Aesthetics

One of the things that I'm learning here is how different the Indian view of aesthetics is when compared with the American view. (To clear up any misunderstanding right off, aesthetics: a particular theory or conception of beauty or art : a particular taste for or approach to what is pleasing to the senses and especially sight.) One of the first examples that I had of this was when we first arranged our living room. At first, we had the typical arrangement of the sofa opposite the TV, flanked by two chairs. The "coffee table" that we were provided with was more of the size that I would use as an end table, but it was in the middle of the arrangement. However, once we receieved all of our furniture, Liz and I decided to be a little bit creative with the arrangement. We decided to leave the sofa opposite the TV but put the two chairs separated by the table on the perpendicular wall and leave their opposite open to the room. We liked the open feeling that it gave to the room. We also figured that a rug would tie the whole room together nicely. (Well, we still figure that, we just haven't purchased one yet. :) ) It was interesting to see the Indians react to our arrangment though. Our maid was the most concerned, trying to convince us to move one of the chairs back to the opposite side. Everyone else reacted with quizzical looks at the arrangement or the grudging comments of "I guess this arrangement is pretty ok."

The other instance where I've noticed this discrepancy is in shopping for clothing. I recently purchased a new salwar suit (pants, top and dupatta [scarf]) at Naidu Hall. When I went to try everything on, they handed me the pants and the top, but not the dupatta. I didn't think much of it since I figured that it wouldn't need to be altered like the other pieces. However, AFTER I had given them for tailoring, I noticed the dupatta and thought to myself "I don't think those colors really match." But I went ahead and purchased it anyway and took it home to ask Liz' opinon. She quickly agreed that it didn't match, so I, feeling better about my sense of color, decided to purchase material for one that I thought matched. Then the people at the matching center store [Indian] kept telling me that the colors on the original dupatta were "correct" and I didn't need to find another one. Interesting.

I guess this discrepancy may explain why I was unsuccessful in purchasing material to have another salwar suit made for me. For me, the problems were not only color, but also shapes ("No, the triangles on the top don't match with the paisley print on the pants!" or "Squares and circles just don't go together!") Is this proof that the American aesthetic is completely different than the Indian aesthetic? Or am I just too picky? :)

My First Tamil Movie

Today I watched my first Tamil movie (with subtitles of course) called Minnale (means "lightening".) We decided to watch this one because, apparently, it is more like the Hindi movie format that I'm used to. [For the uninitiated, the basic Hindi movie plot line: Boy meets/falls in love with girl, boy can't have girl for caste/family/previous engagement issue, issue gets resolved (usually through some heroics), boy and girl live happily ever after. It will also include lots of singing and dancing (think 1940s Hollywood musical), a scene with the heroine in a wet saree, and no kissing (unless the couple is married). I love them! :) ]

Minnale did not disappoint. It was wonderfully sentimental ("true love will prevail over all obstacles"). Rajesh, the hero, falls in love with Reena but finds that she's engaged (through their families) to his college rival Rajiv (whom she hasn't met in many years since he has been working in America.) He impersonates Rajiv in order to win Reena's heart. Of course, when she finds out the truth, she wants to have nothing to do with Rajesh even though she has fallen in love with him (after spending 5 days with him.) Every thing gets sorted out in the end (of course!) and Rajiv gracefully bows out of the picture. [In a love triangle, the anti-hero is removed from the situation by either 1.) death; 2.) the discovery that he's really a villain; or, 3.) his stepping gracefully out of the way.]

As compared to a Hindi movie, this movie had less singing and dancing (averaging one song/half hour compared to one song every 15 minutes!) but it had many more choreographed fight scenes. The other thing I found interesting is that it never seemed to matter that Rajesh was Brahmin and Reena was Christian. [In most of the Hindi movies I've seen, something like that in itself would be the issue separating the loving couple (Veer-Zahra comes to mind, although they also had nationality issues.)] But here it wasn't even addressed? Is the South more open-minded regarding this issue?

In any case, I look forward to seeing more Tamil movies during my stay here...

[By the way, for those of you who were wondering about the title, he first saw and fell in love with the girl when he saw her dancing with some kids during a thunderstorm. It was like lightening! :) Although she was wearing a salwar kameez instead of a saree... :)]

A Correction...

In order to clarify, the definitions that I used for kitsch were a combo from urbandictionary.com as follows:

1. kitsch
As an art movement, lifestyle, or literature and film genre, kitsch is pleasingly distasteful. It's melodramatic, overdone, gaudy and tacky or sentimental and folksy. It's so bad that it's cool. Your cat might attack it, but it's hot.And, no, Martha Stewart and Jerry Springer are NOT bad enough to be kitsch. At all. Paris and Nicole though...

and:

3. kitsch
art, decorative objects or design considered by many people to be ugly, lacking in style, or false but enjoyed by other people, often because they are funny.

I personally am not big on flashing lighted things, but I didn't mean it to sound that derogatory...sorry for the confusion... :)

The Search for a Bangle Box...

Poor Raghu. Little did he know what he was getting into when he agreed to take me shopping for a bangle box... :)

Liz and I have been talking about needing bangle boxes to store all of our bangles for quite some time now. Basically, they are jewelry boxes with removable bars, so that you can slide your bangles on them. Unfortunately for some people, this weekend, Liz headed off to do some other necessary shopping with another friend, so I convinced Raghu to take me to look for the bangle boxes. On the advice of a friend of his, we started off at Odyssey. They had leather-covered travel ones, with only one bar (not big enough) and carved wooden ones with two half bars (ditto). Neither was satisfactory or to my liking. We tried several more stores with only variations on the same. I was getting more and more frustrated (as those of you who have been shopping with me can imagine) and despairing that I would ever find what I was looking for. Then Raghu suggested looking at Pondy Bazaar. Initially I was very reluctant to go because it is always SO crowded on the weekends, but he ASSURED me that I would find something different there. And he was right!!!! In the first shop we tried, there was a velvet covered box with three bars that I liked much better than anything else I had seen. We tried a few more shops and found one that had a couple of different varieties and I picked out a similar, red velvet covered one with gold stripes (that Raghu described as too jazzy!) :) But I liked it fine. Yay! I'm so happy I have my bangle box-and I can now describe to Liz (and anyone else) exactly what types are available and where to find each type.

I'm so sorry for doubting you Raghu! :)

New Review

Saturday night I went out with some friends from work to check out a pub called Geoffrey's. My friends tell me that it was the first pub in Chennai. I guess it's a little on the outskirts of town, so it doesn't always get the attention that some of the more "trendy" places get, but it was my kind of place. It is definitely a pub instead of a disc (sp?) so there wasn't even a dance floor. It was more of a "home-town" bar- [Ok everyone hum the theme for Cheers!] :) -with good music (excellent, actually!) and comfy couches and tables around for people to hang out with friends and socialize. They even have a couple of pool tables. My only complaint was that the drinks were a bit on the pricey side...but I'll have to go during Ladies' Night sometime to make up for that! :)

Hmm...I feel like I'm doing a review on places in Chennai now.... :)

Nothing says India like kitsch :)

As I was driving to work tonight, my driver's dashboard was lit up by a figurine of the Virgin Mary in flashing red and green lights. I mention this because it is only too common here in India to see figurines of various faiths flashing brightly from passing cars and because, now that I travel alone to work, I have time to reflect on these topics. :) Actually, it seems to me, decking out your car (especially with some sort of lights) is much more prevalent here than back in the States-though I am sure that the frequency varies culturally and/or regionally there.

Anyway, this guy has been our driver for about a month now and, as yet, I haven't discovered a pattern as to when the figurine gets turned on: is it when the traffic is heavier? when he's sleepier and needs it to stay awake? or, when he decides to pull out into oncoming bike traffic (as in what happened tonight!)? [Let me tell you, I found it comforting to focus on it at that point in time-and I'm not even Catholic!] :)

I think my sense of humor is starting to come back... :) Random thoughts are a good start!

The Duo Is Split Up!

So, I'm missing my "other half." Liz has been sent to train the new-hire batch at a different location while I get to stay here for re-training techs already on the floor. It has been a hard adjustment coming to work all alone for the past few days! Everyone here at Tidel Park has seen us together since the beginning, so they are all asking me if Liz is ok and if she's ever coming back. (We're hoping she will when she finishes the batch in another couple of weeks!) They also think that we are incomplete unless we're together; I suppose because we were always introduced around as, "This is Liz and Lori, our American trainers"-no distinguishing between us. (Pretty funny when you see us-she's taller, with curly blond hair and I'm shorter, with straight dark hair.) I've been filling her in with news from here-telling her that most of the regular security guards have asked me where she is, why she's not with me, and when she's coming back. The other day, though, she texted me to tell me that one of our regular cab drivers asked her about me-even they are wondering! (Yes, you may think it strange that we text each other, but when your shifts start 4 hours apart you are rarely awake and in the apartment at the same time.) I guess as a duo, we made quite an impression!

Celebrating American Independence Day in India

It has been a rough week here. For some reason, the reality of living cross-culturally has been hitting me hard this week. It wears you out and sucks the life out of you-even to the point where walking down the street to recharge my phone was too much of an effort. I didn't have the energy to work at communicating with people who only speak some English. I'm tired of having to run to the bathroom every half an hour. (Need more Immodium!!!) Going anywhere is too much of an effort because of having to bargain with the autorickshaw drivers and then the shopkeepers themselves and then still wondering if I paid too much. Not knowing how much extra time to factor in when someone says "I'll be there in 10 minutes." Then, on top of all that, there is the self-condemnation of "You shoudn't take things so hard!" "You should have more patience!" "What are you doing here if you can't accept/deal with these things?" Yikes! Deep down I know it's a phase of living cross-culturally and that things will get better-just living through it now is hard!

So, with this all in mind, I was eagerly looking forward to the American Indpendence Day Celebration put on by the American Chamber of Commerce, the American Consulate General and the Taj Hotel group on Sunday. It was held at Taj Fisherman's Cove-which is roughly halfway down ECR (East Coast Road) between Chennai and Mahabs. I had two-no actually three-goals: 1.) To eat a REAL hamburger 2.) To see fireworks, and 3.) To RELAX!!!!! (Well, actually, a side goal was not to get hit by another cow while traveling down that road again....!) :) Fisherman's Cove is a beautiful resort (as are all the Taj Hotels that I've seen!) and it was good to get away with people I like to hang out with! It was a really nice event-family oriented with games and contests for both the children and the adults, lots of prizes, and lots of food. Unfortunately, the hamburgers were not so good. However, the hot dogs were decent. (They are also hard to come by here...) Liz enjoyed the potato salad, Patricia the potato wedges and I the fries. We missed the the fireworks while we were having a cocktail in the lounge. :( But it was a nice, relaxing evening.... I guess one out of three isn't bad! :) (And we managed to avoid any collisions with the livestock!) :)

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July to everyone back in the states! Have a good but safe weekend!

Missing you all...

Can't wait to hear about the Gravel Ponds picnic...I'll be missing the fireworks display there! :)