Pondicherry and some things

this is our town. 

we have a park 

and a beach.

(with a Ghandi yesss)

(we drink coconuts)

 we have crazy streets

with crazy rickshaws.

and temples. lots. 

but this is just one. 

 we also have an elephant. 

i love him so much. 

 and i think he might love me too, a little bit. he hugged me once.  

this is our neighborhood, rainbow nagar.

some things 

this is wonderful: every day here the woman of the household sprinkles salt in front of her house in designs such as these. they do so to keep evil spirits away. 

enchanting, yes? every edifice has them. homes, stores, temples, etc. and the women's free-hand salt sprinkling is consistently impressive. 

one day we went to a cafe where the french bohemians sip things and we listened to a guitar and a woman hum hum hum together.

one day we were attacked. 

 these men approached us and covered us in colored powder and shouted "happy holy." 

we learned later that this was normal. this is how you welcome the spring in India.

 one day Ariel and I found a MotherTree.

we kissed her. 

textures. 

tale of the day hey hey

tuesday

an entire village gathered today to watch Ariel and Angelle swing dance and play clap games. somewhere in there they had multiple old old ooooold women in bright sarees joining the jive. it was glorious. the awkward teenage boys and I pretended we were too cool and taught each other break-dance moves by the ambulance.

wednesday

today we danced in some dirt with some beautiful children whlie swapping timeless traditions. they sang sweetly aged songs in a mystical Indian village tongue. We showed them the good ol' hokey pokey.

 one of our neighbors in our beloved neighborhood

RAINBOW NAGAR

Monday tale of the day

By 11 am today we:
- boarded an ambulance with two nuns, a sleepy old Indian man, and our new friend Solomon and journeyed to who-knows-where India.
- scared the wits out of some rural village children who could not understand how we were so pale.
- helped dispense medicine to some very poor, very beautiful, very strong Indians.
- belted Ain't No Mountain High Enough for the nuns when they requested a loud English song.
- ate watermelon with some farmers and their cows in a blazy field.
- tried a vegetable that looked like a snake. we're pretty sure it wasn't a snake. 

sunday tale of the day

We grocery shop across from where the elephant sleeps. 

Tonight we ventured into the chaos of Sunday night grocerying and barely live to tell the tale. Little people everywhere, short and shorter, you feel like cattle, smells like curry and seafood, crackers and tofu, chocolate only sold out of a locked and guarded case, everyone stares at your juice selection because what are you doing in their grocery store? 

saturday tale of the day

Today Ariel and I were almost bamboozled by a midget but Ariel held strong to the end.

friday tale of the day

nun origami.
one of the nuns is desperate to learn origami so today we had a secret meeting on the laundry terrace. she was supposed to be doing work downstairs, so we it had to be brief but mission was quasi-accomplished. later she snuck into the nursery and asked for some tips of folding while she pretended to help me feed a baby. life can be so twinkly. 

tale of the day

Life in India has inspired me to commence a tale of the day train. We'll see how far it goes.

Monday

The neighborhood crazy pregnant lady stole our apartment keys today and is perhaps in cahoots with a mute man we thought was an ally. Currently the locks are being changed and we're figuring out a booby trap system to catch the bandits.

Tuesday

Today Ariel and I were initiated. The Indian women who also work with the nuns kidnapped us to the laundry roof and gave us both a pottu. Those are the "third eye" dots or marks most women and many men wear on their forehead symbolizing enlightenment, among many things. I thought this was only a Hindu tradition but then I saw lots of Indian Catholics with them. We learned today that India women also wear them simply for cosmetic purposes, like a beauty mark. The rest of the day they were telling us how beautiful we were.

Wednesday

One of the Indian workers showed us her wedding photos and I was swept away. This culture is endlessly rich. I don't understand Tamil, so her explanations were over my head but these are some things I gathered:
- the night before the wedding the women of the family gather and consume the brides hands and arms with these enchanting henna designs.
- the bride, decked out in fireworks colors, bangles, flowers,  and a dangly twinkle crown, meets her groom at the temple, where a shirtless priest directs the ceremony.
- the ceremony involves the groom peeling away the skin of a coconut and tying the coconut to the bride's wrist. they also swap bananas at some point.
- things are burned and the groom rubs the colored ash on their foreheads.
- the parents or sibling tie yellow cords bearing gold charms and deities around their necks. they will wear these for the rest of their lives at all times.
- similar  to wedding rings, the bride and groom then place toe rings on each other which the bride wears always as well.
It is amazing how much you can learn from 12 pictures, but I know I missed a lot in her explanation. Before, she labeled her marriage a "love marriage," which is different from most of the girls at work. For the others, their parents (or siblings if their parents passed away) select their husbands. Before I knew it we were discussing arranged marriage and their true love for their secret boyfriends as nonchalantly as our favorite ice cream flavors. It is their normal here.

My little world opens every day in this place.

Thursday

Today we are going to visit Auroville. This is from their website:

"Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity."

Auroville Charter

1. Auroville belongs to nobody in particular.
   Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole.
   But to live in Auroville, one must be a willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness.
2. Auroville will be the place of an unending education,
   of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.
3. Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring towards future realisations.
4. Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual Human Unity.

I think that's enough explanation for now. 

La Vache Introduces Pondy

Ariel and I followed a cow around Pondicherry for an afternoon. Here are some highlights. 

Cow from Amelie Brown on Vimeo.

Here's a brief explanation of holy cows in India

www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/holycowPBS Cow Article

Indiaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Whoosh. It's a place.

So many things to word and paint and light up and mourn and celebrate that I can't share now because it's a lot. For now, I introduce the new member of the Amelie-Ariel-A-Team: Angelle.