Aw, look at the silly girl, can I touch it?
The elephants were cute, if domesticated and captive. Gina kept asking the mahouts if she could ride the elephants. Our 4 hour drive also took us to a school of fine arts. Our "tour guide," the senior most student who was able to monopolize the oddities, looked a lot like Tom Cruise. Rumor in India is that Mr. Cruise is engaged to Katie Holmes. I'm baffled.
The rest of my trip was enjoyable. We went for a boat ride the first day which was amazing. We were on the river, went out to a lake. We also went to a Syrian Christian wedding. It was an Indianized Christian wedding, sauces on the side. It was lovely and the bride was so sweet. We also saw some old Syrian churches. That was very interesting, very lovely.
Hinduism has done some unusual things with Christianity. There is a much greater emphasis on idols and images and having them everywhere. Hindus have put many idols on display (there's a small place at the end of every road for a Ganesh idol) and Christians have adopted the practice by putting displays near the drives for their churches. It's a little unusual to see so many Anglo-Jesuses in India. It reeks of colonialism in a disgusting way. But, the churches were worth our time, if littered with idols. Oh, one more thing, while on churches and Hindus. There is a drive-thru temple in Chennai. It's near me. People enjoy it most for the ease with which they can have their car blessed. Really. It makes me think of the McDonalds that are springing up in Christian churches in the US. Mendon, this is your cue for comment, seeing that you've relayed this info to me from your English class this year. Thanks.
I swore I would write about this trip. Oh, we also went to the school that was founded by Arundhati Roy's mother. That was SO beautiful. Filled with mosquitos, too. We were going to have tea with mother and daughter, but one was away and the other was ill, to the best of my knowledge. This is fine; I am enjoying The God of Small Things enough that I'm content to know Ms. Roy through her words there; it is dark and amazing. Much more deceitfully friendly than Heart of Darkness (which is referenced often). All of the children here are beautiful. Even the one on the train last night that puked more than he could weigh; he was cute. Sad, black eyes. The boat ride took us past several grade schools and the kids were often on lunch, coming down to the river to rinse their cans. They would shout and practice their English and raise one finger at us and wave it. They were asking, "one pen, one pen." I think that Gina and I are going to search out some Bics so we can send them back to Kerala and distribute to a few schools in Chennai as well. Note to anyone deciding to come to India: pack light, but bring 4-5 boxes of pens. And some soft tissues; the kids here will break your heart.
At the train station:
PS. Are the images that I post an acceptable size for loading and viewing?
Tom and Katie are engaged, the pictures are a good size too.
I just went to the DC zoo with LEah and Karida and we saw an elephant like we had never seen before. We decided it must be an Indian Elephant, and it looks just like the elephant in the photo- I thought the tan speckles were dirt but they are its natural color, no?
They're elephant freckles, I guess. Although, there was one aggressive elephant that was not being bathed (for that reason) so it was a red, dirt brown all over (the freckles are different, peachy). There were other elephants as well that were interested in the dirt, but that only made them dirty, rather than speckled.
Thanks for the info. Please say you are feeling much better as well. Aunt Barbie is the link to Katie Holmes updates (she went to high school with Katie Najarian in Toledo). Katie Holmes says she had a poster of Tom Cruise in her bedroom when she was a teen. Kinda funny, huh?
Your elephant is interesting. I've seen geckos, quail, and an owl since arriving in the Az. desert.