I can’t avoid more posts about my trip to India. It was simply too freaky an experience for me. I should have been sharing my experiences while I was over there, but I was just too wiped out by the end of each day. I don’t think I ever adjusted to the jet lag even after 10 days. I was exhausted the whole time there, but it took less than a day to get “reset” when I returned to North America.

This was a business trip for me. But I made attempts to get out and about in the evenings and on the one weekend I had while I was there. There was always something interesting, different, or shocking to see. Even everyday traffic was full of memorable sights. People hanging out of buses, four people on a motorcycle, trucks overloaded, motorcycles with cargo stacked high, auto rickshaws, oxcarts, traffic EVERYWHERE!

I went on a tour of a local temple with a business counterpart. As we walked through the temple, she shared with me the history, reasoning, and religious significance of every detail of the experience. Everything was explained. Everything had a reason and intention. Why the red dot in the middle of the forehead? Partially because women are the weaker sex. Being the weaker sex, they would be easier to mesmerize. The red dot distracts the attention of a possible hypnotist and this prevents the mesmerizing from taking place. Why do you eat with the right hand? Because the left hand is considered the devil’s hand; it’s the hand to wipe your ass with. Why are their woven rugs on the stones of the temples? Because the stone gets hot during they afternoon sun… This last one struck me funny for some reason. I was waiting for some symbolic reasoning, some divine explanation, some clever anecdote of its origin. I didn’t expect “the stones get hot in the sun and will burn your feet.”

We visited Marina Beach, in Chennai. This is apparently the second largest beach in the world. It was also hit very hard by the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004. It was here that I tried Samosa Channa and Kulfi. Delicious food, but the local folks in the office were surprised that we ate food prepared at the beach. Might explain why I spent the first half of my trip farting endlessly and the second half of my trip being afraid to fart. I am still suffering the after effects, like some intercontinental gastro-intestinal hangover.

The poverty and sanitary conditions really hit me hard. It was not uncommon to see garbage piled along busy roadways. It was also not uncommon to see cows, goats, and even pigs “grazing” in these piles of garbage. It is also very disturbing to see the conditions that some people are forced to live in. There were folks living on the side of the road in grass huts or under tarpaulins. Sad, very sad.

Before I clue this post up… can anyone tell me what this hose is for? More specifically, how is it used to do whatever it is for?