At a Chennai train station. You can't miss the poverty or the wealth in India.
My group! (L to R) David, Heidi, Sydney, Cathlyn, Rebekah, Megan (being held), and Jill. Jill's husband, Ty, and Liann are missing from the shot.
The textile district in Chennai.
Getting our salwar kameez's tailored.
Saree time
At Sydney and my hotel room. Chennai is insanely hot...I'm thinking twice about every returning, at least in spring or summer.
Me trying a "sweet" lime. Sweet is relative.
A woman waiting out the afternoon heat in Mambalayam, a costal city south of Chennai that we visited to escape the city.
A Hindu family from Hyderabad who thought that seeing and shaking the hand of a sunburned white girl was far more exciting than visiting the ruins of a temple for Siva. I love Hindu families because they always introduce grandma first and then make sure you have met every available aunt and uncle before letting you go your way.
The beach at Mambalayam. I thought it would be cooler next to the sea...I was wrong.
Cows show up everywhere, even at the beach. There's still nothing quite like walking down the road and running into a group of cows eating the garbage on the side of the road. It even happens in the city. They're like the neighborhood pets.
We're all sunburned but Mambalayam was worth it! (L to R) Liann, Heidi, Rebekah, Cathlyn, and Sydney.
This relief is probably about forty feet high. In otherw ords, the elephant is life sized.
Rebekah inside an ancient Hindu temple.
Women selling cucumber slices through bus windows to waiting passengers take a break.
On Matthew and Jeeva's veranda doing our grooming for the day.
Heidi and Sydney are determined to learn how to tie jasmine flowers into garlands. The flowers smell wonderful but are very difficult to tie.
Laptop party in the girls' room! Yes, we were feeling as gross and sweaty as we look in this picture.
Edwin's Birthday Party preparations
Edwin being attacked
Matthew and Jeeva Daniel's home (aka home sweet home)
from the front side
Laundry Time. Actually, I'm just posing. Usually you look like a drenched rat when you're doing laundry.
Elephant Mountain and the view as you walk to the village from the highway.
The Thinking Tree on the walk to Chavadipudur.
A coconut grove. And cows grazing in it. They grow and eat A LOT of coconut here.
Chavadi Market and the bullock carts.
Me, Liann, Heidi, and Sydney at "the Expo," aka a town fair involving copious amounts of plastic bracelets. We rode a very sketchy carnival ride while there...I would never have tried it at home!
Kartik, a 7 year old boy in a forest village we visited. He drew pictures in my notebook, which unfortunately you cannot see.
My first monkey sighting!
On the bus. On a good day.
Megan and Jill doing the breakfast dishes. Megan loves to help out.
Hindu weddings by night. More people are awake and chatting in those plastic chairs at 4 AM than during the ceremony.
I dressed up for the wedding - my very first time WALKING in a saree (it's more difficult than you'd think).
Rebekah tutoring the village children.
Heidi and our musician neighbor's family. The little girl has the most beautiful eyes.
Garbage cans (when you can find them) come in queer shapes here.
On the train to Kerala! We had two berths to ourselves and almost no snack vendors...unbelievable.
Megan is such a button!
Rebekah having a contemplative moment on the train ride to Kerala.
This is what a train ride looks like: bars with green flashing by outside.
Liann got to jump in the front seat with the rickshaw driver, and yes...it was a beautiful moment.
The group eating at an outdoor restaurant in Forth Cochin, Kerala.
A Chinese fishing net at Fort Cochin. Mike, you would have loved to see these things in action!
It's always tea time at the T-Pot cafe. Yes, it should be.
Ordering our first western breakfast in a month. Oh, yeah.
A rice offering outside of a Hindu temple in Fort Cochin.
A typical Hindu temple: small and set in the middle of a neighborhood.
Yes, Jews do live in India outside of Goa and Daharam Sala. But there's only one family left of what used to be an entire community.
I love Indian color schemes.
And Indian political correctness. Nicole, that face!
Things move slowly in Kerala and India in general. Maybe a little too slowly...
Traditional Keralan Kathakali theatre. I've never heard so much cymbal music in my entire life, but parts of the play moved me to tears. Almost all Indian stories are sad.
On a backwater tour in Cochin. So peaceful, so quiet. So awfully touristy.
We interrupted bath time when our boat drifted by.
A beautifully moss-covered cemetery of English and Dutch sailors and settlers is hidden in Fort Cochin.
India is about color - and texture.
And huge trees!
I love seafood. With or without teeth still in it. We picked out our own fish at the seaside market and then took it to a restaurant and they cooked it to order...all for three dollars.
Rebekah and Liann enjoying "Death by Chocolate" cake at the T-Pot Cafe. It was totally worth the risk.
The musician caste's yearly celebration. The drums drummed and the horns blew all day long.
My friend Ravi Kumar and his friend, who is busting a rather uncomfortable move.
To keep the evil spirits away, teenage boys pour large buckets of water on the procession's participants.
The women wear their best - even when it's raining on them.
Megan's reaction when we went to church in Coimbatore and she saw a lawn to run around on for the first time in months...
Playing tag with the branch's primary kids
Our host family: Matthew, Edwin, Jeeva, and Priya.
The family again, this time without Matthew's "Tamil movie star" sunglasses.
Matthew's sister, Edwin, Matthew, Priya, Jeeva, and Priya's friend Abi.
David, me, Cathlyn, a family in the Coimbatore branch, Jill, Liann, and Sydney after eating lunch with the church members after the district conference broadcast. We ate beef biriyani on the lawn and it felt sooo good.
Liann, our friend Karthik, and I at a "fancy ice cream" shop in Coimbatore. We're all laughing because the dish Karthik ordered looked more like a toy than food.
Washington Apples even in India! They're everywhere, actually. I've eaten them every day I've been in the city.
When there are five locks on your hotel door to keep the roaches in, you know you're in India.
A modern kitchen - Wahoo!
Beautiful NIrmala College, where I come every day and interview students and faculty and am taught about women's literature in India. It's my second home - I think I spend more time here than in the village or at the city cottage, anymore.
A HUGE pine tree suddenly fell over the other day in front of the college. Luckily it fell away from the buildings and the vehicles out front. Dad, you would have enjoyed checking out the hollow stump. Crazy!
The entrance gate at Nirmala. The college is only for women and is run by a convent of nuns. For sounding so conservative it is one of the most progressive institutions in Tamil Nadu.
Heidi cooking up french toast at our "Indian Villa," as Sydney has named our city cottage. O the wonders of a self-starting gas stove!
Sydney (in her Indian nightie) washing dishes in our sink. Yes, I said a SINK! O the wonders of running water!
Liann woke up and barely opened her eyes, but she could smell the french toast...
I came to the college one Friday to have lunch with some of my friends and they came prepared to dress me up - hence the bindi on my forehead and the jasmine in my hair. I felt (and at least smelled) quite lovely.
My dear friends in the 2nd Year Masters degree program in the English Department: (L to R) Prescilla, Rose, Ramya, Priya, Elsie, Roshney, Prema and Bige. They answer all of my questions and think my dating stories are hilarious...I don't know why. The frequently share their lunches with me, and they are good cooks!
Sister Nirmal Therese and I. She gave me a personal course on Indian Women's Literature in English just out of the goodness of her heart. She's a Catholic convert from Hinduism and is quite the lady.
Some of the third year undergraduate English students. Such beautiful smiles!
Nirmala's pristine, architecturally revolutionary (for South India) library. I almost cried when I walked in and saw so many books and so much quiet space dedicated to learning. I have seriously under-appreciated study space in the past.
The Catholic church has quite a presence in Coimbatore. Also, isn't Tamil lettering beautiful?
At Ghandipuram, one of the busiest bus stands and areas of Coimbatore.
I've never seen so many motorcycles outside of a Harley Rally until I came to India. And I've never seen so many people on one motorcycle before, either.
Taking "funny" or candid photos is kind of a taboo here, but Bige was up for it. These next two pictures were taken during one of our many lunches together at Nirmala College.
Ramya, with her ever-ready beautiful smile. (Prema is trying to hide in the background).
Goats in the graveyard - looking rather comfortable, really.
This Catholic cemetary next to Nirmala at first caught my attention because of the bright colors of the gravestones, and then because of its, uh, wildlife.
Friday mass from the outside at Nirmala College.
Another stolen candid shot, this time taken at Ramya's home. She has such beautiful hair!
Ramya's family and me after an afternoon of eating waaaay too much Thali (Indian rice meal) and sharing family stories. (L to R: Ramya's cousin, father, brother, mother, sister, Ramya herself, and me)
Finally, a picture of all the members of my research group from BYU. This was taken on our last Sunday in Chavadipudur after church, so we all were hygenic, at least in appearance. (L to R: Heidi, Cathlin, Rebekah, Jill, little Megan, Ty, Sydney, Liann, David, and me)
Heidi and Jill demonstrating the "puffy effect" that occurs in our bedroom in Chavadipudur every time we turn on the fan (and wear our Indian "nighties").
Our last night together in Chavadi we decided to make a girls' night, and the following pictures are the rather disturbing results. Yes, we all owned Indian nighties and used them for pajamas. Mine is now being slowboated home and should arrive before the end of 2008.
These were our sleeping arrangements...sad but true.
I love Indian photoshopping and thank you cards! This was for the English Department staff at Nirmala College, and yes, the tulip, snowy cabin, and summer pine tree combination makes perfect visual sense here.
Being modest while Roshney rewrapped my sari in a more fashionable way.
Last day at Nirmala with the second year English MA students. I wore a sari, which they rewrapped several times so I could be stylish and not fall apart on the walk home. (L to R, front row: Prescilla, Prema, Ramya, Bige; back row: Priya, Rose, Elsie, Roshney, and me)
They took a funny photo for me! I've now officially corrupted them with American behavior.
Part of the English Department staff I worked with. All of them helped me with my research, allowed me to sit in on their classes, or provided living arrangements or fed me at some time or another during my stay. What wonderful ladies! (L to R: me, Sujeeta, Sheba, Hema, and two lecturers)
Humidity and too much of the hectic city life can take its toll, especially on my hair. The girls at Nirmala did my hair and couldn't figure out why I kept ending up with devil horns. This shot was taken outside the "Indian Villa" or house I stayed at in Coimbatore.
