Prayer and Starvation

I’ve now spent two full days in Chennai, no beer, no meat. I got my first real look at the slums going on a wild goose chase for a Citibank branch which turned out not to exist. Rather, at least not where google maps suggested.

I had found on google maps the closest Citibank to the institute and tried to walk there. I walked about 40 minutes this morning and then thought I must have missed it. So I returned hot and sweaty from wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt in 85 degree weather.

Later, when it was hotter out, I went trolling along again the same way after having rechecked the map. I walked an hour and found nothing. All told I think I sweated off over a pint of water. I had intentions of working out at the “gym” before dinner, but was too exhausted.

A friend of mine in Philadelphia recently relayed a statement to me about India. I was talking with her about Chennai as her family are Tamils from Chennai and somewhere in the state of Kerala I can’t remember. She said, “Indians are good at prayer and starvation.” I was taken aback for quite a while at that, but now that I’m here, I totally get it! As mentioned I saw some slums today while walking. Slums basically exist right next to nice big pretty buildings. They were originally set up as residences for families of construction workers. I don’t know exactly how accurate that it, but it seems to fit my observations. Just across canal bank road from the brand-spankin’ new TIdel Center (for Information Technology) are some of Chennai’s slums. I have to truly restrain myself for placing value judgments on the residents of these slums. I have been miserable since I got here, but I realize how much worse it really could be. Although, I don’t know how they see it in the slums.

Among the many things that have shocked me are the number of stray cows roaming around. Today, I saw a starving cow tied up to a partly fallen former slum hut. It was foaming at the mouth and just sort of shaking. It looked to me like it was waiting for sure death. But next to the cow were four starving people. They were sleeping on the ground just above a sewer drain guarding over a shrine to Ganesh. Prayer and starvation.