Thrissur Pooram, Pt. 2

These are more pictures from the first day of Thrissur Pooram. The last photo is during the main ceremony, where two lines of elephants, with about 300,000 people between them, face off in front of the Sri Vadakkunathan Temple. The guys on top then switch parasols dozens of times over the course of an hour, with drummers and horn players blasting away the whole time. It is called the Elanjithara Melam.

As you'll notice, the elephant in the first picture has no one riding it. He and another elephant had what a newspaper described as "a tiff," injuring 15 people and sending hundreds running. The elephant's name is either Nayarambalam Rajasekharan or Thiruvambady Unnikrishnan (I can never tell those two apart).

More from Thrissur Pooram

These are from the second day

The Backwaters

My dad and I spent a day touring the backwaters of Kerala in Alleppey, which are kind of like the everglades in Florida -- a system of channels of fairly calm water surrounding strips of land with coconut palms and Indians of various financial means living on them. The water is quite warm and the scenery is lush.






This was our boat

The Backwaters of Kerala

The Prom

The Kodai kids had their prom tonight, so thought I would post a few pictures before I sift through the stuff from the Kerala trip. It looked very similar to an American prom at the beginning, though the had a rather impressive fireworks display (with fireworks that would be illegal in the states). The dress was a little more casual, though as is typical in India the girls looked much better than the guys. Many of the guys were in a blazer and jeans, while the girls all had evening gowns, very few of which were Indian.

I was amazed to see that, after the dining and fireworks, they broke into two groups to watch a movie. I'm told it's a Kodai tradition, but how silly is that? Someone had a bootleg copy of "300," so most of the kids watched that while some went to the campus theater to watch "You, Me and Dupree." After the movie, they reconvened for about a two-hour canteen very similar to the ones they have every week. It didn't seem like many of the kids were really into the dancing. I stayed for about half, and it was all up-tempo. No slow dancing. It would be hard to call it a romantic evening, though a few couples seemed to have a good time.

Anyway, here are some photos.



Richa

Photos

Kum Seok



Sabrina



Not sure who these two are, but they were dressed really nicely

More prom photos

The one in the middle is Butool. Not sure who the other girl is.



(left to right) Sarah, Trisha and Sangeetha

Kodai art show

Went to a student art show last night for the Kodai School. I must say it was quite impressive. Some of the pictures below are quite beautiful. Given the talent of the students at this school in general, I guess it's not a surprise. For comparison with a photo, Kum Seok (from the previous post) is the model on the right of the first picture.
Due to technical difficulties, I am unable to match up the artist with the work. Don't worry -- it's no one you know.

Kodai School students

Since a few of you have asked, here are some pictures of "my students." These shots actually will appear in the yearbook (we had to have some in action shots).



This is the whole group -- these are the kids you want with you if you're stuck on a desert island and need to figure a way out.



The legendary Kum Seok -- no matter what happens at this school he is involved. Student council president, captain of the soccer team, soundman in the play, plays guitar in a band, and has done most of the design work on the yearbook after teaching himself InDesign.



This is Butool -- absolute sweetheart and a very good photographer.



Bhutanese princess No. 1. I think this is Yiwang (pronounced Yong), who seems to be the quieter, more stoic of the two.



Bhutanese princess No. 2. That would make this one Namzay, who is a little more outgoing than her sister, though both are very easy going.

More photos from the orphanage

These are mostly views from outside and inside the orphanage. The empty room with the mats is where the kids sleep. The final shot was in a very dark room where they were having "tea."

Scenes from an orphanage

I took a trip with some kids from the Kodai school to an orphanage. The students as part of their social experience grade make several of these trips each year. This time they played with the children, had tea and then tried to work with the orphans in English and Math, with varying degrees of success. The children were very excited to have company, and incredibly eager to have their pictures taken.

Pictures from downtown Kodai

Unfortunately, these images are able only to convey the sights of downtown Kodaikanal. To fully appreciate the scenes below, take 10 cars to a barn, step out and take a whiff while your friends all honk their horns in random order.

Pictures from the Kodai School

The Kodai school

But first, a word about driving

For those familiar with driving in rural parts of the Czech Republic or similar places, you have not seen anything yet. As far as I can tell, there are three rules of driving, none of which has anything to do with staying on one side of the road or the other. The first, and a principle of physics as well, is that two objects cannot occupy the same spot at the same time. The second is that the bigger vehicle wins and the third is that once someone is behind you, even if you've just pulled a nose ahead of them, they are not your concern and they have to watch out for you. The amazing thing is that buses, cars, motorcycles, rickshaws (auto and regular), bicycles, pedestrians, cows, monkeys and dogs all share the streets and rarely are the injured doing so. It's not efficient, but then neither is carrying 50 pounds of wood six miles on your head for $1.50, but if you have to do it, you do.

But on to the Kodaikanal International School, where I am now officially a guest instructor. After going through some very poor towns, cities and villages, and ascending about 6,000 feet to the school, you will not be prepared for the campus. While the typical buildings are shabby and usually made of whatever material is available, the campus itself looks somewhat medieval. Most of the buildings are made of stone, with narrow walkways and at many places limited lighting.

The second thing that sticks out is the relative wealth. While Kodai (the town) is quite poor by first-world standards, the school is as nice or nicer than American schools. The school has for computer labs, a music building with about a half-dozen piano rooms, and several other rooms with different instruments. They have clay tennis courts, basketball courts, a couple of racquetball courts (cement with netted ceilings), a cricket field that girls were playing softball on yesterday, and many other first-world amenities.

The third thing, and once again I'll expand on this later when I'm more knowledgeable on the subject, is that at least a third of the students here are white, mostly from Europe and Australia. Some were born in India, others are here because their family is here either teaching or doing missionary work. They dress like kids in the US -- T-shirts and jeans are very normal, traditional Indian garb is rare among the students, though more common for Indian faculty members. I just walked past a kid with a Phillies T-Shirt on.

Last post from America

Well, am just trying to pack everything I'll need for India into two bags. In other words, I have packed two bags full of powerbars, tuna, deet spray and toilet paper. Now I have to cram whatever clothes I can still fit around those.

The plan hopefully is to post here once or twice a week with some photos, so check back when you think about it.