To the heart of Tamil Nadu

I received an email from my travel agent today, informing me that SA immigration officials are planning a 'crippling' strike, so I should arrive at the airport very very early for my flight, just in case. It seems that it is becoming increasingly onerous to travel internationally these days, what with the baggage restrictions, red tape, psychotic plane bombers etc. We just invented air travel so we could spend more time on the admin......

I will be flying to Mumbai, and then catching a connecting flight to Chennai, where KYM is located. Chennai is the capital of Tamil Nadu, in South East India. As someone pointed out, it is not really near any of the more famous cities. It's fairly close to Bangalore, seat of India's IT boom, but this is in relative terms, India being a rather large place. Chennai is very close to Pondicherry, which is a most interesting place. My interest in it comes from reading The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, definitely one of my top ten books. The hero, Piscine Molitar Patel (yes, he did get called 'Pissing' at school) lives with his family in Pondicherry, where his father runs the local zoo. This is fiction, but I intend nevertheless to trawl Pondicherry to find out where the zoo may have been. Since it is also the only place the French ever got a foothold on the subcontinent, there will also be coffee and croissants on offer - can't miss that!

Just outside Pondicherry is the Aurobindo Ashram, always worth a visit, and then there is Auroville. Auroville is an anachronistic community of hippies, artists and people who choose an alternative lifestyle, mostly hailing from Europe and North America. It operates much like a large commune, although from what I can gather change is in the air - they even have their own website now! Being too young to have really ever seen anything of the counter-culture movement of the 60's and 70's I think a trip here might be quite educational.

Yesterday I had the only immunisation I need for India - Hepatitis A. I was also given a large amount of Doxycycline to take to ward off the dreaded malaria. My experience with anti-malarials has always been.....interesting. Back in the day of quinine- based drugs, there were of course, the stomach upsets and nausea. Then came Larium, with its accompanying psychotic dreams, and the stomach upsets. Now I am on to the last option. Which can cause stomach upsets. Its always nice to know what to expect. At least I know I am guaranteed to have an upset stomach, even if I don't drink Indian tap water.

Later on, I was chatting to a student whose little daughter is at that stage where she won't let her mom out of her sight - apparently kids go through a developmental stage where they start becoming aware of themselves as separate beings. It struck me as interesting that we are born with the deep knowledge that we are linked to everything, and to God, and then as part of our normal development, we begin to think we are alone and separate. So through the practice of yogasanas, meditation, prayer and so on, all we are trying to do is come to the state of unity that your average newborn accepts as normal. Seems a bit depressing!

Back to the India trip - a very generous student, who gave me two salwar kameez (loose tunics and pants), has also given me the basics of Hindi. I can now say the three most important things every traveller needs: where is the bathroom, how much and that's too expensive. The last two don't necessarily relate to the bathroom. But who knows? France operates on a pay-per-pipi basis so perhaps I will also spend time in India desperately looking for coins of the right denomination, or failing that a McDonalds. Free clean(er) toilets.

Two and a half weeks left till I jet off to India. I am really quite nervous, or maybe excited. Or maybe nervously excited?

The first question everyone asks is who I am going with. There is always a subtle but obvious widening of the eyes when I say I am going alone. Who in their right mind would go to India for the first time all alone? And leave husband and cat behind.

I think however, that once I get to Chennai, I should feel fairly settled. I will be at school all day during the week, and after the first week, perhaps I will feel comfortable enough to explore Chennai's temples (to the many and various Hindu deities, and of course to shopping). And hopefully I will have found someone from the school to do this stuff with me!

All that remains in terms of preparation is to get the dreaded travel medicine. I have yet to find an anti-malaria tablet that agrees with me.