I heart India

Surprised by a turban clad brass band just down the road

Living in another culture can be both a fascinating joy and a frustrating nightmare at the same time. Of course all of this is completely subjective, it depends heavily on your home culture and what you're used to. For us, we have found the Indian way of life wonderfully serene and surprising whilst at the same time occasionally undeniably annoying. You may turn a corner to find a marching band strutting down the road to honour a god's birthday and around the next find the shop you have walked all the way to is closed in the middle of the day, either because they are out on a two and a half hour lunch break or because it's a Tuesday (all of which happened). The challenge for us as we continue our stay here is to take the good with the bad, chill out about what we can't change or effect and roll with the punches. In the sublime moments of cultural bliss that creep up on you and take you by surprise you simply have to sit back, enjoy, take part, dive in, start dancing, roll your sleeves up, try something new and not be too afraid of looking like a wally.

Various pastors, including Sam, compete to pray the loudest

We've come across many such moments in the last few weeks as we've been lucky enough to attend a handful of weddings across the region. From a small village union of a young couple to a grand feast locally in Coonoor where two twenty-somethings fresh from University got married in opulent splendour and fed 3000 guests in the process. We've eaten biryanis off banana leaves with mystery chutneys that scald the tongue and curds that soothe the pallet. We've sung songs under colourful canopies as the sweat drips down our backs. I have been asked to share messages from the Bible, sometimes with as little as 15 seconds notice (thanks Sam...) but sometimes having a balmy 3 minutes to prepare something appropriate to say (so far I've not done so well. Last minute wedding talk faux-pas' include “blessed are those who mourn...” and “neither angels nor demons, nor the powers of hell etc...” powers of hell at a wedding...good one Daniel...). We've also been asked to assist in the cutting of the cake. Apparently its a great honour to be asked but since we didn't even really know the couples names we did our best to decline as politely as possible...ah the joys of being a whitey.

Which brings me neatly to my next thought. For some reason I have never really thought of England as exceptionally multicultural, taking our way of life as a worldwide norm. How wrong I was. I've had my fair share of being chased my little African kids shouting, “Mzungu mzungu!” but took that for a rural African/white devil type thing. I think I expected India, and especially Coonoor with it's steady stream of tourists, to be different. I was mistaken. At first you take it on the chin as it goes with the territory but now we have been here for two months and have long since thought of Coonoor as our Indian home it does seem odd to go into town for eggs and still get gawped at by passers by. Then there's the skin tax. This is the percentage of the correct price that is added to compensate for the buyers lack of melanin. A very large part of me really enjoys bartering rickshaw drivers down to what I now know is the correct price but after a while it does get rather tiresome being ripped off left, right and centre in what you consider your home-town. Worse is the websites advertising hotel rooms or day activities that quote one price for Indians and another for foreigners. How they find the nerve to put it on the website I do not know!

Many a lol with the Erumad kids

We have also had the pleasure of meeting the other half of the Bethesda children at last! We made a trip over the Nilgiri hills to a place called Erumad and were greeted by about 50 very excited children holding flower garlands and producing hugs and kisses. The kids here are really sweet, somehow much more confident then their compatriots in Coonoor and full of laughter and cheek! On our first night there they put on several dances for us, some of which we joined in on, and I was relieved to unveil my small collection of tricks to a new audience of kids (the children in Coonoor have long figured out how I take my thumb off and for weeks have been asking for new magic tricks. The shrieks of delight from the Erumad kids were most gratifying!)

  

A beautiful canopy at the most recent wedding

Most days in our little corner of paradise are much the same. Wake up, toast for breakfast, some kind of small adminy jobs until lunch, perhaps a trip into town for something, play with the kids in the afternoon, something delicious for dinner, a game of cards, meet with Sam and reply to his emails for him, a healthy few chapters of book and then bed again. But every week there are little days out here, or little adventures here. A wedding, a trip down the hill or into Coimbatore, a surprise visitor or a sudden emergency that needs dealing with. Or sometimes it's simply when walking into town you'll come across some kind of carnival or street party. Out here you have to take life as it comes. Keep your wits about you, jump in with both feet, embark on another mini adventure and hope you've remembered to pack spare batteries for the camera.