The Daily Commute

So far, my favorite part of the day has been riding the train one way or the other. The scenery is mixed between gorgeous and heartbreaking. I love standing right on the edge with the doors open. The breeze (which smells like shit) blowing right by you. On camera it would make a really good scene in a movie to pan up and down the train and see all the people just taking in their home city. I am often the only foreigner on the train. If there are other foreigners they are from this subcontinent and so I can't tell.

I walk from my apartment (still with nothing in it) down greenways road toward the greenways road railway station. I get the stares constantly. They are broken up from time to time with the ridiculously tall foreigner saying funny things like "good morning" in Tamil, or "my name is elbow" also in Tamil. Telling people my name is elbow is a confusing undertaking. They think I just don't know what word I'm looking for, when in fact I know exactly what I'm saying. It's one of the few phrases that I actually say correctly. In any case, I get stares and laughter, none of it derisive. The people here are generally friendly and love the fact that I speak their language.

I board the train and take is three stops across the Adyar River to Indira Nagar station. Cross the foot bridge over Canal Bank Road and walk a quarter mile past a couple tea stands and random stray cows, pigs, dogs, bicyclists riding 3 to a bike, and other various strange things to my humble office of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences.

This morning that all changed, probably permanently. Usually I ride in with my roommate Rakesh, but he needed extra time this morning so I rode alone. I was walking toward the train station and saw a slum dwelling woman "brushing her teeth" by scraping a brick on the stone ground, putting here right index finger in the clay and brushing... I thought that I'd seen the strangest thing I'll see all day. That lastest about two minutes. As I got to the platform a man sat next to me and he was obviously a foreigner, so I asked him if he spoke english. He doesn't really speak english, but enough for me to get by. He is from Nepal and speaks Tamil fluently. I think he works in something technological here. In any case he asked me some things I answered what I could in Tamil and he loved it. He asked how long I've been here and I said one week and then his eyes lit up. He couldn't believe I know so much Tamil for one week. So he says, "you like tea? Come." So he buys me tea at this little tea stand right near where I work. I sit down and have a chat with him and a man I assume to be a slum dweller who is also very impressed by my (admittedly lacking) Tamil. I learned a few words and will try to learn how to ask for more words. I think I have new morning tea buddies. Hopefully this will be my IN crowd for learning lots about Chennai's local language and other various things.