you are enjoying your time in our place?

on this, the second day, we are learning that, along with general traffic safety, schedules are also superfluous to indian culture. under the impression that a car would arrive to pick us up between 8 and 8:30 this morning, we headed down to breakfast at 7:30. scott, our team leader, said, "it's ok for us to wait for them, but not for them to wait for us." and wait we did. our care-takers appeared around 9:45a.m. and there were lots of introductions and slightly conflicting reports about the day's activities and then we were suddenly being whisked upstairs to meet the retired chief justice of the indian supreme court, who is the keynote speaker of this weekend's conference.

we finally headed out, around 10:30a.m., melissa, ruby and i for an artist's school, with three adorable rotarian wives in tow. ruby, an artist, sat down with kandhee, who runs the school, and learned a technique called tanjore painting. it is an amazingly labor intensive process of creating a raised mold by dripping a gum liquid onto fabric attached to wood, letting it dry, and then covering it with paint and pressed sheets of gold. we all got to try a little bit, and enjoyed the displayed work of the master. she said she didn't start doing art until after her children were grown and she had nothing to do. relatives and their friends started showing up at her house at all hours of the day and night, children and husbands in tow, for lessons and it was so "hectic" that she finally started a school to help manage her schedule, and the load. it was a wonderful visit.





after lunch and a quick rest, melissa and i headed to the offices of the hindu, the most respected newspaper in the country. we met with the bureau chief of this region's office who told us a little about the history of the paper. it was started in a town near here, chennai (formerly madras), as an alternative to, and rebellion against, the british. after the british left, the paper was very instrumetal in building nationalism, the editor said. the paper is family-owned and seems to uphold impeccable standards, including refusing advertising they think is dishonest. there are regional editions focused on local news, and the paper is also committed to covering issues particular to women, children and poverty. the editor said there is no censorship, and that free press is one of the four pillars of indian society. the offices were spacious and modern, with large gardens and security guards outside. just across the street, in the middle of the intersection, was what appeared to be some kind of construction project: a group of men squatting around a massive hole, occassionally digging, but mostly drinking tea.




after the newspaper, we met the rest of the group back at the hotel and headed to the town's hindu temple, the largest in southern india. it was truly unbelievable, unlike anything i have ever seen. each of the four outside gates has eight levels, representing the eight cycles of hinduism. it was completely crammed with pilgrims, some of whom come to the temple every morning and every night, and people trying to sell us things. we walked around barefoot, and worshippers fully prostrated themselves in front of the goddess for whom the temple was built. we saw a real life elephant (!) being led into the temple to perform some kind of ritual, as well as a group of men with instruments carrying the god around the temple. our tour guide explained that it was the god's after-dinner walk, and once it was done the temple would close. he also talked to us a lot about his own views on hinduism. no religion teaches you to be evil he said, but we all have to make the choice independently to be good. it is sort of like the artist told us this morning, "our lives are full of beliefs, yes? and then we are at peace."







after the temple was some shopping and our first real jaunt into the city. we have been very well taken care of by the rotarians with constant companions and an air conditioned van, but i've wondered if there are parts of india we are being shielded from. but, i think we saw a good portion of real india this evening. the stories of cows wandering the streets are true, and all kinds of children ran up to us with their hands out asking for "school pens." there is garbage and rubble everywhere and small, cluttered businesses, tailors, fruit stands, anything you can imagine, tucked into every corner and spilling out onto the street. it is a wonderful, lively place, and would probably be difficult to navigate on our own. but i feel like i can honestly say, "yes, i am enjoying my time in your place."