Katie Revell
Thursday 05 October 2006
It's been a bit of a crazy couple of weeks. The wedding on Monday went well - a similar affair to the first one but with 1000 more guests (3000 in total!). The bride and groom sat on a throne on a stage and were given garlands by their family members before the guests paraded across sprinkling flower petals on their heads. It's a nice way to do it, although very, very time consuming!
Because of the volume of guests, the evening was operated in a kind of shift system, with the first people to cross the stage being the first to eat. The meal took place in a large hall filled with long tables; banana leaf plates were dolled out by the extremely efficient caterers who then raced along the tables dishing out spoonfulls of each dish. It wasn't a particuarly relaxed meal - halfway through the caterers would start menacingly rolling up the disposable tablecloths from one end and hungry guests would stand behind ready to pounce on your seat - but very tasty nonetheless.
On Tuesday, after having been told three different things, it was confirmed that we had a week's holiday from the Wednesday. What followed was some frantic planning and ticket-buying, made incalculably easier by the help of an extremly professional final year tourism student. If any travel agencies out there have vacancies you could do a lot worse than to snag her. We decided to take a trip South to Tamil Nadu, taking in Chennai (Madras) and Pondicherry. We got an overnight bus on Wednesday having been unable to get train tickets at such short notice. The holiday coincided with a big Hindu festival (the name of which temporarily escapes me) so a lot of people were travelling.
On arrival in Chennai we whipped out the trusty Lonely Planet and made our way by bus to Broadlands Lodge, a rather tumbledown but lovely colonial house in the Triplicane area of the city. That morning we visited a nearby temple - not one of the more famous ones but nevertheless an interesting experience. In the afternoon we met a friend of the Tourism student's who had kindly offered to help us find our way around. She introduced us to her uncle, a businessman who was definately one of India's new middle class. Likewise, he was lovely, and it was interesting to see life from the point of view of an economically successful - and very westernised - family.
That evening we were taken by the family to celebrations for the festival which were taking place in the grounds of a school. There was dancing, which took place in the form of a big circle of people progressing round to some rythmic music. We joined in for one 'round' but unfortunately no photographic evidence exists. Sadly, we were so exhausted from the overnight trip (and intense heat) that we left before the "proper" dancing began.
On Thursday we were roped in to being extras in a Tamil film, the final scenes of which were being shot at a nearby beach. Although I do still feel slight pangs of guilt at having done this rather than visiting the stunning temples of Kanchipuram (our original plan), it was the kind of novelty experience which we couldn't pass up on. It was a fun, hot, tiring day, involving much waiting around and also a lot of background dancing. I have to admit I wasn't overly impressed with the two main "actors", who had evidently been cast for their looks rather than acting or dancing capabilities. The other "extras" were a motley crew from Russia, Kazachstan, Denmark, Holland and Spain, so it was interesting to find out what had brought all of them to India.
We had intended to leave early on Saturday morning for Pondicherry, but - due partly to our own negligence and partly that of the Lodge - we missed our checkout time and had to pay for an extra night. By this time we'd got to know some of our fellow lodgers - a very eccentric bunch including an Argentinian tourguide/writer, English bamboo sculptor and international Shaman monk. We ended up travelling down to "Pondy" on Sunday with the latter character, since he was making the trip as well. All I can say is that he was a very interesting person, and our conversations spanned pretty much every imaginable topic. He had lived in India for many years and so it was very useful to have someone who was a little more experienced with using the often erratic Indian public transport.
I'm going to have to leave it there but will fill you in on Pondicherry when I get a chance. I have lots of photos too so I'll upload them a.s.a.p.