Cast of Thousands

I realize how negative that last post might have sounded. Which is OK, because I've been having a pretty tough time and feeling pretty negative for the last month and change. But in a sincere effort to allow my readers to approach the "truth" of my situation here, I'll make a deliberate effort in these next few posts to write about some of the positive aspects of my experience rather than just crapping on India and myself.

Even though, as mentioned in my last post and evidenced in the last 26 years of my life, I am an intensely private, independent person and it has always been a challenge for me to open myself to other people, there are a number of people who have deeply impacted my experiences in India so far and I, taking a cue from Cat, who is much better at this whole blogging thing than I, would like to introduce some of them to you here.

Thomas John Achen and Betty Kochamma-- the yin and yang of the South India YAV program. Achen is the head and voice of the program, Kochamma, the hands and heart. Together they are as wonderful a surrogate family as anyone could ask for. As busy as they are, they are always willing to feed, listen to, give advice to, and be a sanctuary for us.

Phillip Koshy-- One of the residents of Chacko Homes, Phillip is totally off his rocker and I love him for it. I can always count on him for an unintended dose of perspective. Phillip is the king of the world he has built in his head-- at least once a day he is offered the presidency or kingship of some country or the other, and, as of the latest tally, he has been given the Nobel Prize 8 times since September. He often talks about his wife and daughter who are living in the States (don't tell Dick Cheney, but Phillip's wife is actually the vice-President of the US). And I often wonder if they're real at all. How much of his life is real and how much is entirely in his head? But how much of any of our lives is "real," and how much of it do we construct in our imaginations to create relevance and meaning for ourselves? Phillip may never know it but he has probably been my most valuable interlocutor in this ontological quest for understanding... or for the knowledge that I don't understand jack squat. But the most valuable thing I get from Phillip is that, real or not, he is really happy in the world he inhabits.

Johnappa and Gopalan-- affectionately dubbed (by me) Those Two Crazy Guys at UC College, Johnappa and Gopalan are research fellows working under the auspices of the English Department, and are probably the most interesting people at the college. When I first met them, they were researching the ancient yogic practice of alchemy in the creation of medicinal herbs and the practices of yogis who still live alone in caves up in the mountains which apparently allow them to live, if not eternally, then well beyond the normal span of days. Recent visits to their shared office have yielded discussions about ancient temples and lost treasure in the jungles of Kerala, pygmy elephants, yogic meditation, hydrogeology, lost tribes in the Andaman Islands that have never had contact with modern society, and Benny Hinn. Whenever life gets mundane, I know I can visit Johnappa and Gopalan and hear about something that will renew my sense of wonder. As of right now, we are tentatively planning to spend the end of March or the beginning of April tramping through the jungle in order to document the aforementioned lost temple. I also have plans to spend a week with Gopalan's guru in a cave up in the mountains, learning yoga and meditation. I get the feeling that some of the best stories about my year in India are going to come from rolling with these guys.

Dr. Prabu Ramachandran-- a new resident of Chacko Homes, Prabu is a proper early-20th-century English gentleman painted brown and dropped into 21st Century India. Given an entirely English education in pre-Independence India, he feels completely out of step with his countrymen and is almost as uncomfortable with Malayalam as I am. As gregarious and outgoing as anyone can be, Prabu is always ready with a witty anecdote or bawdy joke, and his old-fashioned Anglophilia is like a trip back to a time and place I never knew.

Pradeep Joseph-- I have to laugh at Pradeep because I see a lot of myself in his Quixotic efforts to do EVERYTHING. And in his efforts to do everything, he accomplishes almost nothing. I can really relate. I first got to know Pradeep in his position as Secretary of the Student Christian Fellowship. As one of the student leaders of the group, he shared my enthusiasm for mission and outreach and agreed that the SCF should be leading the College in meaningful engagement with social issues. As seems typical of India though, that enthusiasm has yet to translate into any sort of action. In the meantime, though, he has published his memoirs. Why? I don't know. But I got an autographed copy. He is now planning to make a "campus film," a fictitious documentary about the loss of open space in the campus and the decline of student debate and discussion due to the lack of a physical forum. Additionally he is writing a dissertation on the status of widows in harijan (dalit) communities. As he is currently conducting interviews in the nearby dalit colonies, I have invited myself to go around with him as a way of finally being able to interact with and gather stories from the dalit people. (I intend to do a post just on what it means to be a dalit soon, so that this word i keep using will have some meaning for you all).

There are plenty of others, but these are just a few of the folks who jump readily to mind, that have been making my experiences in India so far meaningful and memorable.