Sunanda's Indian Sojourn.

TAKE ME WITH YOU............ but since you won't be able to, your blog will have to do - Yes please Sundanda, send back some sunny blogs.

I would love to read your blogs Sunanda, and see your pics of course.

Ooooh, yes please Sunanda. I'd love to see your informative blogs and piccies again. BTW, please send us some sunshine too.:D:D

Brilliant idea Sunanda, yes please:D

Yes please Sunanda - I love reading yor travelogue. Makes me wish I was there, but I have big problems coping with the heat and humidity - so it's nice to be an armchair traveller!

As always, it's good to hear of your travels and experiences in India.

I loved hearing about your adventures last year. when is it that you are going?

Thanks everyone for your interest and encouragement. I fly a week today and will be gone for three months! I have quite a while between planes at Dubai airport and am considering treating myself to four hours in Emirates special lounge there where I'll get a free buffet and wi-fi computer access so you can probably expect my first post to be from there!

xxx

Ooh yes please Sunanda! Your mini travel logs/blogs are wonderful for cheering us up in the middle of Winter. Have a safe journey and a fabulous time.

Yes Sunanda yes. I spent time in Kovalam last year, its a lovely place and not too far from Thiruvananthapuram which is the major city down south, so it is the perfect location. Looking forward to reading your blog.

Kaif

Yes please Sunanda I really loved your posts last time so I would be delighted to read your blog. I hope you have a fantastic trip.
Love and Light
Linda:)

I've always loved reading your travel news Sunanda, you have such a way of painting a picture with words, and I would love to read your news.

With love,
Amber

Speaking as an India fan and a Sunanda fan, yes please too!

have a really wonderful time S!

Love

Judy

Sounds wonderful. I'd love to read about your stay in India. Hope you have a wonderful time.

Hi everyone

I wasn't going to post today as I've only been here a few hours and I'm out on my feet. However I've had to come out to change money and as the money exchange and the internet are in the same place, well what to do?

I had a bit of an adventure getting here: reached Gatwick airport by about 0745 yesterday morning and lined up to check in for my Emirates flight via Dubai. Almost the first thing I was told was that the flight was overbooked and they were looking for people to put on the next flight, four hours after mine. It wouldn't affect my connection and would just mean me hanging around Gatwick rather than Dubai. The clincher was that they offered me a completely free return ticket for any time within the next year. Well, what would you have done??? I was pretty good at the airport and didn't buy anything apart from a couple of paperbacks. At Dubai where there are miles and miles of shops, I restricted myself to a pricy but delicious green tea frozen yogurt with fresh fruit. Then I hiked over to my departure gate and bumped into a German woman whom I first met at Amma's ashram years ago. Last year we discovered that we share exactly the same birthday. We both have problem sons in their early 30s and we even look a bit alike!

Well, I got picked up at Trivandrum airport by another old friend and taken to my little house where I spent a few hours unpacking, showering etc - all in the pouring rain! Snow to see me out of England and rain to welcome me to India. It's been wet for a fortnight here and as it's a beach resort the local people are well hacked off as youcan imagine.

That's all I can manage for now. I'm hanging on for a reasonable time to go back to the house in the hope I can sleep all night, get up bright and early and be on local time from tomorrow. It's still raining, very grey and moody and atmospheric. But it's not cold at all. Lovely in fact.

Enjoy the snow, my friends.

Lots of love
Sunanda xxx

A very welcome read from my igloo in Perth & Kinross! Rain? Heat? What bliss! Looking forward to hearing more. Sleep well.

That's a welcome read Sunanda....and only you could meet an unexpected blast from the past...a lookilikey as well ;).

I look forward to hearing more..:)

Perfect reading for a dismal afternoon in freezing Kilburn! Thanks Sunanda - look forward to your next instalment.

That's put a smile on my face! Thanks Sunanda.

keep up with the blogs sunanda we do need a bit of sunshine here

Well, as long as you're not going to be bored with the minutiae of day to day life in a touristy corner of India...I shall continue. Last night, my first here proved to be quite chilly. Obviously not by current UK standards, but pretty cool for south India. Part of the deal of renting this house was that I should provide my own sheets and towels. Luckily I was able to get a small metal trunk of some of my belongings shipped over from the other side of the country (at the cost of £7.50!) and this contained not only sheets and pillow cases but a bed cover and a warm woollen shawl. Both of which came into play last night. I slept long and well and woke to another downpour of rain. The pathways at the back of the beach are just dirt so of course, they are now mud. Apart from the ones where there is six inches of water to be waded through. Nevertheless I made it down to the bottom of the hill (my house is at the top and it's a bit of a slog for someone whose lungs don't function at full capacity but an auto rickshaw ride up is only 25p; going down is not a problem). I had to go down to get some breakfast: although I have a kitchen here I'm still lacking most equipment and all food stuffs. In fact before I can buy any food I have to buy containers to put it in; any food left out tends to attract ants and best and rats at worst. So breakfast was a pot of cardamom chai - 'mixed' tea, made by boiling everything up together - tea powder, milk and cardamom pods. Very refreshing - and something called 'puttu' which is a Kerala speciality made from ground grain and grated coconut and steamed in a Swiss roll shape. This one was made with ragi, which is a grain that has a dark chocolate flavour, but it had a white layer too. Malayalis (native Keralans) tend to prefer it with something savoury, spicy chickpeas for example, but I always eat it with little bananas mashed in by hand. Filling and healthy - it kept me going until late afternoon. After breakfast I ambled along the beachfront to the internet again and was in the middle of all the stuff I usually do at home when I was overcome by waves of sleepiness and knew I had to be horizontal very quickly. (It was at this point that I discovered how much the auto rickshaw up the hill costs!) I was about 45 minutes into a lovely siesta when I was awoken by a cry of 'hello' (people tend not to knock or even ring the front door bell here) and was not pleased to find a travelling salesman on the doorstep. He turned out to be flogging a course to learn German at favourable monthly rates and was not to be put off by my refusal. As I closed the door I heard a plaintive 'But I am a very poor man'...hard heartedly I went back to bed for another hour!
This afternoon I went shopping for essentials. The local supermarket was an interesting experience and I made a start at acquiring all the bits and pieces that will eventually enable me to produce nourishing soups etc. (I can hardly believe this but I brought my hand held blender for this very purpose, knowing that I would regret it if I left it behind,) However, I'm going to have to go to the city bazaar tomorrow for my pots and pans. And, if I can bring myself to dip that far into my funds, to purchase a small fridge - the one thing seriously missing from the kitchen, (Even in this cool weather, milk won't last overnight unless it's in a fridge. Most local people buy from a travelling milkman every day: he decants from a churn on the back of his bike into their own containers. This comes straight from the cow and has to be boiled, but I don't think this house is on any milkman's round.)
I also made enquiries about getting an internet connection: I'm writing this now on my laptop but will have to cart the machine down to the internet place tomorrow in order to send it. (No I haven't got a USB stick; the last one I had got infected by several viruses when I used it to have photos printed here last winter and I haven't got round to buying a new one. Besides I want the luxury of being able to read my emails - not to mention HP - here in the house.) Apparently the cost will be £25 to have a cable put in and then about £7.50 a month for the three months I'll be here. Sounds like a deal to me so I'll ask my landlord's permission and if he's OK with it I'll go and set it up tomorrow. On the way back from this great excursion another 'big rain' started so I got the auto driver to take me to a 'fast food' place. Now, we're not talking MacDonalds but one of the many shacks that line the road where men go to eat or to buy 'parcels' to take home. I got a parcel of two dosas (smallish, soft sort of savoury pancakes) which come with two little plastic bags, one containing 'chutney' (not as we know it, their chutney is made by blending dry dal - yellow lentils - with a little oil and water, green chili and grated coconut which turns into a sort of watery paste) and sambar, which is a very spicy sort of vegetable gravy. I couldn't believe it when I was asked for 5 rupees for the lot. (There are currently 70 rupees to the pound so this was a cheap dinner.) I ate it as soon as I got home and it was delicious. I guess that's dinner sorted from now on!
Anyway, I've been listening to some music on the laptop and writing this, and soon I'm going to treat myself to another early night. My plan is to start each day with at least half an hour's yoga stretches but I'm currently excused from that as I'm still getting over all that travelling. I phoned home and was told that snow is now covering the south east as well as the rest of the country. I call that good timing!
Bye for now!
xxxx
PS Back in the internet cafe, having waited a couple of hours for the internet guy to turn up at my house. No show. Also the fridge seems to have gone up quite a lot and I'm umming and ahing about buying it now. One of my hotelier friends has a broken one he's trying to get fixed for me. That would be a result. It rained all night and is still spitting now at 3pm. My body clock is still haywire. Had a visit this morning from a very scrawny feral cat with a skin problem and a kitten - they both sat below my balcony and meowed piteously, but I had nothing to give them.

Glad you're settling in well. Hope you get the fridge & internet sorted out. We're still snowbound in Durham (cabin fever without the cabin :D)

Take care -looking forward to your next installment.
Yvonne

Sunanda
I'm really enjoying your blogs as I've lived in Kovalam and I'm sort of imagining being there through you again.
When everything is available fresh right at your doorstep I wonder why you need the fridge? Perhaps you can learn to live without it. Anyway in India the tradition is to boil the milk in order to keep it so maybe you can learn to do that.
You seem to have already had a lot of coconut in the meals you've taken so far - what about fresh coconut water? Isn't it the season as yet?
Look forward to your next blog, keep writing.

Kaif

Hi Sunanda,

Great to hear all your news! Gatwick's runway was closed at 22.30 on Tuesday night (so you only just got out) and I believe it has just reopened for the first time this morning (Friday).

I so look forward to having our cold brightened up and hope you're able to find a milk-seller who will come up the hill - that would be great then, to get everything fresh daily!

Love

Judy

Our house is so cold, I'm living in an extention to the bathroom

Hi everyone

Thanks for your comments. I'm sitting by the door of the internet place looking out over the beach and watching the sky darken as another downpour kicks off.
Kaif, I don't know when you were here but Kovalam has changed mightily in the 15 years that I've known it. There is massive construction going on everywhere in spite of the fact that 'business very bad'. And as for the milk, I don't think boiling the pasteurised kind that I have to buy will help it to keep. A fridge is also necessary to keep any leftover food and fruit - otherwise the ants will get them.
Wow, the heavens have just opened. Looks like I may be here for a while!
I was at the little temple yesterday for the Friday night puja (Friday being Goddess day) and it occurred to me that I have never described a puja in detail so that's next on my list. There is a little bull calf living in the temple, which was a donation. His name is Manikandan (pronounced Munnykundan) and he should really still be with his mum. Apparently when he first arrived a fortnight ago (aged just one month) he freaked out and jumped in the well. The young priest and two of the temple 'boys' (more about them later) had to go in with him and hold him up until the fire service could arrive with a net to fish him out. He doesn't seem too freaked out though and is friendly though a little timid. You can imagine he sucks anything that comes within reach of his mouth. I had to rescue my shawl from disappearing down his throat yesterday. Still waiting to hear about the fridge and the internet....I think I'll read the paper online and hope that the rain eases soon...
xxx

Sunanda
What a lively read! I got completely transported to Kerala(never visited it mind!). Ahh taste of yummy dosas in my mouth ... Skillfully painting pictures with your words. Keep it up. We are loving it!
(and you've been dead jammy with weather!)
well done
Ruby
x

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your time there Sunanda, and certainly not boring!! and in Manchester....more ice than snow ;), but the pheasants grace us with their beautiful presence in the mornings under the bird feeder.

Hi Sunanda,

Good that you could or did get over there yet again, if you seem to have arrived during inclement weather (for now).

As you I think know, I've only had 2 Indian sojourns, hugely apart in time - 1975 (when it was "sissy" and "not done" by 'that' generation to fly there, so it was always overland ;-0 ) and 3 years back. Just for a mo' I'm trying to think what strikes me most about how India's changed since 35 years ago...

Well, there was almost no tourism, but those who did visit were unassuming and not of a worldly mentality. I liked that. Without looking it up, as you know the population of India has maybe doubled since then? (A resulting huge increase in pollution of all sorts. I didn't at all associate India with pollution in '75.) And the tourism leading to the developments you mention. It's really moving apace now, isn't it.

Of course, another thing is this emergence of a real and sizeable Indian middle class.

Well, enjoy yourself. Am still grateful for your recommendation to me in 2007 of Anandashram: it'd be first on my list of where I'd want to return to TBH; and if I couldn't stay in India too long, well I'd just go there.

V

Hi Sunanda

Always lovely to read your musings and travelogue - thank you for giving us the time! Hope the weather improves soon and that the fridge and internet link arrive before too long.

To keep things cool you can stand the container with the food in a tray/bowl of water, cover with a damp cloth with its ends in the water and place it in a draught. The evaporating water will reduce the temperature a bit. This is what we used in Africa before fridges and on safari.