Srikanta brought me home on the bike as usual, and when I walked in the apartment, Nani was waiting! She was full of smiles and tales about Chennai and the temple opening. Although it was apparently unbearably hot down in Tamil Nadu (which I can only imagine was made worse by the silk saris and ban against showing skin), she had a great time seeing her family and participating in the religious event.
The couple responsible for the construction of the new temple (somewhere outside Chennai) had chosen a site very close to their own home. Their son was to be a priest in the temple, and apparently his wife had given up her career to dedicate her life to the family's religious cause. (Something of that sort...)
Apparently this family chose not to send their children to higher education but instead taught them from home, and the kids were proficient in many subjects, including computer science. Nani was very impressed, but I was left with the total conviction that I could not be that sort of obedient daughter-in-law.
After the chat with Nani, I took an auto to go meet Jo at our weekly Urban Solace poetry night. My driver was a pretty taciturn fellow and I for the first time found myself praying he wasn't taking me somewhere other than where I wanted to go. But after circling Ulsoor Lake (who knew, it's actually a lake!) I ended up safe and sound at Urban Solace, just in time to see Jo get out of a car!
Tonight's poetry reading was the oddest so far. Really, just strange characters. With all other tables occupied, we ended up sitting right by the door and consequentially drowned all poetry in the sound of traffic behind us. The featured poet of the night was a man from Chennai, who had traveled to Bangalore to attend the only weekly poetry reading in the country. The crowd was a little sparse, and has been since the Americans from the global school left. I think the featured poet was disappointed, but his poetry was a little lacking as well. He introduced each poem, careful to explain its significance, and often prefaced a piece saying "this one is a short poem". And it would certainly be short. Two or three lines at most, something like "The paper boats float down the river". Sentences from a 1st grade primer.
Next was an elderly man whose rhythm sounded more like conventional slam poetry, but unfortunately we could barely hear him over the traffic. I did catch one poem about a boy and a girl who used to walk down an alley on their way home and see an old man each day, who always looked at them very disapprovingly. The old man one day asked the boy what he thought he was doing with that girl. The boy looked offended and said "she's my sister" and she looked at him in horror and said "don't say such things, he's my dad". And it was cleverly written. The final poet of the night was a woman who had read before, and we couldn't hear a word she said. Overall, an underwhelming night.
After the show, the second poet came up to us and asked if we liked his poetry. He urged us multiple times to come back on a Friday to hear the live music at Urban Solace, and did not seem to understand when we told him we would be leaving India in a few days. Then, the proprietor came up to us and asked me if I would be the feature poet for the following week. I declined, and couldn't understand why he thought I would read poetry (and not Jo, for instance, who has quite the poetry background!).
In the auto on the way home, we discussed poetry and then at home, watched the OC! We're working our way through all of the disks Jo brought with her and I hope we don't run out! I don't like when we have to switch between shows, I get attached!
The couple responsible for the construction of the new temple (somewhere outside Chennai) had chosen a site very close to their own home. Their son was to be a priest in the temple, and apparently his wife had given up her career to dedicate her life to the family's religious cause. (Something of that sort...)
Apparently this family chose not to send their children to higher education but instead taught them from home, and the kids were proficient in many subjects, including computer science. Nani was very impressed, but I was left with the total conviction that I could not be that sort of obedient daughter-in-law.
After the chat with Nani, I took an auto to go meet Jo at our weekly Urban Solace poetry night. My driver was a pretty taciturn fellow and I for the first time found myself praying he wasn't taking me somewhere other than where I wanted to go. But after circling Ulsoor Lake (who knew, it's actually a lake!) I ended up safe and sound at Urban Solace, just in time to see Jo get out of a car!
Tonight's poetry reading was the oddest so far. Really, just strange characters. With all other tables occupied, we ended up sitting right by the door and consequentially drowned all poetry in the sound of traffic behind us. The featured poet of the night was a man from Chennai, who had traveled to Bangalore to attend the only weekly poetry reading in the country. The crowd was a little sparse, and has been since the Americans from the global school left. I think the featured poet was disappointed, but his poetry was a little lacking as well. He introduced each poem, careful to explain its significance, and often prefaced a piece saying "this one is a short poem". And it would certainly be short. Two or three lines at most, something like "The paper boats float down the river". Sentences from a 1st grade primer.
Next was an elderly man whose rhythm sounded more like conventional slam poetry, but unfortunately we could barely hear him over the traffic. I did catch one poem about a boy and a girl who used to walk down an alley on their way home and see an old man each day, who always looked at them very disapprovingly. The old man one day asked the boy what he thought he was doing with that girl. The boy looked offended and said "she's my sister" and she looked at him in horror and said "don't say such things, he's my dad". And it was cleverly written. The final poet of the night was a woman who had read before, and we couldn't hear a word she said. Overall, an underwhelming night.
After the show, the second poet came up to us and asked if we liked his poetry. He urged us multiple times to come back on a Friday to hear the live music at Urban Solace, and did not seem to understand when we told him we would be leaving India in a few days. Then, the proprietor came up to us and asked me if I would be the feature poet for the following week. I declined, and couldn't understand why he thought I would read poetry (and not Jo, for instance, who has quite the poetry background!).
In the auto on the way home, we discussed poetry and then at home, watched the OC! We're working our way through all of the disks Jo brought with her and I hope we don't run out! I don't like when we have to switch between shows, I get attached!
tsk - tsk - no appreciation for haiku!!
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