Seeing clearly

Johnny had trouble seeing the eye chart at his back-to-school physical, so the medical unit sent us off to an appointment at Chennai's largest eye hospital.

 

It was a NIGHTMARE. I won't go into details, but they involve miscommunications, missing doctors, missing supposed helpers, and HOURS of waiting.

 

Here we are waiting ...

 

 

 

... and waiting ...

... along with hundreds of others waiting ...

 

 

After waiting right through kindergarten orientation (grrrrrr), we finally saw the eye doctor, who was actually pretty good. This has been my general experience with health care here. The doctors have been wonderful, but the administration has been a huge hassle. Here's the result of all our waiting around:

 



It's no surprise, really, since both of his parents and all of his grandparents and most of his aunts and uncles wear glasses. Johnny's now part of the cool club.

The Power of Shakti

Here in Chennai we're celebrating the fourth month of the Tamil calendar, Aadi. It's an auspicious time for women, since the principal deities worshiped this month are goddesses, or Shakti, the female divine power. There's an interesting explanation of the idea here, and here's the Wikipedia version.

I find this idea of the divine female power really fascinating. Without Shakti, the male forms of the gods would be unable to act, and therefore worthless.There's one sect of Hinduism that worships Shakti as the ultimate being or force. I can't understand why a culture that so reveres women in its religion is still so male dominated in day-to-day living.

Another question I keep asking myself is why I never have my camera when I need it. I had to use my cell phone to snap a photo of this Aadi procession we passed on the way home from Samuel's preschool the other day.

The women are carrying flowers on their heads to offer to the goddess at the temple.



This man was at the head of the procession. He's hoping his act of asceticism will please the goddess, who will then grant him his special petition.

Nature and music are also important parts of Aadi. For me, that means listening to the drumming from a nearby temple into the wee hours of the morning. Does this mean I get special blessings, too? 

My, what big ears you have!

Sometimes Samuel gets a crazy reaction to bug bites. Here's the latest:

The last one was on his eyebrow, and it swelled up so much he looked like he'd lost a boxing match. The doctor says it's a minor allergic reaction, so we just give him a little Benadryl and keep an eye on him.

Isn't he a cutie?

Lunch with Mom

Johnny and Evie each got to spend an afternoon alone with Mom the week before school started.

Johnny chose to have lunch at the mall and then visit Hamleys toy store. I didn't think to take any pictures, but it was lots of fun. I was proud of him for picking out fun things for Evie and Samuel at Hamleys: a tube of baby animals for Evie and a Cars puzzle for Sam. Johnny picked out a Beyblade for himself.

Evie chose to have lunch at her favorite restaurant, Ox and Tomato. She had a lot of fun posing for pictures: 

And here's one she took of me ...

I think I need to make the special trip with Mom a regular thing. I really enjoyed the one-on-one time with Johnny and Evie. They're fantastic kids. How did I get so lucky?

More Lost in Translation

And this is what happens when you lift information from the Internet without double-checking for accuracy ...

We found this at Fort St. George in an exhibit about World Heritage Sites. Ha!

Back to Fort St. George

One of Evie's best friends is moving soon, so we invited him and his mom to come along with us when we took Sarah to visit Fort St. George, erstwhile seat of power for the British East India Company and (here).

Here are Evie and Ruben manning one of the cannons outside the fort's museum. Evie has taken the role of commander, as is her habit.

My favorite thing to look at in the museum is the collection of the company's porcelain, used for "state" dinners. How did a company get so much power? They even had their own army, with which they conquered much of India. It only became the British Raj after the crown took over the company. It's incredible to think that a private group, as opposed to a nation, had that kind of power.

Striking a pose ...

The kids had a great time with this model of the fort ... until a security guard got huffy about a little thing like touching it.

Upstairs there's a portrait gallery with paintings that I think must have hung in the governor's mansion. Here's one of Queen Victoria.

An old painting of the fort ...

Fort St. George houses Tamil Nadu's state government offices, and we had to navigate the crowds and dodge the autorickshaws to get to St. Mary's Church and (here), the oldest Anglican Church in India.

I love reading the grave stones in the church yard, which are the oldest known in India. Ruben's mom Kirstin and I found one for a young mother and her baby, which got us thinking and talking about what Chennai must have been like for those early Europeans.

Ruben and Evie enjoying the church garden ...

Sarah said the tree the kids are standing under looks like a walking tree, which can move up to a foot every year by growing new roots in the direction of light and allowing old roots to die. The exposed roots make me think it might be a banyan tree, which "walks" in the way Sarah described, and which I just discovered is the national tree of India. Any botanists care to comment?

Inside the church we found this woman weaving new cane into a pew ...

... and all kinds of memorials, including this one remembering a soldier who died of sunstroke after a battle. Not too surprising, considering that they wore woolen uniforms!

The flagpole at the fort was orginally made with the mast of a 17th-century sunken ship, though the wooden pole has been replaced with a metal one. It's supposedly the tallest flag pole in India.

And just to prove that Indians don't bother themselves with arguments over separation of church and state, the Anglican church inside is matched by a busy Hindu temple at the fort's exit.

These nine idols represent the navagraha, or nine influential planets in Hindu astrology. Sarah did a jewelry tour (I missed it because Samuel was sick), where she learned that the navagraha are sometimes represented as nine sacred gems, the navaratna.

I like visiting Fort St. George. It's one of those places that mashes the old, the new, and the ancient into one colorful mess.

Kapaleeshwarar Temple

The huge, ancient Kapaleeshwarar temple isn't far from our house, so Sarah and I spent an afternoon wandering the busy place of worship. Non-Hindus aren't allowed into the inner sanctum, but visitors are welcome to explore the courtyard and smaller shrines. 

The imposing gopuram, or temple gate ...



Flowers, fruit and diyas (small lamps or candles) for sale outside the gate. Worshippers use the garlands and bowls of fruit as offerings at the shrines.

Women making flower garlands to sell outside the temple ...

Doors at the main gate ...

The Kapaleeshwarar temple is a Shiva temple, but the first shrine is to Ganesha, whom many Hindus worship before beginning any other religious rite. The man in the foreground with his hands at his ears is performing a penance. The worshipper holds his ears with arms crossed in front and then bends his knees three times while facing the shrine.

The carvings on the gopuram and over the smaller shrines depict stories from Hindu mythology.

The Kapaleeshwarar gopuram is 40 meters tall, which doesn't even put it near the top 10 tallest (nine of which are in Tamil Nadu!).

Parvati was supposed to have appeared here to worship Shiva in the form of a peacock, so the peacock is an important symbol in the temple and also in the neighborhood. There are even peacock images at St. Thomas Basilica, which isn't far from Kapaleeshwarar.

Priest at one of the shrines, with a worshipper in the background ... Notice the sacred thread over the priest's left shoulder.

Sarah took this photo of women happily chatting in the courtyard. Looks Relief Society-esque, don't you think?

The temple flag pole, which is wrapped in colored cloth during festivals, looks a lot like the flag pole at St. Thomas Basilica. Notice the people prostrated in front of the pole, which is at the entrance to the inner sanctum.

Around the inner sanctum ...

We went out the west gate to look at the temple tank ...

... where we bought garlands from this woman, who draped the jasmine around our necks and gave us vermillion tikka marks.

Then we went back into the courtyard to continue our wandering.

Just inside the west gate, we saw a man ring the main temple bell at a signal from the priest inside. It was LOUD!

These women are praying at a shrine where the sacred cows are kept, near the tree where Parvati appeared in peacock form. After their prayers they fed the cows some greens and fruit that they'd brought with them.

Real, live sacred cows, complete with tikka and jasmine (just like me and Sarah ... hmmm) ...

Women who want children hang the wooden cradles from Parvati's tree, and women who want husbands hang tamarind root wrapped in colorful fabric. The tree is also covered with vermillion and tamarind paste smeared by people asking for blessings.

We stood entranced while these men climbed around on rickety scaffolding. I think they were preparing for the Aadi festival, which is going on now. More on that in a later post.

Holy family: Shiva, Parvati, Ganesha, Murugan ... with Shiva's vehicle, the bull.

Wooden horse used to carry temple idols during festival parades ...

Carving in the main doorway ...

The streets around the temple are full of shops selling anything you could ever want for your very own pooja.

The temple visit made for a fascinating, colorful couple of hours. It's a good people-watching place, since it's a busy, working temple. We saw old men shuffling around in saffron robes, women in colorful saris laughing and visiting, mothers teaching their young children the rites, men in business suits doing pooja before heading back to the office ... and everyone was friendly and welcoming. It was a nice afternoon.