Thankfully the loudspeakers have been turned off and packed off to the next Mariamman function in some other neighborhood, allowing more people to experience the joy of music blasting 18 hours a day. We people in Meenambalpuram wouldn't want to hog this all to ourselves.
Now a certain "peace" has descended over Meenambalpuram, where at night the only sounds to be heard are the sweet chirping of crickets and the neighbors clashing with one another, yelling into the late hours of the evening. Last night there was a power cut and moments later there was such a commotion next door that I seriously thought someone was either being burned to death or murdered. I remained locked in the house. but I peeked out the window to see a crowd of spectators gathered outside. This morning I didn't hear any bad news so I figured there were no casualties as a result of the brawl.
Here in Madurai I see people yelling with one another and fighting in public all the time. But sometimes when people are having an argument it is hard to know. Often people do not make gestures or angry facial expressions as you might expect, but merely raise their voices to really loud levels. Sometimes it's also hard for me to know when people are arguing because sometimes people just speak at very loud volumes in general, and not just when they are angry. But nevertheless, you do see people arguing, trying to fight but being held back by others, or just straight up fighting quite often. I think that this must be a side effect of a very high population density. When you have so many people virtually living on top of one another with little personal space, fights are going to result.
This weekend I attended an ear-piercing ceremony which was very interesting and enjoyable, and I'll post some pictures and a description of that sometime soon. We only had to wait 6 hours in the 100 degree heat for it to get started, so things were really quite organized. I also heard some more news of my twin at this function! A few weeks ago a woman in my neighborhood had indicated that she had seen me at my landlady's housewarming ceremony. I told her that I was in the US at that time and therefore was not there. She did not believe me. This foreigner at the ceremony looked just like me and it must have been me. Then, this weekend at the ear-piercing function, I met another woman who said she saw me at the same housewarming function! She also could not believe it when I told her I was in the US. This might just be the same foreigner who frequents the same internet cafe as me, has the same name as me, looks just like me but doesn't speak Tamil! Wow! I really hope I get to meet my doppelganger! But since every white person looks exactly alike, I am sure I will run into her sometime soon.
Now a certain "peace" has descended over Meenambalpuram, where at night the only sounds to be heard are the sweet chirping of crickets and the neighbors clashing with one another, yelling into the late hours of the evening. Last night there was a power cut and moments later there was such a commotion next door that I seriously thought someone was either being burned to death or murdered. I remained locked in the house. but I peeked out the window to see a crowd of spectators gathered outside. This morning I didn't hear any bad news so I figured there were no casualties as a result of the brawl.
Here in Madurai I see people yelling with one another and fighting in public all the time. But sometimes when people are having an argument it is hard to know. Often people do not make gestures or angry facial expressions as you might expect, but merely raise their voices to really loud levels. Sometimes it's also hard for me to know when people are arguing because sometimes people just speak at very loud volumes in general, and not just when they are angry. But nevertheless, you do see people arguing, trying to fight but being held back by others, or just straight up fighting quite often. I think that this must be a side effect of a very high population density. When you have so many people virtually living on top of one another with little personal space, fights are going to result.
This weekend I attended an ear-piercing ceremony which was very interesting and enjoyable, and I'll post some pictures and a description of that sometime soon. We only had to wait 6 hours in the 100 degree heat for it to get started, so things were really quite organized. I also heard some more news of my twin at this function! A few weeks ago a woman in my neighborhood had indicated that she had seen me at my landlady's housewarming ceremony. I told her that I was in the US at that time and therefore was not there. She did not believe me. This foreigner at the ceremony looked just like me and it must have been me. Then, this weekend at the ear-piercing function, I met another woman who said she saw me at the same housewarming function! She also could not believe it when I told her I was in the US. This might just be the same foreigner who frequents the same internet cafe as me, has the same name as me, looks just like me but doesn't speak Tamil! Wow! I really hope I get to meet my doppelganger! But since every white person looks exactly alike, I am sure I will run into her sometime soon.
Me, Tamilarasi, and her husband at Pandikovil.
2 comments:
Melanie, can I just say that I'm really enjoying reading your blog? I found it on my old F&M email account (which I don't use anymore, fyi... there were like 600 messages, oops). Anyway, you crack me up, and reading your blog has proven to be most entertaining. Keep it up for those of us looking to procrastinate back here in "the states," as they say.
Christine!
Shooot! How is grad school? Don't you really wish you were back in Madurai? I am honored to see that you have been reading my blog. I know that you can related to many of the things here. Hope you enjoy!
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