Arrival and Day 1

Joe Keilman and John Steele

      

            Our class boarded a very full airliner a bit after 4 in the afternoon headed to Germany.  The first thing that I noticed after not traveling internationally for a decade was the surprise I felt at hearing German being spoken during the instructions before English.  I had become very used America being first in everything. 

            18 hours flying coach was exactly as interesting as is sounds.  We arrived in Germany from Miami after 8 hours and change in the air, walked across the airport, and got on another plane for 9 and a half hours.  We arrived in Chennai just after midnight, local time, and took another hour to get to the hotel.  It was lovely, but the whole class was exhausted, so after the first (of many) buffets, most people tied to get a few hours’ sleep before we rolled out to our first morning in India.

            We started our amazing day with what I can only describe as a truly authentic Indian breakfast. It was amazing to try out new foods such as Aloo Paneer, Masala Dosa, Idli Sambhar and Mango lassi, a type of mango flavored yogurt.   

            Next, we were all off to our first tour to Mahabalipuram for some sightseeing adventure with shopping.  However before we could reach our first adventure of the day, we had to overcome our first obstacle in India, surviving what can only be described as organized chaos.  Some of the students have experience with Asian traffic (Joe lived in China for a time), but for the rest of people it was a jarring experience.  Where cars and motorcycles drive in the wrong lane against oncoming traffic, vehicle swaying left, right, almost grazing against each other, multiple sudden close call stops, where many of use, for sure had our lives flash across eyes. The secret to getting through it, "don't look forward," just trust the driver to do his job and get you to your destination and enjoy the sites to your left and right. In all honesty, it is scary at first, but you get used to it, and the drivers know what they are doing; organized chaos seems to be their natural Indian driving style. However, let’s just say if you can drive in India, you can drive anywhere else in the world. 

Some of the amazing places we visited today were Dashing Chita, where we got our fortunes told by a psychic parrot, The big hit was a fortune-telling parrot that picked a card out of a pile, touched it to a picture of Moraga (brother of the god Ganesh) and the human teller would ask a few questions, revealing a card.  There were Hindu gods on the cards, and even Jesus showed up (to one of us that was a Catholic).  Everyone’s fortune was overwhelmingly positive (par for the course at a tourist area, I would assume), and everyone walked away happy.

Both Religion and Politics was literally everywhere.  Temples would be situated in the middle of residential and commercial sprawls to any number of the Hindu  gods (and Jesus made a few more appearances in windowed towers that act as churches.  The idea that religious figures are used in fortune telling would probably not translate well to many western religions.  On another level, it was refreshing to see faith involved at every level.  It was a part of what happened to everyone all the time, rather than a rarified idea that couldn’t be discussed outside of total perfection and benevolence.  The ruling political party had huge banners and signs, and even gold colored statues.  The big star was “Amma” Jyalalitha (mom), who has a huge amount of clout.  Her party’s flag was draped on banners and across cars.  Opposition figures had smaller posters and murals, but nowhere near the sheer volume and size.  There were numerous posters that had a potilition's face superimposed with tigers or even Hindu gods in the background.

The number of swastikas all over also caught my eye.  It threw some of the other students, who weren't aware that the Nazis co-opted the symbol early in their campaign, and that it's been found all over Asia for thousands of years as a symbol of the sun and renewal.  Not to discount the horrors of WW2, but it seems a shame to let the Nazis keep claim to it in the west.

            We were constantly dashing after a schedule and deadline that we somehow, barely kept up with.  And this was a sightseeing day.  It was going to be the norm for the next few days.

            After a quick lunch at a roadside restraint that the selected, we hit the five Ratas, stone carvings that were meant to symbolize giant chariots of generals of history.

            In the same general area was the sea shore temple, a pair of buildings inside a dry moat, again surrounded by tourists.  Pictures can convey the place better than words.

            Dinner was another great buffet, with a quick meeting afterwards.  The class met up after a quick look at the beach to go over the case, and shoot the breeze. A few people were just of burned out to turn it into a party, but the rest made it stayed up a few hours and made it into a party.

            20 minutes later the next day began.