August 24, 2010, Velachery, Chennai
10:15 a.m.-9:06 p.m. India Time
I always feel as if there is so much I'm forgetting to write. This place is so full. Every moment, every iota of space and time is so rich, colorful, cacophonous. I love it so much, I feel as if I'm going to cry when I have to leave, even though I miss the U.S. and all of my friends and family.
There is some incredible music in the air this morning, with lots of drums and some sort of horn or wind instrument, and a cool breeze coming through the window. It's overcast, and I'm not sure if that means rain, or if it might brighten up later like it did yesterday.
I couldn't sleep again last night. I'm not sure if it's all the coffee, or my body clock adjusting (I am naturally a night person), or what, but I had to get up out of bed last night to write. I like being up alone at night, and that's often when I do my best creative writing (I write poetry. I even had some published in a book recently.) I have spent most of my writing time on this blog, of course, but I like to keep my poetry skills flowing. Out of every ten poems I write, only a couple of them are really good, so I have to write a lot. I've been writing poetry since I was ten years old, and stories since I was four. I'm much better at poetry than stories, as I don't have the focus or attention span to develop a story well. Poetry is more like a short burst of thought, and I'm pretty adept at those.
On Thursday, I am going to meet a poet I really admire. Her name is Sharanya Manivannan, and she is an amazing poet, journalist, and spoken word performer, and she is only 25! She's really beautiful, too. I can't wait to meet her and talk to her about writing, India, and all other kinds of things.
Anyway, last night I got up, ate a bar of chocolate, swatted mosquitoes, wrote a few poems, tried to meditate, said a few prayers, and went to bed. I didn't get up this morning until 9. Raja actually called me lazy, and I laughed at him, because he has to be the laziest man on earth. I've never known a guy who can nap so well. Anni says her hubby is a close contender, though. Maybe those two should have a sleeping contest.
Raja tells me he usually reads my blog, just to make sure I am not misrepresenting India. I think it’s just to see how many times I mention his name. He’s a little egotistical that way. I told him that I was going to write:
“India is just like a Bollywood movie. Yesterday it rained and dozens of lovers were dancing in the monsoon, singing songs of love…”
My friend Liese asked me how Aunty could bake a cake in such a small oven, and to tell you the truth, I don't know. My guess is that they simply don't bake a lot of cakes. I don't see much cake here. Ice cream, yes. (I've had some amazing ice cream here, in very exotic fruit flavors.) Sweets, yes, made mostly of nuts and ghee and cream and yum. Turnovers, too and pastry, but not a lot of cake.
Raja has to go to Bangalore overnight for business. His company has an office there, which is where he'll work if we end up moving to Bangalore in two years. Uncle tells me that we'll drop him at the airport tonight at 3-ish and then go somewhere together (me, Aunty, Uncle, and the kids.) Raja will be home tomorrow night very late. His plane doesn't get in until 11:00 p.m. so he'll take an auto home.
I have some photos to post, but that means I have to move to the hot living room, where I actually get Internet access. I need to move there anyway to post this, but it feels so nice here in my bedroom with the breeze and the peace and quiet (and by that I mean nobody talking, and by that I mean no adults trying to convince naughty children to put down their DSi-s and eat breakfast. It is always an argument. I just say to them, "eat it" and give them the hairy eyeball. It usually works. ) The music is still coming in from outside, it’s a special day of prayer, and the pujas began this morning at about 5:30.
****
This has been a most frustrating day. I have not been able to get on the Internet all day, despite the fact that other computers in this house have not had a problem doing so. I am so annoyed that I just want to throw my computer out the window, but I know that, a) That wouldn’t fix the problem, and b) I’d regret it later.
Today at about three-ish, we left to take Raja to the airport to catch his flight to Bangalore. The car we hired was so small that Monkey had to sit on my lap, and Man Cub had to sit on Raja’s lap. He could have sat on my lap, but he refused. “I don’t like sitting on women,” he said, “I like lying on women.” (I don’t think he means just any women; he means his mom and other relatives, and in a purely cuddly way, of course.) At least he’s honest about what he likes.
Raja got out at the airport and we (Uncle, Aunty and I) took the boys to a mall to play arcade games, as it was rainy and we couldn’t go to the beach. It shouldn’t have been a huge problem except that our driver was a complete &$%!!#$%@^ idiot. (Forgive my symbolic bad language.) He took a wrong turn, and instead of taking us there in a straight line, he went in a huge circle! It took us almost an hour to get there. It’s sort as if you were going to Puyallup from Tacoma, but instead you decided to drive through Bonney Lake and Sumner as a “short cut”. It took us almost an hour.
We went to the loudest arcade I have ever been to. If we ever go again, I am definitely taking my earplugs. From what I have seen of the Man Cub’s skills in driving games and bumper cars, he has a wonderful career ahead of him in the auto-rickshaw business. Monkey is the best skee-ball player I have ever met. He won enough tickets to get a teddy bear that plays music when you squeeze it. Aunty spent about 30 minutes making sure he got a bear in which the sound box worked, but I think she’ll soon regret that. I had to give the bear a time out because it was being annoying on the ride home, singing “I love you, I love you, I love you,” until I wanted to throw it out the window.
We ate a decent dinner, for mall food. MC and I shared a chicken combo plate and some chicken kabob. Actually, I ate all the chicken kabob and a lot of the combo plate. I was very hungry. My throat was sore from shouting over the terrible din of the arcade and breaking up bouts of “brotherly love.”
I also had to go to the bathroom at the mall. It was pretty scary (sort of like going at a rest stop), and I was just glad I brought my own tissue and hand sanitizer. That’s all I have to say about that.
Now, I have a lot of patience, but I was really about to blow my top when the driver took another wrong turn and it took over an hour to get home! It didn’t help that the traffic was the worst I had ever seen. Seriously. It was like Friday afternoon traffic on I-5 if no one used any lanes or obeyed any traffic rules. The boys both fell asleep, the Monkey on my lap, and the MC in the front seat. At one point the driver pushed the MC’s head off his shoulder. That was hilarious. At that point, Aunty just stuck her hand up front and held the MC’s head in place. Even worse was that the #^$&$! driver had to stop for gas, and Aunty and Uncle had to pay for it! I hope to all that’s holy that he was not charging them by the mile.
At the last U-turn before our place, he tried to squeeze out a couple of other guys and ha ha! There was a cram, and another car got wedged between him and a motorbike (there wasn’t even a bump, and no one was hurt) but as the other car pulled back, we could hear the scraaaaaaaaaape of the metal against metal. It was just like the Man Cub in the bumper cars. The driver was really mad, and got out and started yelling at the other guys. Apparently the guy on the bike left: parked his bike super quick, and ran. That's the way they do it here. The driver just had to get over it and take us home. I didn’t feel very sorry for him. Karma (or should I say CAR-ma) sucks.
We finally got home at 8:55. I’m exhausted. I talked to Raja for a moment on the phone, and I think he’s going to call me tomorrow. I still can’t get online, and my computer is running very slow in general, so I’m going to call it a night. I’ll try again tomorrow, and hopefully I’ll have better luck.
Until then, be good!
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