Chapel, Tambaram, and a Storm

Sun. 23 August 2009

The morning started early with the college chapel service. Gabriel took me over. Not lots of people there, and no students because the college is closed till Friday (H1N1 scare), but good to see Chaplain Spurgeon again, and I got to meet the new principal, Dr. Alexander Jesudasan. He reminded me that we had met in 2007, and I remembered how his friendly welcome had impressed my students as our campus walking tour passed through his department. Two Filipino guests were there from Silliman University, and also staying at the guest house. So we had a very nice breakfast together after chapel, talking about their short study tour of south India and their work in the marine biology department back home.

Sunday was a harder day than Saturday. The temptation to nap was ever greater, and when the power went out mid-afternoon, I finally succumbed. Gabriel and I took a late-afternoon walk over the tracks into downtown Tambaram to get some supplies. It was the eve of Ganesha’s birthday; the speakers blared nearly deafening songs on the walk toward the train station. Good to experience the hustle-and-bustle of the business district once again, as we dodged through traffic, pedestrian, motorized, and otherwise. There were the usual fruit stalls, vegetable stalls, fabric stalls, and so on, and some street vendors were selling variously-sized figurines of Ganesha’s elephant head in bright, bright colors. Being Sunday, Christian shops were closed, but Hindu and Muslim store-owners were open for business. Weaving from one shop to another (Gabriel knew exactly where to go), we picked up some soap, a heater coil, a plastic container, a teapot and some tea. We could see the sky getting darker and darker, with the setting sun turning the cloud-edges a golden yellow on the horizon. After sitting down to sip a cup of tea ourselves, we walked back over the tracks to the college. About 200 yards from the guest house, the rain started falling—felt awfully good after our hot walk! But the power was still out, with no A/C to unwind in!! Sweating profusely, I sat in a chair on the porch, rubbing my forehead with handfuls of water to cool off… and watched the thunderstorm unfold. After five years of visits, my first REAL rain in Chennai. And the sounds of loudspeakers from holiday celebrations continued to pour in from all directions, blending with the sounds of thunder, wind and rain, evoking a symphony Ives might have been proud of. The blue notes emerging from the mix of scales tonal centers gave it all a jazzy flavor, and various Indian drums competing with the thunder gave it an irrepressible rhythmic verve.

When Gabriel picked me up for dinner and found my power STILL out, he made some inquiries. The college electricians weren’t available, so after dinner he supplied me with an emergency lantern, we found a room upstairs where the A/C was working, and I managed to get through the night in relative comfort. At 7:30 Monday morning I woke to a knock at the door. Power was restored to my room, so I moved back in, glad to be back to “normal.”