Noisy intense Chennai!

I was really ready to leave Goa, as charming and pretty and easy to be in, its also very small with a lack of cultural things to do. I somehow don't quite feel like I'm in India when I'm in Goa. Chennai is, for better or worse, most definately India! I'm back in the very dark apartment I stayed in for 6 months in 2002 on my Fulbright, brings back both good and bad memories. I'm a rolling stone in India, though I always think it would be nice to "settle" somewhere, after awhile I get bored and need to move on, (usually in about 2 weeks!) so that time, was a very very long time to be in one area, and a lot of rambling around on my own in a city which is not very hospitiable to walking or maps, it was never a planned city like Mumbai or Delhi so its very very hard to make sene of , particulary the bus system which I'd love to use if I could have ever figured it out which I never did in that 6 month time. I do love all of the temples and shrines around everwhere and of course the southern Indian food, dosas mostly.

People in the south are quite friendly, I went out to an outdoor fast food very very local place last night, with metal topped tables, open air (and thus open threatre for people watching is so much fun) they put down a large banana leaf to put your food on. There is no sense of privacy in India, its not something that people value or want or need, they think we are pretty strange for valuing privacy, so a very nice man sat down at the table with me, he proceeded to tell me about his time in LA and how it frightened him to be around other Asians, Mexicans, etc and that he couldn't get around by public transport which really bothred him, then he lived in Holland but that was too cold, and now is back in South India, permanetly. I can't remember what his job was,some kind of research. He was wearing one of the white lungi's that men in the south wear that is so charming, often doubled up so it looks more like a miniskirt sometimes. It was an interesting conversation and I was tickled that somebody would just sit down with me like that.

This is music and dance season here, with a lot of cultural things to do. I'm staying in the guest apartment owned by Deborah Thiagarajen, (down the road from the beautiful house she and her husband now diseased, Raj, own) and the night I came we went to a wonderful dance and druming concert. She has two daughters, a son in law and three very active grandchildren with her, so I'm not sure how much of her I'll see. Today I went to the music academy and sat in on two afternoon free performances of Carnatic music, then went to a bookstore I knew about, now am on my way to a clothing store I frequent (Fab India) I need a salwar kameez because I'm going to some very traditional temple towns after New Years and have to wear traditional clothing to get into them.

Email is not very frequent here. When I last lived here there were three e mail places on my block alone, all are gone and I just stumbled on this somwhat scummy one on my way to Fab India, so if you don't here from me for awhile that's why. People must have more frequent connections in thier houses now.

Plans are well on their way for the show which opens here on the 3rd, Deborah's cultural center Dakshinachitra was packed with people yeasterday, its high season, so the gallery will get a lot of traffic. I spent the whole day there going through books in the center's library and meeting with the curator of the space to plan hanging. Then I saw that it was announced in the Times of India today, they are really on top of things. Well, the connection here seems a bit fragile, so to not lose this, I'd better go now.