Nice things today included...
- walking around Kumily, drawing a sketchmap of the streets and trying to photograph as much of the town as possible so a friend who was here over ten years ago can see how it's changed since then. If you click on the thumbnail, you should get to a full-sized sketchmap of Kumily. Clicking on any of the red arrows should get you a view of the relevant photograph. However, it may also get you a supersonic flight - you have been warned!
- encountering an elephant in my peregrinations. It still seems sick to me that this poor beastie is chained up and has to endure carrying humans.
- sheltering from heavy rain under the eaves of a house and being joined a few children who wanted to talk
- being met by a bloke called Osaka who had an umbrella which kept us reasonably dry on the way to the warmth and dryness of a local chai shop*. He also sheltered us under it on the way back to the town centre - bless you sir!
*This is where I first encountered parapuwadai.
- Chai-stall cannabis chat (see below)
- 'Talking' (gestures and my few words of Marathi and Malayalam) with Sarasu and her daughter who run a beedi and cigarette stall in the Tamil Nadu part of Kumily. They gave me their address but I lost it.
At the chai-stall, Osaka introduced me to his mate who was smoking what appeared at first to be a regular beedi. However it looked a little fatter than normal and didn't have the tiny piece of thread that is a feature of regular beedis. This man showed me that he uses the wrapper leaves to construct joints, presumably because beedis are dirt cheap (Rs1 for 10 beedis: Rs1 will only buy 1 filterless 'Scissors'-brand cigarette) and cigarette papers are rare and expensive here.
He told me about prices for cannabis here:
- 'Marijuana' (dried leaves and flowers) costs Rs25 per gram if you buy only a few tolas* but Rs10 per gram if you buy a kilogram or more.
*the weight of a silver rupee: near enough 10 grams
- 'Charas' (resin) costs Rs100 per gram if you buy small amounts. (I couldn't understand his many quotes for the price of large amounts.)
- Cannabis oil is also available but it's even more expensive. I have no idea how to use this oil: perhaps you're meant to get your vehicle stoned and have a really wild trip to the nearest casualty department.
Osaka's mate wasn't at all upset when I told him I didn't want to buy anything after this discussion: other vendors have tried much harder, claiming that they're offering me good prices. It takes a while to get them to understand that I don't want what they're offering at any price.