The Segrans Have Landed

The Segran family safely arrived in India on Thursday. I am about to spend six weeks in Pondicherry doing an intensive spoken Tamil program. This class is really just an excuse to spend a good chunk of time writing my dissertation in India. Also, the French Institute of Pondicherry is a very helpful resource to Tamil scholars, especially those of us that work in the classical period. So I am looking forward to doing some research there. What is my entire family doing here with me? Well, there are multiple explanations floating about. Sometimes, the story is that Raja Segran needed a nice little break from work, and thought, why not go to Pondicherry? (And what a coincidence that his daughter HAPPENS to be there!) Others recount that Elizabeth Segran is the only 26 year old in the world whose parents are coming to settle her down for her summer program. (I actually heard my father tell his colleague, "I am just depositing my daughter in Pondicherry, and will be back for the meeting." His colleague wanted to know, "Have you remembered to buy her a lunchbox and a pencil case?") Whatever story you choose to believe, we are here now, and rather sweaty and sticky at that, because it is swelteringly hot this time of the summer.

We flew from London to Mumbai, then from Mumbai to Chennai, on the best airline in the world, Jet Airways. (I swear we're not biased...) We had a four hour layover in Mumbai, so my dad's colleague took us out for lunch at the Orchid Hotel, where THE EATING BEGAN!!! For our first meal in India, we all had what is called a Thali, which is a meal served on a banana leaf, with rice in the middle, surrounded by various vegetable and meat dishes. When it is served, it looks sort of like a colorful necklace, which is what Thali means. Thalis are necklaces that Indian women wear - they are often given by a husband to a wife during the marriage ceremony, sort of the way we exchange rings in the Western tradition. Anyway, all this to say that we were very excited about the culinary adventures we were about to embark on.

After our meal, we flew from Mumbai to Chennai. The city of Chennai (formerly known as Madras), has a very different feel from Mumbai. It is the locus of activity in South India and is the capital of Tamil Nadu. People speak Tamil, rather than Hindi which is spoken in the north. South Indians tend to be of darker complexion, and therefore, flying from North to South really feels like entering into a different country altogether. Chennai is much less hectic and feels slightly more organized. The roads are just as dusty and also filled with cows taking strolls, but there are fewer potholes on the streets which makes for safer and easier driving.

There also appears to be less poverty in Chennai, which is a welcome relief after spending so much time in Mumbai. It can get emotionally exhausting to be confronted with so much suffering everywhere on the streets on Mumbai. While the streets of Chennai do not appear wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, there are fewer people begging, fewer disabled orphans and virtually no slums. The streets are filled with people who appear to be gainfully employed.

After a long day of travelling, we spent the Thursday night in Chennai at a hotel called the Lemon Tree, which is a quirky and fun little place. We ate all our meals at the hotel, and thoroughly enjoyed our fill on South Indian foods. This meant a lot of interesting pancake-like dishes called Thosai, and little fried savory doughnuts called Vadai.


Friday morning, we began our journey to Pondicherry. I'll write more about our stay there shortly.