BLOG 2, in which we renew friendships with our lovely lads from Sitaramanpet

Day 2, and still slowly adjusting and acclimatising. Morning spent in the house chatting, mulling over what our priorities will be for this trip. I watched mesmerised whilst Selvi and her helper Vidya prepared food, grinding coconut, tearing at coriander leaves etc, and out of this later came this poem:

Like a prayer
Side by side the women stand
Small, sari-clad
Fluidity and elegance in every careful move
Silver anklets on bare feet
A sweep of sequin border
Falling like the stars
The well-worn everyday routine
Peel chop grind wash
Coriander coconut and rice
Is quietly performed
Beautiful as ballet
Offered like a prayer

In the afternoon we cycled to Sitaramanpet to visit the several families we know there. It is in this village that the recipients of the One Candle Fund bursaries live, now up to a hundred children who are enabled to remain in school for longer because of this small donation from English friends. Balaji's family welcomed us first with coffee 'sacre ille' ie ' no sugar' and with hugs and kisses. This is not so usual in Indian culture where they have not yet adopted the custom of hugging and touching which has developed so strongly in England in the last generation. The three lads, Balaji, Raghu and Suresh, are a real credit to their families, such determined students and now 2 of them in excellent jobs, and also boys with a real sense of duty to the community. Again our welcome here, so heartfelt and genuine, was a real tonic after the cynicism of modern British culture. This poem came out of this experience. Suresh who is 23, and works in computer assisted car design, for TVS, has been able to buy a new house for his parents which was built last year. Small wonder that in this village and this locality education is the great goal for all families, being the means to improve their situation in life. The boys still return home for weekends and for holidays- such as Pongal at the moment- and are much more naive and unspoilt than young men of that age would be in our culture.


Best described as love

With just a few words
Perhaps fifty Tamil me, and you
Two dozen English
Plus, your phrase,'Body language'
Smiles and laughs and hugs
Not usual in your culture
But borrowed now from us
Together, in our strong determination
To communicate
To tell each other we are glad
So happy, rumba santoshum, to be back
Pulled from village house to house
Each family with food or drink, a welcome
Warm to give
One year on returning home
From home, stretching our languages
Across the barriers of age
And lives lived half a world apart
To a perfect understanding
Each of each
That what we share here
This day, this place
Is best described as love