The blogging adventure will continue again once I have moved to Hereford, end September 2022: Goodbye Kerala

Pics from the wedding ......... just in!

simon's uncle, me, bride, groom,Simon, Sunny, Simon's son Joshua

Friday August 31

Traditional Kerala family house

Trad house.

Convinced Simon and Sunny to let me travel from Simon's to Sunny's house on the bus unaccompanied rather than have a car and driver, it was only a third full, and we rocked along alternately opening and closing the folding shutters as we went through rain showers. The buses have no glass in the windows so you are open to the elements, but they do possess these very effective blinds to shut out the monsoon rain. All this luxury for Rs.27 rather than the Rs.1000 for the car!

Jinu and his new wife visited in the afternoon and I received an invitation to lunch and dinner on Sunday, the lunch will be the official reception of his wife into his house, accompanied by suitable gifts from her parents.

Ate huge supper and went to bed only to spend half the night awake with the most excruciating indigestion. No sympathy for myself, as all self-inflicted! But it is almost impossible to say no here. and quantities , especially of rice are pretty cataclysmic.

I forgot to mention a funny incident from the children's games the other day. A small girl and her family came up to me and she said in her best English? "Hello, how are you?" "Fine thank you" Girl: "My sister said that if I spoke to you nicely in English you would give me chocolate!" ............

Also, advertising is big in India at the side of the road are huge billboards sometime 20 or 30 feet square, I was somewhat taken aback by a local billboard advertising Crusoe men's underwear, apart from the fact of this being so huge and in your face it had a rather ambiguous strap line as you can see from the picture. Hm.........

Who are you inside?

Innerwear for the innerself,

If there is adventure on the inside .........

maybe it's a case of lost in translation from English to Indian English

Saturday September 1

Sunny has taken his wife Jisha off to sit an examination, which she will need to improve her employment chances, she is already ranked 12th for her subject in the whole of Kerala so is 12th in line for a full time permanent position, currently she works for day wages although she has been at the same school for three years. But day wages means she has no job security and no pension, actually the government has just cancelled pensions for all new employees as a cost saving measure.

Politics here is a hot topic, in many cases politics and religion/caste/community are pretty inseparable especially at the more extreme ends. The BJP party is a Hindu party and has a very extreme right wing version known as the VHP based on whose vision is based on the following premise "The world has been divided to Christian, Islam and Communist. All of them view Hindu society as very fine rich food on which to feast and fatten themselves. it is necessary in this age of conflict to think of and organize the Hindu world to save it from the evils of all the three"

Generally the further north you go the more the inter community problems are stoked by the political system, relatively speaking here in Kerala things are

sane, the people elect a state government of a different persuasion every 5 years, so that nobody can be in power long enough to do any lasting damage! Recently they have wrung the changes between the communists and the Congress party (of the Gandhi dynasty).

All in all there are probably some 300-400 political parties in India see here for a complete list

not all of these parties are officially recognized and some of them are to all intents and purposes either a front for corruption/drug trafficking or out and out terrorism.

Trying to cut down on food intake today, when I am in Kolkata I will have more control. The problem is that I love the food here so much, when presented with 10 or 12 dishes, each with it sown unique flavours it is hard to say no, so I end up trying the lot and keeping the women very happy by so doing! Here, food is the main way of showing appreciation.

On the banana leaf : Banana chips, jaggery, avial, thoren, fish curry,three other sweeter curries, ginger pickle, fried fish

In the dishes behind: papads, pachadi, sambar, moru and payasam (like very sweet rice/vermacelli pudding) hm about 16 dishes in all! 17 with the rice!

Sunday September 2

Invited for lunch and dinner to Jinu's family house. The lunch is to welcome back Jinu and his wife and for her to take up residence! Actually she came back last Thursday but because of Onam, a special lunch could not be organised, as part of this process her family also come laden with gifts (officially there is no dowry system, but lets just say that one way or another the respective fathers will have come to an arrangement) including these gifts and much besides.

There were about 50 to lunch in 3 sittings. Her family, the men of Jinu's family then the women, actually there was a 4th sitting for Jinu's father, mother and brother and as they were eating the guys came to take away the temporary pandal (marquee) so as they scoffed there last mouthful all around them the outwards remains of the festivities were being taken away.

I was over indulged as usual, ate way too much, especially the exceptionally fine Beef and coconut curry a real Kerala speciality, this as part of the usual 10 or 12 dishes making up a traditional kerala "meal". Bloated went back to Sunny's for a siesta, Sunny and I were expected back at 6 for an evening meal (and Jinu's father was desperate top give me some alcohol, so as a good host he could join me, but this had to be done after all the rest of the family, brothers, cousins etc, had departed.

IMFL - "Indian made foreign liquor" - all members of the army are given a quota of 5 bottles per month and retired army folk like Jinu's dad are given a quota of 10 bottles. Most gets sold on the quiet, just as well as the entire army would otherwise be rolling drunk, however, this policy doesn't help the retired guys as many after 22 years service are confirmed alcoholics. Without seeming ungrateful I have to say that the "Royal Deer" IMFL Whiskey would probably have been better employed as rocket fuel, or drain cleaner. But, I drank my quota so that Jinu's dad could enjoy with a clear conscience.

Back to Sunny's for around 10, need to be up early tomorrow to pack for Kolkata.

All-in-all Simon and Sunny were wonderful hosts and tried hard to make sure that I needed nothing, especially on the food front they were keen to make sure that I sampled all my favourite dishes, so I think in the last 7 days I have just about eaten every typical Kerala dish known to man!

Monday September 3

Flew to Kolkata with "IndiGo" Indias newest budget airline, fantastic, brand new A320 airbus, charming air crew (though I was shocked to read the advert for new cabin staff: 18-24, fair skinned, females only, with good written and spoken english, good attitude .....) so much for equality.

The return airfare for the 3 hour flight to Kolkata from Kochi was around £110. Had to borrow a suitcase from Sunny as discovered (too late for compensation) that Emirates had trashed my old one (another 0/10). Met at the airport and driven to Mrs Poonam Singh's guest house.

The drive from the airport to central Kolkata was like driving through a 15 mile building site, my word is the City expanding and modern, and then you go over a bridge an "pow" you are back in the Calcutta of crowded roads of cycle rickshaws, street food, noise, ancient trams and hustle bustle. But I am staying in the quiet roads of Ballygunge, a very select area.

The guest house is actually a 2 bedroom flat, situated on the third floor of a residential block, with a lovely wheezy ancient lift. My room is superb, about 15 foot square, light, bright, airy, loads of cupboards, lovely attached shower-room (hot water), and a/c (not that I will use that) all looked after by "Akshay" (30) and his cousin Sanjay (20), for Mrs P. Singh operating this flat is a nice little business. The boys (you are a boy in India until you get married), made sure I was settled in nicely and after unpacking I went to bed.

Tuesday 4 September

Am being collected at 10:30 to go to the music school, breakfast, (rather a perfunctory affair in north India) toast, omelette, fruit, tea was made by Akshay who told me that he could prepare lunch and dinner if I needed it and also explained about arrangements for laundry etc.

Guest house is on third floor

All this was once the garden of a single house

I then got a call from Mrs P Singh welcoming me to her guest house, she was keen to tell me that breakfast was included in my room price, but that extra meals, teas, laundry, could all be had for extra! She was very keen on the phrase "of course that's extra ..." BUT, I think things will be very OK here, another guest is to arrive today and if I understood Akshay correctly was also associated with the Music School, but I could be wrong as his English is minimal. (I was wrong!) But two guests and 2/3 boys to look after you, not a bad ratio!

Anyways, lets see, what the day brings ..... it now 10am ........ good to back in the conducting saddle, Sanjib the now regular conductor and my colleague from many years back (he played for me in Kolkatta and Delhi handed over the baton and I spent a little time this morning putting the players through their paces in order to ascertain a plan for the next five weeks. This will be subject to separate blogs.

18:50 just back from a walk and wondered whether I had made a mistake inasmuch that even in the "leafy lanes" of Ballygunge I had forgotten just how impossible walking at dusk is here, with pavements clogged with tea sellers, dogs, rubbish, trees, sleeping tramps and suffering from seemingly unfinished excavations. So its best to walk in the road except of course the road are full of traffic, much without lights. Still I survived but won't be repeating the experience at dusk. It's odd that where pavements are serviceable I think the locals are so shocked that they forget they can use them! I just have to remember that all this goes to make Calcutta the unique city that it is, logically there is no way this city should work, too much traffic, too many people and hopelessly inadequate infrastructure, but it is definitely a special place, and I love it.

To see where I am staying on a map click here.

Now some very India Chai (made with milk, sugar, cardamom and tea leaves all boiled together until thick and strong) along with some biscuits, gong to try and cut out supper and just settle for breakfast and a hearty lunch.

Wednesday September 5

Off to the School for my first rehearsal with the orchestra, only snag is that it has been raining all night and as I descended the stairs found that the last two were actually under water, fortunately I was wearing sandals, so nothing for it but roll up my trousers above the knees and well, wade in! I thought it might just be a local problem to the area around the flat where I am staying, but no. Even the main road and tram tracks were under water, however this did not deter drivers racing through the water creating very unhelpful waves for us poor unfortunate pedestrians. I quickly realised that it was best to follow somebody and note just how deep the water was every time they stepped off an already submerged kerb to cross side roads. The road "Sunny Park" where the school is situated was the worst being completely submerged for almost its entire length...... was very impressed that by 10:15, twelve of the twenty-two players had made it to the rehearsal out of deference to me. It was generally agreed that this degree of flooding was rare. One my "wade" back to the guest house I succumbed and bought an umbrella, though a canoe would have been better. The problem is that you never quite know what you are stepping into, but was happy to assume that the rats, cats and dogs had probably long since found higher ground!

There is an outbreak of "Dengue" fever which all adds to the excitement! (Fortunately the mosquitos carrying this disease like clean water, so I am pretty safe here in the city!)

Fortunately I had ordered lunch at the guest house and arrived back, soaked, but to a lovely lunch of rice, dahl, cauliflower curry and a squash and potato curry, with papads.

The rehearsal, although with depleted numbers was great fun, so pleased to be back to doing what I do best!

As the rain was continuing decided it was best not to try to venture out again, so am marooned with star-tv and no internet.

OK, that's it for this week, will revert to a more discursive style of blogging I explore aspects of this diverse and amazing city.

Devjani at the CSM has come u trumps and loaned me a mobile-internet dongle, so this posting is courtesy of her. £10 for 5GB for one month. Not bad I say!