Southern India - 7 February 2012 (1)

Journey to Tanjore

I slept well, except when I had to pull the blanket on halfway through the night as the air-conditioning did its job.   The alarm surprised me and made me decide to sleep with it in bed with me to muffle the sound so as not to wake Jen up.  I managed to get the water a bit warmer in the shower by turning the third tap.  I had wondered what it was for.

When Jen got up, I went down to breakfast.  Only Lukose was there.  He very politely sat with me, waiting for me to finish, but I could see that he was busy so told him to go.  After that, I joined Pam and Reg who had materialised.  Breakfast was not as exciting as the day before, but there was sambar curry.

Lukose had changed the schedule from what was published in our itinerary and we set off for Tanjore at 0830.

Indian Roller

Once we were in the countryside, we saw more species of bird: rollers, drongos, storks, kingfishers, egrets and herons.  I tried to keep an eye on the telegraph wires to spot them.

Lukose sat with us and gave us a talk on Hinduism, arranged marriages and women’s rights.  He said that the government were trying hard to improve things: they were building new infrastructure, providing free schools and creating work for the poor (including building the new infrastructure and clearing rubbish).  The benefits of rubbish clearing could already be seen, but it was still early days and a lot of rubbish was still lying around, especially plastics which do not degrade.  At the same time, they were promoting local businesses by preventing large stores from opening and shutting down small shops as had happened in the UK.

Kingfisher

He said that, as people grew more educated, so the birthrate fell.  Many couples were sticking at two children as they could see the financial advantages of a small family.  On the downside, he said that individualism was increasing at the expense of a community spirit.  He was in favour of arranged marriages because he said that life was much easier when both families are supporting you.  As for women’s rights, election posters for a female candidate were everywhere.

I had expected the land to be very dry, because the monsoon was due in a couple of months.  It was a pleasant surprise to find that everywhere was lush and green.  There was a lot of water about, with flooded fields, irrigation channels and a couple of rivers.  We saw one field which was covered in purple water hyacinths.  Lukose said that these were a real problem as they were clogging up the irrigation channels.