I sanwiched myself amongst the ladies in the back on the bus.  Grope free zone!  For the next hot hour, I couldn't move my feet (no room) and every inch of myself was touching someone else. I think it was one of the most crowded buses I've been on in recent memory.  I could actually feel sweat dripping down my back and my neck; there were sweat drops literally rolling down my face and off my nose.  I got off at Garden, thinking I'd rather walk the last 15 min in the heat then remain inside that bus.  I looked like I just stepped out of a swimming pool!  My hair and clothes were drenched!   

Back at my flat, which is on the 3rd floor and despite the fans, does not really offer must relief from the heat, I attempted to make dinner; dosai and leftover sambar.  Cooking dosai is kind of like cooking pancakes, involving standing over a hot pan, pouring and flipping, etc.  Perhaps this wasn't the best choice for dinner, but the dosai mix needed to be used and the sambar had to be eaten and I'm reaching my limits with rice!  The absurd amount of sweating continued to be a problem, but all the possible solutions had their snags.  Turning on the fan would blow out the flame from the stove and opening the windows not only let in the mosquitos but would also allow my neighbors to watch me cook with my shirt off -- unacceptable!  So, with the fan off and the windows closed, I cooked and ate as fast as possible, probably exacerbating the situation.    

After dinner is done, everything cleaned up and I have a quick bucket shower, I finally allow myself to retire to my room and turn on the AC.  Oh, how I love my AC!  I dont care that it costs more then a months rent, more than five times the cost of my trip to MP, almost more than my plane ticket to Bali!  At this point, I'm so happy and cool that nothing else matters.  As I peacefully drift off to sleep, I think about how glad I am that I will be gone by the time "Hottest" rolls around.

Madurai

This weekend I travelled to Madurai to attend the wedding of one of my colleagues, Vimal Raj.  The wedding ceremony was nice, but it was a Catholic wedding, so nothing too out of the ordinary for me (except for when they played techno beat synthesizer music during communion).  The reception was very low key.  After we ate a huge communal breakfast (ceremony was 7-8am), the bride and groom sit on a stage and then everyone takes turns walking past them and congratulating them and their parents.  Some relatives also place large flower garlands on the groom, which inappropriately reminded me of the Kentucky Derby, announcing Vimal as the winner!  After a while, the bride and groom go into seperate rooms for costume change.  It was at this point that I was complaining to my other colleague, Mani, that I have yet to see the super fun dancing at Indian weddings depicted in the movies.  But then some kids at the wedding got up on stage and started dancing to the Bollywood music that was playing.  Most songs here correspond to a movie, and therefore they all have specific choreographed dances that go along with them.  These kids, about 5 of them, ages 7-11, knew all the moves and performed 4 dances while we waited for the newlyweds to come out again.  It was a brilliant plan; an empty stage, music, captive audiene, what else could they do?!  I loved this part as it reminded me of putting on dance shows for relatives when I was a kid.

When we were getting ready to leave, they called me up on stage and draped a pink shawl around my shoulders and we all took pictures together.  Mani told me this is to honor me as a special guest.  how lovely!

 

Bride and Groom

After taking rest in the AC hotel for a big chunk of the afternoon, Mani and I went to visit Madurai's famous Meenakshi-Amman temple.  This is one of the 3 major holy Hindu temples in India, and I was lucky to see it!  The tis so temple is quite complex and how they even built such a structure in 1600 is mind blowing.  Pictures don't do it any justice.  We wondered around inside, visiting various shrines and stone carved statues.  It was probably the most amazing temple I've ever seen!

  

One of the towers of the temple

  

  

it looks as if he's saying "can't touch this"

There was an elephant in the temple (yeah, a real one) who was blessing visitors.  I had known about this from the elephant poem I was learning in Tamil (தொட்டு வாழ்த்தும் என்னை!).  I held up a Rs 5 coin and the elephant grabbed it with his trunk and then touched the top of my head.  It happened too fast for Mani to get a photo of, but here's one of the elephant;

 

I had to be back in office on Monday, and my train ticket not confirmed, so I had to take yet another sleeper bus.  But this one had AC, so it wasn't that bad.  I had to share an upper compartment (a bit smaller than a double bed) with an older woman who I didn't know, so that was a bit awkward (but just a bit).  I had had the window seat, but, eventhough she didn't speak any English, I could tell she was trying to tell me she was afraid of the edge so I offered to trade with her.  Also, she had a ton of bags and snored the whole night!  Needless to say, it was a pretty different experience than sharing a berth with Sathish on my previous sleeper bus ride; it's a tough call as to who makes a better sleeper bus partner!  The driver was a bit crazy, always slamming on the breaks, and, despite trying not to drink much, I had to pee most of the night.  Fortunately, we stopped at a place that had a very clean ladies toilet, so i was happy.

This Wednesday is Tamil New Year (well, it's traditional Tamil New Year, the actual new year was moved to Jan 14th by the Tamil Nadu government in 2009).  We have the day off at work and I'm looking forward to going nowhere and doing nothing!

What the NEW Efros!!

My cousins Anne and Jeremy had a baby girl last night!!  She's the first in the next Efros generation.  I can't believe I'm missing this!!

Aurora Marie, welcome to the family!  You will love it here!

Post Vacation Depression

I've got it.  Bad.  Even Geetha, the tea woman, has noticed.  Work  has become boring, Chennai is hot and I miss traveling.  You know it's bad when you wish you were currently on a non-AC sleeper class train instead of sitting at your desk in your AC office.  But the train is so fun.  I love downtime (reading books, napping, writing letters), eating street food, and talking to strangers and long train rides combine all of these!  Plus, there's looking through the open window or hanging out at the end of the car, wind blowing, watching the country go by.

I met some nice people on the train.  One Indian fellow, recently married, who was traveling with his new wife to a large temple a bit North of Chennai.  And the man and wife who occupied the bottom berths of our coop, who shared their oranges and sweets with us.  I met an Indian fellow, Shyam, who had spent a few years in Chicago pursuing a PhD in something Biotech.  His US visa wasn't accepted so he couldnt continue his studies and had to come back to India.  Now he owns a lucrative construction business in Bangalore.  He was on his way back from visiting a girl he met online whom he wanted to marry.  It was their first meeting and he also met the parents.  Everyone liked him, but he was denied because he wasn't a doctor.  He was devastated because he says he loves this girl, and he knows that she loves him, but her parents only want her to marry a doctor.  If this falls through, he says he will not marry and will only concentrate on making money and becoming rich.  I learned all this within 15 min of meeting him.

Having spent considerable time in the US, he was reluctant to eat or drink any of the food at the train station.  In fact, he didn't even want me to consume these things!  I told him it was safe to drink the water and showed him which foods were safe, too.  The food is a really fun part about train travel.  When the train would stop at a station, we would hop off and fill up water bottles and then go looking for food.  You never know what you're going to get.  If you're lucky, you'll find tasty fried snacks, channa masala, or one of my favorites, bread omelette, which is exactly as it sounds, an omelette with bread being the filling!  And ice cream is always a safe bet.  Sometimes there are not so many food choices, and you have to settle for bland egg biryani. Or sometimes the stop is too quick, the train starts moving and you have to jump back on before you find anything good.  One morning, our train went a record 7 hours without stopping and we couldnt have breakfast until 1pm.  That was a tough one.

Another perk of sleeper class travel is all the hawkers passing through the car selling everything; drinks, tomato soup, snacks, books, toys, popsicles, buttermilk (yeah, it grew on me).  I can still hear them, "chai, chai, caufee, chai."

And now I sit here in the relative comfort of my office, with all the people I see everyday, knowing that lunch time is coming in 10 min and that I'll be having rice and vegetables. BORING!!!

Feeling bad like this while I'm still in India makes me nervous for how I will feel when I go back home to the States.  Yikes!

MP Trip Phase III: Kanha National Park

After a heartwarming visit to a rural village, and a "spiritual" experience on a holy island, how else could we end our whirlwind trip then by seeing a tiger!!  This was our mission, and we would not rest until it was completed.

We had left the island on a bus to Indore, only to book another 14 hr sleeper bus to Jabalpur.  The sleeper bus (non-AC) was quite the experience.  The distance between the 2 cities is only 494 km, but due to poor road conditions and traffic, the journey takes 14 hrs.  The ride was extremely bumpy, and, for me, sleeping was near impossible.  This is also where I discovered probably one of my only major issues with India; lack of public toilets for women.  Sathish tried to explain to me, unsuccessfully, that Indian women are expected, even trained, to not have to use the toilet on a 14 hr bus ride.  I think that is physically impossible, and out of all the gender inequalities in India, for some reason, this is the one that upsets me the most.

Nonetheless, we made it to Jabalpur to catch, you guessed it, another bus- the third of this leg.  I'm learning that travel in India, even seemingly short distances, is never quick and easy.  But it does make for a fun adventure.  We finally arrived at Kanha National Park and checked into Panther resort.  After a quick, much needed shower, we walk to town to have tea and discuss marriage.  I have never thought more about the institution of marriage than I did on this trip.  And I'm still thinking, I'll have to write more about this topic later.  For dinner we walked to a dhaba near our hotel that was recommended to us by a drunk fellow who couldnt remember the word for "left."  The owner told us what veggies he had and asked what we wanted to eat.  We had a delicious meal of gobi parotha, dahl, rice, curd?, roti, pappadams, onions, and a lovely homemade tomato relish.  Dinner was accompanied by a debate about whether Facebook networking can actually bring about social change, and we all pledged not to kill any tigers we may see at the park the next day.

Woke up at 430am to get ready and meet our driver, Sandeep Yadav, at the front desk.  We picked up our guide, Chandrakanth, and headed to park.  It was early in the morning, and a bit chilly.  Kanha stretches over some 1000 sq km and is home to ? 89 tigers.  This place inspired Rudyard Kipling to write the novel, Jungle Book.  We saw guar, jackals, birds, spotted deer, swamp dear, peacocks, but no tigers!  After driving around for a few hours, we were ready to call it quits.  We dropped off our guide and as our jeep was just leaving the park, the gate keeper told us he heard over the radio that a tiger was spotted.  We turned around, found Chandrakanth, and headed over to the tiger.  You have to ride on an elephant to get to the tiger (natuarlly), so we climbed up a scary ladder and onto the elephant's back.  A short 5 min ride later, we came upon a tiger, napping in the grass. There he was, Shere Khan.

 

pics from the entire MP trip

MP Trip Phase II: Omkareshwar

Mid-squat, I glance over at the bag hanging from the bathroom door and notice the top to my water bottle is missing. Where is it? How long has it been missing? I can't find it in or around the toilet, and don't really have the strength or patience to go searching. Now that the threat of being sick (from either end) has passed, I try to remember what happened over the last 5 minutes. I'm having trouble because all I can think about are all those lame people who said they'd never buy a Sigg water bottle because “I'd lose the top!” That's the stupidest argument, I would say, how could that even happen?!?


I struggle to answer my own question as I walk back to the dhaba where I'd non-urgently left Sathish and GAPP, mid meal, to get some fresh air 'cause I felt that something was off. It's hard to explain; I felt weak and dizzy like I needed to eat something, but eating anything, even plain roti made me nauseous. Thankfully, the boys don't give me a hard time about losing the water bottle top or the fact that I committed a huge faux pas by not finishing, or even starting, the meal I had ordered. We agree that it's best that I head back to the guest house while they continue to explore the island.

With Maaza, Limca, and water in hand, I walk back and try to diagnose my symptoms. I knew I had not been drinking enough water since we arrived on the hot, dry, holy island of Omkareshwar yesterday and I'd had a headache since last night. Plus, we stayed up very late last night enjoying some holy offerings (don't worry, It's kosher for passover!) and then I had the brilliant idea to wake up at 430am to hike up the 276 steps behind our guest house to watch the sunrise (sorry Sathish!). We had found that our view was blocked by the dam (damn!) and after wondering about for 45 min, we had given up and sat on a wall at the edge of a cliff and just watched the town wake up. On the way back down we made a wrong turn (easy to do in the maze of alleys and stairs throughout the island) and ended up near the river. We knew where we were, but also knew this meant another big climb back up to our guest house. I had said, “I knew we shoulda taken that left turn at albuquerque!”, which Sathish will never find as funny as I did, despite the explanation.

 looking down from the top of the stairs that led to our guest house

It could have been the early morning adventure and lack of nourishment. It could have been the heat and dehydration. I was not having any “loose motions” as they call it here, so I doubt it was something that I ate/drank. Through process of elimination, I concluded it must have been the bhang lassis we had had for breakfast.


While Sathish and I had slept in after our disappointing sunrise, GAPP, who had smartly opted out of the sunrise, walked around the town and befriended some Rajistanis who gave him some bhang. When Sathish and I were deciding what to eat for our late late breakfast, GAPP appeared with 3 lassis and a newspaper package of bhang. I suspended the green paste into the lassi, quite pleased with my compounding skills, and drank it down.

Chalking up my symptoms to the bhang would support my theory that such things should be inhaled, and not eaten (caveat being reliable home made goods, of course). But seeing as it had no effect on Sathish or GAPP, I think it's probably the combination of many things that caused my near space out and resulting loss of water bottle top!

I spent the rest of the day resting and recovering on the balcony of our lovely guest house and was even able to return to our favorite dhaba for dinner, happy that the old man let us eat there again given my previous poor showing.

Our fav place to eat in Omkareshwar

Apart from that afternoon, the rest of the time on the island was smooth and relaxing. Omkareshwar is sunny and windy and there was not a mosquito to be found at this holy place! We pulled out beds outside and slept on the balcony. We met some nice people at our guest house, including an Israeli couple. Having been left out of the Hindi and Tamil, it was fun to be able to communicate the few Hebrew words and phrases that I know (I like this house, I think I will bayit, why don't you put that book in safer place, etc). We joked that 2 of the Hebrew words I know, diarrhea and mosquito, were pretty applicable to India.

Leaving the island was hard, but we were ready for phase III; Tigers.

Pics from the entire MP trip

MP Trip Phase I: Gunaga

After the initial 25 hr train ride to Bhopal, the first leg of our trip brought us to the village of Gunaga. We arrived at one of the Bhopal bus stands to find the only bus going to Gunaga was currently being repaired, but no worries, will be ready to go in 15 min. We had tea and took pics and GAPP bet me a beer that the bus wouldn't make it to Gunaga without breaking down again. Thankfully, I won the bet.

Getting off the bus at Gunaga, I felt very out of place. I think even Sathish and GAPP felt out of place as tourists with backpacks, Indian or otherwise, don't really visit such places. Following Sathish's advice, we made a bee line for a tea shop, unloaded our bags and ordered a cuppa. Quickly, this tea shop became THE most popular tea shop in the village! Both Sathish and GAPP speak Hindi, so they were able to chit chat with the men at the shop, while I just sipped and smiled. The scene was best described by a poem, written on the spot by one of the men who says I was his inspiration.

Sathish making friends at tea shop

After a while, we were invited to come to the house of one of the villagers, Prem BanshiLal. As we were leaving the tea shop, the owner would not let us pay, saying that we were his guests. Prem's family welcomed us into their house, gave us cool water and fed us chana nuts and local sun-dried vear berries. We were introduced to Prem's kids, Sachin and Manoj, and his friend, Nazeem Khan. We relaxed for a while and learned about Prem's family history and how he makes his living farming wheat. The kids were very shy, as they had never seen a foreigner before, but a crowd quickly formed at the house. Sathish began to play marbles with the kids, which they loved. Turns out Sathish is not as good as he remembers!

Sathish being schooled in marbles

Then we went over to Nazeem Khan's house and met his family. They also served us snacks, including Loda, a sweet dish made with the dried vear berries that was delicious. Nazeem Khan's father is a retired truck driver who has been all over India. When I asked his favorite place that he's seen, he answered that of all the places, he loves his home village the most, which was just the answer I was looking for!

Prem, Sachin, Manoj and NK's father

Prem offered to take us to his wheat fields to see the land and meet the rest of his family (the women and some of the other children). We rode in the back of a truck for about 5 min to reach the field. Here we met his wife, his brother's wife and some other women, as well as his daughter, Saloni. Again, since I dont speak hindi, I did a lot of sitting and smiling. But I noticed Saloni and the other kids were having a blast tackling and tickling each other, so I went to join them. This girl had the most amazing laugh and we spent a while playing, tickling each other, sticking our tongues out at each other and taking pics. This was by far my most favorite part of the day.

Sathish showed Prem's son, Sachin, how to use the camera and he took some lovely pics of us and his family. Also, Sathish made friends with a baby calf. We rode back to Prem's house in the truck again, this time I rode shotgun with Saloni next to me and Sachin on my lap. Prem's oldest daughter, Nidhi, served us some roti and sabji and then we said goodbye to the kids and walked back to the tea shop. Again we had tea, served by the tea shop owner's brother, then headed out. As we were walking, the tea shop owner rode up on his motorbike to say goodbye to us. He offered his house for us to stay the night (as did Prem and Nazeem Khan) but we thought it was best to keep moving.

Despite the packs on our backs and the blazing heat during our 4km walk to the main road, nothing could take away the happy warm feelings we got from the hospitality of the people of Gunaga. We all agreed that even though this as only the first whole day of our trip, our expectations had already been met no matter what else happened in the coming week.

Pics from the entire MP trip

Too good, man

I'm back from my trip, all in one piece!  I have lots of bruises on my legs (thanks 14 hr overnight bus on super bumpy road), a broken watch and a missing water bottle top.  Other than that, all is well!  Over the next few days I plan to post pics (pigs?) and write about some interesting things that happened on the trip.  But in the meantime, here are some lessons learned;

• If you ride in an auto with 2 Indian fellows, Bangalore auto drivers will think you're a prostitute
• How to make vear berries into Loda
• Village kids dont care if you can't speak Hindi
• Don't eat bhang on an empty stomach and walk out in the mid day sun if you're already a bit delirious and dehydrated from staying up all night and trying to watch the sunrise.
• If you say you're checking into a hotel to sleep, people will think you're a prostitute
• Chennai is full of wasted fellows and Bangalore is full of useless fellows
• My stomach can handle food and water from the village, the train, the bus stop, the island without getting upset!!!  (well, I'll know for sure in about 22 days)
• Rajinikanth = SUPERSTAR
• Marriage is a very complicated issue in India 
• ஓத மொக்கை  போடாதே! 
• If you hold onto an Indian fellow's arm while crossing the street, people may think you're a prostitute
• "Save Our Tigers" still has a lot of work to do, but there is at least one tiger in Kanha National Park
• I prefer sleeper class to 3AC train travel
• I'm getting married in 2012 and will have 2 kids; a boy and a baby
• If I never eat poha again, it will still be too soon
• There is another person who mosquitos love more than me (GAPP)
• Indian fellows don't understand knock knock jokes

And, unless they think you're a prostitue, the people of Madhya Pradesh are extremely friendly and helpful.

GAPP, Sathish, Me