What I love about India is that even when I go out in the morning with a plan - things jotted down, addresses, locations, etc. I end up giving up on them and in my explorations finding them coincidentally. This is what happened my first full day in Pondicherry. I came across a big hindu temple with a huge beautiful elephant standing in the courtyard. The huge elephant had huge beautiful ankle bracelets on - I made sure to take a picture. Anyways, I noticed that people were in front of the elephant, shrilling with joy as he seemed to touch them with his trunk. When I finished taking pictures and looked more closely, I realized that they were actually holding something out for him... or her... and was horrified to realize that this something were coins. Concerned, I debated asking the elephant keepers whether they were noticing and whether this could be a health concern. But as I continued to watch I realized that following every coin received the elephant gave the giver a tap on the head - perhaps a blessing. I stuck around for a few minutes, wondering where all the coins were... then as people cleared I saw the elephant take a step or two back to the wall and empty the coins - all of them - into the elephant keepers hands. Well - imagine my surprise - and my relief at not being the stupid tourist worried that the elephant was going to choke on the coins - okay, I was that stupid tourist, but only I, and now you, know that.
Yesterday I woke up, reserved my bus ticket, and then determined to see the sites left in the city. I covered massive ground seeing the impressive sacred heart church, the notre dame de agnes cathedral which was either unimpressive or I confused another building for it, the beautiful - untamed - jungle-esque botanical gardens... and possibly two dead people. I was walking in the botanical gardens - and if you look in the grass and under trees people were napping EVERYWHERE. And this was not nice manicured grass... anyways, I was walking on the sidewalk when I came upon a guy lying there as if he had fallen - completely still. Thinking he was dead, I wondered why no one else stopped or showed concerned, and then I noticed his chappals (flipflops) placed neatly side by side at his head. Strangest site I've seen. I tried to see if he was breathing as I walked past, and decided that even if he wasn't there was really nothing I could do about it and it could turn out only to be a traumatic experience for me. So I continued.
Exhausted, after having walked the whole city from north to south, I took a rickshaw back up and went to an ashram (not mine a different one) and was relieved to find a place to sit and relax and meditate for 20 minutes. I got up refreshed, and ready to continue exploring (keep in mind I had checked out earlier and had no where to go until my 8pm bus). I saw another dead person (or so I think) - a woman on the side of a busy road - alongside the piles of stuff the homeless people set up to be their home. She was covered to her head with her sari and there were flies all over her. A little girl was sitting and looking at her. I didn't even stop to think at this one.
In the evening I finally made it to the bus station where I waited around for an hour and saw a guy who was (sorry to use this description) holocaust thin. He wasn't begging, he was just sitting in a loin cloth on a sheet. Just sitting. I couldn't figure out how he became so skinny and he literally looked on the verge of death. I bought a bottle of water and a pack of marie biscuits and placed them next to him. Feeling like it was really pointless because it won't help, but also not being able to sit and see it and do nothing.
Sitting and waiting for the bus was a young Canadian woman whose seat was interestingly next to mine on an almost empty bus. Which was fine - but curious. So I enjoyed her company for the ride - she was volunteering for 3.5 months in Calcutta with an NGO who worked with children whose parents are in the sex industry. I did my undergrad thesis on the sex industry and so I found this fascinating.
I realized through whatever of the ride I was awake that we were going about 25, 30 mph. And realized that while India is indeed large, it's not as large as it takes to travel across. On a western highway my 16 hour journey would have taken about 6 hours. Somehow I have not yet had to do any of the really long journeys on my own - which has been nice.
So now I am in Cochin - and we'll see where the wind blows me from here.
signing off... and next email will be a link to photos...
I apologize for those of you having immense trouble with the english - if I had hebrew I would struggle to use it... but I dont. Just know i'm happy, doing well, and missing you.
love
roni
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