Friday 13th December

I wasn't going to write today, but - well it's only superstition isn't it? We've got some more lovely sugarless bread and I think C. finally trusts me to cook! His I've tasted your salad no longer works because he's had my chicken casserole and fry-ups now. Kumar keeps bringing disgusting fruit round for us to try. One had the texture of raw fish and smelt like cheesy feet,¹ one was hard and compost-y and today's fruit reeked of fish! I think it's a case of eating them because they don't kill you, a result of poverty rather than culinary values.

C. has very strict ideas about food, like you can't have chicken masala with potatoes and veg. Why not? Next he'll be saying you can't have peanut butter with ice cream...

Mrs Juliet's keyboard is causing more trouble than it's worth (she sent it to me until the exams are finished), everybody wants to play it and it's just like being back at school with all the talentless noise-merchant fighting over it! Today it's been Yesu and Muthu assaulting the ivories. Now Yesu's playing a twentieth century atonal version of a Tamil song while Muthu is imitating traffic noise on the guitar. I'm quite tempted to put some industrial metal on and sing loudly out of tune to complete the cacophony. I've been trying to teach Yesu the concept of notes and 'C Major', but he's blissfully unaware, as most Indians are when you want them to concentrate.² It's a slow process and I've forgotten how difficult it is to start learning music. I just take scales, notes and playing by ear for granted. It's so frustrating when they play something you've taught with a consistent wrong note and they can't work out what's wrong. I'm going to teach C. to sing as well – that'll be fun! I'm trying to teach him the tune of Jerusalem, but it's pretty difficult.

Who'd have thought (I wonder to myself at about 7pm) that I'd be sitting here with a kilo of recently chopped up chicken (still warm) and a pair of nail scissors. Not me, that's for sure! C. won't touch it so the job falls to me. We watched the man hacking it up! Anyway, I took out all the best bits and should have given the rest to Kumar and the watchmen but we threw it away instead. Imagine it; luscious pieces of chicken, fried in onions and garlic, left to simmer in a mix of tomatoes, garam masala, chicken masala and lemon juice, served with potatoes and carrots! Delicious. I still think it was a bit hot for C. – even one spoonful has 'too much' chilli in it!

Since it's Friday 13th, everyone's gone carol singing tonight. We had our biscuits and cameras ready, then joined them on their rounds. I was talking to to this chap for quite a while and he suddenly said you must come to my shop, I'm a tailor! even while spreading the goodwill of the season they're out looking for custom. The singing was raucous, the guitar out of tune and the company jovial. We left when we came round the back of our house – they're going on until 2am!

Mrs Juliet's going to Madurai on Sunday so we'll probably travel with her. C.'s really over-enthusiastic about her and I sometimes find myself thinking selfishly, she's MY friend and I found her and we're musical so STAY AWAY! Oh dear. A touch of jealousy perchance? Just a smidgen? I must train myself not to be so self-immolating.

I'n't life brilliant! It's been very good to me so far, and I hope it'll continue along the same vein. We've been in India for eight weeks now, and I'm starting to react against the Western lifestyle in favour of the Indian. We've been told that Tamil Nadu is very Western in style, the shops etc aspiring to that ideal. But other states like Kerala and the Northern states still have a lot of old Indian traditions from their folk roots. We sort of took what we are experiencing here as an example of the whole, when it is in fact completely different to the rest of the country. What we would call 'white trash' is taken as a part of life here – plastic plates / cups / jugs / chairs, hideous porcelain ornament / Madonna's / crucifixes etc. we had plastic tablecloths!

We're using some unused curtains now – though not tasteful, it is more pleasing to have anything at all in the windows. So as the Bishop said, Ramnad is one of the most backward towns in Tamil Nadu and we're right in the thick of it. We will be becoming Tamilians really, not 'Indians' and when we travel we'll have to be careful about what language we speak. Apparently Tamilians aren't that popular up North because they don't bother to learn Hindi. So it might be wise to learn some Hindi before we go! We'll have to anyway, because no-one speaks Tamil outside Tamil Nadu. It's amazing how most states have their own language, but I suppose Spain has five so it's not that uncommon (what's Black Country in England?).