as many of my faithful readers know, jm and i were guests of our friends and neighbors clay and jennifer at their home in chennai (formerly madras). they took very good care of us and we had a wonderful time. south india is very tropical and colorful with something interesting to see everywhere.
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| always pleasant to have a pool at home |
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| selling gods and godesses, chennai |
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| evening on the bay of bengal, pondicherry |
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| lakshimi the temple elephant in pondicherry blessing |
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| evening on the beach, chennai |
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| stuck in chennai's horrific traffic, we made some new friends |
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| annalakshimi, the goddess of food, in the eponymous restaurant, chennai |
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| lunch at kipling, a thai restaurant, chennai |
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| a cow and her calf, 9th century relief, mammalapuram |
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| for the new dean, the chef recommends... |
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| the matrimattir, auroville |
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| gopuram in the temple at chitamburam, where shiva danced |
that's all the photos for now. it should be kept in mind that these represent the most attractive sights. i don't have shots of piles of garbage and plastic trash with the cows, goats, and feral dogs rooting through them, nor of the painfully thin women balancing piles of bricks on their heads at construction sites, nor the (relatively) few beggars and people sleeping on the street. chennai is booming, with lots of construction, big sleek steel and glass skyscrapers next to huts of woven palm thatch, and fancy modern villas going up down rutted muddy roads.
