Mahabharata

Indians are very spiritual people and the Hindu temples are so lively, located in every corner! All the divinities have their carousing which are jingled with drums, flutes, and bells. They get in the middle of the street, all the traffic stops, and everyone joins in!

Trying out Indian hair style

To avoid little creepy-crawlies assembling their nests in my beautiful hair, and to skip the 5 mins brushing at 5:30 am (eugh!!)… I thought of cutting it short short! Picked up a special hairdresser/barber who apparently is a hair collector. After gathering chumps of blonde curls he left me waiting on the chair with massive holes on my head, while he was lovingly combing the pieces… creepy scary!

Now my top looks okay-ish; I got some bits longer than the others haha!  

Handicraft bazaar!

The Little Sisters of the Poor manage thanks to very generous benefactors, plus the stuff the residents create with Sister Odile! Toys, key rings, mirrors, teddy bears, hair bands, candles, dolls…

She is such an bighearted artist, very skilled, makes things with anything she finds around!!

Tata Jonemaa is the undisclosed reincarnation of Coco Chanel! He gets orders for complex clothes and makes gorgeous handbags with unusual materials. If you are looking for him, follow the pedal papam-papam-papam sound of the legendary Singer sewing machine!

La Sri Señora está servida!

The kitchens of the convent are occupied by a crowd of first class Indian cooks! Every day is a special tasty dish: iddlis, chapattis, sambar, dossé, mouroukou… I got used to spicy spicy hot hot pretty quickly! The only rule is no to worry about hygienic/disinfected standards. I can’t tell you the number of rats we found under the wood stove when we took the dog in to hunt them!!! Just eat your meal and enjoy yourself!

Black and white!

By any means I try to get some tan when the sun is bright, while the poor Indians hide from its light! They wanna get pale!! Umbrellas are more used under the sunshine than under the rain!!

It’s an Indian’s Indian’s Indian’s World

Apart from an Australian tourist, I haven’t seen another white person for a while. I was starting to feel like Robinson Crusoe, but now I’ve found two German girls in the next village, Kotaigiri, 30 kms away! Volunteers helping the Franciscan Sisters, just like myself. Youpeee, I’ve finally found who to watch Eurovision with! Haha!

Happy the poor!

It’s heartbreaking to see people living in the streets with nothing. Never seen such poverty in my life! But then again, maybe I didn’t notice it at home. There are many homeless and beggars out there. The Little Sisters of the Poor welcome them happily, but they don’t stay for long. After a while, they go back to the streets, to where they come from, they feel they are “losing money”, and the Sisters can’t force them to stay.

A rupee or two is nothing to us. But for them it’s BOOM in their tin tin mug!!!