Day 5continued

At the end of Day 5, we had a home hosted dinner with a middle class family. The boys showed us their athletic medals. Though they had an arranged marriage, the families knew each other. They had a very small Indian wedding— only one thousand guests. That is not a typo!

This chart shows the alphabet/sounds in 3 scripts. The top is Tamil, second Hindi, and the next is English.

The table is in the sitting room, the shrine took up a shelf in the kitchen. They light it twice a day.

THE bedroom. The parents get the bed and the mats on the bed get put on the floor for the boys. You can see the one house air conditioner on the wall. I don’t think they had any windows.

As we left we looked over the second floor and saw women sitting outside making garlands to sell  We passed high end stores on the way home. 

Day 6 

Most of us left the hotel at 6AM to go to meet Brahmin priests who do rituals for family who have passed. Andrew recently lost a sister-in-law and decided to participate. I thought about it and didn’t think I could get up and down! Andrew needed help getting up and down 

After the ceremony some people wash away evil spirits in the river. Some just take a bath. 

Not sure why the elephant is there.

Scene outside where the priests were. 

We began a long drive to Madurai, a huge, bustling city. But first we stopped outside a village to visit a    Ayyanar shrine. It is not Hindu. The long path to the shrine is lined with terra cotta statues.

It’s a very colorful shrine and definitely seems more like folk art than the elegant Hindu shrines. We met the priest.

And a few other colorful residents. 

Warrior guardian

So this sign at the center of the shrine is because women— you know— sometimes in the month are unclean  — and it would be rude to ask them about it so they solve that problem by keeping us out of isn’t it nice they are so polite!! Actually, a number of us started giggling about how none of us in this crowd had that issue anymore!

We stopped at a palace in Chettinad. This was a community of very rich merchants who were money lenders. Now this palace has a restaurant and venue for destination weddings

Hire him!

Check out the ceiling. It’s never been repainted and it’s 121 years old.

After an hour to relax in our room we went on a nighttime experience of Madurai at night, the city that never sleeps. It was hard to capture how insane our tuktuk ride was. Bicycles and motorcycles constantly darting in and out around us, a bus nearly hitting us, people walking in front of us.

We went on a food tour and tried cottonseed milk with all the amazing spices listed on the sign.

We passed some lovely shops and then walked past the shrine we will visit tomorrow. It has amazing carvings that we won’t see because it is being painted. That scaffolding is all made of tree limbs.

Then we stopped at a shop making sweet and savory street food. Leo assured us it is all safe 

Then we got back in our tiktuks and drove through the insane interweaving mix it tuktukd, bicycles, motorcycles, and brave pedestrians. 

Japan is very,very crowded but very orderly. China is very,very crowded but seems to have some rules. India is very very crowded and seems like total chaos. Yet, somehow it works