Auroville, Chennai Redux

Last weekend- Oct 24-26 we went back to Auroville and Chennai on the east coast to take care of three things plus to see a few thing we missed last time.
We left Bangalore a little past 7:30AM- a challenge for Janet(!)- we drove for about an hour and stopped at a coffee place along the highway. We then drove on toward Pondicherry from Krishnagiri and stopped for a short while at Gingee Fort- where we had stopped the last time too. The temperature was much better this time, but it was still hot. We took a few more pictures and observed a small army of laborers working on restoring some of the old fort walls. There was no one there the last time- a month ago. A couple of the pictures show sights seen along the road. It is not at all unusual to see people hanging from the side of a bus here- at least on smaller road, but some we saw were on major roads. We were also amused by a herd or goats being brought across a road just as we and many other people were riding along. This is life in the smaller towns, but we see similar things sometimes in Bangalore.
We had to move on to Auroville though.
When we went to Auroville in Sept. Jim bought a sort of xylophone and the day after we returned this was dropped on the floor and parts were damaged. We were able to contact the makers by email and they said they could supply new parts for a reasonable price, but they recommended we not ship them, so we arranged to pick them up. We went there straight from Bangalore (well, we did get a little lost!) and they were at their shop and they did fix us up! They had a number of interesting other musical instruments so it was a good visit!
Our next stop was at the hotel at which we stayed our previous visit to return the mobile phone charger that we had accidentally taken with us. They too were cooperative and gave us our money back fairly quickly! We then went to our hotel for the night. The temperatures were much better this visit compared to the last, but it was still hot.
The next day we went back to Mahabillipuram. Jim regreted that we did not stop at a site just north of the Tiger Cave last time. A site which was partly uncovered in the tsunami of 2004 has been excavated further and we stopped to look. It was not as interesting as the stone carvings elsewhere, but still interesting to see a site that has been uncovered. There was a sign in Tamil which we assumed said to keep out because there were ropes all around the place, but some people went in anyway until a laborer told them to get out. We were tempted to give him some for chasing the people out- thinking this might encourage him to chase others out, but he then asked for money from us (the foreigners) before we could give him any, so we decided not to give it since he would probably figure we gave it because he asked, rather than for doing a task he was probably supposed to be doing anyway. We could not figure what the site was - other than it was probably a temple, but part was built around a big granite boulder. Unlike other areas, the boulder seemed to have no carvings so we wondered what the story is that goes with it. Janet walked on the beach some too.
We went into the town which is not very pretty and it is full of shops and stone cutters. We visited a couple shops to look at sculptures before having lunch and then visited more sculptors. We bought some small scupltures in marble, sandstone and granite that are of very good quality. We went back to the hotel and planned to leave early Monday morning to go into Chennai to accomplish our third goal.
The Indian government, in its lust for paperwork has taken up more than 5 full pages of our passports over the past year. This combined with another couple pages or so that we used in our trip the Tanzania, has left us with few blank pages left in our passports. So, we got some forms off the internet and filled them out and Jim was dropped off at the US consulate in Chennai to have blank pages added to our passports. The actual work was relatively painless, and took about 30 min., but the security is fairly tight an annoying. However, that goal was accomplished!
In retrospect, it is probably unusual that we planned to do these 3 things and all 3 went smoothly. In general, here, it seems likely that one or two of the three would have given problems and we would have had to do it all over again! For example, we just received our passports back from the Indian government on Friday before we left (our visas are renewed until end of next Sept.), but they could very well have delayed the return for some reason, but we got them and it went fine.
While Jim was at the consulate, Janet was driven by Joseph to a shop that was nearby. The shop was quite nice, but did not actually open until after Jim walked there from the consulate. We then visited some other craft shops in Chennai which were quite nice.
We got on the road to home and arrived about 9PM. The Highway connecting Chennai and Bangalore is actually pretty good most of the way. There are parts still under construction and one part that seems to be a giant bus stop on both side of the divided highway where the traffic comes to a crawl, but otherwise its a fairly smooth trip.
We enjoyed this short trip, however Jim came down with a cold or something (which is still lingering) and was somewhat sick on Monday, but quite sick on Tuesday and Wed. so he stayed home from the office. About 1/3 of the department was sick just before we left and over the weekend and when we returned so he may have gotten the illness at work the previous Thursday.

Recycling

"Brawags!" At least, that is what it sounds like the guy is saying. Almost every morning Jim hears this odd chant from out on the street- a very odd and piercing sort of voice- very distinct from normal sounds. We did not know what it was until one Sunday a couple weeks back when we were sitting at a cafe and a guy road by on his bicycle saying "Brawags!" every now and then. He was followed by a younger kid on a bicycle who had a large bag with some rags in it. It was then clear that the guy was asking people to bring out their rags and he would take them away to earn a little (very little) money! This is one example of recycling as practiced here. We have also seen many people picking through trash to get the metal cans and plastic and glass bottle for recycling too. We also see people carrying scrap wood and metal. So there is a fairly active recycling effort and the poorest people seem to do it to earn some money for themselves and their families.
This is not so different from the US 60 years or so ago. There were people who would come around and pick up newspapers and rags, bottles, etc. to earn a little money. There are still people who do this, but not as many who do it as systematicly as in the past- covering whole neighborhoods on a regular basis.

Diwali

Also spelled Deepawali and maybe some variations. We just finished this holiday weekend. We had not realized it was quite as big as it turned out to be. While Jim did not have any days as holidays, most companies did and many people took days off from work- mostly Friday or Monday.
The celebrations started last Thursday the 15th with a few firecrackers or "crackers" exploding now and then. On Friday night a lot more were set off. On Saturday many more and Sunday a similar number. Monday night seemed to be the "finale" with many explosions, but with many more fireworks visible on the skyline. So, 3 pretty full days of fireworks and celebrations with some more before and after!
We learned that it is often called "The Festival of Lights" after a story from the Ramayana in which Rama (one incarnation of Vishnu) wanted to have lights after his victory over a demon who had kidnapped his wife. (So we were told.) Lots of lights and fireworks anyway. It is also a time for gifts to the apartment staff and employees and friends- a little like Christmas in the US.
Our Driver, Joseph, bought a small number of fireworks to set off- we made it clear we didn't want any really loud explosions, so he got some more tame things like sparklers and flower pots- all of which seem to be legal (67 people reported serious eye injuries so far- out of very roughly 7 million people in Bangalore). He also got 2 rockets, which did not get off the ground.
We set these off on Saturday evening.
Overall it was a fairly relaxing weekend for us, but Ziggy and Zoe REALLY did not care for it. The loud noises made them very nervous, so we tried to close windows and doors to reduce the noise. It was not so bad where we live, but they hid for a few hours each night.
On Saturday we had a leisurely time by having lunch at a French style cafe in a Hotel which was showing photos of Paris. After lunch we went to the Leela Palace- a huge and very nice and expensive hotel. Janet swam in their pool while Jim browsed the book shop. In the atrium of the adjoining shopping area they had placed a very pretty sort of "Rangoli"- which is a decoration on the floor- often made with different colors of sand. the one at the hotel was made of flowers and you can see a pianist playing nearby.

THE WALL Redux and The Cat Food

A couple posts back Jim described his surprise to find a new wall blocking the entry gate to the area around the office building at work. This wall meant that people had to walk quite a bit further from the opposite side of the site. This is fine when weather is good, but in the rain it is a bit annoying. We thought the walls might have been added for security reasons, but then later were told that last year the area flooded in a heavy rain and some thought the wall was added to hold back the water if it floods again (though most of rainy season is over). In any case, to Jim's surprise, when he came out of the office Thursday evening, THE WALL was gone and the gate was open and manned just as it had been 10 days earlier! So, it was there for about 10 days. It may have been decided to be too much inconvenience, but no one seems to know.
We also have a long story, which is still baking, about a cat food shipment. Because we have not actually received the food yet, more will come. A friend shipped a bunch of small cans of cat food. She correctly wrote that there were 48 cans in the shipment but the value of each was listed as $100 instead of $1.00, but she did not see that UPS then multiplied those two numbers to get a declared value of $4800! We don't know where the typo occured, but we do not understand how UPS could have shipped this without proper insurance, but they did. It arrived in Bangalore about 10 days later and we were notified by UPS that there is a problem. Because of the high value of the shipment we were told that we have to obtain a special importer's license. We explained that this must be a simple error in the paperwork and they said that this could not be true because the shipper had stated the value to be what the paperwork said. After some discussion they finally said that we had to have our friend re-submit papers in the US with the correct values and this should come through UPS with some sort of invoice number. After a few weeks we finally received papers from our friend (in another UPS envelope) saying that she tried to do what we asked but the US people said that the value had to be corrected here in India! We went back to UPS and explained this and they said they would look into it. After 3 days they said this valuation was taken care of! However, there is another problem. The food was shipped by UPS to Bangalore, but Bangalore Customs is not allowed to clear food items- it should have gone to Chennai! The UPS guy said that the best they could propose was for Jim to write a letter to the Assistant Commissioner of Customs stating that the cat food is for personal us and ask that it be cleared. Jim wrote such a short letter. Then, we were told that we had to take this to the Bangalore Airport Customs office and explain it to the Assistant Customs Director. So, we spent a few hours doing that. It was clear that the UPS people had done little to make the situation clear so, Jim explained as best he could. Finally, the assistant commissioner and one of his aids figured that it was probably OK to approve the clearance since it was for personal use, but Jim had to promise he would not ship food through Bangalore anymore. They did not seem to understand that UPS shipped it to Bangalore and not us. However, they felt that the Commissioner of Customs also needs to approve, which would require a few more days and a complete set of paperwork from UPS. We had to go back to UPS 3 times to speak directly with the guy who seemed to be in charge to get them to get the paperwork to their agent at the airport. This seems to have been done, but it is now a holiday weekend, so we do not know when we will see the cat food. We may have to pay more visits to people and probably pay duty on the food. We shall keep everyone posted!

Shiarapatna and Pujas

We had heard that there was a town near Bangalore where stone sculpting is still a very active profession. We asked people about it and some one knew of the place but could not remember where it is. We asked more people and finally found mention of it on the web. "Shiarapatna". It does not appear on our maps, but this is not unusual- the maps that exist generally show only larger towns and cities. On Saturday we road off to see if we could find the place. Our friend Anita, who has lived here in Bangalore for a long time did not know about the town either, so she wanted to come along. It took us close to 2 hours to find it, but we did find the village. We stopped and looked at the pieces being carved out of granite. The first place we stopped they told us- mostly in Kannada- the local language- through Josef about the two kinds of granite they carve. One is light gray and considered lower quality while the other is dark gray and considered higher quality. We found these a bit dull, but the sculptures were interesting to see. Nearly all are religious figures for Hindus. We also saw some columns being carved. The quality was good, but we found there were not a lot of details in the carvings that make you say "wow!" This and the gray colors seemed dull, though they showed us pictures of some that had been painted in glorious bright colors. We walked a little through the village and people were outside their houses carving stones all over the place. They seemed curious about us too. The kids liked to come close a look. It seemed clear that few foreigners come out to this place.
We enjoyed seeing a whole village who's livelihood centers around granite carving and were a little sorry that we didn't see anything we could buy that would support their work.
On the drive to find the village of Shiarapatna we happened to pass through another village where we saw large woven frames- perhaps bamboo or maybe palm- with large concentric circles of the same material on the frames. The space between the circles had pale yellow fluffy balls spread all over. We quickly realized that this was a silk farm! Apparently silk was once a huge industry in this area. It is still very popular, but seems a bit less so now. The yellowish fluffy things were coccoons. We got out of the car and attracted a lot of people following us as we looked. They showed us sillk worms that were just starting to form their coccoon and all th eothers where they were finishing. They gave us a few coccoons. They told us (in Kannada through Josef) that they get about 180Rs per KG for the raw silk. That is roughly $1.65 for 1 lb which is not a lot of money for silk. We gave the guy who was mostly welcoming 200 Rs for his showing us around and telling us about the silk. He tried to give it back, but Josef said he thought the guy was very happy. We may add some pictures later.
There are a lot of holidays around this time of year. It seems a little similar to the Thanksgiving- New Year period in the US. There are many "pujas"- this is often spelled other ways. These seem to be ceremonys of various sorts. Last weekend there was one in which all mechanical devices were given some sort of blessing. There are bits of paint and other colors at various places all over our apartment building from the ceremony. That particular one might be regarded as honoring professions, but much of it is directed at the machines.
For the past 4 evenings and sometimes early in the morning there has been some loud music and rather awful singing and speaking going on in our neighborhood. We do not know what it is about but they have placed loudspeakers around the neighborhood to blast the sound all around. They do end before 10PM, so at least, we can sleep. We presume this is related to one of the holidays, but do not know.

The Cheque, The Wall, The Dryer, The Textile fair and The Club

Cheques or Checks are rarely used in India. Most sales are by cash or credit card or debit card. Jim has a Cheque that he wants to deposit in the bank. After verifying with a bank employee that the branch would be open today, we made a stop there to deposit the check. However the bank was closed! Today is M. K. Gandhi's birthday, so it is a holiday, but most stores were open and the bank verified in 2 emails that they would be open. But they were not. So, we will try again tomorrow. We were told that we can simply write our account number on the cheque and deposit it at any of their ATM's, but since we suspect there is more to the endorsement process than this (there is usually more that one is not told), we prefer to go when a person can verify that what we have done will, in fact, get the money deposited into our account. This cheque has an already long history of delays. Here it is. Jim put in an expense account with his employer. After getting the necessary approvals the account was finally approved for payment. Jim actually had paid the corporate credit card company months earlier, so he marked that the payment was to be made to him directly. However, the accounting people went ahead and paid the card company instead. When this error was mentioned to them they said it was too late to change it and it was done because they had no other indication of what to do from Jim! They said we had to wait a "couple" weeks until they were sure that the card company had received payment, THEN submit a request to get a cheque made out to Jim. It is not clear why this could not all be done electronically. After a couple weeks Jim reminded the people that the money was due him and they eventually issued a request to the card company to get a cheque for Jim. They said this takes two days. After five days, we were told it would come the next day, which was a Friday before a holiday weekend. Of course, the cheque did not arrive (no check either). The next Tuesday the cheque finally arrived about 4PM- too late to take to the bank. Due to Work, Jim could not go Wed. or Thurs., but since the bank would be open and Fri. was a holiday, it was a perfect day! Except that the bank is closed! So, 6 weeks after the expense report was submitted, the money is still not in any place where it is accessible. So, we keep taking money from the ATM using our US accounts. It seems quite unreasonable that others would have the money so long. That is "The Cheque"
Jim is dropped off at work each day by our driver. For nearly 11 months Jim has been dropped off at an entry gate to the building parking area. Every day cars and motorbikes drive in and park around the building. Thursday Oct. 1 was no different, Jim is dropped off and walks through the gate as cars and motorbikes are stopped for security check. In the evenings the process is reversed. Jim walks out of the building and then through the gate to be picked up by our driver. However, On Thursday the 1st, Jim walked out of the building to go to the gate (in the rain) only to find that the gate had been closed in by concrete blocks during the day! No warning, just can't go in or out that way any more! There is a second gate on the same side of the building, though it is a little further to walk. This would not be a big problem. However, the second gate is being blocked as well! This means quit a bit longer walk to the opposite side of the set of large buildings in order to be able to leave the office! Not quite so convenient. We do not know why these gates are being closed- certainly not why at this time. It is probably a security concern of some sort, but we may never know! That is "The Wall".
About 9 months ago, Janet bought a clothes dryer. People said, "oh you don't need a dryer, the washing machines practically dry the clothes already". We found this not to be true. The machine was bought from a nationwide chain store, and it was installed soon, which was a good sign. However, it has only 3 of its 4 legs! So, it sits a little cockeyed in its little room off the kitchen balconey. (The room is called the "maid's room" and would probably be a nice room for an awful lot of maids, but it is tiny.) The dryer has generally worked ok, though we had to have the service guy come to fix a switch once. They always say that the 4th leg should be in soon, but we have come to accept that our little machine is "handicapped" and not expect we will ever see it made whole. Recently, the machine simply would not run. It seemed to be a problem with the door interlock switch. Janet called them several times during the week and they said they would come or call back, but, of course they did not. Today she yelled at them on the phone and a guy actually came. Of course, when he came the building electricity was off, so he pointed out that the machine had no power, and thus, should not be expected to run. We explained that it was not working even when the power was on. He seemed a competent guy and waited for the power to come on. The electricity is unreliable in most of India, so businesses and newer buildings have their own backup generators, which REALLY are needed- though the power here in the center of the city is probably more reliable than elsewhere. In any case, it took awhile for the generator to come on- for some unknown reason. The guy quickly decided that the machine thermostat is bad. He said he could get a new one at the shop and it was free because it is covered by warranty, but he would have to charge for a new leg for the machine! We explained that we never received the leg. He seemed to understand, but he said that they do not have them in the shop, so it may take awhile to get one(!) He did not come back today, but maybe Saturday or Monday. He gave us his personal cell phone number to call him next time, which we thought was nice. We'll see! That is "The Dryer".
The variety and quality of textiles in India is remarkable! Over this long weekend- due to M.G.s' birthday- there is a textile fair at "Chitrakala Parishath" here in Bangalore. The place is an arts school which also encourages arts and crafts through frequent exhibitions and sales. They have had shows for all sorts of arts and crafts over the past 11 months. The key difficulty is that it is not so easy to find out when there is a show and what it is about. Often the information can be found in the newspaper, but sometimes not, and their web page seems not to be updated very often. In any case, there is an "exhibition cum sale" going on right now with good quality vendors from various parts of India. It is worth seeing just to get an idea of the variety available. Often the vendors do not have such good judgement about what they will hang on the wall to be seen and mediocre things are visible when they have some fabulous things hidden away on shelves. Most of what they have are "saris" or "sarees". Around 350 million women in India wear a sari, so, it makes sense that there would be a lot of them for sale. We like to look at the materials and think of other uses. It does not take long to realize that most of what makes up a sari is a long piece of fabric that could be made into things rather than just worn as is. So, it is interesting to look at the saris for the amazing variety of colors, materials and workmanship. Of course, there are lots of scarves, shawls and the like too, which can be bought with little need of alteration. Of course we bought a few items. Because this fair is run by the State Handicrafts Council, it is a popular one for people to attend because they have more trust that the materials are authentic. Thus the place is very crowded. That is "The Textile Fair".
One of the fringe benefits of being on assignment here is that we can join on of the local "clubs". This is mostly intended to allow access to swimming pools and exercise equipment and some of the clubs are solely for that. However there are a few that are more social as well. When we chose this apartment to live, we liked its proximity to a club called "The Bangalore Club"- it is less than 10 minute walk away. We thought we'd just sign up and go there because there are coprorate memberships which do not require all of the same recommendations and vetting procedures to decide who is acceptable. After we arrived we were finally told that there were no memberships available! This was disappointing, so Janet, who likes to swim a few times a week if she can, found another club that is a bit far away, but very nice. Through some administrative error we were allowed to use the facilities for about 4 months before anyone realized that it was not being paid for by the corporation. At the time we found out, we learned that a membership at the more local club was opening up. So we said we wanted the spot. However, we were told that entry takes 4-7 months! We never understood why, but we know that the club insists on receiving some sort of auditors report on the corporation (for every one of many members) and this takes some time to get (why?). They then post our names on a board to solicit comments from members about the prospective nominee. There is a formal "interview" as well, and after all is said and done you end up with a card saying you are members. The process did take 7 months! However, we are now members of "The Bangalore Club"- or "The Club" as memebers call it. It is actually quite an honor to be a member these days. Most people are from old Bangalore families- except for a sizable number of corporate members and other temporary members. The Club has a fairly long history as it was started in 1868. Its most famous member was Winston Churchill who was here around 1898 as an army officer. Of course, then it was probably only British Officers who were members. (Remember that Bangalore was and still is a place with many military people around.) Thus for about a week we have had our temporary cards. We have not used The Club much yet. The weather has been cool and rainy the past week, so it is not so great for swimming. They have a library and food service of various kinds in addition to the pool and exercise equipment. So, That is "The Club".
Ziggy and Zoe are well, but seem to have lost interest in writing lately. Maybe they have started another blog somewhere else?