So I thought I’d take this opportunity to describe our new setting, which just 
happens to be my grandparent’s farm in rural Tamil Nadu. More commonly referred to as Athotum, it is 21 acres of mainly sugar cane and banana fields with palm trees sprinkled throughout, along with a garden for own consumption. When you look out on our little veranda all you see is bright green as far as you can see. Naz and I can walk thru the fields as long as we’re doused in bug spray (which we tend to be saturated in 24 hours a day regardless) since we’ve opted out of malaria medicine, which tends to do more harm than good when taken for long periods of time. There are various other critters we have to watch out for such as snakes, scorpions, and any brightly colored bug, but fortunately they only make rare appearances.
Although we may crave an authentic experience, unlike millions of Indians we will never feel the insatiable pangs of hunger. We are constantly being asked to come down for meals where people wait attentively at the table to replenish anything on our plates that look remotely low. The average meal consists of a vegetable (like okra or something of the sort), mushy lentils, plain yogurt (which I often mix with everything to ease the burning sensation in my mouth that follows every meal) and some variation of a rice product. We rarely eat meat and snack on fruit from our garden or one of the neighboring farms. Coupled with the absence of alcohol, my other favorite intoxicating product, and cheese this whole trip can be seen as a detox retreat.
The first day we were here Naz and I strolled down to the river near the house and skipped stones till dusk. It was as cliché as it sounds but extremely relaxing. We can’t actually let any of our body parts touch the water since we could contract Hepatitis A, Polio, Hep B, Typhoid, Hep C, or a host of other diseases that no longer exist in the western world. The river is mainly used by the local people as a laundry machine, which is rather alarming considering it is also the community toilet. Despite that it looks quite inviting with brightly colored plants slowly floating by rather than the scraps of feces or body parts that I would have imagined.
Other than that we’ve spent most of our free time reading one of the 28 books we have between us (so forgive me if this blog resembles a book review at times) or entertaining ourselves outside during the more mild periods of day. There is a new dachshund puppy named Rocky on the farm (most of their pet names are limited to outdated American movies) who is quite the biter and tends to pee as soon as your are within spraying distance of him, but he is fulfilling all of my childhood fantasies nonetheless. It helps that he comes with his own poop-scooping team who wash him after he inevitable roles in his own excrements.
It is also worth mentioning that if you have an irrational fear of ants, or even a mild distaste for the little buggers, India is not the place for you. No matter where you are- on your bed, in the kitchen, or even in the bathroom (where normally everyone likes to escape from all the horrors in this world) there is an unyielding stream of tiny little ants marching around you…just waiting for your guard to go down. Well, okay they are about the size of 3 period marks placed together and they don’t really bite and if they did you probably wouldn’t even notice, but they are still there…all the time. In fact as we speak there is one crawling thru the keys of my laptop.
So right now it’s about 3 in the afternoon and I am sitting out on the front porch baking in 90 degree weather with the sounds of mopeds driving by and birds chirping. There is a rather odd mixture of cow manure and the smell of fresh flowers wafting over which is my cue to retreat indoors, but I leave you with some videos we took the other day...
Okay so I gave the computer half an hour to load a video which it obviously had no intention of doing in the first place. Hmmm I promise I'll figure something out soon enough. Till then you will be left to your imagination.
happens to be my grandparent’s farm in rural Tamil Nadu. More commonly referred to as Athotum, it is 21 acres of mainly sugar cane and banana fields with palm trees sprinkled throughout, along with a garden for own consumption. When you look out on our little veranda all you see is bright green as far as you can see. Naz and I can walk thru the fields as long as we’re doused in bug spray (which we tend to be saturated in 24 hours a day regardless) since we’ve opted out of malaria medicine, which tends to do more harm than good when taken for long periods of time. There are various other critters we have to watch out for such as snakes, scorpions, and any brightly colored bug, but fortunately they only make rare appearances.Although we may crave an authentic experience, unlike millions of Indians we will never feel the insatiable pangs of hunger. We are constantly being asked to come down for meals where people wait attentively at the table to replenish anything on our plates that look remotely low. The average meal consists of a vegetable (like okra or something of the sort), mushy lentils, plain yogurt (which I often mix with everything to ease the burning sensation in my mouth that follows every meal) and some variation of a rice product. We rarely eat meat and snack on fruit from our garden or one of the neighboring farms. Coupled with the absence of alcohol, my other favorite intoxicating product, and cheese this whole trip can be seen as a detox retreat.
The first day we were here Naz and I strolled down to the river near the house and skipped stones till dusk. It was as cliché as it sounds but extremely relaxing. We can’t actually let any of our body parts touch the water since we could contract Hepatitis A, Polio, Hep B, Typhoid, Hep C, or a host of other diseases that no longer exist in the western world. The river is mainly used by the local people as a laundry machine, which is rather alarming considering it is also the community toilet. Despite that it looks quite inviting with brightly colored plants slowly floating by rather than the scraps of feces or body parts that I would have imagined.
Other than that we’ve spent most of our free time reading one of the 28 books we have between us (so forgive me if this blog resembles a book review at times) or entertaining ourselves outside during the more mild periods of day. There is a new dachshund puppy named Rocky on the farm (most of their pet names are limited to outdated American movies) who is quite the biter and tends to pee as soon as your are within spraying distance of him, but he is fulfilling all of my childhood fantasies nonetheless. It helps that he comes with his own poop-scooping team who wash him after he inevitable roles in his own excrements.
It is also worth mentioning that if you have an irrational fear of ants, or even a mild distaste for the little buggers, India is not the place for you. No matter where you are- on your bed, in the kitchen, or even in the bathroom (where normally everyone likes to escape from all the horrors in this world) there is an unyielding stream of tiny little ants marching around you…just waiting for your guard to go down. Well, okay they are about the size of 3 period marks placed together and they don’t really bite and if they did you probably wouldn’t even notice, but they are still there…all the time. In fact as we speak there is one crawling thru the keys of my laptop.
So right now it’s about 3 in the afternoon and I am sitting out on the front porch baking in 90 degree weather with the sounds of mopeds driving by and birds chirping. There is a rather odd mixture of cow manure and the smell of fresh flowers wafting over which is my cue to retreat indoors, but I leave you with some videos we took the other day...
Okay so I gave the computer half an hour to load a video which it obviously had no intention of doing in the first place. Hmmm I promise I'll figure something out soon enough. Till then you will be left to your imagination.
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