Just Another Day In Chennai

We had an intesting drive around Besant Nagar yesterday afternoon, after getting caught in a major traffic jam becuase we turned the wrong way into a one way street and caused absolute caos, we got to see some of the thousands of people making their way pay homage to Mother Mary at Velankanni Catholic Church. September is the month the Church has celebrates it's festival and people come from far and wide on foot to join in these fesitvities. The streets were lined with people. As usual my camera was close at hand to capture some amazing sights.

Ganesh, The Elephant God

It's that time of the year again that the Hindu community celebrate the festival to honour Ganesh, the elephant God. This festival lasts for 10 days, during this time his followers buy statues of their God and decorate them with offerings. On the tenth day they will take their offering and submerge it in the ocean or river.

Over the last week we have seen some amazing sights. From people out shopping for their statues and offerings to the truck loads of men on their pilgrimage to set their lord free in the ocean. To temples set up on the side of the road with huge brightly painted statues. I also saw people all lining the bridge throwing their offerings into the river.

This is the story (below) of how Ganesha got to be the Elephant god.

Ganesh's mother was the goddess Parvati and his father was the god Shiva. One day, not long before Ganesh was born, his father Shiva went on a journey, leaving Parvati at home. Shiva was away for many years, and during that time Ganesh grew from a baby to a young man.
One spring morning Ganesh was outside when he saw a stranger with long, matted hair, wearing animal skin and with snakes wriggling about him. The stranger wanted to come into the house! He looked frightening and dangerous. Ganesh stood in front of him and tried to stop him because he wanted to protect his mother. What Ganesh didn't know was that this stranger was his father Shiva, and Shiva didn't know that the boy was his son Ganesh. Shiva is known as a quick-tempered god, and he didn't like anyone standing in his way. So he took his sword and cut off the head of Ganesh!
At that moment Parvati came out, to see her husband with his sword in his hand and her son lying on the ground. ‘What have you done, what have you done?’ she cried. ‘You have killed our son.’ Shiva was truly sorry and promised to make things right again, by replacing Ganesh's head with the head of the first living creature he saw.
He searched for many miles. What animal do you think he saw? The first creature he saw was a baby elephant. And that's why Ganesh has the head of an elephant and the body of a man. He has a rather chubby body too, because he is said to like eating sweet things.

The Never Ending Story

Sit back, grab a cuppa because this is a long one, you might here for a while.

Once-upon-a-time in a far off land there lived a Dashing fellow named Sir Apollo-a-lot. He was named this as he had an affinity with one of the local hospitals called Apollo hospital. He would visit this hospital any chance he could, he had even been known to accompany damsel's in distress there at times being their knight in shinning armour holding their hand in times of trouble and need and seeing to it that they where taken care of and looked after very well.
Sir Apollo-a-lot, at times had problems with some nasty little kidney stones. These Kidney stones would attack when it was least expected causing the utmost pain and discomfort. This far off land he lived in, seemed to increase these attacks, so the time had come once again to visit a doctor for some much needed help. And here the story gets really interesting.....

Sir Apollo-a-lot was admitted into one of the county's finest hospitals but this time he would not be going to Apollo but to the Malar. He had been advised the hospital was under going some renovations and he would be resting comfortably in one of the most recently refurbished suites. An operation would be needed to remove the unwanted stone which had nestled its self into the wall of Sir Apollo-a-lots Ureter. So at 7am he made his way to the hospital and on his arrival found many people gathering outside the hospital along with several policemen. Whilst checking himself in he sees a dead body being carried out through the main doors of the hospital into the waiting crowd. He thinks to himself "this is a good start"

He is shown to his recently refurbished room, which may have been refurbished at some stage long ago in the distant past, except for the new flat screen Tv mounted on the wall at the end of the very old looking bed, now this was enough to satisfy his needs for the next 24 hours. There he sits and waits for the multitude of tests to being before the surgery is to take place. Blood tests, Chest ex-rays, ECG and an Eco made for an interesting morning.

Now Sir Apollo-a-lot's wife Lady Worry-a-lot arrives to support her darling husband. With the Detol, sanitising hand wipes and gel and bottled water in hand she makes her entrance.
Sir Apollo-a-lot is to be taken off to theater and with a peck on the cheek from his wife in front of a very grumpy orderly who takes his job very seriously off he goes into the unknown world of a "Indian hospital undergoing refurbishment including floor in which the theater is and looks like a war zone" and his wife begins a long day of sitting and waiting...

Lady Worry-a-lot is sitting enjoying the view from the 7th floor window when a young girl comes into the room to sweep the floor. Now never being short of a word or two she begins to converse with the sweeper girl who seems to be overwhelmed by the friendly nature of this white woman.
Lady Worry-a-lot smiles and enquires after the lovely aroma coming from the mop and is told that no other rooms got the nice smelly stuff in the mop bucket but because "Madame has such a beautiful face, I put nice smell in the room. No other rooms, just for yours" Thanking the sweeper girl she sends her on her way only to have her return every 5 mins to check Madame is ok.
After some time Lady Worry-a-lot beings to worry about the where abouts of her husband. She is informed that her husband is now in recovery and she asks to be able to go and see him.
Sweeper girl takes Lady Worry-a-lot under her wing and shows her the way to her husbands bedside. They (yes both of them) enter the recovery room after leaving their shoes at the door and find Sir Apollo-a-lot sleeping. He awakes at her touch and is surprised to see the sweeper girl also at his bedside, she makes sure he is comfortable and is told that she can not stay and will have to leave and continue her wait in the patients room. So sweeper girl and the Lady make their way back to the room after stopping to chat to all the staff along the way as the sweeper girl has a new friend to show off.

Arriving back at the room their conversations continue but the sweeper girl looks worried (it must be catching) and says to the Lady "Madame, you Christian?"
Lady to the sweeper girl "Yes I am'
Sweeper girl "Madame your husband dead, you must pray to God for him"
Lady with very shocked look on her face "NO, no he is not dead, just sleeping"
Sweeper girl "No Madame, dead, dead, you must pray"
Lady "Oh yes, I must, thank you for reminding me"
Sweeper girl leaves the room for Lady Worry-a-lot to sit and contemplate the conversation......
The sweeper girl enters the room again and is asked if she has any children. Lady Worry-a-lot is then told the most horrific story about the sweeper girls husband burning her. "My husband now has two marriage, he poor kerosene over me and light a match and burn me. He gone now and I still have my two children to look after"
The sweeper girl is covered in scars and Lady Worry-a-lot is close to tears. The sweeper girls eyes brim with tears also and the two woman, worlds apart, share a moment of reflection. God works in strange ways and had brought this humble sweeper girl to remind Lady Worry-a-lot that to have faith in God and to never loose sight of this even in hard times. To have such strength after being being though so much in her young life this beautiful sweeper girl showed such kindness and compassion and faith.

Sir Apollo-a-lot eventually returns to his room with sweeper girl close behind. She waits at the end of his bed and tucks him in. Lady Worry-a-lot has a meal brought from home for him to eat as there was no way she was letting him eat hospital food. She stays while he eats and bids him goodnight to get home to see the children who have been taken care of by Margaret and Victor.

Sir Apollo-a-lot has a comfortable night in hospital and was well taken care of by the sweeper girl even trying to feed him his hospital dinner. He is home the next afternoon minus a annoying kidney stone and spends the next few days recuperating.

And they live happily ever after.
(apart from Lady Worry-a-lot getting a good dose of Delhi Belly, you can never be too careful)

Car Trouble

Couldn't resist getting the camera out the other day when we came upon this car. Goodness knows how it was still on the road and still drivable. Well maybe not that drivable as it was going very slow and the guy behind the wheel looked a bit stressed.

Hope he got the car to where he wanted to go.

Would You Like To Share The Roads With These People?

Part of the never ending challenges that occur whilst living in Chennai is the horror we feel every time we get in the car. Now that's not saying that our driver Victor is a bad driver, in fact he gets us where we want to go usually without a hitch, but it's what we see outside the car that never ceases to amaze us.
The below images are part of a photo campaign by Traffic Police of Hyderabad. But this is relevant to all India cities for sure! We see these sorts of images almost everyday in Chennai on our travels.

The Year Of Hope.

This is our year of HOPE.

Hope that starting a new school will make the kids a lot happier.

Monday was the first day of school and the kids were all excited, one of them was a bit more nervous than the other, but overall they were keen to get to school and see what is was all about.

And it didn't disappoint. A far cry from last years disaster. We drove into the school car park to find about 20 men directing traffic. A few with megaphones calling out instructions to the drivers. This year there are over 700 students starting the school year. This means major traffic chaos. Only in India would you be able to afford to pay that many people for traffic control.

The first 2 days I accompanied the kids to school in the morning but as of Wednesday I let them go on their own with Victor. The afternoons I have still been going because Sam finishes 1/2 an hour before Eliza, it's a bit of a drag hanging around in the heat but it is also a good opportunity for catching up with old and new friends.

The kids have both been thrown in the deep end with a fair bit of homework and I find the evenings now really busy sitting with Sam to make sure the work gets done. No more afternoon skyping for me anymore. Eliza has settled really well and is enjoying all her classes, even Maths and science. Her class sizes vary from 4 to 8 kids in each class. What a great learning environment. No excuses for bad marks at this school. Sam has 14 kids in his class and seems to like his teacher. Lets hope the feeling is mutual. I am sure there will be no repeat performances from last year.

The school is a real oasis in the middle of a very busy city, with lots of green grass and trees. Security is pretty tight and all parents and drivers must have a identification badge with them whilst on the school grounds. The school is very well set up and has so much to offer for the kids and parents, we all look forward to a great year ahead.

Mac has also settled back to his school after a shaky start on Monday. All was well until he saw this one particular teacher and then he was not having a bar of it. Lucky for me there was another Mum doing the drop off at the same time and we had met the week before at orientation day. She could see my dilemma and said to me, "Tuff Love Mum" that was all I needed. I was up the stairs in a flash and I passed him through the door to a different teacher and I was off for a coffee with my new friend and saving grace.

This all makes for a

Mum

All Shook Up

Monday night we were sound asleep when we were woken from our slumber by our beds shaking. Chennai had been hit by the effects of an 7.6 magnitude Earthquake off the coast of India in the Andaman Islands, triggering a tsunami warning for India, Thailand and Burma.

At first being sleepy and not really awake we wondered what the heck was going on. I then looked at the clothes hanging on the hanging rack next to my bed and saw that they were also shaking. I think it was at this point I jumped out of bed and went to check the kids who had also been woken.

What to do?????

There I was standing in my nightie and thinking we need to get out of here. I have seen how the build these apartments and if it comes down I don't plan on being sandwiched by the 2 floors above us. At which point the heavens opened and the torrential rain started, causing the power to go off. Now what to do? Those of you that know me, know that I see danger. I can't help it. It is a family trait handed down by the ever so cautions women in my family. Thank goodness for Andrew who is the calming person in our relationship. He was not too worried and went back to bed, leaving me to ponder our plight. So I settle the kids and turn on the generator powered ceiling fans to get some airflow, remember the power is off and that means NO AIR-CON, SCREAM. For the next 3 hour I lay there in the heat wondering what will happen next. Thank goodness Nothing

Since the initial quake there have been 8 aftershocks. Thursday there was one that was rated 5.4, lucky for us we have not felt any of them.

As I was doing some googling about earthquakes I found this sight (link below) that shows all the most recent earthquakes that have happened in the world. I had no idea how often they happen. Thankfully they don't happen in my part of the world too often.



http://www.myforecast.com/bin/earthquake.m?city=64397&metric=false

Acts Of Bravery? Or Just Plain Crazy?

As we have now started to realize life in India is always full of surprises and amazing things to witness.

Just as I did today.

We had dropped Mac off at school and came upon a traffic jam, whats new in Chennai! After a few minutes Victor says " Madame, you get out of car and take photos!!! Big parade coming". There were people and cars everywhere and I wasn't too keen to get out in the middle of all this traffic but not being one to give up a good photo opportunity, I put my brave hat on and out I got. I couldn't believe my eyes!!!

There in front of me was a guy heading up the procession with a 2 meter long steel rod pierced though his cheeks. Followed closely behind by another, who also had small lemons and pineapples sewn on to his chest and back. These guys had yellow Lungies on. They were on their way to the temple to make their offerings to their God. Hoping that these acts of bravery would grant them good luck for the year ahead.

At this point I got the shakes, as you can see in the video. I then turn around and see all these women carrying pots on their heads, which Margaret tells me would have been full of milk to wash the temple God down with. Standing there I felt like so out of place, but it was something that Margaret has been telling me a lot about so I couldn't believe my luck. Margaret has volunteered to take us to the temple near her home on the weekend to see all these rituals happening. A big part of these celebrations is fire walking and men having big hooks inserted into their backs and then they pull things along. I think after what I saw today I have seen enough. Kinda freaky really. One guy in the video (below)who had a small spear like thing out of his cheeks was so out of it and quite spaced out. Look for him on the video at the beginning of all the women.

I got the following info from a Hindu blog and thought it may help to explain these unusual rituals.
Aadi (mid July to mid August), the fourth month in Tamil calendar, is generally considered as inauspicious. It is believed that Lord Surya (Sun god) changes his direction from north to south in the Aadi month. In 2009, Aadi month begins on July 17th ends on August 16th.
Traditionally, most people avoid auspicious ceremonies during this period. It is believed that the ceremonies held during this period will not have the blessings of the gods. But a few important celebrations and rituals take place in the Aadi month.
The new moon day in Aadi month is celebrated as ‘aadi pooram.’ Many people celebrate Aadi as the month of the Goddess and women partake in several rituals and ceremonies during this month.
Farmers start the new agriculture season during the Aadi month.
The 18th day of Aadi month is celebrated as Aadi perukku. Aadi month falls during the peak monsoon season and most of the rivers will be overflowing during this period. People celebrate this overflow of water by assembling and praying on the river banks. They pray to Gods to keep the rivers always filled so that they will have enough water for agriculture.

Earlier, newly wed couples were separated during the Aadi month by some communities. The bride’s parents used to invite the bride back home. This was because the women who conceived during the Aadi month used to give birth during April – May, the hottest months. In earlier days, when there were no hospitals the infant mortality rate used to be high during the hot months.
A major event in the modern times is the Aadi sales especially of textiles and jewelry.

Trouble In Paradise

Filling in our holidays since we have been back has been a bit tricky. But we are very lucky to have some great friends who have helped to keep us amused. We have managed to spend a few days down at Fisherman's Cove with our friends and we are so grateful for their friendship and their kind offers to lets us join them in paradise. Going down to this resort really rejuvenates you and helps you to face what life has in store for you in this difficult country. It truly is a haven away from the hustle and bustle of the city of Chennai.

Thanks Juliet and girls.

Eliza and Mac sitting upon the Life Guards tower on the beach.

Sam wasn't too keen to climb up there, it's pretty high up.

Walking back to the pool after spending some time on the beach this day, Sam stepped on a thorn and had blood pouring out of is foot. Not being able to see what it was through all the blood we carried him back to the pool to be cleaned up. Within 2 mins we had 13 helpers come out of now where. Even the hotel doctor came to lend a helping hand and patch him up. They were all so kind and caring. Sam's foot is fine and it was the teeniest puncture. He hobbled around for 24 hours but is back to normal now. Don't know where all the blood came from.
Yes, we do create havoc where ever we go.

Ready For School

Well, at long last we can count down the days till school starts on one hand.
Yesterday was New Student Orientation Day at the kids new school and I am very happy to say it was a really positive experience. Hallelujah.
Eliza has her timetable for all her classes and her first class for the school year will be Gym. wink. She has 6 different periods in the school day followed by a 20 min Advisory class at the end of each day. In this advisory class the year level, this year there are only 41 students, a vast difference to last years huge numbers in which there were no spaces, are split up into small groups where they have the same teacher throughout the year to promote a caring and supportive environment. Sounds awesome. She will also experience having 3 male teachers which is a new thing for her as she has only ever had female teachers.
We got to meet Sam's new teacher and she seems to be quite nice. The elementary building of the school has just been completed and looks great. The library was a hit with Sam and he can't wait to get to school to play on the green grassy oval.
Both kids towered over other kids in their year levels and stood out with their fair hair and skin amongst the large Korean Community at the school.
So Monday its back to reality. Early mornings packing lunches and trying to get the kids out the door on time. They are to be at school from 8.15am to start at 8.30am. This will mean leaving home by 8am maybe earlier depending on the traffic.
Mac is my only obstacle at the moment. He has refused to go to his school all week after going last Friday and having a melt down at drop off. He said he doesn't like his teachers and his favourite teacher is on leave at the moment. I am usually not such an easy walk over but with the two big kids at home I think he felt he was missing out on all the fun!! I explained to him that he just can't decide he doesn't want to go to school because it costs Mum and Dad a lot of money to send him there and he used to really love going there. A few days later I was chatting to him about going back to school on Monday and he said to me, "I don't like going because it costs you too much money and I don't want you to spend all your money" Mmmm he's not silly, is he!
So stay tuned for the Monday update. I may have 3 happy kids or???????