People and Places: Vellore and Environs


The thing about being an American and traveling is that, for better or for worse, we’ve usually come across a corrupted version of our travels in theme park form. I came to this realization right after college, during my requisite backpacking blitzkrieg through Europe. There, I revisited Busch Gardens Virginia (German wine country) and Epcot Center (Paris and Venice).

The great thing about rural India is that we come here with no previous point of reference for rural India – no memories of cow manure-themed rides, strapped into giant spinning dung patties waving excited hands in the air, no emaciated ox-cart driver action figures. So, if ever there were a rural India themed amusement park, it’s right outside our door.

Town and Country -- our home is perfectly situated at the margins of one and the beginning of the other. The loud and frenzied center of Vellore thins out considerably by the time you reach our home, then ends abruptly. If you walk outside our home and turn right, you find the local commercial strip of shacks and stands selling dried coconuts, tender coconuts, eggs, fruit, rice, even toothpaste and shampoo. If you turn left, immediately you encounter hills, rice fields, and people bringing to life pastoral scenes of rural India.

It may be fatally hot outside, but human nature, particularly when bored to tears in the middle of nowhere, forces one to explore even under the threat of heat stroke. So last weekend, we turned left.

Near the base of Toad Hill, which we climbed a couple of months ago, is a small neighborhood with some concrete structures and some native thatch-roof construction. We saw a group of children playing with a ball in a large yard, while women sat under the shade of mango trees. Locals love to approach us, and on this walk we discovered that they are absolutely bonkers thrilled at the sight of us trespassing onto their property or even poking our heads into their huts to say hello. When we approached the children, it was a cacophony of “hello” “how are you” “what is your name” and other schoolbook English phrases. There were roosters and goats milling around, and a close to newborn calf sitting under the tree. We pet the calf as a crowd of children gathered around to ogle the foreigners. A dog – cute, save the one eye almost exploding out of his skull -- came to greet us. Don’t think he knew how creepy he looked because he acted as if all were normal.

Bored with the calf exhibit, the children proceeded to bolt around barefoot, diving into piles of hay, catching chicks for us. We held the surprisingly docile and soft chirping mounds in our hands, while they (the children, not the chicks) shouted out various chicken dishes: “Chicken 65!” “Chicken Masala!” “Tandoori Chicken!” and offered to kill us a chicken for lunch. We declined, but promised to return to learn basket weaving from the woman who explained that she had just retired as a palm leaf weaving teacher.

Newsbrief -- we are on the brink of mango season. The mango trees in the yard were finally bearing fruit. Still small, green, and firm, but an incredibly promising sight for the weeks ahead. The plan is to eat mangoes until our bellies explode.

After saying goodbye, we proceeded down the dirt road until a barefoot (all players in this story are barefoot) man dismounted his bike carrying a rope. We asked what the rope was for, and in a matter of fact manner he motioned for us to follow him to a rice field, where women in colorful saris were harvesting rice. In a “hey kiddies” Mr. Rogers fashion, he demonstrated to us where to find the rice on the shoots, and how to rub away thick sheaths to uncover recognizable grains of rice. He then proceeded to bundle the shoots with the rope. The women hacked away at the base of the long shoots with sickles. Alex borrowed one and tried his hand at harvesting rice, at about half the speed of the women beside him. They threw their heads back and cackled at the sight of the fluorescent white man struggling with a sickle in the blazing sun. Moving like snails in the cocoon of our sunglasses, hats, shade umbrella and sunscreen, we were amazed that they could work so tirelessly in the ruthless glare of the sun.

After waving goodbye to our second stop, we were off down the dirt road again, meandering through fields and under palm trees, past rocks studded with disks of cow dung placed there to dry in the sun, passing fewer concrete structures and more thatch huts. The two fluorescent pied pipers were quite a site coming into the villages, followed by curious children, beckoned by women at their doorways to eat from bowls of nuts or to come inside to take a look at their very humble homes. Other stops on our walk included a brickmaker shaping bricks out of local dirt and baking them in the sun, as well as Alex as guest celebrity pitching (bowling?) the ball in a cricket game to the raucous cheers of the local boys.

After returning to our home, having been sufficiently broiled and Alex suffering from redneck, we remarked on how enthusiastic our rural neighbors are to share their way of life with us. Drunk from the heat, I imagined a chorus line of our acquaintances from the day – the brickmaker, the rice harvesters, the cricket players, the goats, the chicks, and a cow in a mango costume – linked arm in arm, high-kicking in unison right outside our window.

Below are some photos with captions to convey our initial impressions. Please feel free to click on some of the links in the captions for further edification.




On a walk to the rural villages near our home, we encountered
a large family living in a series of small buildings. Smartly
designed in the shape of a courtyard, the structures kept the
sun to a minimum and the trees provided good shade. They also
had some cute livestock! We promised to come back once the
mangoes ripened on their trees.




The police here use their dog to interrogate prisoners. They
say he can see into the souls of evildoers.




Jeeyung holding some cute and surprisingly docile chicks.



Close-up of nearby rice paddy. Toad Rock in the distance.




Hanging out at the rice paddy. We have some good footage
of Alex harvesting the rice with the ladies. Hard work with
the beating sun. He got a nice red neck too.



Local brick maker. He said he makes 100 bricks a day
but it looked like he was more efficient. Each brick costs
2 rupees or 4.5 cents.



Inserting clay into the form. They then let them dry in the sun
for a day followed by some time in a makeshift oven.




No it's not raining. That umbrella is for the sun.




Local villager's kitchen. She still uses firewood to cook. She
also works as a maid for a doctor at the hospital.




Home after the walk. HOT!!!!




Elephants to greet us at a temple in Kanchipuram. You offer him
a rupee, he snarfs it up, taps you on the head with is trunk (a blessing
of some sort), and gives the rupee to the seated man.




She was a little tentative, but this cute elephant finally won her over.




Some locals at the temples in Mammalapuram.




Stone carving of Arjuna's Penance at Mamallapuram on the
east coast of Tamil Nadu. This carving depicts Arjuna during his
penance to Shiva. The animals are watching the descent of
the river Ganges from the Himalaya which is not seen here
but is carved into the rock.




Shore temple at Mamallapuram.




Mango tree at Sri Ekambaranathar Temple. Kanchipuram. Each of
the four branches provide a different tasting mango: either sweet, sour,
bitter, or salty. We weren't able to confirm this fact in person. The branches
are also supposed to represent the four Vedas (sacred Hindu texts). Legend
says that the tree is 3000 years old.




Is that Parvati, Shivas wife?




Carpenter chiseling out strikes for a teak door frame.




Geetha, our maid. She comes 3 nights a week to help
cook, clean, and do some laundry. She is quickly learrning
how to cook korean food. Maybe she will even learn how
to use chopsticks by the end of the year?




Indian family truckster and S.U.V. Imagine all those soccer
moms back home zipping around in this thing with their kids?
Yeah, they might stop talking on their cellphones while they drive.




Dinner party at our house with our Norwegian friends Kjell, Ingrid and
their two kids Meera and Aksel. We made korean food for dinner. We had
to substitute paneer for tofu. For dessert, Alex made crepes with Nutella.




Roof party on top of our building. We frequently have dinner
up there in the evenings. It's a nice respite from the heat and
the stars are very bright.




Boy 1 in vellore.



Boy 2 in Vellore.




Local boys during village festival. They are CRAZEEEE about
cameras.



Priest.



Safety Priest.