So why did I go to Kerala?
One of the handy social connections that I managed to pilfer from Drew and Kelly before they left was The Hashers - the people who participate in the local branches of an international weekly running/drinking club called the Hash House Harriers. Chennai has two different groups, the Chennai Hash and the Madras Hash. The Chennai Hash group organized the trip to Kerala and folks from both Chennai hashes, Bangalore, Delhi, the a UK hash group, and Malaysia came on the trip. Basically hashing involves running/walking around some random area for a while along a path set by "hares" beforehand using primarily white flour and chaulk. Some runs are A to A (maybe most?) and some are A to B.
After the run there's a Hash Circle, which basically involves standing around in a circle and making some people sit on the giant block of ice that has been previously arranged (note that the block of ice is quite cold). After/during the Circle there's generally some drinking (primarily of the local variety of beer - Kingfisher) and there may be food and/or a party with music/dancing depending on the day. The group definitely varies a lot on the week, but there appear to be a core group of regulars that varies slightly depending on which hash group it is - they run on alternating Sundays. Most of the runs (though none that I've been on yet) are along East Coast Road (ECR), which is the major southern road from Chennai that passes through/around a large number of small villages/etc on the outskirts of the main city. The hash group is probably about 40% expat and 60% middle to upper-class Indian (I'm making some assumptions about the socio-economic breakdown). Most of the expats are older (as expats working for companies tend to be 40-60+), but there seem to generally be a few adults who are roughly my age + some number of younger kids.
Despite the general age differential, the Hash has been a great way to get to know people and I'd definitely recommend anyone living abroad for a while see if there's a hasher group you could use as a starting point for building a social group in the area. There are hash clubs all over the world (including in the US) though I think the level of baudiness varies a lot between countries and regions (kids are generally not allowed in most US hashes for example). But people are friendly and it's a fun way of getting some exercise and seeing a random/new part of the city/country while also meeting people along the way.
Around my second or third week in Chennai, I met Sashi & Nigel (two of the primary organizers of the Chennai Hash) at Sashi's house for a small gathering of hash people that Drew/Kelly invited Michael and I to. Sashi is probably best described as someone who knows everyone and knows how to get things done in Chennai/India - his work is basically helping people move here/transition/etc. Nigel is a British national who's been here for several years (blanking on how many). Both of them are good guys and Sashi, about 2 hours after I met him, suggested I go with them on the trip they were planning for Kerala in a couple of weeks. Having already heard that I should go to Kerala, I decided it was a good chance to see more of the country and also meet some people. And thus I went to Kerala...
I posted a bunch of photos from Kerala, but I'll mention a few extra specifics.
First, Kerala is known as "God's Own Country" in large part because it has the largest concentration of natural/green beauty in India and it's definitely a far cry from Chennai or other cities that I've seen so far in that respect.
We took a sleeper-class train from Chennai (cheapest possible option for long-hall trips). Unfortunately my berth was in a different car than most of the rest of the hashers, but I was able to spend a lot of time getting to know Deepti, the other hasher who was exiled to another car b/c of space/booking issues. Deepti is orginally from Chennai, but spent two years in German for graduate school in cultural studies (I think), then went to London for two years to work at some well-known architectural firm there that I can't for the life of me remember. She's in Chennai to supervise/manage/be the architect for a building her company designed for a local Indian company. But, despite being exiled, we still spent a decent amount of time with the rest of the hashers on the train.
We took the train to Varakala (which I can't find on a map, so here's the place we took the train to) and spent the first night in a reasonably nice beachside resort. Shortly after arriving, we grabbed lunch, met up with the hashers coming from other cities and gathered for a run around 5:30 in the evening...
Note the bemused look on locals as we wander through their front/back yards:
If this is your first hash run, then you have to be on the ice...
On the 2nd day, we boarded a bus early in the morning to go to Alleppey, the launching point for our house-boat trip through some of the "backwaters" of Kerala. Basically the backwaters are vaguely like the Bayou in the sense that it's a mishmash of off-the-beaten-track rivers that all intertwine in random ways. But less like the Bayou in the sense that it's sunny and there's a major industry built around these house-boats and the tourists they cart around.
You board the houseboats on these charming little ladder-made-planks:
Here's a better shot of the boat:
Before picture of part of lunch:
After picture of that piece of lunch:
(Yes, it tasted great)
As I think I mentioned above, the trails on the hash are denoted with flour/chalk...
After lunch on the boat, which was pretty good, we landed for the Day 2 run through the backwaters (or rice paddies really):
We ended the run at a small hotel on the water that served an amazing dinner (I particularly liked the creamy tomato soup) - it's worth noting that the food on this whole trip was awesome. After the circle, we ate and danced the night away. One of my traveling compatriots on this trip was Mike (Brit) who's done several of these expat things and works for a car company in Delhi if memory serves. I also met a German who was working on an infrastructure project with the Indian railways system and a slew of others.
Obligatory sunset shot across the water near the hotel:
Sunday began with more good food on the boat where we spent the night tethered to the shore near the hotel:
Incidentally not bringing my flashlight made walking back to my houseboat a bit annoying - though the red distance sensor in digital cameras does do a pretty good job of being a backup light if you need it...
Then we headed to the home of famous cinematographer who is also Sashi's cousin and hung out there for a while (with lunch) before hopping on the train to head back to Chennai. I got back into the city around 7am on Monday and was in the office around 10 or 11...
A very fun trip and possibly one I would recommend copying for anyone thinking about visiting in the next year...
Last week's run was in Guindy Park, which is a small chunk of national park in the middle of Chennai that the public isn't allowed inside (like I said, Sashi knows people). The trail environment was great and we also managed to avoid the rain that was hitting Chennai earlier in the day. There were also a couple of colorful expats that I hadn't met before. Elie was from Asheville, North Carolina, which is apparently where hippies in the South hang out. He's in Chennai for a couple of months while his mom is a medical tourism patient here (getting both hips resurfaced) and is amazingly good at breakdancing (there was a party after the run). Dannie, brit, and Jo, western canadian who I originally thought was from the US Pacific Northwest - apparently the accents and mannerisms are identical, are both here studying Montessori Education and one of them, Jo (I think?), was doing a project in Canada on the spotted owl until she broke her ankle over the summer - which I found amusing being from Oregon. Sumita is an Indian who spent several years in grad school in Canada and then worked in the US (DC area) and Canada for a while (now a Canadian citizen) - she's basically a software development program/project manager who recently came back to India.
Now seems as good a time as any to point out that generally the expats in the hash (and most expats in general who aren't working for NGOs) are reasonably high up in the structures of the local branches of their companies. Jerry (Irish) runs a joint Chinese/Irish venture that makes the boxes for Nokia cell phones. Liam (Brit) manages the shoe arm of a company that makes shoes and leather for companies across the world (Timberland, Hush Puppies, etc). Allun (Brit) is helping a large international car company set up a design/development shop in Chennai. Last week I met a Dane who manages part (all?) of the Chennai operations for the same Wind Turbine that Lauren Hafford works for in Colorado (Olin '07). This may be part of the reason why the hash in general has a lot of clout and ability to make stuff happen (again see comment about the run in the park)
This week's run (which included a rain shower that reminded me of home) was a city run around Jerry's house and was my first jaunt organized by the Madras hash. It was okay, but strikes me that the Chennai folks seem to have more organizational mastery. I did meet Anthony, a guy from Washington, who's working with some developers in Chennai on his company's product. The amusing thing about his description of what his company does? When he assumed (correctly it turns out) that I knew what XML was because I had glasses...
Alrighty, mega-post ended. Time to continue Season 7 of West Wing for a little while longer before hitting the sack.
After the run there's a Hash Circle, which basically involves standing around in a circle and making some people sit on the giant block of ice that has been previously arranged (note that the block of ice is quite cold). After/during the Circle there's generally some drinking (primarily of the local variety of beer - Kingfisher) and there may be food and/or a party with music/dancing depending on the day. The group definitely varies a lot on the week, but there appear to be a core group of regulars that varies slightly depending on which hash group it is - they run on alternating Sundays. Most of the runs (though none that I've been on yet) are along East Coast Road (ECR), which is the major southern road from Chennai that passes through/around a large number of small villages/etc on the outskirts of the main city. The hash group is probably about 40% expat and 60% middle to upper-class Indian (I'm making some assumptions about the socio-economic breakdown). Most of the expats are older (as expats working for companies tend to be 40-60+), but there seem to generally be a few adults who are roughly my age + some number of younger kids.
Despite the general age differential, the Hash has been a great way to get to know people and I'd definitely recommend anyone living abroad for a while see if there's a hasher group you could use as a starting point for building a social group in the area. There are hash clubs all over the world (including in the US) though I think the level of baudiness varies a lot between countries and regions (kids are generally not allowed in most US hashes for example). But people are friendly and it's a fun way of getting some exercise and seeing a random/new part of the city/country while also meeting people along the way.
Around my second or third week in Chennai, I met Sashi & Nigel (two of the primary organizers of the Chennai Hash) at Sashi's house for a small gathering of hash people that Drew/Kelly invited Michael and I to. Sashi is probably best described as someone who knows everyone and knows how to get things done in Chennai/India - his work is basically helping people move here/transition/etc. Nigel is a British national who's been here for several years (blanking on how many). Both of them are good guys and Sashi, about 2 hours after I met him, suggested I go with them on the trip they were planning for Kerala in a couple of weeks. Having already heard that I should go to Kerala, I decided it was a good chance to see more of the country and also meet some people. And thus I went to Kerala...
I posted a bunch of photos from Kerala, but I'll mention a few extra specifics.
First, Kerala is known as "God's Own Country" in large part because it has the largest concentration of natural/green beauty in India and it's definitely a far cry from Chennai or other cities that I've seen so far in that respect.
We took a sleeper-class train from Chennai (cheapest possible option for long-hall trips). Unfortunately my berth was in a different car than most of the rest of the hashers, but I was able to spend a lot of time getting to know Deepti, the other hasher who was exiled to another car b/c of space/booking issues. Deepti is orginally from Chennai, but spent two years in German for graduate school in cultural studies (I think), then went to London for two years to work at some well-known architectural firm there that I can't for the life of me remember. She's in Chennai to supervise/manage/be the architect for a building her company designed for a local Indian company. But, despite being exiled, we still spent a decent amount of time with the rest of the hashers on the train.
We took the train to Varakala (which I can't find on a map, so here's the place we took the train to) and spent the first night in a reasonably nice beachside resort. Shortly after arriving, we grabbed lunch, met up with the hashers coming from other cities and gathered for a run around 5:30 in the evening...
Note the bemused look on locals as we wander through their front/back yards:
If this is your first hash run, then you have to be on the ice...
On the 2nd day, we boarded a bus early in the morning to go to Alleppey, the launching point for our house-boat trip through some of the "backwaters" of Kerala. Basically the backwaters are vaguely like the Bayou in the sense that it's a mishmash of off-the-beaten-track rivers that all intertwine in random ways. But less like the Bayou in the sense that it's sunny and there's a major industry built around these house-boats and the tourists they cart around.
You board the houseboats on these charming little ladder-made-planks:
Here's a better shot of the boat:
Before picture of part of lunch:
After picture of that piece of lunch:
(Yes, it tasted great)
As I think I mentioned above, the trails on the hash are denoted with flour/chalk...
After lunch on the boat, which was pretty good, we landed for the Day 2 run through the backwaters (or rice paddies really):
We ended the run at a small hotel on the water that served an amazing dinner (I particularly liked the creamy tomato soup) - it's worth noting that the food on this whole trip was awesome. After the circle, we ate and danced the night away. One of my traveling compatriots on this trip was Mike (Brit) who's done several of these expat things and works for a car company in Delhi if memory serves. I also met a German who was working on an infrastructure project with the Indian railways system and a slew of others.
Obligatory sunset shot across the water near the hotel:
Sunday began with more good food on the boat where we spent the night tethered to the shore near the hotel:
Incidentally not bringing my flashlight made walking back to my houseboat a bit annoying - though the red distance sensor in digital cameras does do a pretty good job of being a backup light if you need it...
Then we headed to the home of famous cinematographer who is also Sashi's cousin and hung out there for a while (with lunch) before hopping on the train to head back to Chennai. I got back into the city around 7am on Monday and was in the office around 10 or 11...
A very fun trip and possibly one I would recommend copying for anyone thinking about visiting in the next year...
Last week's run was in Guindy Park, which is a small chunk of national park in the middle of Chennai that the public isn't allowed inside (like I said, Sashi knows people). The trail environment was great and we also managed to avoid the rain that was hitting Chennai earlier in the day. There were also a couple of colorful expats that I hadn't met before. Elie was from Asheville, North Carolina, which is apparently where hippies in the South hang out. He's in Chennai for a couple of months while his mom is a medical tourism patient here (getting both hips resurfaced) and is amazingly good at breakdancing (there was a party after the run). Dannie, brit, and Jo, western canadian who I originally thought was from the US Pacific Northwest - apparently the accents and mannerisms are identical, are both here studying Montessori Education and one of them, Jo (I think?), was doing a project in Canada on the spotted owl until she broke her ankle over the summer - which I found amusing being from Oregon. Sumita is an Indian who spent several years in grad school in Canada and then worked in the US (DC area) and Canada for a while (now a Canadian citizen) - she's basically a software development program/project manager who recently came back to India.
Now seems as good a time as any to point out that generally the expats in the hash (and most expats in general who aren't working for NGOs) are reasonably high up in the structures of the local branches of their companies. Jerry (Irish) runs a joint Chinese/Irish venture that makes the boxes for Nokia cell phones. Liam (Brit) manages the shoe arm of a company that makes shoes and leather for companies across the world (Timberland, Hush Puppies, etc). Allun (Brit) is helping a large international car company set up a design/development shop in Chennai. Last week I met a Dane who manages part (all?) of the Chennai operations for the same Wind Turbine that Lauren Hafford works for in Colorado (Olin '07). This may be part of the reason why the hash in general has a lot of clout and ability to make stuff happen (again see comment about the run in the park)
This week's run (which included a rain shower that reminded me of home) was a city run around Jerry's house and was my first jaunt organized by the Madras hash. It was okay, but strikes me that the Chennai folks seem to have more organizational mastery. I did meet Anthony, a guy from Washington, who's working with some developers in Chennai on his company's product. The amusing thing about his description of what his company does? When he assumed (correctly it turns out) that I knew what XML was because I had glasses...
Alrighty, mega-post ended. Time to continue Season 7 of West Wing for a little while longer before hitting the sack.
posted by Will at 10:48 PM
1 Comments:
Finally...pictures!!!!
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