Summer is here. Ah, long days and even longer nights! We have visitors from Corvallis and the time seems to fly. We do a few road trips to show them the sights – Belur, Shravanabelagola and of course, the Mysore temple. D is fascinated by the traffic. “How can they not hit each other more often?” he asks. I have no answer; I have wondered that myself a hundred times.
We end up at the elephant ride behind the palace which is clearly marked with different prices for Indians and ‘foreigners’. One of the mahouts taunts the elephant too much and it takes umbrage. It simply steps in his foot and does not let go. The other mahouts beat and berate the elephant and he finally steps away with one last squeeze leaving the mahout massaging his injured foot. Serves him right for torturing an animal in captivity! We get out of there, however; an angry elephant we can do without!
G is teaching a weekend class in Chennai and she has volunteered me as her travel agent. Of course, I am nowhere near perfect as she would like me to be (I am a work in progress) and she end up with no tickets for one of the weekends. But this travel agent has a good customer service policy - unlike the corporates of today who simply don’t seem to care – and I offer to drive her. We wonder which of the Hondas to take and it’s a short discussion – size and comfort wins hands down over economy and environment.
We have killed a dog on every trip to Chennai in the recent past and I am determined to watch out for them this time. It’s not that I care that much about the dogs; but they take out a bumper each time and bumpers are expensive. My diligence pays off and we reach there without incident. We set a speed record of sorts, at least for our family. We have driven 385 kilometers from home to the Cosmopolitan Club in 3 hours and 50 minutes; that’s averaging about 100 kilometers an hour and some of it through city streets. Midway through, just when I am beginning to think that I can qualify for the F1 trials, I am rudely brought back to the ground by a blimp in my mirror. I am flooring it at this point and the speedometer is hovering around 180. Nevertheless, the blimp quickly metamorphizes into an Audi Q5 which passes us and disappears over the horizon. The wife now knows exactly what she wants for her birthday. Damn!
Chennai is dry. The election results are to be announced and there is a big sign at the club telling us that all liquor is prohibited. Oh no it’s not; it flows freely in my room. Boy, am I glad I’m packing! We are up early the next day and head for the beach. The beach in Chennai is crowded. There are all kinds of shapes and sizes taking in their morning breath of fresh air. There are a whole bunch of people sleeping; apparantly they live on there. We notice one family of Dad, Mom and two daughters. All their worldly possessions seem to be crowded onto about ten feet square of cardboard packing laid out flat on the ground. All of a sudden that Q5 doesn’t seem very important; I say a silent prayer thanking God for the abundance that He has given us.
The bad luck with animals continues; or should I say, the bad luck for the animals continues. We are sedately making our way back from the beach when a crow takes a fancy to us and does a kamikazi style dive straight into our windshield. Wham! Blood, gore and feathers and one crow less in this world. No damage to the windshield, at least. A friend of mine once told me a story of how an eagle dived into his windshield and created great damage. I thought it was pretty funny, especially when he told us how he ducked instinctively; well, it’s funny when it happends to someone else; I didn’t find this funny at all.
We watch a lot of TV. Not having cable at home has its advantages; we have not seen any of the ads and laugh hysterically at some of them. There is an old cricket match playing and we watch. Bangladesh is bowling to Pakistan; the bowling lacks bite and the batsman takes a mighty heave at one sending it out of the country I think.
It’s a short trip and it’s time to head back soon. Dave and his family are coming over tomorrow and we are all off to Hampi.
No comments:
Post a Comment