Madurai

On Thursday we went shopping with the HM and Mrs Juliet, I had intended to get a Salwar Kameez for my sis but they were all in such bad taste that I couldn't bring myself to do it. We had lunch at the Chola (Garden restaurant) and the HM insisted on filling us to the brim with food. I'd tried to organise a sing-song in the afternoon, but she said let them wait.

I was an hour late and everyone had gone home except for the hardcore of favourites. We sang for a bit, Miss Shanti (the wonderful...) came round and they had to go home because it was late. C. was out somewhere so I was forced (under protest, you understand) to chat with Miss Shanti for a while. She wanted to present me with something and I nearly said what, you? but I resisted just in time. I had mentioned that her saris were always fantastic and she bought one for me to take home to my mother. She also gave me some earrings and a brooch.

C. came back and we went back to her house, promising to have some formal photos done, which we didn't because she'd gone shopping and when she came back, C. had gone to Vijilia's house to get some tapes she had stolen and when he got back the Rev had turned up (finally!), scaring Miss Shanti away (what was she THINKING, talking to me without a chaperone!).

C. was quite horrible to him but it was the last time we'll ever see him so I persuaded him to be nice. He seemed quite sad, I don't know why, he'd hardly done anything. This is a bit unfair. I just think he never really knew what to do. Maybe he didn't want us to think badly of India and that's why he never took us anywhere. He only wanted us to see the nice things.

We had dinner with a boy called Ben Daniel from VIIc which was another HUGE preparation, they just piled it on and we were forced to leave half of it. His father put a Jim Reeves record on because it's the only Western music they've got. We left politely.

...

Friday morning, 6:30 and there we were again, under the tamarind tree. We took our cameras this time and Miss Shanti (the delightful, angelic, exquisite) came down to watch. We invited her to play - Kumar and me vs. Miss S and Yesu - we won 21-18! and C. took photos.

Yesterday morning was an absolute shambles after our morning exercise. Rev Jothi had promised to come round at 9am to talk about Hinduism and his conversion and Miss Shanti was to come round at 10 for photos. I took Yesu and Sunny-Zip to the phone place to reconfirm our tickets and I bought some smelly powders and things. I couldn't get through to Gulf Air so I went to a Travel Agent to see is they had a number for them. The man at the Agency looked at our tickets (I don't know why - you ask for a phone number and they look at your tickets). Aha! he said, This ticket is only confirmed to Bahrain!

Long, deathly silence.

What? But they confirmed it in Chennai!

Only to Bahrain, not to London

There followed a long and occasionally heated discussion, which largely involved me asking him to phone Gulf Air to check this and him telling me that they'd gone On Leave and I should travel to Madras that night. I asked him to phone his head office and he said there was no point because we're too late and I said just phone anyway, if our tickets ARE confirmed everything will be okay. He said he'd fax them copies of our tickets which they could check on their computer in an hour or too. why not phone, it'll be quicker? I said but he wouldn't.

Two hours I spent remonstrating with this horrible man and he finally phoned his head office who contacted Gulf Air who weren't on leave (Why would they be on leave? Don't be stupid - these tourists, I don't know) who said of COURSE the tickets are confirmed, would you like to re-confirm them?

Why do people DO this to me? Why do they find problems where there aren't any? He even thought he'd SOLVED the problem he'd invented when he found the letter (dated October 8th) that told me about our flight booking. But this letter is SIX MONTHS OLD! I told him. He wouldn't listen. JUST PHONE THEM, WHO CAN IT HURT?!!!

So my last day in Ramnad was blackened by a stupid man who made up his own version of reality. Sunny was overworked - I hope I haven't broken her. When I got back, Rev Jothi had been and gone, as had Miss Shanti, several times. We took the long-promised photographs and C. went to the fish market¹ with Yesu and his camera, leaving me and Miss Shanti (the beautiful, graceful...) to talk about England, India and marriage...

I don't know WHY she's not married, she's beautiful, intelligent (BSc, BEd) and a fantastic person. Apparently her father advertised in the paper (Matrimonials) and the man who replied asked how much money he would get for her. I can only guess what they told him! It's such a terrible way of getting married, where is her value as a human being? She said that most people ask for 5lbs in gold! This is why she has all the family jewellery - her sister's married already. She has so much to offer, but it's nearly too late for her to become a mother. Of course I'd marry her, but it wouldn't work! I'm too young, for a start. Yes, I'm only joking but it's so sad - she's so perfect. But anyway...

We had our last lunch at the HM's and even though I hadn't had any breakfast I wasn't really hungry. We had coconut rice, chicken cutlets and boiled veg. Mmm mmm mmm. Jerry's mother is wonderful and this too is a tragedy. We're leaving so many wonderful people behind.

The afternoon was very strange, we gave most of our things away and sat around. It's funny, but we spent our last four days in Ramnad as if they were any old day. Everyone was happy, or at least pretended to be and life went on. We didn't see Kiruba Teacher, although we met her husband a couple of times and he didn't say anything about us leaving. Most of the schoolchildren were on holiday, but we saw most of the Important People.

C. had about £170 left over so we gave Rs6500 to Rev jothi for the people of Pamban and Rs2500 for the school library. In all reality Rev Jothi is in the most need. Even though Rev Fenn in Madurai does a lot of very good things, he has enough funds. Rev Jothi needs 1 lakh Rupees (Rs100,000) to finish his church, that's £2,000! Maybe I'll just try to get some clothes sent over or something.