The penultimate post, 15 elephants in a car park and dancing with artificial christmas trees on your head

Morning all, its 07:30 and it must have rained in the night as the ground is damp and its a cool 26 C this morning. In just over two weeks we will fly back to the UK after 5 months here in Kovalam. I've decided this will be our last post from here in India, I will knock out a photo edition on our return, when i'll have more time to sort and edit them. Until then here is a random picture to be going on with. I spoke to my mom earlier in the week who asked if we were ready to return and have we "got it out of our system?" (not quite sure what she meant by IT) but i gave her an honest answer.

No.

I'm not saying we haven't missed friends and relatives and that there weren't times when being so far away from the kids wasn't difficult because they were, but life here is good for us. I could try and justify it in economic terms, rent on the apartment being less than our gas bill, cost of living etc. and no doubt that helps but being here has been about much more than money.

I could also go on about the health benefits we have enjoyed, I've lost what must be getting on for 3 stone (i tried on my belt last night and from being on the last notch I will now need to cut a new hole to wear it, none of my swim shorts fit and I have to pull the draw strings tight to avoid losing them in the sea and both of my knees work without complaint).

Its not just about being warm, the sunshine or the longer daylight hours, though the thought of returning to cold, dark damp mornings fills me with dread.

Nor is it the great hospitality and kindness we have been shown by our new friends.

Its India, it gets under your skin and into your blood, the chaotic and serene, poverty and affluence, spiritual and materialistic, living side by side. As I've said before this place assails, offends and delights the mind and senses like no other i've known. 

We have already begun to plan for later this year, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and then back to India for winter 2014/15.

15 Elephants in a car park

Last week Ruth, Sarah's second cousin, came to visit for a couple of weeks. It was interesting to watch someone's reactions to what we have come to see as "normal". While she was here we went to see a temple festival just north of Trivandrum in a smallish village as we had heard there were to be elephants. And there were, 15 of them, fully grown Indian Elephants. We arrived early and got to see them being dressed for the parade. Our first elephant sighting was on a plot of land just off the main village street, it was being rested after being brought in for the ceremony, she was a 30 year old female and to be honest looked tired and a little worse for wear. She was standing in the shade under a tree and her Mahoot was trying to get some rest a few feet from her. In her trunk she held a coconut palm frond, about 5 ft long, and was using it as a giant fan/fly swat casually waving it around as though it was as light as a feather. We took a few photos and were about to leave when our driver told us there was another elephant in the garden next door. He wasn't joking, just over the wall in someones front garden there was a young 15 year old male elephant, he stood bright eyed, stripping palm leaves with his trunk and pushing the fronds into his enormous mouth. The dexterity he displayed with his trunk was absolutely amazing. Its only when you stand 3 ft away from an elephant, with no bars or fences between you do you truly appreciate the size and strength of these magnificent animals. They way they look at you, size you up and seem to be aware of all that is going on, this is no big cow, there is a spark of "knowing" behind those large dark eyes. We stood and watched in awe, and then noticed that the family who owned he house where he has resting were all outside with cameras, clicking away ten to the dozen, not taking pictures of the elephant but of us. To them we were the "strange and exotic beasts" in the garden, we were the visitors who they would dine out on for months to come.

 "Do you remember when that enormous white, i say white he was actually bright red, man and those two women were in our garden? He was over 6 ft tall i didn't know they were that big until i stood next to him. The way he drank a whole liter of water in one go!!! I think he was hot even though it was only 30 C"

After we had talked to the house owners daughter, she told us they have an elephant in the garden every year, we followed the elephant down the road to the temple car park to see him dressed with the others.

When we got there, there were 3 elephants waiting some with their ceremonial head dresses in place, chomping on whole banana plants and taking things in their stride. The police were already there checking the registration documents of the animals and mahoots alike, no certificates of health for the elephant or correct documentation no parade and a spell in jail. Temple elephants are well looked after and strict rules enforced in their use, these are prized and potentially dangerous animals. All was in order, i.e. the elephants and mahoots passed muster and the elephants hadn't killed anyone in the previous four weeks (this is not a joke, its one of the rules, if they had, they would have had to have had "the nod" from the Wildlife and Forestry Commission before they could be used).

Quickly the four elephants became six, then ten, then thirteen and finally we were surrounded by 15 elephants in a space 50 x 50 meters, all being dressed for the parade, a truly awe inspiring sight.

Meanwhile at a stage on the edge of the car park we were treated to a display of drumming, martial arts and dance while surrounded by elephants who just stood there, watching us watching them as they ate their lunch.

Then in a moment worthy of Monty Python six men appeared on the stage. On each of  their heads was balanced what i can only describe as a 4 ft tall 3 ft wide silver artificial christmas tree covered in brightly coloured tin foil flowers. They then in all solemnity proceeded to dance, it was totally surreal. I didn't know if i should be amazed, impressed, or just howl with laughter. It was so..... India.

Ok thats it until we are back in the UK, I have dosas getting cold and a beach getting hot to see to.

Have a good week

K&S

xxx

Being Manly....

Good Morning, its 8:36 a.m. here in Kovalam and i'm sitting in the apartment alone eating home made dosas and sambal. I say home made, i didn't make them, Muntaz the apartment owner who lives in the downstairs apartment did. Sarah and Ruthy are off on a rice boat cruising the Keralan backwaters, think gourmet Keralan food, Norfolk Broads plus rice paddis, duck herders in canoes, 30+ C lounging on day beds as the world floats by and you will get the picture. I on the other hand have spent the last two days bouncing over some monster waves, reading a Robert Harris novel, sleeping on the beach and last night watching a Stalone/Arnie film while eating a chicken tikka masalla and downing a couple of tins of Bud, each to their own.

Breakfast this morning was a surprise, or rather second breakfast, as i'd already had a couple of weetabix. Muntaz had decided as i had been abandoned by these feckless women I would be unable to feed myself and delivered my second breakfast. She also took one look round the apartment and decided i have to hand in my key so she can clean when I'm out.

Being a self reliant "modern man" (ok ok i can hear the howls of laughter from the rice boat from here) the job description for being a man or woman feels very strange and rather awkward here to western eyes. For example, back home we have several unwritten rules, if you cook the meal the other person washes up, (this isn't just courtesy but a survival technique as we both make rubbish sous chefs), once it becomes impossible to tell the TV is HD its time to dust, hovering is to be done when the plain carpet is beginning to look patterned or when we had dogs when it had a black Labrador sheen and in the main it is a joint effort.

Here this is "women's work", Muntaz and Jodthy (our friend Chris's wife) find it very strange that a man should or even could cook or wash up in their own home when they have a wife. Not very manly, ironic in a country where most of the men wear skirts.

This is amusing side to gender here but there is a much much darker one.

A month ago the Hindu reported a rape of a village woman in the north of India, disturbing enough but the details were horrific. It was a gang rape, not by a drunken mob or a sex offender ring but by a village. The woman had "had relations" with a man from another village and the headman in the village had sentenced her to be raped in the village square by the men of the village and her lover to be forced to watch.

She had not immediately reported the crime as she was afraid if she did the village would shun her and her family, indeed members of her family have now disowned her for doing so.

In the celebrity section of the paper a famous actor was telling the world how he hates India being labelled as a "developing nation" as it is the world's largest democracy, had a centuries old culture, is a world power, had hosted some of the most impressive technological advances of the 21st century and had "arrived".

I think he needs to take a look around and get back on the bus.

And now I think i'll go have a quick tidy round, do the washing up and make the bed before I go to the beach and before Muntaz pops back upstairs....

K