jumpy jumpy vitamins

This was a big catch-up day in the diary; there was no time between the 28 and the 31 to write, so this entry covers 3 pages of handwritten text.

Morning excursion <18:37 31/01/2001 Ernakulam> was to a textile mill run by one of the Gobi $GROUP_MEMBERS. It was loud, smelled bad, and was poorly lit, yet still fascinating. They gave me 4 one-meter bolts of cloth they had dyed on site. wow. thanks.

Lunch at the house — more curry, but with a sort of rice-noodle ravioli. After that, “rest”…

…not disclosing the next part, because I’m not that sort of blogger…

Tea at 16:30, followed by packing. Watched “Crorepati” (the Indian version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”; they could win up to Rs. 1 crore (10M)). Noticed a strange occurrence of a phenomenon experienced in the waiting room at HYKS a few years back: If I don’t pay attention to someone speaking a foreign language, it begins to make sense. So I picked up a little Tamil. weird.

Dinner, social time, bed.

Monday, 29 January 2001

Up early (06:30 bed tea) — had a train to catch. Breakfast, then out the door, back to Erode. Had more chai at the station, & Thomas got me a Coke (1.5L!) and pineapple cake before the train arrived at 09:00.

My ticket was first-class, so I got a little cabin to myself. Chilled in there, taking pics of the scenery, resting, etc. I was trying not to drink too much Coke… so I wound up dragging the liter or so left with me as I graciously allowed this Amazon-in-sari to have my “coupe” cabin. Sat around, got greeted by these kyoot Keralites, watched the scenery.

Got to Kerala. Holyfuckingshit.

1. Unbelievable scenery.
2. Friendly people (case in point: the schoolkids who took a break from their game of cricket to wave and say the only English word they knew, “Hi!”).
3. Did I mention the place is fucking gorgeous?!

Arrived Tellicherry, my next destination, at 19:45. The $GROUP_MEMBERS there were under the impressions that I’d be arriving that morning, and had planned a day at the beach. oops. So I was whisked to my hotel (yes, hotel), where I took a gloriously hot shower and otherwise cleaned up. Picked up by a member and taken to the Executive Committee meeting. Short speech. Same ol’, same ol’. Afterwards, the bulk of the club retired to a dim back hallway for really cheap Scotch and a hell of a lot of water. yuck. Then, food — had tandoor (which is NOT a South Indian food, thank God). Bed after that.

Tuesday, 30 January 2001

Up at 06:30 (bleah), packed, and out the door by 07:30 (after watching some videos on Channel V for inspiration). Went to an irreppressibly beautiful driving beach — took pics. Then to an old pier to finish that data cartridge. Breakfast (dosa masala), then the train station.

Rode an awesome trip to Kanhangad — I had my own seat near some fascinating/fascinated people, and we sorta conversed. There was a guru onboard in the next little setup, so all those who came for darshan passed by and greeted me warmly.

At Kanhangad, met by 3 men who gave me a rose each. To a restaurant for lunch — They asked if I drank beer. Um, yes? So they conned the waiter into getting some for us, despite the “No Liquors” sign and national ban on alcohol sales (anniversary of M. Gandhi’s death). We had some water before the waiter surreptitiously escorted us to a small back room, where a teenaged boy soon came with a little shopping bag of 3 paper-wrapped Kingfisher Diet 650mL bottles. I smoked these guys — they were toasted after one glass, and I was barely tipsy. (Then again, the alcohol content was “Less than 5%”. ) Back to our original seats — our food was there. (fried rice, ginger chicken, fried fish)

14:00: to my host’s house for a short rest. Up again at 15:00 for the first in an endless series of pictures. I think my host is gay and I have absolutely no interest in him. Then to Bekal Fort nearby. Archaeological site, fort of the rajas and Mughals and British, yeah, yeah. I took some pics and they took even more of me. They picked up on the “digital” part of the camera and got so. excited. I thought they were about to wet themselves.

To a housewarming next — one of the three, the driver, is an architect. Saw his work. Had tea (it was 16:30).

This day’s writings should have included:

• um, the source of this blog’s name. On Channel V (an MTV analogue) I saw a commercial for Nestle Milo featuring a young boy practising for a track meet; he wasn’t pleased with his time until his mother gave him a big glass of Milo and then he smoked ‘em all at the meet. The tagline: “Nestle Milo, with jumpy jumpy vitamins!” (“Vitamins” is pronounced in the UK fashion, where the first syllable holds the emphasis and rhymes with “hit”.)
• The “kyoot Keralites”? College boys. HANDSOME, ATHLETIC, college boys. yowza. Alas, nothing could ever become of our love(s).
• Tellicherry is also known as Thalassery, and is a great little town judging from my limited exposure.
• At Bekal Fort I took some of my best pics of the whole trip. Eventually I’ll have a chance to post them.
• On the way to Tellicherry, the train stopped so that the Muslims aboard could pray (it was that time). Since Kerala is divided evenly three ways between Hindus, Muslims, and Christians, it’s rather important that religious traditions be honored — come to think of it, Kerala handles religious diversity better than the US does, partially because no one religion tries to lord its numeric superiority over the others.

That’s all for tonight. Next up on Friday: the sticks (and the source of this pic above), then to the center of the global spice trade where I had my favoritest food EVAR.

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