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Chennai reminded me a lot of Memphis (not that I've ever been there). Old fashioned diners with lots of guys in 1950s uniforms; christian nuns. Everybody has dark skin, but hair more like Sammy Davis Jr. Chennai isn't really very nice, its mostly driving and honking. I'm sure there are areas that are much nicer. But the food was good, and they have a large movie industry, 120 theatres and crazy billboards.



My first glimpse of Mamallapuram nearly had me back on the bus and onward to Pondicherry. Its a tourist town, so we walk around and they pester us. As usual all the 'westerners' are eating at the same restaraunts--not the ones with the best, cheapest food. 20 Rs for toast and butter. At the Bhavan I pay 10Rs and get 2 Idly, Vada with kuruma or sambvar all served on a banana leaf by a nice guy in a pink uniform. But often we (the more adventerous ones) eat at the tourist traps because we want to meet people.

So I meet Bernt who is German, lives in Hyderabad and is just finishing 2 years in a lab ("cave") finishing his PhD in Genetics. He used to play extreme noise, is without intoxicants for many years and now wishes to meditate down to the core of existence. I couldn't ask for better company.

This is how you eat thali (I'm getting used to it now): banana leaf, rice, sambar, your hands. Bernt shows us:


The town seems to be possessed by some insanity where everybody has to make statues constantly. There are some 2,000 sculpturers, sitting on every corner, in every field, tapping, scraping and chisleling away. The statues are piled in front of every shop: deities, animals, famous people, picasso copies, chillums. Like someday millions of tourists will arrive and actually buy all these things. (Most of it is actually exported--500 pound Shivas for restaraunts in Hong Kong. This is probably where most of the stone carvings in India come from).



There is also festival of music/dance festival on weekends--very high quality. In the north, nobody holds a concert unless there is a chance to sell a tabla (okay, this is only true inside the tourist circuit. Outside in normal Indian life there are some very fine concerts).



The sun and the beach here are quite intoxicating and the fish aren't bad. The cows are washed, have fine painted horns and wear jewelery. There are a lot of tourists here, but they are dwarfed by the tourist industry begging to serve them; and unfortunately every woman is constantly pestered by Indian men who try for sex and/or a visa--and they don't understand when to stop trying either. This is happening all over India, but its really annoying here.

These days a lot of people in India, Asia or Africa have access to Internet, porn, movies. A lot of people then get the wrong impression about westerners and our sex lives. We aren't loose and crazy and fucking just anybody.

On the other hand I was talking with some girls (from L.A. and London) about the Tibettan boys and what they thought of the western girls. I was mostly hanging out with Tibettans at the time, talking about all kinds of things with them, and now the western girls want to know what the Tibettans are saying about them. "You mean you want to know if they think you are loose?" I ask. "Well, yes, do they think we are loose?" "Hello ? We are loose. They get married and take care of the yaks. We fuck each other." I mean it does happen sometimes, its true.

I often explain to Indians that the US is not like you see on TV. They are sitting here watching that stuff on TV and thinking its like that and they want to go there and live like that. (also notice that in Bollywood films there is no garbage on the streets !) In the US, everybody is also sitting there watching that stuff on TV and thinking "I wish my life were like that." And somewhere in Malibu, California somebody is really living that life (with that TV hairstyle) and wondering why they aren't even more famous and rich. People always desire more. Very few people are content.

In the West we at least know we are in the rat race. In the poor countries, they figure THEY AREN'T EVEN IN THE RACE! So they yearn about this, wanting to go the U.S. and then play the big rat race, instead of the small one they are playing here. Sitting here in Tamil Nadu I think you should stay here. There are many wonderful people, places and things in India. Other cities in India I can see why you want to get to London or New York.

If you have the chance to do it, then do it and be happy. If you don't have the chance, then don't yearn after it and make yourself unhappy. This is true for all countries and all people.

I definitely think that people in rich countries should stop complaining about small problems.
Stop whining about shit! You have limbs; you don't have leprosy, nobody has thrown acid on your face; if you need to get an operation you can get it. You have a fortunate birth. But instead you scratch at your psychic problems; nuture your 'angst'; grasp at the majestic complexity of your life because it makes you think "Wow, I'm so complex, so highly evolved: look at how complex my problems are"; and you invented all those problems to keep you company, because reality is a bit odd and you do need something to think about with that huge brain of yours. Again, sorry if this seems like a negative statement, but its supposed to be encouraging, delivered with a spoonful of sardonic humor.

Well, I think I'll go gaze out lazily at the Bay of Bengal for a while. ha ha...now you're jealous, aren't you ?