It's been a few days since I moved into my new place now, and it's been a couple of days since I've had a chance to sit down and write anything. The feeling of shock and awe which has accompanied my landing in this new neighborhood has started to wear off somewhat. In past years I have spent a lot of time in neighborhoods where folks are used to occasionally seeing foreigners, which really isn't the case in BB Kulam/Meenambalpuram/Mullai Nagar/Meenakshipuram (to add to the confusion, this neighborhood is known by at least 4 names). This weekend was pretty difficult. On Saturday I decided to walk to the main road instead of taking the bus. I had the feeling of hundreds of people staring at me and laughing and commenting from the moment I set foot outside, I guess because this is exactly what was happening. "Vellaikkari" is a word I used to hear rarely -- now it's all I hear. It's sometimes a curse to know Tamil in these situations because you hear people talking about you and can understand.
I need to get re-used to people touching me all the time. Tamilarasi reminded me yesterday of something I had heard a while back: many people believe that by touching me, my "whiteness" will rub off on them -- literally. I was also interested to hear about other forms of transmission between bodies from Tamilarasi last night. She and I got on a crowded bus to go to the Karappusaamy temple at Tamukkam last night. After we got home her right eye got very red and started burning and itching. She told me it was because a "bad woman",probably a prostitute, had touched her on the bus. She said it was best to make sure no one touches you on the bus, but these seems pretty difficult considering we are crammed in there like sardines. Tamilarasi also told me that just like it is possible to transmit bad properties from person to person through touch, it is also possible to transmit good qualities between people. A person who is very good morally can transmit some of this essence to a person who touches their feet; like an electrical "current" these properties will pass from the feet of the person to the individual touching them.
One of the benefits of living in my neighborhood is the spontaneous emergence of very exciting processions such as this one above, which was for an ear-piercing ceremony. In the front men were dancing in cow costumes, others were setting off firecrackers and beating drums.
I need to get re-used to people touching me all the time. Tamilarasi reminded me yesterday of something I had heard a while back: many people believe that by touching me, my "whiteness" will rub off on them -- literally. I was also interested to hear about other forms of transmission between bodies from Tamilarasi last night. She and I got on a crowded bus to go to the Karappusaamy temple at Tamukkam last night. After we got home her right eye got very red and started burning and itching. She told me it was because a "bad woman",probably a prostitute, had touched her on the bus. She said it was best to make sure no one touches you on the bus, but these seems pretty difficult considering we are crammed in there like sardines. Tamilarasi also told me that just like it is possible to transmit bad properties from person to person through touch, it is also possible to transmit good qualities between people. A person who is very good morally can transmit some of this essence to a person who touches their feet; like an electrical "current" these properties will pass from the feet of the person to the individual touching them.
One of the benefits of living in my neighborhood is the spontaneous emergence of very exciting processions such as this one above, which was for an ear-piercing ceremony. In the front men were dancing in cow costumes, others were setting off firecrackers and beating drums.
These very nice people work at the Goripalayam vegetable market where I went the other day to stock up on very important staples such as drishti pumpkins, etc. They are big believers in drishti and their whole shop is covered in very interesting amulets.
Nothing really says "welcome"like a nice drishti moham on your house.
This highly efficient conveyer of hepatitis/sugarcane juicerbears a lot of auspicious markings
These girls were on their way to the Perumal templeand easily charmed me out of ten rupees.
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