birthdays, up late, literature

Whatever bizarre glich was preventing me from viewing my blog (and your much-appreciated comments) seems to have resolved itself, because all is back to normal. I was intending to post some more pictures today, but evidently I took the cord for my camera out of my bag, so maybe later. We're in Mamalapuram (of course, 'cause it's the weekend), and the internet place here is much nicer and more reliable than the one near us in Chennai, so posting pictures is much easier here. I hope I didn't leave my camera cord in Chennai.

This past Monday night was the six-month anniversary of my dad's death, so I used it as an excuse to go out to a nice bar in Chennai and have a lot to drink. M wasn't feeling well, so just E came with me, and we had a nice time and ended up talking to this nice Indian guy at the table next to us. I've probably mentioned that M's birthday is tomorrow, the 24th. Maybe I haven't mentioned the cool Dutch woman, P, that works for Oxfam in Chennai and that we've befriended at Broadlands. Her birthday is on the 25th. In conversation with K, the Indian guy, I discover that his birthday is the 26th. So, I think this is fabulous and I insist that he come to Mamalapuram with us on Friday night to celebrate. The cool thing was that he drove us down here in his car, which is much faster and nicer than taking the bus. And I sat in the front seat, where the driver would be in an American car, and told K all about how in the US, people don't constantly honk and run stop signs and weave indiscriminately between lanes and stuff. But I have to say, once you were used to it, I bet driving in India would be a lot of fun.

I stayed up very late last night and the night before. I keep intending to stay up until sunrise so that I can watch the sun rise over the ocean (yes, I know you can see that on the east coast of the US, but as a life-long west coast resident, it seems like a novelty to me). I keep making it until about 4:30 or so and then crapping out and going to bed (of course, I've usually had a bit to drink at this point, so it makes me even more sleepy). We've been hanging out with a bunch of people, mostly Brits, that work for an NGO called Earth Aid (I'm not sure exactly what they do but it involves health clinics and female empowerment), and we've ended up dancing and hanging out late into the night at one of their houses (they are here for a while, so they actually rent real places to live). Apparently no one cares if you play music very loudly at 3 a.m. in India. So it hasn't been a very productive weekend, nor a particularly restful one, but it has been lazy and fun, and there wasn't much productive I needed to accomplish anyway.

One thing I did this weekend was finish The World According to Garp. It was very good, but I think I've been spoiled forever for John Irving novels because the first one I read was A Prayer for Owen Meany, which I thought was stunning and incredible, so I think maybe the other ones just can't live up to it (and I've only read two others: Garp and A Widow for One Year). My dad once commented (as I'm sure many others have in the past) that John Irving basically writes about the same stuff over and over: people with weird sexual hangups or proclivities, children growing up with only one parent or a parent of unknown origin, people with weird voices or speech impediments, private schools for boys, writers, etc. And actually, there were some interesting parallels between Garp and the last book I read, Everything is Illuminated, which was also quite good (and fascinating and bizarre; I definitely recommend it). Stories within stories, younger men with older women, writing about being a writer, etc. I feel like I need to move onto something very different next, but I'm not sure what. I have some nonfiction with me that I've been wanting to read, but it's difficult to concentrate on anything complex when you're always kind of hot and kind of sleepy (which is why I had to put down Currencies and Crises by Paul Krugman after just 3 chapters: it's very readable compared to some other scholarly economic works, but pop economics it ain't). I didn't bring another book to Mamalapuram with me, and I might stay here tonight and go back to Chennai early Monday, so I'm thinking of perusing some of the many tiny used book stores here to see if I can find something interesting.

More pictures tonight if you're lucky, otherwise maybe I can upload them sometime this week at the IMED office. I've heard it's really hot in the US; I hope everyone is not suffering too much (especially since I'm not really suffering too much--you just get used to the heat and then it almost never bothers you). As E would say, peace out.