ooh la la day nueve.

I have been in India a week tonight. That's just crazy.

Where to begin...

We made it to Pondi this past weekend for a little escape from life in Chennai. Pondicherry is about three hours south of Chennai. A bustling little town, French colonial inspired buildings left as remnants of the former colonies; meet India. We stayed in a nice hotel, courtesy of mis padres (this will soon change). Pondi is definitely a much needed break from the madness that is Chennai, but it is still India let's remember.

I'm continually noticing the severe contrast, a paradox really, between so many things in India. Brightly painted French style buildings and neighborhoods, blocks laid out in front of piles and piles of bricks; women wrapped snugly in brilliant blue saris and flowers in their hair, sit cross legged in front of their neatly arranged piles of fish; piles of garbage litter the streets, one such decorated with the head of a cow hide. Have you ever seen the ankles of an elephant posing as the sturdy ankles of a woman walking bare foot through the littered streets? Well I saw this woman shuffling down the street, her hair neatly pleated with braids and a navy blue sari wrapped around her waist. Her bare feet are covered with nothing more than the flesh that billows over her ankles, a disease that I have found to be quite common here...often it's just one leg that is plagued. I cannot even imagine...

We took the bus back from Pondi and to my mothers horror, actually took a bus without air conditioning! She was sure to let my dad know is error, and pouted in the back seat while I sunk lower in my chair. I found the bus to be exhilarating and breezy, despite the frequent close encounters with the other buses lumbering along the narrow roads, blaring horns at our discretion. My mom was also horrified when she later told me that the man I was sitting next to, and me, were falling asleep on each other...just imagine! haha. A scene all to familiar to me having spent many hazy eyed morning busing to work in San Francisco full blown asleep on the crouching shoulder next to me.

I have yet to really venture out of this little bubble of Chennai, but from my observations here, one might think this city has recently been the victim of a bombing...everywhere. Buildings sky high are tainted with streaks of dirt, mildew, and chipping paint. Scaffolding to the ceiling clings on by twine, and empty building floors echo the sounds of the street. You cannot walk a city block without passing a massive mountain of red bricks, left over from a project years ago or ready to be carefully toiled over by the people who spend an eternity breaking bricks for a living. Buildings crumble underneath the hundreds of workers who spend a minimum of 12 hours a day doing heavy manual labor, to do the simple task of renovating a building, digging a trench, or building a roof. This must be the hardest work imaginable, sweating out the hot Indian sun day after day is toil enough.

I am not trying to paint an ugly picture of Chennai, but I am beginning to take to heart what anyone who has traveled here uttered the minute they found out I would be coming here, 'Chennai is kind of a....shit hole.'

Supposedly, there are 350 million people that comprise the middle class in India. But where I am wondering do all these people live, and what do they do? The places I have been where such dire poverty exists, you can easily distinguish between classes. The slums in Cape Town which speckle the horizon, distinctly end when they meet a highway, dividing the two worlds. The rich and famous of San Salvador are separated by walls, gates, even security guards who look down on the shacks nestled along the highways.

Chennai, and I'm guessing in much of India, there is no division of anything. The houses that appear to maybe reside somewhere in the 'middle' are only separated by the shadow that is cast down on the makeshift tarps, bamboo style huts, and sleeping dwellers on the streets. The same auto rickshaws beep their horns effervescently as they weave in and out of single lanes. Children wearing matching uniform saris prance around holding hands, and making up games in the dirt. The folded saris flap in the wind on wires knotted above the streets below. All of Chennai is one big intermixed hodge podge of faces, traffic noises, and the desperation of India's poorest hands outreached into air.

My dad and I took the train yesterday. One day when I was in China, which seems light years away, the subway that seemed so bustling and crazy is now a glittering reflection of what is missing in India. The Beijing and Shanghai subway run every few minutes on the dot, the seats are sparkling clean and there is not a hint of wear throughout the station.

Walking to the train in Chennai, we find the building to be a huge empty warehouse type building, appearing to be 'unfinished.' The inside of the station wreaks of things that I cannot mention, and the lack of signs anywhere left us to wander aimlessly. Each train arrives every 15 minutes or so. The few benches fashioned along the wall hung on loose hinges, dangling at the seams. The walls sag with age, and the tracks seem hardly able to support the weight of a train. However, despite the dreary state of the , the train was actually quite fun, and a fabulous way to see a wider view of Chennai. Most of the city appears to be in similar conditions to my previous observations, but there is always something different about seeing a new place through a speeding train with no doors, clutching onto the railing and hoping not to fall. I did see some giant magnetic creatures wallowing in the mucky waters along the banks of the tracks. I thought they were just more cows, which is a normal occurrence to see cows everywhere these days, but they were water buffalo! I still get really excited to see new animals in the wild, like a used to as an innocent kid visiting the zoo. Some pictures that stay in my mind seem so reminiscent of a movie I have to remind myself that I am actually here...

Well if you have made it this far, then my hat is off to you...if anyone out there is even reading this. At least I have some good reflecting time..hah.

I guess that is all for now...thanks for reading.

Please feel free to write me...I would love it actually.

-s