I hope that my time in India has helped me to develop a thicker skin. People here are just as likely to tell you “you’re looking dull today” as they are to compliment you on your new dupatta or chappals. You take it in stride.
A tiny, tough lady from Kerala who looks after the kitchen had pronounced her distaste for me to the whole museum staff (and made it quite clear through withering stares). The other day, she came in while I was hanging my show in the gallery, and tearfully shook my hand saying (through a translator) that I “had expressed what was inside my heart.”
I think I’ve said it before, but it warrants saying again: the ups and downs have been extreme. And while the delights and mishaps of my time here won’t go unremembered, they’ve made me appreciate the few things that remain constant: being woken up by the sun at 5:45, bumpy rides on city buses packed with sari-clad housewives, the ocean, the cows and goats, children leaning out of car windows to wave and yell “hello,”, idlis and coconut chutney at Saravana Bhavan, riding in (4 seater) autorickshaws with 10+ Indian men crammed in around me, sweet milky tea in the library around 4, a downpour in the evening.
When my Grandpa emails me from Illinois, he ends every email with “Be Well and Appreciate.” I’ve been thinking a lot about what this phrase means and whether or not I am actually living up to it. Maybe the wisdom behind this advice is that personal well-being and the ability to recognize and appreciate beauty in the world are inextricably linked. If we hope to be capable of standing in awe of some sublimely beautiful artwork or landscape, we must first make sure that we are attending to our own well-being, giving the most mundane rituals of our daily lives a degree of care and attention.
I continue to think about the T.S. Eliot quote, “people to whom nothing has ever happened cannot understand the unimportance of events.” So, perhaps this will be dreadfully boring, but I am going to do a post or two about tiny things, the “nonevents” of my life in India. My daily routine, sights that are now commonplace, the smallest of appreciations. Here are a few excerpts from a pretty uneventful day after a busy few in the gallery. Things that made me happy today:
Repaired chappals. My friend/guesthouse neighbor/museum intern Shruti showed me how to use coconut oil to soften the leather. I am AMAZED by the millions of uses of coconut oil here. Coconut is a huge staple in the cuisine, coconuts were a major part of ritual in a wedding I saw last week, women use the oil to condition their hair and as a skin treatment, the list goes on….
Tiny notebooks, purchased from my favorite “stationeries” shop for 10 rupees each:
I try to keep track of what I’ve done each day (with varying degrees of success):
Handmade paper from Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, a “French” city a few hours south of Chennai on the coast
Drying laundry on the balcony outside my room. Flower from the tree in the courtyard. Hand-woven dupatta (massive scarf) from Kanchipuram – the city of 1000 temples.
Fisherman at work, evening.
At my show opening – Indian friends Nivedita (left) and Shruti (right). Will miss these two!
Another friend
Black coffee. A rarity. At the “Bekal” restaurant at DakshinaChitra. With Shruti.
The men of the restaurant. Prabhu and Murugesan.
More soon.
iconophilia 