Tuesday 18th February

It was C.'s birthday yesterday and although he kept saying he was going to be miserable I think he enjoyed it. Not like an English birthday though - people kept demanding cake! It's an Indian custom to give out cake and sweets on your birthday - a tradition that the Indian Express has taken a step further by encouraging young readers to have feasts for poor, homeless and disabled children.¹ Good for the kids' consciences, but not their parent's pockets! It's a good idea though.

So C. bought a hundred 'Googlies' (sherbet lemons) and handed them out at school. I bought him a tie-dye lunghi (I found some at last!), which is pretty cool. I got one for myself too.

On Saturday we went to Rameswaram with Kumar and took lots of photos of Pamban and Rev Jothi's church. We walked up the bridge and got some fantastic birds-eye views of the fishing village. One lady didn't take kindly to me taking arty farty shots of her neighbours and waved her broom at me. I waved back.

I was as subtle as I could be and the photos are brilliant! It was very hot and we moved on to the temple where it was cool and quiet. Quiet? That's right, deadly silent. no-one was around as it was lunchtime and we basically had the whole place to ourselves. We weren't sure about using our cameras so snapped away on the assumption that someone would stop us if it wasn't allowed. Several priests passed us without comment and it was only on the way out that we saw the 'Cameras Rs25' sign. Oh well, conned 'em out of 50p!

There were some horrible tourists on the beach so we got Kumar to talk Tamil while we nodded and said Amma? Amma. (Yes).

We visited Juliet in the evening, she wasn't there so we played chess and drafts until we decided we should probably go, at about nine-thirty. Her helper asked us to stay and eat but we thought she'd have to cook so we declined and left. We bumped into Juliet and her husband on the way back who forced us to go and eat. It turned out that the helper had already cooked for us and we said we didn't want it! Okay, not very interesting, but slightly embarrassing.

There's a mad little girl who comes round calling us 'idiots' and 'bloody fools'. She's a bit of a handful and on Sunday afternoon we we went with her and her sister Celine from 8th Standard to some other school's prize-giving. Celine was doing a dance and we sat through four hours of speeches then all the other dances before she came on! Celine's little sister, Vijilia, told C. that their father had 'bride-burned' their mother and is now living in Madras with another woman. They live with their grandparents. I know this stuff happens, but it's really horrible when it's someone you know.

It seems to be quite a major problem, people burning their wives / daughters-in-law because they're not happy with them or want more money. There are lots of other similar murders: men killing their whole families, wives killing their violent alcoholic husbands - often with the help of their children. I'm glad I don't actually live here! So much for 'Unity in Diversity', everyone's at war here.

We rushed back from the dance because of our dinner date with (the adorable) Miss Shanti, who had all but given up on us (it was eight o'clock). She wanted to take us to the Surya, but we ended up at the Abiraami, which is the only place in Ramnad worth eating at. I think she was feeling dodgy because she didn't eat much and had a very pained look on her face for most of the meal. Mybe it was 'women's problems', something your average Indian man wouldn't have a clue about.

...

You may recall that a few days ago I tried to visit one of the temples here to take pictures of the paintings but it was closed. And I met those three blokes. Well I went again today and took some of my own tapes. It was great playing my music for someone who appreciates it - I've found a place to leave all my tapes now! All three brothers do body-building, which is unusual for the Indians we've met so far! They were training today and are pretty huge!

It's also good to spend some time with people nearer my own age and with more 'grown-up' interests. They're too 'male' for C. though, I doubt if he'll come to meet them. We forgot to go to the temple so I'll have to go another time. Again, it's meeting people just before we leave - so annoying. It's all why can't you stay longer, we've only just met you!

We went to Juliet's this evening and she said, oh there's a sports day on March 8th - you will come, won't you? Dangling the carrot, bait, whatever you call it, I wish they wouldn't do that. We can't stay, great things are afoot...