The sweet life as a researcher
One day of all those days as life passes by:
Taking the bus trying to get on before the traffic jam starts at 8.45. Always fail and get stuck eitherways. Luckily Chennai has lots of nice mural paintings; this one I see everytime I head for Egmore.
Hanging out at the Tamil Nadu Archives. Literally wading in books! And today I got to read documentation from 1834 – wooow! Books are so old they are almost falling apart, it is magical to turn the pages and the handwriting is extremely beautiful!
Conducting interviews with people having different views and experiences on my essay topic. Today I met Mr. Veeramani, President of the Dravidar Kazhagam, pro-reservationist.
Waiting at the train platform to get into the ladies’ compartment.
Doing some serious idli researching. I didn’t know that you could buy ready-made idli mix! Ha!
Is this what winner cooking looks like?
I am starting to feel that my time in India is about to wrap up for this time. Because as every time you are about to leave a place, things suddenly go in ultra-speed. I am meeting so many interesting people, I am invited to so many homes and so many positive things are happening. I feel it is very beautiful and good for me to be here with a mission, a mission to understand Indian society and reservations in depth. I am happy to feel that I have a mission to try to understand something very complex and bring knowledge back to my home country. And as happens with the course of time, I am finally moving about in Chennai as it is my own town, enjoying contacts and friends already made. And at the same time as I am learning more about Indian society, caste and politics than I could imagine!
India 