jaime in india

Thursday, November 06, 2003 :::

right well I am off o sri lanka for the day. Am leaving now (00:30) and flying out of chennai at 04:00. Arrive in sri lanka around 06:00ish, leg it to the Indian high commission, hand in form, hang around for god knows how long, collect visa, back to the airport and catch the 19:00 flight back reaching chennai at 9ish, then on to Minoti's place and then the 07:00 train out to Vellore for the weekend with Nix, Raoull, Minoti and Chiku.

Well, thats the plan anyway. There is abit of political termoil going on in sri lanka so that may prove interesting. The visa place may not issue me with a visa the same day which would mean the whole weekend in Colombo, possible. Oh well, fingers crossed.

Hope you all have a good weekend and shall post when I am back.

word safe

jaime

::: posted by j(e t')aime at 10:37 AM

Wednesday, November 05, 2003 :::

Well thank you to remy for getting the pics up, hope you like.

jaime

::: posted by j(e t')aime at 7:48 PM

Photos from India

Monday, October 27, 2003 :::

ASSOCIATION OF RURAL EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT SERVICE (AREDS)

Introduction

Logical frame work

Programme Packages

Component for Self-sufficiency

Financial constraints

Hello,

It’s been a really quiet few days in a sense. Not literally cause people have been setting off fire crackers left right and bloody centre, it almost seems quiet without them. Apparently in Chennai it’s been really noisy. Was on the phone to a few of the Chennai crew the other day and I couldn’t hear what they were saying half the time cause of the noise of fire crackers. Nix even had a set chucked at him whilst on his bike, that’s the problem with young people now-a-days, no respect (good god did I just say that, must be getting old). Funnily enough there have been no reports on the TV of people getting hurt which always seems to happen around bonfire night in the UK> Sure people do get hurt, they must do, you should see the size of some of these crackers, they’re bloody massive.

Well apart from that not much going on. We had Friday and Saturday off and everyone’s getting a bit restless cause there’s no work going on etc. Yesterday myself, Christi and Samy went up to the site to do some planting. I had a swim; we did a load of planting around the theatre etc. It all gonna look so nice a few months down the line when everything is done and the plants have grown a bit.

The whole place is nearly done and now most of the work to be completed is specialized work that needs to be done by other groups of people like plumbers, electricians etc. We agreed that when I finally talk to the people from the street children organisation in Chennai I should say I am able to start work in December although arrangements will have to be made for me to be able to get off work to attend occasions such as the inaugurating ceremony of the ACTS program.

Speaking of the inauguration ceremony, it has been agreed that I should take a group of the kids from the village and teach them how to do poi properly so that by the time of the inauguration I will have choreographed some type of thing to be performed infront of all the attendee’s.

Last night myself and Christi sat down with a bunch of kids that had agreed to be taught and then do some performing work. In all there were 8 of them ranging from 4th to 8th standard (school wise) that’s from the age of 10 to 15ish: they were:

· Venila
· Prathiba
· Kasthuri
· Mohan
· Subramani
· Prasanth
· Mangayarkarasi
· Sundaresan

So the deal is to get all these guys up to a standard where they can do some stuff at the inauguration ceremony in December. If the inauguration is to be in the evening then what I’ll do is arm them all with some glow sticks & glow poi cause it looks better and means all you really have to do is wave them around to get the desired effect, not that I’m saying that they are not going to get good, in actual fact some of them have already got down (kinda) the basic weave and are attempting some more complex move. There only problem, like a lot of people that start learning poi, is the automatic assumption that if you spin fast it looks better than if you spin slow. This in mind they are tearing around like mad men.

That’s about for the time being but thought that some of you may be interested to see a copy of the ACTS proposal and a copy of the proposed business card aimed at getting me more performing jobs.

OK, hope your all ok and stuff. And just to let you all know my blog is now about 100,000 words long, not bad huh.

jaime

::: posted by Raymond at 1:48 AM

Friday, October 24, 2003 :::

Hello, hope yall cool ‘n’ groovy?

Right well it’s been an odd 2 weeks. First off, unfortunately, Ravi (the engineer whose company is in charge of building ACTS) father passed away some time last week and therefore all the guys at the site legged it back to Tritchy to attend the funeral etc. This meant that (apart from Monday 20th when the painter returned) the end of last week and the whole of this week have been no work days for Jaime. The guys were meant to be returning the middle of last week but seeing as Diwali is this weekend they were obviously given permission to hang around (they all come from Tritchy of the surrounding area) until the weekend holiday was over.

So, that said there ain’t much to report at the moment. Ain’t been at the site much but a few things have been done. There is now a path between the covered dining area and the kitchen which has been painted, incidentally, a lovely shade of white. The inside of the kitchen has had a few worktop foundations put in and concrete shelves on which marble slabs will eventually go. Also, the ramp that one passes over from the road, through the gate has been completed.

That was done last week. I had gone up to the site with Augustine at about 5 to do some swimming as the pool had just been filled with new water. We arrived to find everyone still working, laying g concrete for the ramp. They said they were only going to swim when they had finished. I ended up helping them out and not getting to swim cause by the time we finished it was dark, cold and raining.

I have been up to the site a few other times for other purposes. One night we went up for a swim. I took fire equipment and kero, much to the horror of Ambiga, and ended up doing some stuff. This was at the time when I thought I would be doing some performing in Chennai for Diwali, thought I had better get some practice in. The guys seemed to like it, Ambiga didn’t and the minute I got back started roasting me about a few sooty singe marks on my arm. She even went as far, at one point; to tell me that no matter how hard I tried it would be impossible to get any Kero this month. When asked why she said she was worried I’d make myself ill by drinking the stuff.

We have had Manu, Sam and Chella staying as well. They were all up last weekend discussing AREDS stuff and having meetings well into the night, was nice having people around, they all seemed very happy with ACTS progress although none of them came swimming.

Sri Lanka is being organized by Iggy and his travel agent. The plan is to catch an evening flight across, in the first week of November, stay in a hotel and the next day hand in the visa form, pick up the visa and the4n fly back that evening. This will, hopefully, make the whole thing quite cheap, around 120 squid. One thing that have noticed is that on the bottom of the visa application form it states that if one stays in India for a period longer than 1 year you have to submit yourself to a full medial. Why, I ask, what the hell is that going to achieve?

It may not come to this as I have just found out that my year ticket cannot be refunded, extended or postponed by the travel agent I bought it off or my travel agent over here. The only thing that I can do now is, as it states on the Emirates website, is to o to there office and try, no beg and even grovel if need be, that they refund at least some of my return ticket. It’s worth a shot and if that doesn’t work then there is a distinct possibility that I shall be returning to the UK in January.

If I should manage to get a refund on my ticket then we have made some progress with finding me work after I finish with ACTS. Christi spoke to a dude about what I wanted to do afterwards and he has had a word with an organisation called Anbu Illan which translates roughly into Love House or something like that. It’s a religious based organisation based in Chennai that deals with street children etc. They sound really good, have to give them a call to discuss stuff. They were singled out of all the street children organisations as they may well offer accommodation with a voluntary placement which would be great. Will keep you updated on that one however you can find more info if you just click here

____________________________________________________________________
Diwali (Deepavali) the festival of no sleep

Right, well as I have already mentioned several times this weekend is known as Diwali and it is, apparently, the happiest and the noisiest festival in the Hindu calendar. Allow me to explain.
Basically from what I can gather this festival is kinda a cross between bonfire night and Christmas with the added bonus that it’s a religious festival where as some could argue Christmas has lost it’s religious meaning. Apparently it lasts 5 days, at night people night all these oil lamps to show Rama the way home from exile (where and why he was in exile I have no idea), they also like to play with fire works and crackers, not cream crackers mind you, loud crackers hence “the festival of no sleep”, which it has been
Re-christened by me. As well as playing with fire and dangerously loud explosive devises people partake in a whole host of activities which go a little something like this:

• Day 1: - (23rd) House is cleaned thoroughly, chalk drawings, called rangolis, are plastered all over people’s doorsteps.

• Day 2: - Today (being 24th) is dedicated to Krishna’s victory over Narakasura (some legendary tyrannical dude). In the south people get up before dawn, have a bath in oil and then put on a load of newly bought cloths. This is why every single cloths shop in this whole country is always MOBBED around this time of year, everyone guys new cloths. This is also why every second advert on the TV is dedicated to special offers at silk houses and cloths shops. Unfortunately the kind of cloths I’m interested in are not really present in Karur so I treated myself to a new phone cover and when I go up to Chennai I’m gonna get a stupidly massive pair of jeans made, well, one must follow the local custom, when in Rome huh.

• Day 3: - (25th) OK, today people spend their time worshipping Lakshmi who is the goddess of wealth. This is traditionally seen as the beginning of a new financial year as far as businesses are concerned.

• Day 4: - (26th) Day four commemorates the coming of some guy called Bali who was, apparently, a friendly demon (think “Casper the friendly ghost” meets Sauron). Basically this dude shows up and Vishnu put him in his place.

• Day 5: - (27th) Day 5 is slightly weird. All the men go and visit there sisters so they can have tikka put on there heads. And before anyone asks, tikka is defined as

“mark devout Hindu’s put on their heads”

and is a powder, not a type of chicken curry. Diwali has also become known as the “festival of sweets” and sweet giving is now as common as oil lamps and fire crackers.

So, I here you ask, where do fire crackers come in. Well, they don’t really seem to fit in anywhere apart from the fact that they suddenly become available around this time of year (kinda like Cadbury cream eggs & mini eggs at Easter) and people like setting them off ALL THE TIME throughout the 5 days and this includes stupidly ridiculous time of the morning when people should be sleeping, not running around setting off fire crackers. Apparently in Chennai there is a by-law stating that they may not be set off in residential areas (i.e. the entire bloody city) between the hours of 10pm and 6am. Unfortunately, we are not so lucky here. They were going off all yesterday and three guesses what woke me up at 4 this morning.

So basically that’s Diwali. Apparently there was a big celebration in Trafalgar Square so you guys do have it, kinda, although I imagine it just gets mixed in with bonfire night.

(Speaking of which, and sorry to change the subject, but I heard that a tube derailed itself at Camden the other day. Thank god no one was killed (as far as I know) but I hope that all my London people (especially those in North London and Camden, you know who you are) are all ok, kinda started panicking when I heard. Sure you’re all fine.)

There are other advantages obviously. The TV has improved somewhat from the usual stuff and is now showing films back to back as well as lots and lots of Diwali specials.
Unfortunately everything is still in Tamil and the one thing that this holiday needs is that stupidly massively large double edition of the Radio times that graces our presence every Easter and Christmas.

Safe’ios

jaime

::: posted by j(e t')aime at 3:11 AM

Tuesday, October 14, 2003 :::

Bloody hell its like a UK bus stop at the mo, you wait 2 months for 1 and then 3 come along within the space of a few days. Sorry.

Right well as I said I got back from Chennai on Thursday (9th) morning having been in Chennai a week. I was there cause john had asked me to do 5 days of performing (1 glow and one fire per day from the 1st to the 5th) for the opening of an amusement park in the city. However, by Monday they still hadn’t confirmed so it was decided that I should go up just incase they confirmed at the last minute and my presence was required.

I left the village on Tuesday night accompanied by Samy who was heading up to Chennai as he was due to fly out to Lebanon and then on to Europe for business on the 2nd. The train journey was pretty uneventful, very little sleep as usual. When I arrived in Chennai I met Samy on the platform (he was in AC I was in non AC), he headed off to the girls flat. Iggy had told me that he would send his driver and when after half an hour he hadn’t turned up I headed off to his flat in an auto.

Wednesday day consisted of hanging around the flat. I had taken some photos of the site that Samy wanted to take to Europe, as part of a proposal to raise funds for ACTS, so I took an auto to Adyar and handed them in for developing. I returned an hour later, picked them up, took them to Prathiba’s house to give to Samy and then back home.

Wednesday was Chiku’s birthday which, in Indian terms can only mean one thing, surprise party. The venue was Minoti’s and Tripty’s flat. I got picked up from Iggy’s by Bu, Nix, Johnty and Di and we headed off to the party stopping briefly at a shop to pick up some supplies.

We arrived at the house and found Raoull outside, we lit the candles on the slightly mangled cake and legged it I to surprise him.

The party went along the usual lines. Alcohol, food, conversation, always a good combination. We all sat round talking about stuff, Nix was auditioning for the lead in Greece so Bu taught him some dance steps, a few people had a go on my poi and we all settle down to some serious drinking and chatting. Conversation was varied. We talked about David Blaine, magic in general (I explained some tricks that they had seen people do and I had learned about what with living with James the Magician for a year at university), Nix and Minoti are big lord of the ring fans, not the movie but proper lord of the rings fans. We talked about the Silmarilion, the differences between the books and the movies, the general concept of them leaving out so much stuff from the movie and changing certain parts. Minoti produced an original copy of the Silmarilion which was wicked, fold out maps and everything. We talked about many many things till quite late. I was constantly given glasses of rum and coke by Tripty and when everyone went to bed we sat up until 6ish talking about everything under the sun as one usually does when alcohol has taken control of the conversation.

At about 7 I decided enough was enough; between us we had drunk quite an alarming amount of rum. We both headed downstairs to get me an auto. Was feeling a little wobbly but nothing major. I got in the auto and headed off back to Iggy’s arriving at about 8ish to fins the guys already up. I was knackered, I excused my self and crashed into bed and slept till about 4ish. Had lunch and then due to the fact that I wasn’t feeling particularly good, went back to bed and go up at around 6 and spent the evening with the guys.

Thursday was pretty uneventful, tried to establish whether anyone was up to anything which they weren’t (they all have exams at the moment).

Friday day was also pretty normal. I downloaded a shit load of music on the computer, messed around on the keyboard, TV etc. In the evening I called everyone up to see what they were up to and was asked by Nix to come out to a venue where he and Ameeth were playing and do some glowsticks. I got an auto to Nix’s flat and waited for them to turn up. There was some major festival going on so the traffic in town was dreadful. They arrived, got ready and then we al legged it out at about 7:45 which was kind odd seeing as Nix and Raoull’s band were meant to be playing at 7:30. We bundled into a van and sped off in rush hour, temple going, chennai traffic, stopped off briefly at one of the guys houses so he could pick up some stuff, were mobbed by a large group of kids when they saw my glowsticks and then made our was slowly to the venue which I known as the vineyard.

The vineyard is a small underground room with a stage. It is run by a Christian organisation and is actually under a modern church. It hosts a lot of Chennai’s rock events which are mainly centered around college bands and inter-college competitions like the one we all went to in Pondicherry a few weeks earlier. We arrived at about 8:45 to find Minoti and Ameeth waiting for us in the car park, we bundled the stuff out of the van and ran for it.

The band was just finishing. Tripty showed up and the guys set up and then played, Raoull on guitar, Nix on drums and vocals and Johnty on bass. They were really good although everyone admitted that the sound quality of the place was worse than usual. They did a few great system of a down covers and a brilliant cover of Born to be wild along with some other stuff they had written.

When they finished the prizes were handed out as this was party of a 5 month competition called “Underground, Last Band Standing” which was being sponsored by Pepe jeans. They guys won some stuff but I can’t remember what.

Once the prizes had all been handed out the overall winning band (who I’d seen in Pondicherry) did another awful cover of “Killing in the name” with the variation of “hey you I won’t do what you tell me” and then Nix, Ameeth and unwind took to the stage to perform the events finale.

There performance didn’t go as well as Pondi, infact they were all a bit pissed off at the sound quality. I did some spinning on 2 songs, first off for a 40 second guitar solo and then for the same song I did in Pondi, the difference being I stayed on for the whole song. It seemed to go down well. Infact I heard more than one person from the audience shouting something along the lines of “go on Jaime” which was odd cause all the guys I new were in view and non of them said anything, must have been someone else, safe. Few people came up afterwards and shook my hand, the guy who runs the place gave me his card and said it would be good to se me down here when I move to Chennai, that was nice of him.

We packed up and headed out to the car park, bundled into the van with a bag of jam and banana sandwiches. The deal being you take a load on your way out and give them to homeless people on the way home, nice idea huh.

The plan was to head off to a party at a guy called Steve’s flat; he’s from Holland and was leaving for home the next day. I got invited out with Di and Tripty to a nightclub but was way too tired to take them up on it.

We arrived at the dudes very very plush flat to find a load of people sitting around, drinking and chatting. We set our selves up in the kitchen and chilled.

I met Steve who was really nice but very drunk. Me, Raoull, Minot’s and Nix sat around talking, some dude had all his hair cut off, everyone got drunk (I didn’t drink), we made chocolate icing, watched Raoull blow very cool smoke rings, talked about many issues and about 3 decided to call it a night and head home.

The guys dropped me back at Iggy’s having spent quite a while trying to find the place plus trying to find someone to give the banana sandwiches to, I said fare thee well and headed inside to get some sleep.

Saturday was quite a busy day. Having established what people were up to I headed over to Nix’s flat where him, Raoull and Minot’s were chilling out. Having got ready we all headed out to lunch having decided to go with Indian food and not fried chicken. We headed off to a restaurant as it started raining, ate a thoroughly enjoyable meal of rice (well duh), samba, curried very hot beef and an assortment of other bits and pieces and then headed off to a place known as cake something or other which, having had a discussion on my last visit about the wonders of cheesecake, I had been told did a fantastic bit of cheesecake at the weekends. Unfortunately, even though it was the weekend, no cheesecake, apple pie, and a very good one at that, had to suffice and satisfy my already very full stomach. After this we headed on back to Nix.

We arrived back and headed immediately down to an internet café down the road to check mail. After that we headed back to the flat, settled ourselves down and when Chiku, Bu and Di turned up watched “finding nemo” which I must say is an absolutely fantastic film, even more so than “toy story” and “monsters inc,” which is saying something cause Monsters inc rules.

After that everyone headed off home, I hung around for a bit and then caught an auto back to Iggy’s only to find them out at Rex’s. Having called them and established where their draw full of take away menu’s was (cause lets face it, everyone has one) and then having established that no-one was up to anything what-so-ever (they all have exams) I called up Domino’s and ordered a very large 15 inch bbq chicken pizza. It arrived, I paid more than first expected and managed to procure myself a small 8 inch bbq chicken pizza for free, and I settled down in front of “Shrek” (and then much later on “the fast and the furious,”) had dinner and then went to bed when the guys returned home.

Sun consisted of two things. In the afternoon (after the guys had all gone to church) we all headed off (Iggy, Chintu, Jordan, Joel and Mulla (the kids new child minder who had taken up residence in the flat) to Chintu’s grandparents house as it was the wedding anniversary of one of her relatives and they were having the usual; family get together and meal. I met a load of Chintu’s relatives, sat down and ate some damn fine biryani, ate cake, chatted to a few people and then headed home at about 3ish as the guys had to be at a wedding reception in the evening and needed some shut eye, also Iggy had basket ball, as usual.

I spent the afternoon chilling. All the WCC (the college Prathiba, Di, Minoti, Tripty go to) guys had exams the next day. Bu who attends the college Miss Poornima went to (speaking of which she is getting along very well in Leiden) also had exams so everybody was at home studying. I spent the evening watching “star wars. phantom menace.”

Monday morning was spent on the phone to around the world travel agents and SS music. Having sent all my tickets details etc to this travel agent they said they would look into the possibilities of me getting it extended/refunded etc. I also sent them details of my next planned Sri Lanka visa mission trip which they said they would organize. It was at this point that I learned a very valuable lesson. In India if you don’t push people to take care of the stuff assigned to them it never gets done. The guys hadn’t even looked at my ticket and had no idea I was meant to be going to Sri Lanka. I had told them it was rather urgent seeing as I wasn’t sure if I was meant to be traveling back in October due to some complicated ticket transfer with the airline. The guy who handles all the AREDS stuff had been ill and had delegated his tasks to another bloke who had equally no idea. Feeling slightly frustrated at this lack of progress I called up the producer at SS music who had made the program I had been shown performing and being interviewed, which, incidentally, got aired a few weeks back but I unfortunately missed due to a perfectly timed power cut. He as said if I called him we would meet up and he would give me a copy of the video. He suggested he call me on Tuesday evening to arrange a meet that night.

In the evening the guys went to yet another wedding, I stayed at home, hadn’t been invited, and watched “star wars attack of the clones”

Tuesday was slightly more productive and slightly less moronic. Nix, who was / is going through a bit of a crisis, and we met up for lunch in the fried chicken place and must have spent at least and hour and half eating and talking about certain issues. Having finished a very large, seriously better than KFC burger, rice (even in fast food joints you can always get rice), fries and coke we headed off on Nix’s bike back to the flat and spent the whole of the afternoon listening to kick ass music (mainly refused, raised fist) watching seriously amusing death and black metal music video’s (plus a few others including the almighty “cemetery gates” by Pantera), watching Jackass and talking. The guy from SS music never called, he stood me up, just further proof that you have to push people before anything actually gets done.

At about 6:30 I took my leave, caught an auto back to Iggy’s having been to they were taking me out to dinner, safe, and got ready.

We headed off leaving the kids in the capable hands of Mulla, to a Chinese restaurant called Mainland China which was, I must say, seriously plush.

We ate, talked, and drank beer and wine. The food was pretty damn fine, the alcohol much appreciated and the company first rate. One cannot complain really.

After soup, appetizers, a seriously large bowl of gorgeous noodles and several kingfishers and a bottle of wine later headed off back to the car and then back home.

These guys immediately said they were going to turn in so I said goodnight and managed to catch an auto back to Nix’s flat having said I would be back at some point.

I arrived to find Nix and some chick settling down infront of the computer. It was decided that although Kangaroo Jack and finding Nemo looked most amusing, Anger management looked like a must so armed with a mug or beer and a bean bag we watched the movie which turned out to be seriously funny if not a bit far fetched and OTT. After this it was time for yet more South Park including the David Blaine cult, the take of off Children of the Corn and the sex education episodes which provided yet more comic relief. At about 2 I called a taxi and headed back home.

Wednesday was a rather hectic day. My train tickets had arrived for that evening. I had spent a lot of the morning on the phone to the travel agent who finally decided to tell me that the reason I couldn’t talk to the guy I needed was because he was ill again and back on leave, fantastic. I gave up and have since told them not to bother with any of my requests; I’ll get someone else to do it, namely Iggy’s travel agent who is, apparently / hopefully alot more reliable. I also called up the SS music guy who made no comment about his no-show the previous day. I suggested that I could come up to his office and collect the video, I figured it would be harder for him to wriggle out of that, he agreed and told me to be there around 4ish.

I called up everyone and tried to arrange meeting up with people before I left. I arranged to meet Di, Tripty, Minoti and Bu in a coffee house in one of Chennai’s many shopping centers and having spent half an hour running around trying to get my auto dude and finally having to ask Chintu’s mum to translate to another guy where I needed to go I was finally in an auto and heading off in what looked like the totally wrong direction.

Thankfully it was the correct direction and at about 2:30 I arrived Coffee Day o find the guys already indulging in food and coffee.

We were there for over an hour talking about stuff like exams blah blah. They all spent a large proportion of it telling me just how unreliable people are in this country and the chances are that if I were indeed to travel all the way to Triplican to the offices of the SS music people the guy would have probably stood me up again. I put up the defense that all they needed to do was to have a little faith in people at which point they all laughed, I stuck by it though and said that I was going no matter what. After this we headed downstairs, had a large group of morons shout something at me, got really annoyed that people can be so arrogant (especially large groups of Indian men, apparently it ain’t uncommon) and bundled into the back of Bu’s car and sped, as fast as we could considering Chennai afternoon traffic, off in the direction of Adyar, Nix and Iggy’s flats.

They dropped me off, I said goodbye, headed in doors and then pretty much immediately called an auto and legged it over to Nix’s having just been reminded by him that I had left some stuff at his the previous night having just decided to face defeat and not bother going to meet a guy who I had been told was very unlikely to actually honor our agreement and actually turn up.

At Nix I collected my stuff, said fare well to Nix and Chiku and Johnty who had just showed up and legged it back downstairs into my waiting auto who didn’t seem to pleased having been kept waiting for half an hour.

Then it was back home by 5:45 and the usual mad rush to pack, prepare food for the journey, tidy up, record a few albums (U2’s greatest hits) all before my auto turned up at around 7. I said my goodbyes, offered Mulla her room back and jumped into an already moving auto and sped off in the direction of Chennai Egmore train station, onto a train and began yet another uneventful journey which in the end saw me sitting by an open window watching India fly past at about 2 o’clock in the morning. Picked up and driven home, went to bed and didn’t get up till very late having not slept at all.

Well, am now back in the village and back at work so here’s an update.

The project, as I am sure you are all aware, has not only over run time wise but budget wise as well. We have been faced with a load of problems that were not budgeted for. The biggest on of these is the pool. When you fill up the pool you have 4 days until it turns the colour and consistency of vegetable soup (not “cream of” mind you, I’m talking bits here people, big bits). The only apparent solution is to get a water filtration, oops, I’m sure we would have thought about this before hand.

Anyway, we have written out a proposal appealing for funds to pay back bank loans and will hopefully be sending them out to businesses etc all round India, Samy ahs taken it to Europe and I said I would try and send a load out round the UK. If anybody has any (and I do mean ANY) ideas on organisations/businesses I could send this to then PLEASE PLEASE email me. I don’t care how ridiculous you may think they are it doesn’t matter, its worth a try, the more people I send this thing to the more chance I have of getting some cash and contributing to this thing. Idea’s people, PLEASE.

So, the site, well everything is pretty much finished. I know I would usually give you a list of things that have been finished but seeing as there is so much I thought I would give you a list of things that still have to be done, which is, thankfully, a lot shorter. Oh yeah, thank you very much to Remy for getting my diagram put up, thought it may be useful for you to see what the thing actually looks like.

Things to be done:
• The kitchen is being worked on at the mo, work surfaces are being concrete in,
and plastering (of sorts) is being done. It now has a roof and will soon have a flag stone floor, plumbing etc will be added later by the right people. The path leading to the kitchen is also in the process of being laid.
• The covered dining area has still to be finished. We need to cover the entire structure with chicken mesh so that plants can be added and will eventually cover the entire structure making a living shelter type thingy.
• The whole site has pretty much been leveled out with sandy soil to counter the clayish soil that the site is made up of. There are still a few bits and pieces to be covered.
• The gates have been added and a ramp leading up to and away from them is being constructed so cars and vehicles can enter.
• There is still a hole in the wall up near the farm which has to be bricked up; up till now it has been used as access for bull carts and tractors dumping soil etc.
• The rock and water feature has to be constructed.
• The showers for the pool have to be added and the tiling done.

Well, that’s about it. It’s always the little things that take the longest to do.

In other news I gashed my figure on some corrugated roofing and had to have a tetanus shot which was nice. Have been doing a bit of swimming and some fire practice for reasons that shall become apparent.

For some unknown reason, the village and the surrounding area’s seem to be infested with dragon flies. There are THOUSANDS of them man, its crazy ass stuff, they’re everywhere, in big swarms that look like black clouds, it very odd. I’ve been hit by a few whilst on the back of a bike, the best thing to do and the best piece of advise I can give you should you ever be in such a situation is to wear sunglasses and whatever you do, keep your mouth firmly closed.

So that’s about it for now. Nothing really going on at the mo but there is plenty coming up.

Samy is in Europe at the moment and Christi having returned from Sri Lanka and Japan has buggered off somewhere else. We have Manu and Shaku coming for a week starting on Thursday. The weekend after that (24th) I am going up to Chennai again as its Divali, some fire work festival or something. John may have some work for me which is why I have been practicing fire. After that I will hopefully have some interview with organisations in Chennai about getting some work with street kids in the city, fingers crossed. So around 29th I have to hot foot it back to Renganathapuram as Godwin (AREDS accountant) a friend down here is getting married in Tritchy on 30th and we are all going, its gonna be wicked, my first Indian wedding, safe.

After that I have to leave immediately for Chennai again because there are a couple of Home of Poi fire performers coming down to Chennai and I said I would hook up with them. Then I have to stay in Chennai until the 6th / 7th and then fly out to Colombo, Sri Lanka to get another visa and then hopefully fly back the next morning. Unfortunately due to all the shit going on in Sri Lanka you ain’t allowed to stay in the airport at night so I shall have to find somewhere to crash to wait for my flight.

SO, it’s all a bit manic. There is also talk of me coming back to visit for Christmas but will keep you informed on that one.

Anyway, hope your all ok.

Safe

jaime

oh yeah.
Thanks to:
*remy for getting this pic up, much appreciated:
*mimi for the merchandise, fantastic:
*Dad and Sally for the list of Indian Rotary clubs, ear plugs (will make train journeys so much better) and Music, brilliant:
*mum for the money:
And yeah, think thats it.

safe

jaime: of the sausage eating old people conspiracy.

::: posted by j(e t')aime at 8:35 AM

Monday, October 13, 2003 :::

Paintings from India

Friday, October 10, 2003 :::

Right, hello, sorry it?s been so long but as you will see things have been quite hectic. This one is a bit long (sorry), over 20,000 words and covers over 2 months, and sorry if there are a lot of mistakes but I kinda could be bothered to read through the whole thing before I posted it.

Well, after the madness that was the 6th, I?ve just been working. Amol (Poorni & Prathi?s maid) is ill and not doing to well at the mo so ?hope your ok and get well soon Amol.?

On Friday (8th) evening Poorni headed back to Chennai. Having watched ?Bowling for Columbine? in the evening myself, Poorni, Sagayam (Samy?s brother), Godwin & Raja headed out to Karur station. I was all a bit emotional for that lot. Poorni was leaving Karur for the last time before going to uni, leaving was obviously a little weird and slightly emotional, understandable. Anyway, we got to Karur station at about 21:45. Took a pic of the two of us under the ?Karur central station? sign for ?past times? value and went into the station. There was some fight going on outside. They got on the ?late? train and went, we suddenly realised that we didn?t have platform tickets, which means a fine of R.S 100 each on the way out, plan B. We walked down the platform and quickly escaped through the fence.

Headed back to the village with a few stops on the way, was strange, Massive attack?s ?blue lines? blaring out the jeep, Godwin lit a cigarette, the smell of fag smoke, the music and wind blowing through the open windows brought back a million memories at once. Concerts, gigs, the garden house, the hope & Anchor, The Cutty Sark, nights out, clubbing, London, Bristol, Norwich, all in one massive wave of past times. It was very very odd indeed.

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Politics

When I first arrived here I tried very hard to keep up with what was going on on the political scene. I tell you, it ain?t easy. There are so many parties and so many people that it?s all very confusing. This plus that fact that 99.999% of the news reports are in Tamil make it nearly impossible to actually keep up with what is going on. In Tamil Nadu, however, I have managed to get a general idea of what is going on. There are two main people. The chief minister in charge of this state (otherwise known as the big fat green woman, cause she is big and fat and always wears green) is part of the ruling party called the BJP who, from what I gathered, are fundamentalists and generally a nightmare. The main opposition in this state is a big fat yellow dude (I?ll leave you to work out why) who always wears sun glasses (not because he is trying to be cool as I initially thought but because he has seriously oversensitive eyes) who belongs to the opposition party. This guy?s son is known as Stalin, I know this cause we drove past him doing a rally just outside the village one night.

Before I go any further there is something you need to know about politicians in this country. They are al seriously corrupt, no acceptations, and they are all bastards (from what I gather). Obviously some are worse than other, the big fat green woman is a lot worse than the big fat yellow dude but the big fat yellow dude is still not a nice man at all.

Anyway, this big fat green woman is a total nightmare. Some of the things she has done since I have been here are simply amazing. One of the most recent actions she has done was to order a large, colonial building, being the home of one of the best universities in the south of India, knocked down to make way for her own headquarters. In British terms this would be the equivalent to the Labour representative for Oxforshire knocking down the dreaming spires of Oxford Uni so he could build a modern Labour headquarters. How ridiculous is that. After much protest this didn?t happen but that ain?t the point. This merely proves that this woman is, quite frankly, a nutter.

The latest thing she did astounded me beyond belief. On the beach in Chennai there is a large stage and public meeting area. It has been used by many many political parties to hold rally?s, talks, protests etc. Even the big fat green woman has and does use it for such purposes. It is used for public gatherings, meetings, conferences etc etc. It?s a seriously big well known Chennai landmark used by many.

Just before I left for Chennai the news reported that this massive stage and statue next to it had disappeared in the middle of the night. It had just vanished leaving behind a large empty space, no ruble, no remains no nothing. People were stunned. A lot of people seemed to think that they were merely in the wrong place. There were several interviews with people who said they pass by this place walking their dogs, exercising or driving to work on a daily basis and this morning they all thought they had taken a wrong turn because this big stage had just disappeared. After a while it became apparent what had happened. There was footage of the thing being knocked down in the middle of the night whilst know one was on the beach. The big fat green nut bar had ordered it demolished during the night. Can you believe it? This would be, and I ain?t kidding here, the UK equivalent of Londoners waking up one morning to find that Trafalgar square was no longer there. It?s that serious. The funny thing about all this is there is no justifiable explanation as to why she had this stage demolished. It was used as much by the leading party as by anyone else. It?s almost as if she just felt like pissing everyone off for no apparent reason; well believe me, it worked. Everyone is seriously, seriously pissed.
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I left for Chennai on Sunday (10th) night. Raj dropped me off at the station. The train was late, as usual, and we didn?t leave till about 11. Another sleepless train journey. Why is it that I always seem to sleep on the top bunk but never when I?m on the bottom bunk?

I arrived in Chennai late at about 8:30 and was met by the driver who I had ordered the night before. Due to the fact that Amol was ill, Poorni and Prathi were both running around like mad people and the fact that I hadn?t stayed with them in a while I stayed at Iggy?s, arriving at about 9. Poorni is obviously very busy finalizing everything before she leaves for uni. Prathi, apart from dealing with college and all her commitments within it is also (with John, Boopie, Ashwini and Mia) in training for the cultural college dance competitions. She is going to college till 2 and then dancing and choreographing till late at night. I don?t know how they all have the strength.

Having been in the flat an hour or so john called up and asked if I would like to do a glow stick performance at a pub in chennai as part of their Independence Day (15th) celebrations. He and his dance troupe (Poorni, Prathi, Mia, Ashwini Boopie and Peter had already been hired to do some dancing. John had choreographed a dance for all the waiters to do and also had a close up magician doing table performances. I said yes of course. The problem was that getting glow sticks in such a short time would be difficult. I ordered them immediately from home of poi and had to pay an extra 10 squid to have them couriered over. They didn?t turn up in time but what had turned up was the stuff home of poi was donating to acts. This included 7 sets of normal poi, 2 sets of electro (battery operated) poi and a shit load of spare batteries, extra lights, twirly ribbon thingy?s that acrobats use and some pens. Its fantastic to have some stuff we can use, and, it pulled me out of the hole I was in cause now if the glowsticks didn?t turn up I could use the electro-poi.

In the evening Chintu, Iggy, the kids and myself headed over to Maggie and Tibbs place. Anne had just returned from a weekend away with Iggy to Bangalore. We got the house at like 7ish. Maggie and Tibbs, Rex and Anne were all upstairs. Having said hello to the grandparent we headed up. My god it was odd seeing Anne. To be honest, even though I?m staying with her family and spending time in places and with people she grew up with it very rarely occurs to me that these people are related to her. I have to remind myself that this is her family so seeing her in a place where I had spent time was just really odd but really lovely. We spent the evening with them. Poorni and Prathi turned up later and we all ate.

Me and Anne spend a lot of time talking about what?s going on t home. She gave me a shit load of stuff from my mum (thanks for all that by the way, its fantastic) and generally chilled out chatting and drinking archers and lemonade. She seemed slightly confused when told by Rex that even at the party in Bombay I had refused beer on a regular basis, its true. I haven?t been drinking at all. All the parties and all the nights out I haven?t drunk a thing accept with rex on our three day road trip. The only time I?ve drunk apart from that is with Poorni on that fateful night, and a few beers with Luke, Laine, Walter and Lieve in Karur and that?s it. In the past 8 months I have drunk less alcohol then I usually would on an average night out in England (I can feel Brigham getting slightly worried, at this point, for my welfare.) And the really odd thing is I ain?t really bothered apart form missing the odd pint of Guinness every now and then. My liver is quietly rejoicing.

Anyway, getting of the topic at hand. The night was really lovely, good company, good conversation, several new toys including 2 new hats, 4 books, astro juggling balls and some new music, all good. We departed at about 11ish and headed home.

Tuesday evening was pretty much the same. We went over to Tibbs and Maggie?s place, ate an spent the evening saying good bye to Anne having spent the previous evening saying hello. Me, Chintu, Anne and Maggie spent a while sitting in the kitchen chatting. It was by all accounts very odd. The amount of time me and Anne have done exactly the same thing at home in Norwich meant that the whole scenario was really bizarre. Anyway, we took leave at about 10 and headed back to Iggy?s.

The next few days all seemed to follow the same kinda pattern. I spent the morning at Iggy?s just chilling out and then went out shopping, coffee?ing with Poorni in the afternoon. We had a pair of jeans made for me which involved me going to pick them up on Saturday afternoon on my own in an auto and then heading back to the flat. This may not seem like such a big deal but when have only been out with other people its generally quite a scary concept. The auto guy was called Shanka and his English was surprisingly good. We talked about England, the weather and him transferring occupations from mechanic to auto driver. He, like a lot of people I seem to meet, wanted to go to the UK to work and quizzed me about ticket prices, visa?s and explained how American visa?s were infinitely easier to get than UK ones, not to sure if this was true but it sounded right. He dropped me off at fountain plaza, waited 5 minutes whilst I legged it in to pick up my jeans (which are fantastic and only cost 6 squid) and then drove me to Iggy?s, where he gave me his mobile number and said he would make a mental note of there the flat was just in case I needed picking up from there again. Always useful thing to have when I start venturing out on my own, at least he knows where the flat is cause I have no idea.

On Thursday morning john picked me up at 12ish and along with him, Boopie and Poorni we headed off to a five star hotel which has a pub in its basement known as Geoffrey?s. I had met the GM of the pub at Poorni?s party and he had asked whether I could be brought in to do some stuff. We got to the hotel and had a look round the place. The hotel was pretty damn nice. The pub was really wicked. It was a cross between a trendy yuppie bar, and old English pub and an American diner. The bar was very modern looking with blue lights etc; the pub had tables running down both sides and a row of high tables with tall stools running down the middle. There were old English pub bits and pieces around like frames newspaper articles, small statues of Miles Davies, old framed beer adverts, pics etc etc, was really wicked.

We spent the afternoon watching the waiters practice their dancing, a few had their own routines to do including one bottle pinning cocktail mixing dude who lit the end of his bottles, was pretty damn good. John was a bit worried that the ceiling was a bit low for me to do my stuff, it was but there was a raised ceiling line above the dance floor so as long as I stayed within it I would be fine, easier said then down when y0ur spinning in circles and all the lights are out. I did some practice runs infront of a few of the managers, other people and the dancers which went down very well. After the first run several people rushed up to shake my hand, was kinda cool.

After a while me john and Poorni were called up into the hotel lobby to meet the GM dude who wanted to discuss some stuff. I had been told that if I was asked anything specific about money, doing both fri and sat night etc just to say that it should be discussed with john, leave me out of it. The GM said that he had been very impressed with the party show and wanted the same. He was a bit worried about the glowsticks would fly off (one did at the party). I assured him that in 4 years of doing glow sticks it had never happened apart from that one time. I would safety line them so it son chord did break there would be a back up to keep the sticks intact. John asked if he wanted me to do Saturday night as well. He looked straight at me and said he did but, ?I was very good but very expensive.? This was news to me. We hadn?t even talked money. I was very amused. We returned to the bar having decided that they would see what the audience thought on the first night and then make a decision based on their reaction as to whether I would perform Saturday.

At about 4 we headed up to the hotel restaurant and had lunch, club sandwiches, very good club sandwiches. Then we headed off and me and Poorni were dropped in town where we had shopping to do, money to exchange and films to develop.

On Friday I chilled out at Iggy?s and then made my way over to the girls flat to find Mia and Ashwini getting ready, Prathi asleep and Poorni out with Chintu having their hair done. Chintu was going tom come to the pub but decided not to at the last moment.

Friday night was generally totally mad. Me, Poorni, Prathi, Mia and Ashwini arrived at the hotel in a taxi and went straight down to the bar. Apon arrival we were greeted by all the waiters (having spent quite a bit of time with them so far) and management. Me, john, Boopie, Poorni and Prathi had a reserved table so we settled down to eat and drink (all on the house). After a while we were asked to join the GM and his wife at their table. That was really odd, I felt a little out of place but I was great cause everyone new who the GM was and therefore were obviously wondering who the hell we were.

Later on Dia, Minoti and Bu turned up. The waiters dance went down fantastically although it did mean no service for a few minutes which no one seemed to mind. The guys did some dancing which also went down very well. The place was packed. The DJ was banging out Hindi-pop tunes, which weren?t that bad at all actually, and seem to all be dance/trance orientated. The press were there, several photographers and two TV camera crews. At about 9:30 I was told I was on. We had picked a song by Safri Duo which I can?t remember the name of but you?ll all probably know. All the lights were put up; I stepped up and did my stuff. It seemed to go down well but for the fact that unlike with the waiters and the dancers there were very few screams of support and clapping. I have been told since by many people that this was due to the fact that people were generally slightly tripped out having not seen anything like this before. I hope this is the case, I think it is judging on the amount of compliments I got.

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My 15 minutes

Having finished I returned to my seat and was immediately approached by a young woman. She said she was a VJ (these guys call the people who introduce music video?s on TV a Vj?s, not presenters. Robbie, don?t worry, I gave all the guys a full explanation of the proper job of a Vj) on the south Indian equivalent of MTV. She and her crew had been very impressed with what they had just seen, could they interview me. Mmm, difficult one. They decided that the place was to noisy and escorted me outside into the hall where two camera crews were waiting armed with big halogen lights, large reflective boards a those funny microphones that look like a stretched hamster stuck on a pole. She just said she was going to ask mew some questions blah blah blah and then we begun.

After about 2 seconds of filming they decided that my hat was pulled down to low and they couldn?t see my eyes. This is a common complaint but seeing as I was going to be on TV I felt it necessary to compromise. They suggested that I turn it backwards. I CANNOT BELIEVE I DID A TV INTERVIEW WITH A HIP INDIA MUSIC CHANNEL WITH A CAP ON BACKWARDS. GOOD GOD what was I thinking, I must have looked like a total twat. Anyway, She asked a few questions, they stopped a few times to readjust where we were standing, asked me to turn the poi on etc etc and when everything was finally in order the interview ran a little something like this.

She introduced me as Jaime from London (I usually tell people I live in London, firstly because it?s the last place I properly lived and secondly because it?s a hell of a lot easier to say London then to say Norwich and then have to explain where it is,) and then went on to say how I did this amazing thing called poi which I had just performed at this independence day celebration. I lost count of the number of times she said absolutely amazing, she lost count of the times she said absolutely amazing cause she ended up saying ?I know I keep on saying absolutely amazing but there really isn?t any other word for it? or something along those lines.

She then asked me what it was. I explained that it was an old Mouri game that had gradually worked its way into hippy and club culture. I explained that there were several variations including fire and that glowsticks were predominantly used in night clubs. She asked me how I started doing poi. I said that I had seen people doing poi at festivals, had asked what they were and had taken it from there; I had begun to do it seriously when I worked for a brief time in a London nightclub. I had been doing poi now for nearly 4 years and learned a lot of stuff by being involved with, and meeting lots of people from the Home of poi online community. She then said that the viewers at home would have to judge for themselves what they thought of it but that they were likely to find it ?absolutely amazing.?

We then cut, at which point I was informed that my entire performance would be shown when this piece was aired. We went straight back into it and she asked what I had on my hands. I had totally forgotten that I had henna on my hands and didn?t realize what she meant. She took one of my hands and held it up to the camera saying that it was really cool, when and why did I do it. I explained that I was only visiting chennai from Karur and had done it before I came up. I said that I thought it was great to be able to decorate yourself in such a way and not have to worry about it being permanent. She said she thought it was really cool, I said thank you. She then asked what I thought of Indian music. I said that I really liked (the modern stuff) but that initially I had had a few worries about poi?ing to such music cause I wasn?t used to it but that I had had no problems and had really enjoyed it. That was about it. She said that she hoped I had a good evening and what did I think of the night so far. I said it had been a great night so far and looked very promising. She said that was all they had time for and did the old ?thank you very much, well done, this is Blah blah for SS music wishing you a happy independence day? or something to that effect.

Then came the really odd part. They wanted to get some shots of me with my glowsticks. I held them up to my face and they shoved both cameras? right up close, like an inch of o away from my nose. They then asked me to reposition my glowsticks cause I was holding them up in the shape of a V and this was the logo for their rival company. After about 5 minutes of obscene close ups, shots from above my head and below my face they said they had all they needed. The producer gave me his card and said he was very impressed.

That was it, my 15 minutes. I returned to my table and was instantly told by the GM that the women would be hot after me, unfortunately this prediction never materialized.

The rest of the night was spent talking to Dia, Minoti and Bu, Watching Boopie down 9 B52?s and other alcoholic drinks, watching the waiter?s dance, watching john and his crew dance and generally chilling out. Later on in the evening I was informed that the management would like me to do Saturday night as well as apparently it had all gone down rather well. Safe.

As the evening drew to a close the camera crews were busy interviewing the management and doing introductory pieces for the night. They interviewed john as he had organized the entire night entertainment. Everyone was knackered accept me. At about 12:30 we were about to head off when the management said we could all have dinner I the hotel restaurant. The gang (me, Poorni, Prathi, john, Boopie (now quite drunk and being very amusing), Mia, Ashwini and peter) headed off to the restaurant. I didn?t eat, I had been feeling a little sick since doing poi. We all talked about the evening and about 2 all eight of us squeezed into john?s car, good lord knows how we managed that. Everyone was exhauster. Prathi, Mia and Ashwini had been dancing non stop for the past week or so in preparation for their completion, john hadn?t stopped working as he had been choreographing these guys, the waiters and holding his usual dance class, Poorni had been running around getting stuff ready for uni. I was the only one who didn?t want to sleep, infact, I wanted to go out clubbing.

I was dropped back at Iggy?s at about 3 and, to my surprise; he was still up watching some baseball movie. We talked about the evenings events, I went to bed.

All in all a fantastic night. All performances were went down without a hitch, all the hard work had paid off, me and john had been interviewed by a major south Indian music channel, I had been offered at least another one performance to celebrate Geoffrey?s anniversary with the possibility of doing some more stuff when the an appropriate event came up and the whole thing was going to be repeated in less than 15 hours. Safe.
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Saturday night was pretty much the same is a little quieter. I arrived at the girls flat at about 6:30 to find Prathi and Mia getting ready. Poorni was still out. From what I could tell they were getting ready until we left at about 8:45. We didn?t get to the hotel until 9:15 which was slightly worrying seeing as they were all due to dance at 9:30. The GM and his wife were not around, john and the guys had arrived about 10 minutes before us (which was great cause we all thought we were about to get a bollocking for being late). The place wasn?t as full but the atmosphere was still good. The waiters danced, the guys danced, everything went down without a hitch.

I went on at 10:30 to a dance remix of Dire Straits ?money for nothing? (sinful I know). It went down well, I think. My heart was going like the clappers, I felt a bit sick, probably due to lack of food. The evening was generally a lot more relaxed. Another girl had come along to replace Ashwini who was apparently feeling a little under the weather, to be honest I ain?t really surprised when you consider the amount of dancing those three are doing.

John was acting as host for the night and at one point put it to the crowd that they had to judge who was a better dancer, him or his brother. They both got up and started strutting their funky stuff. I have b\never really seen these two dance but believe me, they can dance, good god they can dance. After a few minutes of identical moves each one took to the floor individually and started pulling off individual moves most of which were pretty damn impressive. Nobody came out on top, nobody won.

The evening was packed pull of people doing stuff, prizes getting given out, line dancing classes where members of the audience were pulled up and shown a few simple moves etc. There was a close up table magician going around doing tricks. He was very good but having lived with a professional magician of a higher standard for a year I kinda knew what was going on most of the time, although I must admit a few things he did had me stumped. Don?t worry James; you?re still my favorite ha ha.

Later on in the evening I was approached by some dude who congratulated me on my performance. He said he worked for Sri Lanka airlines, I said I flew with them when I went over to get my visa renewed; he said to give him a call next time I did to get a great deal. Still trying to work out whether the guy was being really nice, was drunk or was just one of things people say knowing full well the other person is never going to take them up on it. He said he didn?t have a card on him but told me his name, I had forgotten by the time I got back to my table, oopps.

At about midnight everyone ordered food, I wasn?t hungry. Whilst everyone was talking the manager came up and gave us all some vouchers for some shop in Chennai, john came up with the news that they had been asked to perform in Canada, negotiations are going on as we speak. John decided to take me, Mia and this other girl back home and let the others get taxis. After a heated debate on whether marriage made two people even more committed to each other and whether it gives people another reason to work stuff out I was dropped back at Iggy?s at about 2. As I was walking though the gate in the pissing it down rain john ran up and gave me an envelope saying that bit wasn?t much, that I probably usually charge a fortune but thanks. Let?s just say I wasn?t disappointed. Cheers john, you?re a chap. Thanks for asking me man, really enjoyed myself, anytime my friend.
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Sunday was just spent relaxing. I was meant to be going out but for reasons that escape me I didn?t. In the evening
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School plays

On Monday (17th) afternoon at about 5ish me and Poorni headed of to St Michaels School to attend their annual parent?s celebration day and school play.

We had spent the day shopping and just doing stuff that needed to be done. What with being paid I had taken Poorni and Prathi out for lunch to Kenzo?s an Italian/American bugger bar. We had been basket ball shopping, jewelry shopping for ear rings and finger rings (as a leaving present from Prathi to Poorni, a very nice, diamond studded platinum piece, they tried to temp me with the men?s selection, think I?ll just stick to flesh tunnels as rings) and had spent some time looking for a doctors surgery where Poorni could get more holes put in her ears. Prathi had legged it after lunch to go and do yet more dancing at which point me and Poorni had legged it back to Iggy?s to get the spare invitation from Chintu for the school event. We had then taken an auto back to the girls flat, found my glowsticks which were late, one missing and another broken, spent half an hour on the phone and then legged it out the door, as Samy and Christi were arriving, for fear of being late.

This is the school that Jordan and Joel (Iggy & Chintu?s kids) attend. The school is all laid out around a central open green area with a massive stage at one end. This area was packed with parents. The good thing about this country is they can have all their assemblies, plays and events outside without worrying about the weather; this was a strange concept to me.

The evening was to finish at about 9 and would include prize giving, singing and 2 performances one by the kinder garden (how American) in which Jordan was to play a goldfish, and one by the rest of the school (ages 5-16) in a rendition of ?The King and I,? In which Joel was playing the part of one of the kings children. Like most of these events, no matter which country you?re in, the only really interesting parts and the ones which include children that you know. This meant that the speeches etc were all a little tedious but watch able. It was very hot and most people were just staring blankly a head and fanning themselves madly. After a while Jordies piece came on and I must say it was brilliant. Lots of colourful outfits, obviously well rehearsed and put together. Most enjoyable, although from the distance we were sitting at it was a little difficult to locate Jordy on a stage full of brightly dressed children especially seeing as his costume covered his whole body and all you would have been able to see was his head.

Just after this Prathi and Samy turned up and after a few more boring bits ?The King and I? begun. Having just spotted Iggy on a first floor walkway above us I legged it up there to get a better view and I must say I was very very impressed. The sets were fantastic, the music and singing first class, the acting brilliant considering the age of all the kids and the costumes stunningly colourful. I really enjoyed it. It was like watching a professional performance. People would have paid money to see this in England. What made it al so good was the thought that it was put on by the kids. I remember my school plays and they were funny but never any good on a serious level. I think the main difference was the set and costumes which in this case were top class and in our case are usually just cardboard cut outs and things brought from people?s homes.

Anyway, all in all a really lovely night. The girls and Samy left early to go and get Poorni?s ears pierced (done by a doctor, just a normal GP, very odd I though. If I asked my GP to pierce anything he?d look at me as if I had three heads). Which was a shame cause they missed the best part. After picking up Joel, preventing Jordan from getting run over a few times in the car park and talking to other parents and Maggie and Tibbs, we headed back to the house, had dinner and went to bed. I watched some movie, I think it was Lord of the rings Fellowship of the rings? and was totally disgusted at how much they missed out and changed having just finished reading the book for the fifth time since arriving in this country. Have just started on Bill Baileys ?notes from a small island? and am loving it.

Just while we are on the subject of schools and stuff do you know that these guys have a national teacher?s day? I have no idea why and what the purpose of this extra day is suppose to actually achieve but thought it kinda nice if not a bit odd. In the UK teachers always seem to get a rough ride. They get paid bugger all and seem always to be being blamed by parents and a host of other people for not doing their jobs properly rather than being praised and worshipped for devoting more time per day with people?s kids than most parent do.
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?I try to remember my favorite things, and then I don?t feel, so bad.?

Right, we all know the scene in ?Sound of Music? when all the kids start crapping themselves at the thunder storm, yes. Well this actually happened one night in Chennai. I was woken up at some ungodly hour of the morning to find my room flooded in light. I had no idea what the hell was going on, then I realised that there was a thunder storm going on right above the house. But this wasn?t any old storm, oh no, this was apocalyptic stuff man. The lightning was incredible. I actually counted and at one point for about 15 minutes my room was never dark for more than 4 seconds. This was pretty impressive but absolutely nothing in comparison to the thunder. I?ve never heard anything like it in my life, it was frightening. The house felt like it was shaking. It sounded like the heavens were seriously splitting open. I can?t really explain it but put it this way. I had pillows wrapped round my head, not to try and get back to sleep but to make the noise a little less petrifying. It was incredible and I was shitting myself.
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Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday were not particularly eventful. I followed the same pattern of staying in, in the morning, going out with Poorni in the afternoon etc. On one night I went round to dinner at the girls, Samy and graced us all with a massive batch of Biryani, which was fantastic. John graced us with his presence at about 10:30 I left in a cab at about 00:45.
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Fare thee well

As I am sure you are all aware, if you have been reading this thing regularly, Poorni (the daughter of Samy and Christi (who own and run AREDS) is buggering off to Leiden, in Holland, to do an MA in English something. She leaves Chennai on Sunday 25th for Bombay or Delhi (depending on where they send her visa, and on Thursday 21st I took leave of her for the last time. She picked me up at Iggy?s at about 2:30 and we headed off to a large shop called Wills Lifestyle. We had all been given vouchers by Geoffrey?s and this would be the last time I would have the opportunity to spend mine as they run out in a few weeks. We took an auto to the shop and spent 30 minutes browsing.

It wasn?t really my kind of shop. Everything was a little formal for my liking plus it was all really pricey. However there were some things and in the end I settled on a nice tight black t-shirt (cause ain?t got enough tight t-shirts ha ha.) With the discount voucher and the 40% off it was a bargain which was great cause I had already had a pair of jeans made and bought a small bag and was a little funny about spending any more money on this trip.

After shopping we called in briefly called in at an STD, ISD phone booth so Poorni could call uni and inquire about her visa which has still not materialized, slightly worrying seeing as she leaves in a few days. Then we headed off to Coffee day to reminisce about the last 8 months. We chatted away, I gave her advise about university in Europe and how even though lectures and seminars are important it is compulsory to fit in at least 4 hours of drinking every day. She is doing an MA in English and is also thinking about doing a diploma in anthropology as well as getting a job teaching English to degree students. I tell you, when it comes to studying both these girls have got the knack. I feel very stupid seeing as I found it difficulty completing one year of a law degree. Poorni is younger than me and already has a degree, 2 diplomas and is about to embark on an MA, another diploma and then a PHD after all that. Not only that but she will be doing the MA and diploma, in Holland, in a year. How, may I ask?

Anyway, after my drinking, socializing ?Oh my god how are you going to manage all this with all your other commitments? lecture she began to spill what she is best at, advice.? We talked about what I was going to do after ACTS and both decided that a change of scenery would probably be a good idea, chennai and a job of some sort sounded promising (pretty much what everyone else thinks). After an hour of talking, one mochachino frappe, a very large cold coffee topped with cream, a shit load of chocolate sauce, coffee beans and an espresso shot (they never ever make coffee strong enough in Indian coffee houses) we headed out to a waiting auto and sped off back to Karpagam Avenue and Iggy?s flat. There we mused over how a tape recording deck could switch itself off whilst recording something we had set up before departing, compared purchases, as we always do, and then headed off down the street to get her an auto home.

I must say at this point that this was quite an emotional moment. This wonderful woman had been there my entire trip. We have been out coffee? ing, shopping more times than I can remember, since I have arrived, we have spent time with each other in Karur, Chennai and Bombay, I have stayed with her many times, we have been in constant contact since day 1 on January 20th when a very sheepish slight scared Jaime emerged from his bedroom at Iggy?s flat. She has been there to listen to me rabbit on about numerous issues, has given sound advise many times, has written me letters, sent me e-mails, done me drawings, bought me presents in the shape of English jam, framed pictures, cloths and many other things. She has taken me to the cinema, she has called me at least once every few days, when I?m not in Chennai, to see how I?m doing. She organized me a birthday cake flowers and present on my birthday, she has ordered me numerous cars to and from locations, and she has met me at ridiculous times of the day in railway stations. She has put herself out SO MANY TIMES. She has helped me adapt to life in India better than anyone ever could and she has been there every single bloody time I needed her. I apologise for bombarding you with such a list but it is very important to realize what this woman has actually done, and to point out that you do not find this kind of friendship very often, if ever.

I am very very lucky to have met and made such a good friend especially when you consider that that it has all been done in a less than 8 months, 90% of which we weren?t even in each others company. I love her to bits, I am going to miss her like crazy and I wish her all the luck in the world as she embarks on this very exciting trip. Poorni, I hope you have an utterly brilliant time; I have absolutely no doubt that you are going to do fantastically both academically and socially. I know exactly what you?re doing at this point. You?re sitting there, reading this, saying, and I quote, ?you better shut up right now otherwise your going to get a good ass whipping!? Because of this I?m going to stop and move onto something else, that and the fact that I?m finding it a little difficult keeping the keyboard in focus.
(The amusing part being I would say goodbye another three times.)

After this rather emotional departure I went back to the flat and started packing. I seemed to have acquired a lot more stuff. I had glowsticks, a massive box of stuff from home of poi, glowsticks form home of poi, several purchases made in Chennai and a shit load of stuff brought over by Anne. Having packed I recorded some music and spent the last hour or so chatting to Chintu. At 6:30 I suddenly realised I didn?t have a mode of transport to the station, I then realised I didn?t have any cab numbers so I called Poorni. I was hoping that are fare well would be a little more dramatic than me having to call and hour later to ask for Taxi numbers but it had to be done. At 6:45 Chintu called a cab which, at 7:00 still hadn?t shown up. My train was leaving at 7:45 and Chennai rush hour traffic. I then realised that I hadn?t arranged transportation from Karur to the village, oopps, OK, organizing stuff in advance ain?t one of my strong points. At 7:00 as the cab idea was scrapped for a known auto driver who had just dropped someone off in the same building I called Poorni again to ask her to get someone to pick me up in Karur having decided not to call AREDS due to the fact that lengthy, cross language explanations would take up more time than I had. She was quite distraught to find out that I hadn?t left but in true Jaime, denial, deluded, naivety I calmly explained that I had loads of time. I legged it downstairs, said goodbye, lugged my enormous bag (borrowed from the guys to store all the extra stuff I had) into the back and sped off towards Chennai Egmore street.

Oh ye? of little faith, plenty of time. We arrived at 7:25, I hung around, found the train, boarded and begun yet another train journey to Karur quietly reflecting on the trips events and very aware that the next time I would see Poorni was in a coffee house in Amsterdam.

For once, no snoring, bliss, still not a huge amount of sleep though. The train was late and I arrived in Karur at 5ish having been up, just to be on the safe side, at 3:34. Bloody trains. I exited the station, dumped the bag and once the car park had totally cleared of every living soul, apart from the people sleeping in it, began to get a little worried that my arrival had not been forewarned. Then I realised that Raja and Godwin were both in a jeep a few yards away and had been asleep.

Got back to the village at 5:30 and crashed.
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Room 101

For those of you not familiar with this concept (and show) I will give you a quick idea on what it?s all about. Basically it?s where one is given the opportunity to banish 5 things, pet hates, into Room 101 from where they cannot escape. Not all things make it. On the TV one has to persuade Paul Merton to get rid of these things for good or, a frequent occurrence, put forward to an audience vote. So I thought I?d offer up 5 of my pet hates about India hoping that they will all be banished to Room 101 forever.

1. Wildlife: By this I certainly don?t mean all wildlife but there are certain creatures which I just feel serve no real purpose on this earth. I have nothing against many of the animals I come into contact on a daily basis. I don?t mind the bats, lizards, frogs, millipedes, cows, goats, crows, budgies, infact, I quite like some of these things and endeavor to bond mildly whenever I come into contact with them but there are some of God?s creations that I just cannot stand. Cockroaches are one of these creatures. Can someone please explain to me what possible purpose cockroaches serve? They don?t do anything, they don?t contribute to anything, they ain?t even cuddly or cute which is the excusable. All they do is scurry around, freak me out and beg to be squashed, decapitated or battered to death with a spatula, ladle or any other kitchen implement that is near at hand (I even squished one with a liquidizer the other day.

Roosters are another thing I don?t really get. Fine, they obviously have some part to play in that they play a part in keeping a species from extinction but apart from that all they do is crow and that?s my main problem with them. Why do they crow, what is the purpose apart from annoying me, waking me up and keeping me awake when I?m trying to get to sleep? It?s not like they just do it in the morning as a kind of alarm clock which is always seen as having a more romantic appeal than an alarm clock. They crow ALL BLOODY DAY. I can?t escape it. They are there when I wake up, they are at work (what with it being a farm) they are there when I return and they are still bloody crowing as evening fades when they suddenly decide to stop. This would be of some conciliation apart from the fact that the minute they stop the dogs begin, but don?t even get me started on the dogs.

2. People who snore on trains: This, as I am sure you are aware if you read this regularly, really pisses me off. I am currently reading Tony Hawks ?Hitchhiking round Ireland with a fridge? (a truly fantastic book by the way) and it appears that I am not alone on this one. He has the same experiences in a hostel. He has several ways of dealing with this. His first being that suicide is the easiest was out which is ditched after he realizes that it is likely to wake people up. He then point out that there is no cure save on. People have tried drugs, funny nose parches, remedies and a million and one other ways of preventing this mind numbingly annoying habit and as far as he, and I am concerned, the only real way to combat snoring is the death of the snorer. Suffocation is the obvious methods, accidentally holding the pillow over someone?s face. He then comes to the conclusion that, even though it is the best methods in such circumstances, strangulation would be a lot more satisfying.

3. Decaffeinated coffee: This needs little explanation. As we all know, one the best thing about coffee is that it contains the essential stimulant caffeine. It kick starts you in the morning, it keeps you awake and improves your concentration when you need a little help (i.e. when you?re trying to watch a Tamil movie). It gives you a boost and generally keeps people going when their bodies start waving a little white flag and if it weren?t for coffee there are millions of people who, I am sure, would generally find everyday life (especially working life) just that little more difficult to bear. So why, I ask, do they have to remove the one ingredient that makes coffee so great. Granted it has other pro?s such as its pleasing aroma, its pleasant taste when pumped full of mounds of sugar and gallons of cream, or milk which ever you prefer, it comes in many varieties, different beans, flavors concoctions, mocha?s, cappuccino?s, espresso?s to name just a few but you can?t try and convince me that when you knackered, worn out and tired and you get offered a cup of coffee you immediately say ?yes? because you want to sit back and savour the flavour, no, you need you caffeine hit.

This week has been a little odd but not really to eventful. I?ve been working alot and not doing much else except reading ?Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix? which I managed to pick up on a trip into Karur, paperback edition (which ain?t been released yet) for less than 3 squid which is odd seeing as, even in chennai, it costs more than a tenner, not bad huh. Anyway, finished it in a few days, really enjoyed it, in actual fact I loved it, oh dear.

The site, well a lot has happened. The pool is finally finished and is in the process off being cleaned with a nasty chemical cleaner. The covered dining area has finally been put up. Pretty much everything has been painted a really nice, dark brick red colour. The path is in the process of being laid with very large, thick granite flag stones. A kitchen is in the process of being built up against the far wall which separates the site and the farm and the perimeter wall has pretty much been finished apart from a large whole where a large set of really gorgeous, huge red metal gates will go, unfortunately the hole is in the wrong place so we are going to have to tear down part of the wall but that shouldn?t take to long.

Pondicherry
At the beginning of the week (1st) I was having a txt conversation with Dia (one of the crew in Chennai). She mentioned that Nix (from the party) band was playing at the weekend in Pondicherry at a college competition. They were all going up to Pondi for the weekend to see the competition and take advantage of the stupidly cheep alcohol (tax free, litre of beer (not shit beer) cost about 40 pence) like they do every year. The plan was a little vague but having had several conversations with several people they all led to me being sat on platform 1 of Karur train station at 10:30 on Wednesday (3rd) night waiting for a train to chennai which was, as usual late. The plan was still a little muddles but went along the lines of, get to chennai, meet Poorni, get picked up by a big group of people most of whom I didn?t know and some of whom I knew very little, get a bus to Pondicherry, meet up with some more people, stay in Pondi for the weekend at some unknown location, get spannered and listen to lots of music courtesy of colleges in the Tamil Nadu area, safe.

Well, I arrived in Chennai at 7 and took a cab to the girls flat where, as usual, I found Prathiba running around like a mad man trying to get to college and Poorni asleep. I settled down in front of the TV with a coffee, provided by the very thoughtful Miss Amol and a stack of series 9 friends DVD?s, bliss.

At some point Poorni emerged, got ready and at about 12 we headed out the door to do some shopping, get some coffee and drop off some stuff at Iggy?s place before 3 when I had to be back at the flat to be picked up.

Having spent 2 hours out which entailed wondering around food world on my own for more than half an hour looking for electrol whilst people tried to sell me shampoo (why in gods name would I need shampoo, drinking a seriously good fruit shake outside, using the nearest cash machine and conversing with Poorni as to why oh why someone decided, on picking up a grapefruit, that it reminded them of a grape, we headed off to Iggy?s where we had lunch and left in a hurry at 3pm, oops.

We legged it back to the flat, I packed and managed to get outside in time to find Dia, Minoti and a guy called Chicku waiting. We drove off to Di?s where we spent an hour or so chilling, talking etc. Bu (the party) turned up and we headed off to the bus stop where we met up with two more guys, Ameeth and Johnty. The buses came and went, all of them were rammed full of people and would let you on if you were the size of a rake. After much um?ing and ah?ing, calling taxi firms and generally avoiding the issue of having to get on a bus that resembles a can of sardines. After all this we finally squeezed onto a bus that quite frankly couldn?t have taken anymore people. Not only were all the seats full but, as with all Indian buses, the walkway was like a mosh pit at ozz-fest.

The next three hours were spent standing, trying to squeeze in further as the conductor who, to be honest, probably couldn?t even spell I.Q. rammed more and more people into the ever decreasing breathing space. Conversation was mainly about how people?s legs were going numb, English universities and how long to go. After a few hours we managed to get a seat and five of us managed to cram onto a seat that should have seated 3, stuff that, just sitting down was a blessing.

At about 8ish we finally arrived in Pondicherry and met up with Nix and Raoull who had driven up in a van. We piled into the back of the van and set off on a mission to fins food and alcohol, not necessarily in that order. We got pulled over by the police for parking in a non parking zone, and then drove off to the college where the completion was to take place to register ourselves for passes so we could get in the next day. This completed we drove off to find food and stopped of at American diner style joint which served everything from pizza?s to dosa?s. The bus trip had given me a blinding headache and I was toying with the idea of sacrificing a night of alcohol consumption to get rid of this headache. The headache prevailed and just before we ate I took some ibuprofen (which I have just managed to get my hands on after spending the last 8 months trying.) We all ate, Nix and some guys headed off to by booze and apon returning we all bundles into the van and headed off to Auroville where they had managed to get their hands on a cottage where we would be spending the weekend. It was pissing it down but spirits were high and livers were beginning to get worried.

We arrived in Auroville around 10ish and set about unloading the van and picking our way, in the dark and pissing rain through the tree?s to the cottage. It was seriously like something out of a teenage horror movie man. I was just waiting for someone to say ?I?ll be right back? or ?let?s split up.? The cottage was great. It was like two stone wigwams with a door that was set a few feet into the ground meaning you really had to bend to get through it. Inside there were two small rooms one with a bed, tables, chairs and a few other bits and bobs. We immediately made our selves at home, stuck on some tunes (it must be said that these guys have exceptional taste when it comes to music) and just chilled. Alcohol, good tunes (everything from Norah Jones to Rage, from The Beetles to Avenged Sevenfold), good company, a couple of power cuts, candles, several musicians, a few guitars, room to swing glowsticks all in all made for a very interesting and most enjoyable night. The guys played a few acoustic numbers which, I must say, were very impressive. We talked about a multitude of stuff. Several people turned in early (early being 4 o?clock) me and Di stayed up talking until 5ish and then hit the sack.

Friday morning, up at 10:30 and everyone seems to be running around tidying stuff up. A few guys have popped out to get breakfast. Got up, showered and joined everyone for dosa?s and coffee. Was looking like it was going to be nice day (what I mean by nice is not to hot). The morning basically went along the lines of conversation ranging from Jackass and CKY to discussing the pleasantries of European white beer.

After everyone had got ready, hung around for a bit and composed themselves we headed out for a stroll. The idea was to find somewhere in Auroville to have lunch, and then head off to the meditation centre for 3:30 so we could actually have a wander around the dome thingy which I didn?t have a chance to do last time I was here.

Well, after A LOT of driving around we finally found ourselves in the middle of no-where looking for food and not being able to find anything. At last, having asked several locals, emptied the van so it could go over a large speed hump (arguably one of the most random things I have ever seen, 9 people exiting a vehicle, it driving 2 meters over a hump and then everyone piling back in again) and generally wondering where the hell we were we finally stumbled across a bakery which served food in the middle of know where. It seemed a little complex of things roughly associated with the main Auroville touristy place and was full of foreign kids with a few aging hippies wondering around looking stoned. We ordered food, chatted and wandered around the nearby shops, 2 of them, 1 of which sold lots and funny wooden musical instrument and the other that sold everything from food to bleach. Having eaten lots of chicken noodles, drunk lots of fizzy, pesticide filled sugar drinks, been asked numerous questions by German children, discussed the evenings game plan and discovered that Dia?s palm pilot/camera contained a full version of the game ?worms? we headed off back to the jeep, side tracked for 15 minutes by the workshop that made the funny wooden instruments, and then drove with all the speed possible whilst still bearing in mind there were several tall people in the back and every time we went over a pebble our heads nearly went through the roof, of in the direction of the meditation hall. We suddenly realised that the chances of getting there on time were about the same as expecting Michael Jackson to admit to having plastic surgery we headed off back to the cottage to catch up on some sleep and generally chill? axe until the evenings events begun.

At about 7 everyone started to get ready. Having seen a picture of me and Poorni with eyes painted on our eyelids Minoti decided/volunteered to have it done. They came out kinda weird but really freaky. It certainly had the desired effect, apparently people were commenting on them all night. AT about 8 we all headed out the door and headed off in the direction of Pondi and the music competition. I had been discussed and decided that I was going to go on during the solo of one particular song and do some glow sticks to provide some extra visuals. We had discussed doing some fire but they weren?t? to sure how people, especially the judges and security would take even glowsticks. Everyone had a sinking feeling that they might get disqualified; because of this, the fire idea was dropped.

We arrived at the college which was already beginning to fill up and some bands were already playing. Good lord they were awful. Someone was crucifying ?come together.? Musically this was obviously going to be a very weird night. The place was basically a big grassy open area in the middle of the college with a big stage at one end, three rows of chairs for parents, a booth for the judges and the whole place was lined with stalls selling food, drinks (non-alcoholic) and other such amenities. We got in and had a wander round. Me and Nix stayed to watch some music and the others headed off to bye booze. We watched 5 or six bands before they came back at about 11ish. Some of the bands were OK and others were really diabolical. We heard and utterly shamefull attempt to cover Rage Against the Machines ?wake up? the vocals on which actually did, no shit, sound like someone strangling a cat (I know people use this expression but I promise you a lot of it actually DID sound like someone doing it) and an equally bad version of ?Killing in the name? with a rousing chorus of ?Damn you I won?t do what you tell me,? which, for those of you who aren?t familiar with Rage?s work, are not the words which are slightly more, how shall we put it, colourful. A few of the bands were actually quite good and there were some impressive moments.

At one point me and Nix were approached by a young man and several policemen who were obviously just wandering round on a power trip amongst so many young people. They asked to have a look at our ID cards and when we showed them we were asked to leave on account of the fact that the back had not been authorized by a relevant member of staff. We suddenly realised that in actual fact, contrary to what we had been told the previous day, only members of this particular college were allowed to be here and that to get the required signature would mean going to registration, handing over our college ID?s and getting our pass validated. This was obviously a problem for everyone seeing ass none of us (apart from Nix and his band) were meant to be here. We managed to talk the guys from kicking us out and then headed off in the direction of registration to sort something out. Nix got his card signed and along with a few other passes, left the site to find the booze hunters who had returned and could not get in. Myself and Ameeth sat in a corner trying not to get spotted cause if we did neither of us had a pass. Finally Nix returned and explained how Di, during a moment of criminal genius, had forged the signature on the backs of al our passes extremely well and we were now free to wander around without the risk of getting ousted.

The bands continued to play for half hour slots. The one thing that really confused me about the whole band scene was that here were these people belting out Rage Against the Machine, Limp Bizkit, Stone Temple Pilot and other such music and yet they all looked like they had just come from a train spotting convention (and I don?t mean the movie.)

The prime example of the dress thing, was that one of the guitarists I in Bonesaw (Raoull?s band) was wearing a very very very tight pair of very very very short denim shorts, I mean, they looked like Speedo?s, a very very tight white wife beater, a pair of stupidly white adidas trainers with white socks pulled up half way to his knee?s and (and this really was something) a chain made from metal at least a cm thick that hung down his chest with a padlock the size of someone?s fist holding it together. Now if he wants to dress like a tosser then that?s absolutely fine but dressing like this when you?re meant to be in a hardcore metal band, I don?t think so some how. The guy was a bit of an arrogant prat, strutting around with his bright red guitar played under his chin, jumping around pretending to get ?into the music? when all it really looked like was that he was constantly tripping over. Apart from this guy the band was really good. He was very amusing, I couldn?t stop laughing.

This general theme of terribly dressed people playing out of tune music and awful covers (with a few exceptions) continued until Nix, Ameeth and the other members of their band came on stage. Now, I know a lot of you will be thinking that I?m just saying this cause we were with them and cause they?re mates but believe me, I am not. These guys are very talented and at least they can dress. Nix looked like someone out of the original Sepultura line up, and good god can these guys play. Everyone else thought so to. They made most of the other bands sound like they?re playing on plastic toy instruments.

Anyway, halfway through the second song there is a big solo and it had been agreed that at this point the people operating the lights would cut everything and the stage would be mine for as long as the solo lasted when I would leg it. I have no idea why cause I have spun infront of crowds a million times larger than that, but I was a little nervous. The interlude came, the lights went and Ameeth presented me with the stage. I jumped on and, wanting to create the best impression possible so not to take away from the superiority of the music, spun as fast as I could, as hard as I could in as many directions as I could for little under a minute. Usually I wouldn?t spin stupidly fast and hard but there were two main advantages of doing it on such an occasion.

Firstly, there are two main types of moves we poi?ers and indeed all jugglers etc do. There are the moves that are easier than they look and the moves that are harder then they look. We learn the first type to impress the general public cause with very little practice we can still impress. The second type we learn to impress other poi?ers/jugglers. These are the moves that are actually more difficult then they look but most people won?t pick up on this fact unless they are involved in the activity themselves. Because all the people I?ve met over here have never seen poi before it was safe to assume that no-one in the audience had seen it before. Therefore we stick with the easy moves which can be done at speed easily. This usually doesn?t look amazingly impressive but, and this is the second advantage, when you?re using glowsticks, the faster the better as one stops seeing the individual glowsticks and simply rings of light.

Anyway, that?s what I did. I went on and spun as hard and as fast as I possibly could. I was using green and blue which look really good together. It seemed like seconds, people were cheering and then suddenly the lights came on, the singing began again and I exited the stage using the quickest route possible. Once down I watched the rest of the set, was approached by a very attractive young girl who asked me the usual questions of what they were, how long had I been doing it, how long have I been in India/Pondicherry etc, lovely girl.

The whole set was fantastic and included the songs ?free your mind,? ?take away,? ?life goes on,? ?save me,? and?feel like a knife,? jaime going ape on the sticks to ?take away,? A jazzy little interlude with a very catchy bass line and Ameeth going mad and doing some pretty good dance moves some of which bordered on break dancing.

When the guys had finally finished everyone legged it back stage to congratulate them on an amazing show because it was pretty damn fine. They packed up there stuff and we headed back out onto the field to watch the rest of the bands, by now it was past 1, there were only a few bands left, none of which I can remember apart from an absolutely sinful cover of ?smells like teen spirit.? I was beginning to wonder why these guys do covers which are so obviously difficult to pull off. Surely it would be better to do a really shite song and make it good or a song not many people will have heard of and will therefore have no expectations on how it should come out. Why choose ?killing in the name? when it?s so difficult to do well, I ain?t heard a decent cover yet. I admire them for trying but they were all a long way short of the mark.

We all sat around near the stage and watched the remaining bands, took a walk to watch the tail end of a volleyball game going on the other side of the college (apparently it?s a sports comp as well) and generally just hung around with people.

When all the bands had played people started dismantling the stage. The judges went away to make their final, very difficult decision and by the time they came back with one it was past 3. The results were fantastic. Nix and the guys had won most of them by the sounds of it, the won:

? Best song
? Best drummer
? Best vocal
? Best lead
? Best rhythm guitar
? Best Bassist
? And Best Band (the big one)

It was great. Everyone was happy, they blatantly deserved it, they were with out a shadow of a doubt the best there.

After the excitement had calmed down people began to disperse. A lot of people were heading of to the beach to watch the sunrise, the guys were heading back to the cottage to party, Di and Bu had decided to get a bus back to Chennai after the competition and the rest of the guys had decided to come back Saturday at some point. I decided to go back with Di and Bu, It would be one last chance, and definitely would be the last, to see Poorni before she left, even though I?d already said goodbye twice, this would be the third.

We all headed back to the van, picked up our stuff, said our farewells and then m, Bu and Di started the walk to the bus depot aiming to get a 04:15 bus back to Chennai. We picked up some friends of theirs and got an auto, found a bus (with available seats, yes) and started the 3 hour journey at about 04:30. We talked, chatted, I kinda watched the sun come up out of a half closed window, the guys fell asleep, I fought it but dropped off at about 06:00 and woke up at about 06:30. We got in to Chennai at about 7 and me and Bu took leave of Di, jumped in an auto and sped off in the direction of one of the several Karpagam avenues in this part of Chennai. The problem being I was meant to be going back to Iggy?s but I couldn?t for the life of me remember where Iggy?s. Having had a very detailed discussion on the bus that I knew it was on a Karpagam avenue, that it was on a road with an ICICI bank building, that it had some very large building and compound opposite it an that it was on the Chennai airport flight pass (cause planes are always flying over the house) we narrowed it down with the help that it was only 15 minutes or so from the girls flat where I had some vague recollection of going over a large bridge. Well I?m sorry, I hadn?t slept fore more than 3 hours since Tuesday night ok, I was knackered, I?m getting old man, my body can?t handle it as it used to in the Drome days. With this very detailed set of directions we figured out that it was near Bu?s and that there couldn?t be that many Karpagam avenues in that vicinity of the city.

Well. There were three and the last one was the correct one. All my info had been totally right, just a little vague. I said good by to Bu and climbed up to Iggy?s flat petrified that I was about to wake them up at 7 :15 on a Saturday morning.

Well the door was opened immediately by someone, I had no idea who. It took a few seconds to work out it was Mulla (ok, I don?t know how to spell it, sorry M), the new child minder. They were all up, at 7, on a Saturday morning. All in good spirits and about to head out to the Chennai air show. I tried to explain my very odd weekend and then the fact that I had had very little sleep, they asked if I wanted to come, I found it difficult getting up the stairs. Anyway, they left for the air show and I collapsed and slept from 8 till 4ish, then got up, showered and spent some time with the guys and galls. Felt seriously bad, body didn?t want to move, Iggy, the legend that he is, came up with a remedy. 2 bottles of ?shock? (energy drink, kinda like red bull) with dinner, that sorted me right out.

In the evening we were talking about Jaime?s lack of film watching since he?s been here. I still ain?t seen the second matrix and a whole list of others I can?t even remember. Iggy suggested that we catch the late showing of Bad Boys ÉÉ. We headed off for the 2200 showing, I jumped out, got tickets while he was parking the car, spent over R.s. 100 (all my phone credit) on a bloody 30 second phone call to his mobile to find out where he was when he turned up be sitting in the car right next to where I was standing. Bloody roaming phone charges.

The film was great, full of action, comedy, some very very funny bits, all in all a very good movie, would recommend it but you guys have probably all ready see it cause it must have been out there a while. The only thing was I got the feeling half the time most of the audience didn?t get what was going on with things like the drug bits and the KKK bits.

After that it was back home and then back to bed for yet more sleep, bliss.

Sunday got up to find the guys out to church. Just hang around and chill out. Am meant to be meeting up with Nix and Co but my phone call to Iggy the previous night has wiped all my credit meaning I can?t even receive calls. Poorni is due over at around 2ish. Her course starts on Monday and she still hasn?t got a visa, looks likes she?s going to be late. After having lunch, Biryani kindly donated by Iggy?s church (do ask cause I have no idea) we all sit down to watch ?Muppets From Space? which is good and funny but nothing on the ?Muppets Christmas Carol? and ?Muppets Treasure Island? both of which I saw with a good friend Mr Davydaitis, in the cinema in Norwich which, on both occasions, was chocked full of 5 year old kids. Apart from a few parents we were the only ones over 10 there and we were pissing ourselves with laughter throughout both movies. This one wasn?t as good although the sheer randomness of being the only two adults actually watching the film and being the most immature in a crowd of playgroup kids may have had something to do with it.

Miss Poornima showed up at 2 and watched the movie, then took leave at 4 cause she had to go and meet Christi. Yet another goodbye, this one was the last.

I chilled out in the house, played the keyboard and surfed the net until it was time to go. Iggy headed of at 5 to his usual Sunday basketball game and at about 18:45 I decided it was probably a good time to pack and make arrangements for getting to the train station as the train left at 19:45. As usual the normal madness followed, running around trying to find everything. Chintu arrived back from a walk with the kids at 7 and had me in an auto by 19:15 and on my way to the station with a brief halt at a shop to buy some water.

I arrived at the station and took advantage of having 15 minutes before the train left by having a walk through the main station to look out for call taxi booths that I could use next time I was here. Found the train jumped on and was joined by Christi at 19:45 as the train was pulling out.

Slightly more social journey than usual, chatted, had dinner went to bed and actually slept a bit. Up at four to be told we were running an hour late, back to sleep and then up again at 04:30 and off at 04:45 where we were picked up and driven home and I went straight to bed.

This week has been about working. The site is forever reaching new levels of ?nearly finished.? The pool has been totally finished, so has the hall and the dorms. The new kitchen has now got walls, windows and a floor and will be finished soon. The covered dining area was finally erected, and has had a wall built round the sand floor. Once the wire mesh has been put up and the creepers planted at the base off all the legs then it will also be complete.

The path has been laid and new paths dug from the main path to the toilets and showers and the dining areas. A large section between the pool and the outer wall has been walled in and will be concreted over to be used as outdoor pool showers. The gate has been put up and the perimeter wall finished apart from a hole at the end of the road which is being used to cart thing in and out of the compound. Large truck loads of mud from the hole dug for the pool have been dumped and spread over the whole site so planting can begin. That?s about it. I have been up to the site a few times in the evening to do some extra work which is of vital importance. As you all know product testing is a necessity when it comes to offering such facilities. I must admit to be very pleased with the standard of the swimming that can be done in the pool, damn man, its even deep enough to dive in, although I think it may take several more sessions until I deem it safe for civilian use. The thing that makes the experience all the better is knowing that you actually dug the hole, built the walls and basically made the thing. Unfortunately the pool did develop a leak, damn vegetables, but it was fixed and is now fine.
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Death come a ?knockin

Some of you will remember one of Dom Jolly?s stunts from Trigger Happy TV when he takes a picture of a posing tourist in London on a Polaroid camera. Just as he is about to take it a dude dressed up as the grim reaper sneaks up behind, stands there with his scythe and the runs off when the photo has been taken leaving the tourists slightly scared at the concept that they are being followed by death.

This morning there was an article in a Tamil Nadu newspaper that?s kinda freaky. Two students went on a trip to a popular park type place that has waterfalls, woods, picnic area etc. One of the students asked the other to take a photo of him. The camera went off and the guy, having his photo taken, dropped dead. There is no question as to whether this guy actually died; everyone is in agreement that he did. The film got taken to be developed. Everyone was kinda in shock what with the fact that the guy was in good health, young etc. When the film got developed the photo showed the boy standing there with an apparition, a female devil type figure hovering next to him. Have just seen the photo in the paper and good lord almightily it looks freaky as hell. But the story doesn?t top there. On seeing the photo, the dude who took it fainted and went into a coma, no shit. Obviously the photo is being examined by experts to see whether this image has been superimposed. It does bring up an interesting question though. Do you just die or does death come and get you, or was it just a passing spirit who fancied getting involved in this Kodak moment. It may sound totally preposterous but if you think about it it?s no more unlikely to happen then say people seeing images of the Virgin Marry or statues of the crucifixion bleeding etc. You may not believe these stories either but if you are unsure then consider this. If you believe in ?something else,? a god, a greater force (lets take Christianity as an example here) then surely there is just as much chance of the good guys showing up once in a while then the bad.

The police are saying that it may have been done to cover up a murder or to keep people away from the spot as it is a place where precious stones and minerals are being stolen from but no matter what you think, this photo is damn freaky. Will try and post a link if I can find one.

UPDATE: - OK it seems to have been a hoax; the picture was taken some time ago in Malaysia and edited by a computer. Apparently the police are having difficulty tracking down anyone who is dead or in a coma as they initially stated. Me, I think its just one big cover up.

Catch of the day
While we?re on the subject of death and stuff I thought I should tell you about a rather odd experience I had a few days ago. Now, as you people who read this regularly will know I have had run-ins quite a few bugs and creepy crawlies (if people still call them that) whilst I have been here. But this one was quite cool.

The other morning (I think it was Wednesday but don?t hold me to it, yeah like that?s important) I had just got up and was going about the usual ?just getting up: things one does, shouting at the dogs to shut up, brushing my teeth, checking to see if there is anyone in the conference room which my bathroom is attached to (which there was which meant I had to go down through the office to get to an available shower), getting dressed, trying not to step on the scorpion. Yup, you heard me right. At some point a scorpion had decided to take up lodgings under my bed (apparently they get attracted to dust which makes this scenario more understandable cause the cavity under my bed is pretty damn dusty due to lack of sweeping on my part) and, at some point on Wednesday morning realised that it maybe wasn?t such a good idea and decided to make a run for the door.
Now do not be alarmed, it was not a big scorpion, a baby you might say, about the length of your little finger but still mature enough, I am told, to give you a sting that will be bloody painful for quite some time.

Anyway, I managed, after spending half an hour running round my room, half naked, jumping up on the bed trying to avoid attacks from those massive pincers, to trap it under the lid of a Gillette shaving foam can (?Gillette, the best a man can get, great for shaving even better for trapping scorpions?) and then headed down to breakfast to seek advise on what to do.

Having spent 10 minutes playing charades with Ambiga (?1 word, animal, pincers, tail?) I drew a very passable drawing and then realised the key to explaining this had already been discussed, Tamil for Scorpion is ?Tail.? She looked slightly worried, asked me if it had got me and then gave me a pot of curd, 2 dosa and a cup of coffee.

Back up in my room I spend another half an hour trying to get the damnable thing into severed coke bottle (they are surprisingly slippery little buggers) and then carry it downstairs to a very relieved and slightly hysterical Ambiga who felt it necessary to parade around the library with my catch of the day and then pass it over to Godwin who either let it go or destroyed it. True story. Nobody seemed very concerned at my near death experience at the hands of a baby scorpion, oh well; just have to find a bigger one next time.
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Apart from all this there ain?t much going on. Have pretty much just been hanging out in the house, reading a shit load (have just finished Bill Bryson?s ?Notes from a big country? which I thoroughly enjoyed and occasionally venturing out. The other day I went out in the evening with Raja to the training centre to fill up on drinking water which is a very boring story apart from the fact that the sunset looked like someone had put the sun and a very large bottle of red wine into a liquidizer and turned it on without replacing the lid. The effect being that every cloud (and there quite a few) within a 180° radius was splattered with the most incredible array of colours ranging from blood red, through orange to deep purple. It was pretty bloody impressive.

In other news I have just faxed my tickets and details to a travel agent in Chennai to look into the possibility on extending my ticket for another year if an open return can?t be sorted. If it all works out fine then I shall definitely be staying on, I know a lot of people have been mailing and texting me about my intentions, so there they are.

I will also be making another trip out of the country in November. It?s probably going to be Sri Lanka again cause its close and cheap although I have asked the travel agent to drag every possibility up as I have heard that its also very very cheap to fly to Bangladesh, the Maldives etc. Basically, due to money, the trip is going to be as short as possible, in and out again ASAP with a visa rather than hanging around and spending more money.

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Crisis
A few months ago I was chilling out in the office when I had a mini crisis about this whole trip and my return to the UK, whenever that may be.

Here?s what happened.

Recently I have been receiving a lot of emails from friends asking me how I am etc and when I am coming back. I received one from a very very dear friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, that started me thinking, always a dangerous thing.

Everyone in England, all my friends in particular, most of whom are in that stage where things are changing, are all moving on a doing new things. Quite a few have just graduated or are in their final years of university. They will then go on to get jobs, they may relocate again and will slowly begin the rest of their lives in the adult world so to speak.

When someone moves or relocates they are obviously faced with a whole new set of circumstances, new people, new job or college etc. They are beginning another life. This has been apparent to me over the last few years. I have lived in three different cities in the last three years and when I moved I began another life somewhere else. I remember thinking on all occasions that I was reluctant to leave the old life behind as most people are in such circumstances but that all changes once one gets settled, meets new people and generally adapts. The best example of this is University. When everyone in Norwich went off to uni we viewed it as a change. When we returned for holidays everyone I saw said how nice it was to be back but they couldn?t wait to get back cause they have in a word, moved on. I was the same. When I went to Bristol the only place I wanted to be was London. That changed as Bristol took hold. When I went to Uni in London all I wanted to do was return to London.

Here?s my point. When I return to England everything will have changed. All my friends will not be where they were. 90% (apart from those who are older and generally don?t move and change as much) will have moved on yet again. Most Bristol people will be at uni. Most Norwich people will have finished uni and will be in jobs. People will have relocated, made new friends and will generally have created a new life.

This is fine, it?s great, as much as one sometimes wishes things would go back to the way they are this is how the world works, I am not disputing this. I will have been away for what is looking more and more likely near 2 years. I will have created a new life for myself, I have, will have made new friends and adapted to my circumstances. When I return it will be a different story. The great thing about my life over the last three years is that I always have had, and have always used the fact that I can return to a certain place whenever I want. If I was missing my Norwich life I could go back for a while, if I wanted a night out with London people or Bristol people I could, I could meet up with people, visit and generally return, albeit for a brief period, to my old lives. You can probably see where this mass of words (for which I apologise, is going. Apon returning to the UK everything will be different and everyone will be living the new lives they have created for themselves. I will not, I will not be able to just slip in where I left off cause where I left off won?t be there, I won?t be able to dip back into my old routines because they will be over 7000 miles away. I will obviously still visit friends and get together with people but there will not be a situation, a circumstance, a life in England that will be mine because they will have all dispersed.

I will have to start from scratch in a way, this doesn?t bother me a huge amount cause I?ve done it, to a point, many many times before. What does bother me is that everything I left will not be their when I return, it won?t be the same as when I got on a plane on January 19th 2003, I think this is only really beginning to hit me now, stupid I know but to be honest I just assumed that when I returned from this everything would be how it was. Here?s my question. Is this the price that one has to pay in order to have such an experience as I am having, that I will no longer be such a big part in the lives of people I used to be? Is it worth it? As I?ve said 90% of my friends and me are/were at a point when things change and move very fast what with uni and jobs etc, was it a really stupid idea just to run out on this and miss the last days of groups of people that have been together so long?
The answer, I have no idea, but shit, it?s a scary thought; I think this lack of communication and socializing is beginning to go to my head.?

I know all this shit sounds crazy to you guys but believe me, when your in this kind of situation, this far away from anything you really know, in the middle of an Indian village with no-one that speaks English and your social life has gone from going out every single night for years, having a multitude of friends in many different places, even working in social places, and never ever ever being on your own, to being on your own for the best part of the day, going to bed at 10 and being surrounded by this kind of cultural experience it all gets a bit overwhelming.

That?s basically what happened and good lord it was odd. As usual with these things Miss Poornima was there to drag me back to reality as I kinda freaked out and went into panic attack mode like I used to get but still, it?s worth thinking about.

Last few days ain?t been very exciting. Been working, just bits and pieces like more paths laying etc.

I have been invited up to Chennai for the weekend for two events. The first being the surprise birthday party for Nix happening on the Saturday night, at Di?s, which should be good, all the guys from Pondi are gonna be there, and the other is the surprise birthday party for Boopie and Ashwini on the Sunday which will no doubt be fun. Have decided to take the train cheap option i.e. non-ac. Its like 300 bucks for a return where as the AC is 1000 for a return, cheaper obviously, I shall let you know what its like, apparently you don?t have to sleep in the same compartment as goats and chickens like you see on the TV, apparently there ain?t much difference, we shall wait and see.

So, on Friday night I headed out again to Karur station having been in during the day to do some shopping and to put my phone in again for repair cause its slowly beginning to die. I read somewhere that Nokia?s have an inbuilt something or other that mean they gradually begin to go funny after a certain amount of time meaning that eventually have to get a new one. Not to sure if this is the case but the phone certainly seems to be dieing. Usually my phones just break cause I?m not very good at keeping them alive but this one is definitely dieing cause they said it was a software problem and not the usual fault due to my dropping it.

I got a lift to Karur on bike (which was kinda amusing cause I had a load of luggage) and went to pick up my phone from the shop which I had been assured would close at 21:300. We got there at 21:15 and it was closed, apparently had been since 8ish, Jaime was not very happy. We then headed off to the couriers to drop off some stuff which wouldn?t take it cause it contained pills and they needed the receipt enclosed so that customs would know what they were. The only thing that could go wrong now was that the train would be late and what do you know, when we got o the station we were informed that it was running an hour late.

We hung around at the station and when the train turned up Mr Godwin put me on (was a little apprehensive about traveling for the first time in a non ac coach) and departed. So how was it I hear you ask, well, let?s put it this way, I am never traveling by AC again. It?s funny to think that such a small thing as the change between ac and non ac would have such an effect but it did. Unlike ac the carriage was not flooded with nasty, tube core bright lights. In actual fact there were very few physical differences but the effect was totally different. It felt so much cozier, nicer and all together Indian. I think that half the point in the ac is to create a rather commercialized, western, corporate feeling. Most of the people in ac have got money (as its rather more expensive), its very bright, they give you bed cloths, pillows, sheets and blankets and everything feels rather non travel like. Non ac is totally the opposite. It actually feels more like your actually traveling. They don?t give you stuff for your bed which to be honest was a great relief simply because I never want to use the stuff but you feel some what obliged to faf around trying to make a bed seeing as they have provided you with the tools. It was such a relief not to have to attempt to make a bed given the headroom space. Also on the top bunk, where I positioned myself, there is a lot more head room, I imagine due to the fact that they don?t have to fill up the top of the carriage with air conditioning units. There are several fans per compartment (where as there is only one in ac) which mean that the overall effect is that it?s actually comfortable rather than being to cold. The windows can be opened, unlike ac, ad I spent a few hours just sitting by them, staring out, with zero 7 on my walkman totally content. This is how I pictured traveling in India, people just board the train and lit down on a bare bed, non faffing, no nonsense, simply yet effective way to travel. AC only occupied one carriage per train so its usually always full but non ac takes up the rest of the room meaning that its a lot quieter. The whole experience was infinitely more enjoyable. The only slight problem being that the fans and the open windows do tend to make thing a little noisier, which ain?t really a problem, next time I?ll just take ear plugs.

Anyway, I arrived in Chennai Egmore at about 7ish and jumped off the train. I had ordered a cab the night before. Christi, obviously determined to make me a little more independent, had made me order it myself. I have tried on occasion but always end up hanging up cause they usually can?t understand what I?m saying even if they do speak English. Apparently my accent is quite strong and I talk way to fast. I had informed the driver what train I would be on, when it arrived and that I was the tall, white bald dude that you could spot a mile away, at which point Christi creased up in hysterics.

The driver wasn?t there. We had arrived on a different platform than usual so I spent the first half an hour wandering round trying to find him. Having failed miserably to locate the guy I decided, in the heat of the moment to get to Iggy?s myself and prove to people, and myself, that I was a mature, responsible, able, independent person, yeah right. I walked out the station, picked a guy and asked him to take me to Karpagam Avenue. I explained, when he didn?t know where it was, that you had to head along the sea front in the direction of the Adyar bridge and hopefully, by the time we reached that point, I could give him directions. He said he had a cab which miraculously turned into an auto when we headed of into the car park.

He drove out the station and set off in the wrong direction. I decided I was too tired to worry about this minor set back and would just sit back and let him do his stuff. After 15 minutes or so I realised that I hadn?t the faintest idea where we were and had not recognized anything on the entire journey. He was driving through slum, shanty town type area?s and I must admit to thinking that I was somehow going to end up being taken back to a house, robbed, chopped up into little pieces and dissolved in a barrel of acid. Eventually I came to the realization that I knew where we were. We had taken the back route and were coming up to Iggy?s from the other end of Karpagam Avenue, the end which I was less familiar with. We arrived, I was I admit, slight relived to get out and head up the stairs to the flat. However, I must also admit to feeling very pleased with myself for having got there on my own accord. It was a step in the direction towards total independence in this crazy city.

When I got in the guys were asleep so I busied myself with the computer etc. Spent the day at their flat. Chintu had to go to work so me and Iggy merely chilled. IN the afternoon, seeing as it was Ashwini?s, Boopie?s and Nix birthday we all went shopping to Spencer?s plaza to pick up the necessary presents. First stop, Landmark the book and music shop which also sell toys, furniture you know, the kinda stuff book shops always sell. It was PACKED. Some band was playing and the place was mobbed. There were camera crews and press and a hell of a lot of people. We spent well over an hour searching for stuff. I managed to pick up a wicked birthday card that said ?Grey hairs are not at all bad? on the outside and then when you opened it up it said ?just ask any bald man, quite appropriate I thought. We wondered round, Iggy got stuck into the comic book stand and me and Chintu searched for stuff. I couldn?t find anything and eventually settled on chocolate for Boopie (well, can?t go wrong really can you) and home made poi for Ashwini, fingers crossed she doesn?t get to good. We met Maggie and tibs in the shop and then headed out back to the car. On the way back I managed to pick up a slinky (cause everyone loves a slinky) and a little metal sticker for my phone which apparently enhances the signal in rural area?s. It does work, kinda.

We headed off back to the car and then back to the flat stopping of briefly at the video shop cause for some reason the cable company in chennai are starting to make everyone buy a set top box to view all the channels and know one seems to be buying them ha ha.

When we got back Maggie and Tibs were at the flat. I legged it in to get changed as it was now 8ish and I was meant to be at Nix?s birthday party in half an hour. I got ready whilst listening to Iggy?s new purchase of ?The Score? by the beautifull Lauren Hill and the Fugees, what an album. Having managed to get the address of Di?s place the guys somehow managed to get the auto driver who usually takes me to the train station and at about 9ish we sped off through chennai to the party.

I arrived to find Di, her boyfriend, Bu, Tripty (who I hadn?t seen in ages who wasn?t in Pondi due to her being landed in hospital with a broken leg) and a few other guys. After a while more people started turning up including Raoull, Chikcu and Johns. At about 10:30 Nix and Minoti finally showed up. He had no idea what had been planned and when he opened the door to a cake and a load of people screaming ?SURPRISE? he merely sat there and scratching his head. The cake ceremony over, the hellos said and we all sat down to enjoy the food, drink (I wasn?t drinking), good company and excellent tunes that good parties are made of. After a while more and more people turned up including a lad no one actually new, well it has to be expected really hasn?t it. Ameeth showed up, was great to see him, still as loud as ever. Prathiba showed up, I hadn?t seen her in a while.

The party was all in all great. People gathered und the piano to sing songs, Di?s parents showed up and went to bed whilst the revelry continued. I managed to have several fantastic conversations with Di?s bloke and Ameeth?s new lady friend about many issues ranging from Bristol (she used to live in Clifton, good god isn?t it a small world), Drum and Bass (finally someone in India who actually knows what Drum and Bass actual is and who appreciates it as much as me), Body piercing etc. I had several conversations with people who wanted info on colleges and living in the UK and spent pretty much the whole night in constant contact with Nix, Bu and Di just like at Poorni?s party months back.

The party continued. We watched the video of the guys Pondi show with me spinning which looked odd as it was filmed with a slight delay between frames.

At about 03:30 I decided that, seeing as I had to up first thing the next morning to go to yet another party I would call it a night. Everyone had begun to chill out and I decided to get a cab home and sleep seeing a I hadn?t really slept the night before. We called a cab and me and Tripty spent all of 15 minutes trying to explain to this slightly bewildered driver where I was actually going. Having established that he generally new which direction to head and gotten to the point where any further explanation was met with a slightly fed up look and comment from him, I headed off home and once I reached a place I recognized, started giving directions to the best of my ability which was obviously not as bad as I thought cause 5 minutes later we arrived. I crept into the house, devoured a packet of Scottish chocolate shortbread cookies (which had been bought as a birthday present but I was seriously hungry) and went to bed at about 5ish.

Woke up at about 11 as Iggy, Chintu and the kids came back from church and told me I had to get ready now as we were leaving soon. Having speedily got ready we bundled into the car and headed off in the direction of Mamallapuram. The place was about an hour from the city and was a beach house that john had got for the day to host Boopie?s and Ashwini?s surprise birthday party, only, it wasn?t a surprise cause they both new about it. We arrived and had a wander around. The place was really nice, with a central courtyard containing a pool and a garden that surrounded the whole thing which had a kick ass tree house which contained chairs and tables. When we arrived there were a few people around. The kids and Iggy went swimming.

More and more people started to turn up and eventually john, Boopie and Ashwini arrived with Mia, Prathiba and some other people in tow. Everyone just hung around, listened to music and chilled. Me, Iggy, Chintu ate out under the tree house. Mr Lang showed up and graced us all with his presence. After a while Iggy and Chintu decided to head off, this being about 3ish, and I decided that I may as well head back. The party was going on till late but there weren?t enough people I knew to keep myself occupied, I was tired and didn?t feel like hanging on till 10, help pack up and then heading back with John and co. The guys from last night party (Nix, Bu, Di etc) were supposed to be coming up to this one. Had they decided to I would have definitely stayed cause I know all these guys really ell and get along with them brilliantly but as the crowd stood I realised I knew very few of these guys mates. As we headed out the door amidst much protest from john and Boopie a few other guys turned up including 3 women, 1 American and 2 Europeans. This gave the guys extra ammo against me in the fight on whether I should stay but having made up my mind I stuck to it and jumped into the car before I could get talked round.

We sped out the drive and headed off back in the direction of the city. We were going to briefly stop off at one of Chintu?s uncle?s places and turned off half way between the party and home.

After coffee, a quick chat, biscuits and the usual stuff one does at family gatherings we headed off back home where I settled myself down infront of Harry Potter and the sorcerers stone armed with my mobile to see what the others were up to, Chintu went to bed and Iggy headed off to play basket ball.

Up bright and early on Monday morning having arranged to meet up with Nix for the day. After several seriously complicated phone calls trying to work out where I was, where he was, and where the two places were in relation to each other I headed off in an auto to meet them at a place known as Pizza Corner which is different from most restaurants as it has a plane going through one of the outside walls into the restaurant as if it had crashed. Not a popular place to eat after September 11th me thinks. I met Nix and Raoull and we headed across the road to eat in an American style, KFC rip off place. The food was actually really good, a lot better than KFC. We talked for over an hour on many subjects including pasts, music etc and then headed out into a waiting auto and sped off back to nix?s apartment.

Nix place is really nice. We settled down in his room which was plastered with Nirvana, Metallica and other such band posters and listened to his very extensive metal, hardcore and rock collection which contained many of the things in my own collection including tool, Poison the well, Smashing pumpkins and CKY. After a quick conversation on the greatness of South Park especially the character Timmy, we watched a few episodes on his comp after which (after another conversation which seems to continue whenever we meet up) decided to watch CKY2K.

It was odd, very odd. I haven?t watched that video in years and it got me thinking. It?s odd to have met a load of people some of whom are into exactly what I am. I first started watching the CKY moved in Norwich when I was about 13. I also started listening to rock, metal, punk, hardcore etc in Norwich. When I moved to Bristol I got in with a group who watched CKY and listened to the same stuff. And here I am, 7000 miles away from home watching and listening to the same stuff I have done for years, it?s great. I should point out that Nix has lived in both Switzerland (I think it was there) and the US and this is probably these likings come from cause they sure as hell didn?t come from India.

Having spent a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon with Nix and Raoull I suddenly realised that I had to catch a train in an hour and a half so we egged it downstairs and they got me an auto. Back at Iggy?s I did the usual, ran around like a mad man trying to pack, call AREDS to make sure I had a driver at the station and try to get a lift to Chennai Egmore. We managed to get the same auto driver, Chintu made me some grub and I jumped into the auto and sped off in the direction of Egmore to catch the train.

The train journey and journey back to AREDS was uneventful enough.

This week has been devoted yet again to working and the site does seem to have come on a bit. We have had a load of soil dumped in the site. The soil up there is very very clay like and the soil we have taken delivery of is a lot more sandy (It just looks like dark sand) so hopefully this should make the soil quality superior to what it was for growing purposes. A lot of the work that has been going on is redistributing soil from place to place to make the whole site level. The gate has finally gone up and can now be opened and the finishing touches have been made in cement to the gateposts to make them look like they are carved out of stone. Foundations have been laid round the dining area on which a small wall will be built leaving a boarder for planting etc. The paths from the main path to the toilets have been bordered with concrete blocks but we are still waiting for more flagstones to put down. The kitchen has obtained some walls and is still waiting for a roof and a floor.

The pool as I have mentioned is totally finished. I?ve been swimming several times this week and we spent over 2 hours on Sunday up there basking in the sun and swimming with the guys.

Life at the site is generally good. I?m getting on with everyone really really well. Have been doing a lot of work with the girls (as they do a lot of the carrying work). There are two of them. One is the farmer?s daughter and the other lives close by, and is about my age. In fact, she?s one the only people I?ve met down here in Karur who is my age. We get along really well, so well infact that several of the guys have asked me whether I?m going to marry her. They all seem to be obsessed about me and marriage. They are constantly asking when I?m getting married, to whom ?Tamil or English Lady.? I just say that I?m not getting married and they all find this a little hard to grasp.

Few days back I got a call from John the dance teacher who wanted to know if I wanted to do 5 days of performing up in Chennai. He was putting in a proposal to an amusement park which is about to open. They had asked him to manage to first 5 days entertainment. I was going to say no, I have been in Chennai a lot recently and thought I should probably stick to work commitments especially seeing as it would mean missing work during the week, weekends fine but the week, should work. This is until he mentioned how much money his proposal would say I would cost for 1 fire and 1 glow performance per night for 5 nights. Well let?s just say I changed my mind rather quickly.

A few days later the guys still hadn?t confirmed and are talking about possibly postponing it till December. They are not committing to anything so both me and john thought it a good idea to get my ass up to Chennai anyway just in case they decided to hold it at the appointed time, better than getting a last minute call and trying to get up to Chennai in time to perform on the Wednesday night.

Its Thursday 9th and I just got back from chennai and will write about it soon. Thought I should post this cause it?s getting a bit long. Hope everyone?s ok.

jaime

::: posted by j(e t')aime at 5:39 AM