Asia 2006: Random Bozo returns to lovely Kerala

Monday, Monday - too wet to be true

This morning, Sandra was (as usual) not enjoying being made up for school. Her screams of torture were mollified by use of my wide-spaced 'afro' comb.

After dropping Sandra at school, we met up with Shaji and DS at Mini's café. This was after I spent a while typing up a list of where and when I've stayed in Kerala. In India, all visitors have to complete at least two records at any hotel or guest-house. One is for the hotel and another is given to the local police. Apparently, even foreigners staying in private houses have to be notified to the police and neither Ajeesh or I had officially done so yet. Thank goodness for my blog - I'd never have remembered all the dates and places without it!

Back at Mini's, DS appeared to be sickening for flu - he was shivering and didn't look right. We also met a man called Sashi at Mini's. I think he was involved with the project for the 25th.

We then drove towards Kattappana, stopping off at a couple of schools on the way so that the boys could talk to the headmasters and mistresses about this project. I picked up a copy of today's Deepika: Shaji had an article on page 7 about wind generation at Ramakkalmeddu (Rama Rock). You may be able to read it in english here.

I was now due to speak at this project for 20 minutes on Environmental disasters due to plastics and chemicals. Apparently I'd become the international patron of the World Cultural Tourism Club. Well, as at least one reader of my blog will confirm, I'm very good at patronising! The programmes are printed and distributed and there's no backing out back now!

We had lunch at a toddy shop near Thookupalam. The boys had kapa (tapioca) with various meat curries. I had tapioca with raw onion liberally covered with chilli powder. Now you know why I'd be yodling the next day!

A Kochi hotelier came to our table and was curious about me eating apparently very spicy food. I told him I loved it and that I'd been introduced to it by a friend who'd stayed a long time in Kerala and learnt to cook here. (OK, it's not the full story but it's enough.) To tell the truth, it wasn't that spicy but it was filling. Tapioca alone would have been utterly bland.

DS thought the onion and chilli stuff was too spicy for him. I suggested he get a fatty or milky food to dissolve the capsaicin (which is fat-soluble but not really water-soluble). He asked whether if he put on my glasses he'd have the vision of an englishman. I'm now seriously concerned that I've been talkng down to him. On the way to Kattappana, he talked about how the british had conquered India and how this was now being repeated by capitalist imperialism. (He also told me a bit about the history of cardamom cultivation and the planters who started the 'modern' plantation systems in the last few centuries.) The difference is, in his opinion, that it's not just white people screwing India: people of all colours are doing it. You might think he's a screaming trot because of this but he's actually a member of the dear old Congress party!

The boys met with the deputy director of education in Kattappana about their project. I blogged and searched Greenpeace's website for publications that might be relevant to south India. Eventually Ajeesh and co had finished their business in Kattappana. DS in particular was ready to go home - he felt ill and anyway had to go to greet some visitors at his house.

Back at Nedumkanadam, Ajeesh went to visit the printer who will print the invitations or Jaya's wedding. After this visit (and first stating that if I was patronising him, he should tell me and I would apologise) I suggested to Ajeesh that he insist on a proof first. His reply was that he was grateful for the advice of an elder.

Not long after we got to the house, the TV signal went down. (It's cable TV but it appears all of the area was affected, not just Ajeesh's house.) A few minutes later the electricity supply failed so we couldn't even gawp at a blue screen of death. The electricity supply had apparently failed all over Idukki district. It's ironic that Idukki dam supplies a large percentage of Kerala's electricity. Without power and with nothing better to do, we were all in bed by 9pm.