Friday, April 22, 2005
Riz & saree
Evening shopping back from work. Nice, mango season has come. But which one should I take? So many kind. Look up here! A pack of 12 gorgeous export mangoes "alphonso" for 250 rupees. "Et hop!" , in the bag. Since that time (2 days ago) one mango for breakfast (imagine mangoes with orange colored flesh and without fibers) but I will have to eat more since it seems they all getting ripe at the same time (juice runing from one end!!!). And what a smell when I came back home this evening!!!
What strikes you South India is that al lot of women are not only fat, by sometimes extremly fat. Much more than anywhere in the world. I found the responsibles : rice and saree. Rice because it is the monofood culture here (not really balanced) and saree because what ever you might pick-up in weight you can always wear it. You just make less turns to put it on... (I guess western clothes give efficient diet signal when you can't enter them anymore).
Heared about William Jones? Me neither until I started a book about history of indian studies by Britain (~Indology). He founded the Asiatic Society in India, studied the famous Ashoka columns - were the India king was communicating about his conversion to bouddhism! -, some variants of old sanskrit, and discovered the well hidden roots of bouddhism in India beginning of 19th century.
"Jaya count" : last game invented when you find a road trip boring : find a friend, count the portraits of the TN chief minister along the road (her name : Jayalalita), the first who sees 10 has won. In some areas this number can be increase since the painting density is higher. Once finished you can start again with one of the Tamil movie stars!
What strikes you South India is that al lot of women are not only fat, by sometimes extremly fat. Much more than anywhere in the world. I found the responsibles : rice and saree. Rice because it is the monofood culture here (not really balanced) and saree because what ever you might pick-up in weight you can always wear it. You just make less turns to put it on... (I guess western clothes give efficient diet signal when you can't enter them anymore).
Heared about William Jones? Me neither until I started a book about history of indian studies by Britain (~Indology). He founded the Asiatic Society in India, studied the famous Ashoka columns - were the India king was communicating about his conversion to bouddhism! -, some variants of old sanskrit, and discovered the well hidden roots of bouddhism in India beginning of 19th century.
"Jaya count" : last game invented when you find a road trip boring : find a friend, count the portraits of the TN chief minister along the road (her name : Jayalalita), the first who sees 10 has won. In some areas this number can be increase since the painting density is higher. Once finished you can start again with one of the Tamil movie stars!
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Happy (tamil) new year!
14th of april, tamil new year here, nothing special, just a day off, sweets and the release of 3 tamil mega-hits that ensure huge queues in the front of the movie theatres.
The summer has not yet come. Last week was very fresh, some heavy rain fell (quand il pleut ici, comme dirait l'autre, c'est pas pour exercice!...) and delayed the construction project. However plant start-up is iminent, daily work is really exciting (thanks God!), my team is waiting unpatiently for mass-production. It is really a good experience to start from nothing with operators and to see their progresses from day to day. Plant Pooja is already over : 6 brahmin priests came for it and lit a small fire in the production hall where lots of coconuts were broken. I was lucky to break my coconut among the firsts. The lasts had to walk in a coconut-milk lake with their socks (always remove your shoes for poojas) and make milky foot prints on the way back to their shoes.
Two weeks ago the police chief of Madras decided that the few bars and discos here (I can count them with my 2 hand's fingers in a 8 millions inhabitants city!!! - all in hotels) were a threat for the youth's morality and the public security so he decided to apply strictly the Tamil law forbidding to serve alcool (& consequently to open) after 11.30pm. In fact nothing special, mood in those places is like in Europe, playing music from the 80's, so harmless. Since only the happy fews are going there, no mass protests but it makes the city less attractive than never for foreigners. No place to chill out on saturday night...The conservatism of this part of India is amazing... and disappointing. What a contrast with Krakow! Quoting Mc Solaar, "La presence d'un passe omnipresent n'est pas passee"...
I had lunch today in a beach-resort some 30 km southern from Chennai. Good sea food (prawns, loabster) with "Sand Piper" beer in a nice breeze. Strange feeling along the sea. A fantastic beach, but no-one on it, or only fishermen and some rare indians going along. No beach-feeling at all! This feeling has to be created at home, making fresh juices (lately a complete ananas went through the mixer) and listening to my favorite tunes of the moment, a brazilian drum&bass disc (label Sambaloco, good). Such a contrast to Brazil (or what I imagine it is!). Almost obscene to listen to this kind music in Tamil Nadu...
You guessed it, I feel like choking here, time to take some holidays, to visit the North or go on week-end to Bangalore, the IT city were the rules are more progressist.
[Pope Karol W. is dead, long life to him! It was a good opportunity to see on TV his home region for a nostalgic ex-krakower and to remember his role in 20th century history. Condoleances to my Polish friends.]
The summer has not yet come. Last week was very fresh, some heavy rain fell (quand il pleut ici, comme dirait l'autre, c'est pas pour exercice!...) and delayed the construction project. However plant start-up is iminent, daily work is really exciting (thanks God!), my team is waiting unpatiently for mass-production. It is really a good experience to start from nothing with operators and to see their progresses from day to day. Plant Pooja is already over : 6 brahmin priests came for it and lit a small fire in the production hall where lots of coconuts were broken. I was lucky to break my coconut among the firsts. The lasts had to walk in a coconut-milk lake with their socks (always remove your shoes for poojas) and make milky foot prints on the way back to their shoes.
Two weeks ago the police chief of Madras decided that the few bars and discos here (I can count them with my 2 hand's fingers in a 8 millions inhabitants city!!! - all in hotels) were a threat for the youth's morality and the public security so he decided to apply strictly the Tamil law forbidding to serve alcool (& consequently to open) after 11.30pm. In fact nothing special, mood in those places is like in Europe, playing music from the 80's, so harmless. Since only the happy fews are going there, no mass protests but it makes the city less attractive than never for foreigners. No place to chill out on saturday night...The conservatism of this part of India is amazing... and disappointing. What a contrast with Krakow! Quoting Mc Solaar, "La presence d'un passe omnipresent n'est pas passee"...
I had lunch today in a beach-resort some 30 km southern from Chennai. Good sea food (prawns, loabster) with "Sand Piper" beer in a nice breeze. Strange feeling along the sea. A fantastic beach, but no-one on it, or only fishermen and some rare indians going along. No beach-feeling at all! This feeling has to be created at home, making fresh juices (lately a complete ananas went through the mixer) and listening to my favorite tunes of the moment, a brazilian drum&bass disc (label Sambaloco, good). Such a contrast to Brazil (or what I imagine it is!). Almost obscene to listen to this kind music in Tamil Nadu...
You guessed it, I feel like choking here, time to take some holidays, to visit the North or go on week-end to Bangalore, the IT city were the rules are more progressist.
[Pope Karol W. is dead, long life to him! It was a good opportunity to see on TV his home region for a nostalgic ex-krakower and to remember his role in 20th century history. Condoleances to my Polish friends.]
