Sims Park, 21 June 09

Gopalsami, Carolyn

Sims Park has many, many healthy bees. There's a 100+ year old tree with several very large hives.

As we were heading toward the exit, Gopal fortunately stopped someone to ask the name of the flowers (Salvia). Just as she told us the name of the flowers, a dead tree fell right next to me. I had my back to it, but I could hear it and I could see the expression of a woman facing me. I screamed bloody murder because I thought I was going to be crushed by a huge tree. Thanks to Gopal, it missed me. My heart is still pounding. It was not my day to die. This picture shows the tree behind me.Recovered

Birds in my yard

You probably know the surviving bird species that live in your neighborhood. Here are the survivors in my neighborhood in alphabetical order. These are the ones I can identify. I don't see all that well any more, and there are probably a couple small brown birds I haven't identified.

Asian Koel

Common Myna

Common Raven

Eurasian Blackbird

Grey-winged Blackbird

House Crow

House Sparrow

Oriental Magpie Robin

Red-whiskered Bulbul

Rock Pigeon

Coonoor Watershed, India

Monsoon beauty

While I was in California, freezing to death, Gopal was enjoying the early stages of monsoon here in the Nilgiri mountains. I didn't understand what that meant, except that it apparently rained every day. Well, at least for the time being, it means hot sun in the morning, clouds building in the afternoon, a little thunder and breeze, some rain, then more clouds over the mountains for the rest of the day. It is incredibly sweet weather for someone like me who loves rain in the mountains. And the light changes are magical. On Friday, 12 June, when the rain came in the afternoon, it came in a deluge. It was spectacular.

Here's a rainbow from the sun shining through the rain


A flower vendor showed up in the pouring rain, setting his basket down on my windowsill. How fun is that?!

(We buy strings of flowers to put on our home temples.)

This is the flower vendor heading back down our driveway.

Later, the rain had subsided and the sky was golden. Couldn't get a good picture of it.

So, I went outside to get a picture. You can at least get the idea.

(And, you can see how flowering shrubbery has burgeoned all over the place with the rains!)

After the sun went down.

Karagam procession 6-6-09

"Karagam is a folk dance with musical accompaniment, performed balancing a pot on the head. Traditionally, this dance was performed by the villagers in praise of the rain goddess Mari Amman and river goddess, Gangai Amman, performed with literature with water pots balanced on their heads. In Sangam literature, it is mentioned as 'Kudakoothu'.
This dance has two divisions - one, Aatta Karagam and the other 'Sakthi Karagam'. More often it is danced with decorated pots on the head and is known as 'Aatta Karagam' and symbolises joy and merriment. The former is performed only in temples, while the latter is mainly entertainment in nature. This is one of the more popular rural dances today. Earlier it was performed only with accompliment of the Naiyandi Melam but now it includes songs also.
Karagams were once performed for mulaipari ceremony when the dancer carried a pot of sprouted grains on his/her head and danced, balancing it through intricate steps and body/arm movements. Today, the pots have transformed from mud pots to bronzeware and even stainless steel in modern times. The pots are decorated with a cone of flower arragements, topped by a paper parrot. The parrot rotates as the dancer swings along. This dance is very popular all over Tamilnadu, though its birth place is said to be Thanjavur." http://www.tamilselvi.com/Karagam.htm

Here's a video of a Karagam procession that started in front of our house. You can see decorated cones on top of two young men's heads. Soon they stop at our driveway where two women give an offering of food and ritually wash the dancers feet. After the holy man ends his ritual there, another man begins teaching the young men dance steps.

WorldNomads travel insurance

In preparation for my trip from India to California in March, Gopal and I shopped around here in India, thinking we may be able to pay less for travel insurance here, but when we tried to sign up with Bajaj, their questions and requirements for proof of this and proof of that became unreasonable. So, we asked for our money back (and got it), got on line, and quickly found WorldNomads insurance. http://www.worldnomads.com/
I ended up paying $239 for 3 months, although I only needed two months and a couple days, just to be safe.
After one week in California, I fell and the injury I incurred on one of my toes became infected. To make a long story short, it was a difficult infection to heal, and I incurred hundreds of dollars in bills. Of the $583.78 I incurred, WorldNomads paid $563.96 (97%). I paid the medical bills, then submitted the receipts to WorldNomads in Amsterdam, Denmark. I had the reimbursement by the time I got home to India. I spent $15 each time I mailed them receipts ($31 altogether).
I highly recommend WorldNomads and plan to use them again.

27-31 May 2009, return to India

Dexter went to school the day I left, so he could get his nap. He wasn't interested in the big farewell thing, so here's some shots of him before he left for school. I won't see him for at least a year.

Suzie and Ramon took me to the airport (Ramon took time off work to take me to the airport), and Erica, Joan, and Sharon met me there, hanging out with me until I needed to go through security. What a godsend. It was so nice to have their company as I went through the rigors of the international terminal check-in. I'm very lucky.
My flight from San Francisco took off Wednesday afternoon, 27 May; I landed in Chennai, India, on Friday, 29 May at 3am. Needless to say, I crossed a date line in there somewhere. Whew, that's terribly long. So good to see Gopal.

The following day, we peeked into a housing show going on at the auditorium across the street from our guest house. Just wanted you to see it. Looks the same, huh? The main difference was that many of the booths were empty, but that could be because it was only 9:30am, early by Indian standards.

This was one of two solar energy booths

After a hideous train ride from Chennai to Mettapalayam (3-tier car, unable to sleep), our equally hideous taxi driver (picked a fight with the autorickshaw drivers at the train station and offended everyone else on the road all the way up the muntain to our home!) stopped so we could get some breakfast en route to home further into the hills. Ugh! I was surprised how welcome the South Indian food was (this is pongal, a minimally spiced, very traditional rice dish, sambar and chutneys served on a banana leaf).

When we stopped at a railroad crossing on our way up the mountain, I realized that this train may be driven by a steam engine. Sure enough!

It has been nice to be home, even though it's my first monsoon season here. Turns out, at least now, monsoon is sweet. The mornings are warm and sunny, clouding up in the afterenoon, when it rains most days, at least for a while. I like it a lot. Today it has rained all day, and that's OK too.