We rolled out of bed moderately late (like 10 AM) to grab breakfast and head out to Spencer's Plaza. We caught rickshaws, once again, and it was so much fun!
Spencer's was nothing like I thought it was going to be. They described it to us as a mall, which, technically, it was. But it was more like a giant bazaar with three stories all under one roof. Store after store after store of anything you could possibly want, from traditional Indian décor to CDs to cell phones to Zippo lighters. Food, drinks, ice cream, and lots and lots of people. Isaiah mentioned how culture kind of seeps into everything here. This place was a wonderful example. The smells and sights really still were India, not like the mall in Cape Town which was really western.
I bought my sister a scarf (yes, stephanie, I had a girl help me out, I hope it's good), and some books, including a book about Hinduism, and some CDs. I got a CD (Actually, a 3 disc set) for 160 rupees which is around $3.20. The artist—A.R. Rahman, the man who did the Slumdog music. The guy is one of the most prolific composers in India, and they call him “The Mozart of Madras” Madras being the former name of Chennai. He was the sole breadwinner of his family when he was 5 years old and always had a talent for music. He studied in the UK and has written music for many films. Every Indian I have met said that Slumdog is amazing work but he is more famous for other things here. So, I bought three discs worth of his music.
After Spencer's we walked around and asked directions for the post office to buy stamps. We found a nice man who asked us where we were from. We told his SAS, and he took us to the post office and got us stamps (with our money, not his, he just talked for us). When I tried to give him some money for taking us around he said “I am not a guide, I'm a cab driver.”
He took us to a shop where I bought two pieces of Indian handmade sculptures of Hindu gods while this guy brought us his rickshaws. He must get some sort of commission from the shop, but we all got 10% discount on anything, and 20% if we bought a bed sheet set. Some girls bought the bed sheet, but I stuck with my two things. The people working gave us all drinks for free and were very hospitable.
Hospitality seems to be the theme of this entire India experience.
When the man came back (I forgot his name and it was hard to remember) he gave us a deal on the rickshaws and showed us a bag full of postcards from other SAS students, dating really far back, at least to 1993. He was so proud to have been a part of so many people's lives and I feel lucky to have been able to meet him.
After a short break, a group of seven of us including Isaiah and Ari (you may remember Ari from our Table Mountain experience) met up with three Indian students named Shiva, Tejas, and Tarun. I had met Shiva at the welcome reception but our friend Holly had stayed in touch with Tejas who brought these guys along.
We met up at the movies (which had 8 screens...HUGE for India) and the only one available was “Thee,” a movie that we saw on the share and learn board not to go see. We went. And left at intermission. But you must understand—it is supposed to be bad. No one expects it to be good. Here's the scoop on this movie:
India is divided up into many states, each state with it's own language. Where we are in Chennai is in Tamil Nadu, and everything around here is in the local language Tamil, including this film. Tamil Nadu releases at least three Tamil movies a week, and this “Thee” was one of them. It only gets viewed, basically, in this city. It is shot on crappy stuff (it looked like a home video or some kind of porno) had ridiculous sound effects and music, and a silly plot that (though I could follow it) really didn't make any sense. They just pump it out, put a hot girl in it (Shiva said the actress is like a Jessica Simpson type) make a bunch of money and then disappear.
It is so funny because they said “buy us tickets we will meet you there” so we bought tickets and told them “hey, we're seeing Thee” and they were like “grrrrreeat.” Isaiah and I decided it is the equivalent of us meeting Indian tourists in the US and telling them to get us tickets and then they say “yay! We got tickets to Epic Movie!”
But we would go and enjoy ourselves. And here, we did, and the experience was a lot of fun. The spices on the popcorn were great! In fact, the popcorn was only $2. They told us that that was really expensive for popcorn, but we told them that it's like $5 dollars where we come from.
After the movie (leaving at intermission) we walked to a restaurant, and while we were waiting for the table, some workers in the back were staring at us, wide-eyed. They stared just like everyone else. Not as if they want us to leave, or that they are scared or upset. The way they look at us is like “wow. We are graced with the presence of Americans. Oh, and check out that white skin.” Chennai doesn't get much tourism, so it's special.
Dinner was awesome. Our new Indian friends helped us pick out food, and I tried everything. EVERYTHING. It's so good. I tried this chutney, this bread, this cheese, this veggie, it was great. We took pictures and traded e-mails, wrote names in Hindi, English, Tamil, and I wrote their names in Hebrew. And then all three of them said they would pay for us, and we declined. It was tough, but we managed to get them to let us pay for ourselves. Then we tried to sneak in money for them but they paid too quickly.
If you guys are reading this, I can't thank you enough for how much you made me and everyone else feel so welcome and comfortable. I felt less like a tourist and more like a traveler because of your helpfulness and hospitality.
There's that word again.
We made plans to get together again the following night, to see a real Indian film. They called a taxi but it was going to take too long, so they regretfully put us on the rickshaws.
The students really made our night, and meeting people is by far the best thing ever. Especially students. More on this later.
I've included a photo, I hope you can see it. From left to right: Isaiah, Tarun, Tejas, Me, and Shiva.
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