almost got

...

so its bangalore station, big and noisy and late evening, a two hour holdover between train from chennai and train to hospet for hampi… an unwise three Indian trains in one day

so we, hungryish, come out station and head for nearest restaurant and get steered to back of busy room and sit down and order, and its hassly, with bright lights and people talking loudly behind my ear, so I’m jumpy, and after we order our great jaipuri veg and so on, this English guy off same train sits down on one side of me and , on the other, i'm simultaneously aware my bag, or the chair with my bag on it, is moving away at 1mm a second, and that some young guy to my right is doing it with his feet, and I feel pretty stared at and so take bag off chair, and ten seconds later the bloke next me stands up and says his bag has been nicked, its got his passport etc, and dashes out cos there’s only one long way out the place, and it’s a long way, and I realise there must’ve been at least two of them, the guy to my right who was either testing my heavy laptopped bag for weight or simply edging it out of my sight, and the guy next Priscilla who swiftly after the failure on my bag stood up and took the English guy’s bag with him… and that they probably followed us into the restaurant cos we look like easy marks

so the english guy’s a tad stuffed. and so wasn’t on our next train and we, we had a close shave

...

hampi, boulders

very boulders

more boulders than any boulders have bouldered before
boulders carved into bull and elephant gods
another tourist zone, filthy and bugiferous
but with boulders
roads winding between boulders, houses squeezed between boulders, mandapams and mini-temples on top of boulders, beside boulders, below boulders, boulders in a line, boulders on the skyline, boulders scattered across the landscape
random boulders being very boulders
big boulders
much more boulders than boulder colorado
butterball boulders on flat rocks
extra big boulders
boulders
...

Louis Napoleon says

In Pondy a statue of Louis Napoleon

Who lets face it

History hasn’t remembered too kindly

1870 and all that

[See le debacle by zola]

But there is that quote of his

After his earlier victory over the Austrians

I’ve had enough of war, there’s too much luck in it

And that after a victory

I’ve had enough of war, there’s too much luck in it

...

...

If only he’d learnt his own marvellous lesson

...

bloody mosquitoes

literally
...
cos its rather disconcerting to get one of the little so and sos
to grab it or squash it
and find a smear of blood on oneself or the wall
cos its most likely some of either of ours' blood
...

yes its a bit hmmm...
...

Kanchi

Last of our temple towns

P is not well, and templed out, and deadlined

So its me in the hot dry and shabby streets of this poor and flyblown town of friendliness and mess where few tourists stay overnight

And there’s five temples

…

The Kailasanatha, one of the two famous temples, is chiefly famous cos its so old … but only so much to look at or feel… and there's only tourists there for its antiqueness... inside tha high wall around it the wall is lined with intricate carving... and behind the carvings are little person-sized niches for unobserved meditation

While the Sri Ekambaranathar is big and much used and crowded, is a living thing... black shirted men in black slightly embroidered dhotis swarm in lines towards it, intent with devotion and excited by the proximity of the hallowed

And the Vaikantha Perrumal is just as old as the Kailasanatha but has a great cloistered feel … and, academically, might be where the Mandapam style first kicked off

And I’m wondering… this year I’ve been to Norwich Cathedral… and those gorgeous Chinese temples in Vietnam… and the stupas in Lao… and Notre Dame in Montreal... and temple after great temple in Chiang Mai… and so, well, how do they compare?

And the best answer is, they don’t

Norwich was big and high and cool and beautiful and slow and empty and clean

The Chinese temples were cool and ultra-intricate and clean and exceptionally beautiful

And the temples here, in Trichy, Kumbakonam, etc, are old and shabby-edged and cool and… which makes them different, massly devotional… full of people of crowds and swarms and lines

And Notre Dame is beautiful and coloured and trippy and calm and cool and slow

…

but its all about the feel, don’t you think?

so it’s the Chinese temples in Vietnam, or Norwich, or Notre Dame which have had the most effect on me

…

For some reason they throw bags of puffed rice in the giant temple tank at Sri Ekambaranathar

And the fish go mad for them

In movie piranha style frenzy

Hundred of dark shapes beneath the bubbling water

Jumping over the bag in excitement

and for some other reason

unlike anywhere else

they paint the bullocks' horns

cos in many cities its the same pair of long horned bullock pulling the carts

while here they paint them orange and green and black and red and blue
...

... next stop another wholescale relocation... a very bold three trains in one day, via two hours each in Chennai and Bangalore... to Hampi
...

Row divides Islam Solidarity Games

another great headline, this one from guardian
...
Row divides Islam Solidarity Games
...
Sports showcase cancelled after dispute over name of waterway dividing Arab countries and Iran
...

you've got to laugh

o no i've turned into a hippy

see blog below
...
i only ever wanted to be an anarchist
kinda punk rock style
but omygod
itwasnevertheplan
i'veturnedintoa
hippy
...
o no
...
did anyone out there ever hear an early grunge song which began, before the music, with
o mum, i think i'm a dork...?
...
well i say
o mum, i think i'm a hippy

or have i always been a latent hippy?
terrible thought
have i always been a hippy in denial?
terrible thought
should i just shut up and get used to it?
terrible thought
come out of the closet and admit it?
terrible prospect
i'm 47, i really should know myself by now
but a hippy...?
terrible prospect

o mum, i think i'm a hippy

i mean
poet, well la de da
six months in India
what a giveaway
...
after six months in india three years ago
what a giveaway
...
with conspicuously long hair
what a giveaway
...
vague subpseudoneo half-assed Buddhism in his so-called "poems"
what a giveaway
...
oh no
what a giveaway

o mum, i think i'm a dork
sorry, hippy
who cares?
its all awful
how did this happen?
i tried, i really tried
but in the end the latentcloset hippyness just wouldn't lie down and smoke another joint
no it had to stand up and get noticed
O mum...
...

to slide between

To slide between the shadows

and become as one with the dark

To fold oneself within the waves

and become as one with the sea

To filter in with the smoke

and become as one with the air

To disappear into the sun

and become as one with the light

To word oneself in sound

and become as one with the silence

To unbond every atom

and become as one with the all

Diet Water

...

Yes it finally happened

I can’t say it was a surprise

But i could only burst out in glee

Cos yes, we were served a bottle of

Diet Water

Or more accurately Diet Aqua

Which is Diet Water

Hoorah

You gotta laugh

Are you laughing?

I am

Diet Water

...

Meanwhile its holiday Saturday in Mal

A seaside resort for Chennai 60km up the coast

And we thought it was a procession for the Pongal Festival in the morning but no, it was the heavy wave of daytrippers

So what’s its like

...

Well start with an idea of Blackpool, or NY’s Brighton Beach eighty years ago

But with cows and goats eating the strews of rubbish

Small girl in ragged princess dress mooning sadly over cheap dolls