I arrived in Ernakulam this afternoon. It’s noticeably cooler than Ottapalam, presumably due to being on the coast. I walked from the station to the hotel I wanted to stay at, underestimating how far I went at times and so ending up on Jew Road. Yes, there’s an ancient Jewish settlement in Ernakulam/Kochi, according to my guidebook dating back to either the 11th century BC as part of King Solomon’s trading fleet or to refugees fleeing Nebuchadnezzar’s occupation of Jerusalem in 587 BC.

The main drag, MG Road, has a feel that combines Princes Street in Edinburgh with the mid-market bits of Birmingham city centre. I speak Malayalam about as well as I speak Brummie so I feel just as at home!

My hotel is in a fairly middle-class shopping area near the waterfront – handy for getting to old Cochi and booking stuff to do over the next few days. My room has a shower/toilet room, a wonderfully soft bed, a TV*, blessed relief from traffic noise and is completely clean. I wonder how long that will last with me in it. It’s Maple Guest House, XL/271 Cannonshed Road, Ernakulam, 0484235 5156.
* a mixed blessing. I’ve just been watching coverage of medical students protesting in major cities and a doctors’ strike. The student protests seem to be about a government decision to increases the number of places reserved for ‘Other Backward Classes’, according to the Times of India. I’d be interested in computerland opinions of such affirmative action: over to you

One of the staff at my hotel told me last night that the Keralan election was won by a coalition of four left-wing parties. This ends the reign of another four-party coalition and so that coalition’s Chief Minister is about to resign. I wasn’t able to find out anything about the interregnum which was implied. However, each state apparently has a govenor, presumably appointed by central government for such reasons.

If I had been brought up in India and gone to school, I would probably know a lot more about India’s constitution. I’ve been told that it was written by Dr B Ambedkar. This explains the the many statues of him and things named after him. A quick read of the wikipedia article about him convinces me he’s well worth knowing more about.

Just in case you’re interested:

• election results
• official(?) election site
• few women elected
• elections in other states:
• Dr Ambedkar

Until yesterday, I would have described Ottapalam as a one-hourse town. On my way from the post-office, I saw it wasn’t a horse, but a donkey. The donkey had terrible welts on its shoulders and side.

The Indian Railways website worked as far as getting to entering my credit card details. It then vanished into the dirac sea. I’m going to walk to the station and buy my ticket there.

I woke up this morning feeling utterly miserable. I think it might be diet-related: yesterday, the thought of food, especially my hotel’s miserable excuse for food, seemed unthinkable. There are other places to eat here but they closed before I was ready to eat.

Having forced half a banana down my throat this morning seems to be alleviating the worst of the misery. I’ve been existing on sweet black tea, water and boiled sweets, so when I stop to think about it, of course some of the feeling is diet-related.

However, last night and this morning I scribbled some random thoughts into my diary which might be worth sharing:

22:00
The tune in my head tonight is waiting for the worms. I’m bothered – and wonder if you’re curious why – I can recall lyrics and tunes so clearly yet some of last month is already turning hazy.

22:20
Very scared when a load of police sit down in my hotel’s restaurant

22:25
Perversion of a Dire Straits lyric (from Romeo and Juliet) is wryly amusing

23:00
I think the reason I hit myself time and time again with Pink Floyd and Roger Waters music is because it often seems utterly apt. Right now, it’s

I wanna go home
Take off this uniform and leave the show
And I’m waiting in this cell
Because I have to know
have I been guilty all this time?

that most accurately reflects what I feel about being alive and/or sentient right now and at many times in the past.

This morning
The tune for this morning is David Bowie’s Boys keep swinging, especially the promise that I’ll get my share. But I’ve never even met Milo Minderbinder!!

Assessment
I’ve been wondering about my aims for this trip. The following table deliberately omits one of my stated aims:

*so I’m going to try to get through today only buying drinks in glass bottles

11:00
I’ve got a little black book with my poems and bastards in, Mr Major. My name is in the front.

I’ve finally made public the entries relating to travelling to Tamil Nadu and being taken around Salem:

1. family misfortunes
2. prologue
3. Travelling to Tamil Nadu (Friday 28th to Saturday 29th April)
4. Family Fortunes (Sunday April 30th)

and my description of Raju and Margaret Mary’s wedding: Nuptials! (Monday 1st May).

I’m still keeping private what happened in Mettur Dam that evening: unless I become sure that discussing it in a public document is absolutely the right thing to do, I won’t do so.

So far I’ve drafted my description of the day after the wedding and am about to start drafting my descriptions of the next two days.

We interrupt this blog to bring you the wikipedia articles – including cooking instructions – on idly and dosa!

STOP PRESS
I’ve just seen something totally unique in India: a motorcyclist wearing a HELMET! I haven’t seen any here except in a few TV adverts. Even in adverts, most scooter and motorbike riders don’t wear them.

This morning’s other surprise was persuading my hotel’s restaurant to make me black tea. Yesterday I couldn’t get this across and the milky tea made me feel slightly queasy. Today, by firmly but politely saying the little Marathi I know that’s relevant, I got what I wanted. I feel much better.

Finally, I’ve seen a new variant on women’s dress this morning. A group of women (apparently ranging from young adult to old age) wore their sarees as wrap-around skirts. (I have no idea whether the saree material was the same length as a regular saree.) They also wore regular saree-blouses but draped bath-towel-length pieces of material over their shoulders and around the front to cover most of the blouse. Some of them also used this material to cover their heads.

I’m very curious whether the different styles of dress have caste, social-status or religious connotations but at the moment I have no way of finding out.

I’ve put photos of the wedding week in my LJ galleries. These should be open to all and sundry. I’ll be including them in the blog entries which I’m writing about last week as I go.

Please let me know if you can’t get at them.

g_balanithu@yahoo.com, first flight couriers 2441714

Madhan and Geetha
V Raj Mohan (A) Madhan
Dharmuna Colony
Kotagiri Post
Nilgiri District
TN

G Subbain
166 Nadu Street
Mudaliyar Chattviam
Trichy-1
cell 98422 94797

Have at ye with my user pic for my Indian misadventures!