chola temple

During my last weeks in India, I got to do a little sightseeing. I visited Thanjavur to see a really old and famous temple. I saw the Brihadeeswarar Temple, a magnificent building constructed by the Chola kings of south India. It was a breathtaking sight.

At the temple there was an elephant, who could bless you (for a small price). If you offered the elephant some rupees, it would suck them up with its trunk. Then he would bless you by placing his trunk on your noggin'

This temple also had a large statue of Nandi, the cow god (and mount of Shiva).

memo from the big guys

Dearest reader:
I regret to inform you that your blogger is unable to spell "wikipedia" correctly in her blog. Even under the extreme circumstances of her being in a place with few internets, this is intolerable. We apologize for any inconvenience and cost.

Sincerely,
The people of Wikipedia and not Wikepedia

jack fruit is wikepedia-friendly

Although some of my friends have called this ugly fruit you see to the right a Jacob's fruit, I found out that it is actually called Jack fruit. (See, AWT, I don't make up everything ;).

This watermelon-sized monster is cut open to reveal a stringy, sticky interior. Some of the guys put coconut oil on their hands to keep from getting their paws gummed up by the latex-like strands. This stringy part contains chubby, petal-shaped fruits of a yellow color, each containing within a large seed. These seeds can be boiled and eaten. They have a chestnut-y flavor to them, and apparently you can fry them with masala (mixture of Indian spices) for a nice treat!

Accompanying your fact-checked blog entry today are some photos or our Jack fruit feast.

Jack fruit viscera:


the edible part:

seeds:


Jayakumar pulls one out with his teeth:


Raja and a Jack fruit tongue:


the whole gang:

stay tuned

I'm back from my sightseeing travels, and I'll update the blog with stories and pictures as soon as possible--it may take a few days.

To whet your appetite for all things India: I finally saw some wild elephants--six of 'em!

sardines

Riding the bus in India is every bit as crazy as the tour books say it is. I have never been so close to so many human bodies.

Jacob's Fruit

Yesterday afternoon, Jayakumar and the others at the lab introduced me to a new food, the Jacob’s fruit. We all climbed on the roof of the lab (accessible by stairway), and cut up the unusual fruit. Sitting cross-legged (Indian style?) on the roof, with the wind blowing off the ghats, Raja’s cellphone playing Tamil music, and stuffing myself with the sweet fruit, I realized that I only have 10 more days in this magical place.

While we were washing the sticky Jake fruit juice off of our hands, Devani turned and said to me, “You won’t have company like us in the U.S.”

I know.

give me 5 to 10 minutes

It is understood that when someone says “give me two seconds” or “give me a few minutes,” they aren’t expecting you to pull out a stopwatch. It seems to me that the Indian equivalent is “just wait five minutes” or “just wait ten minutes.” This is increased in increments of five minutes, depending on the time.

It never takes that long. But, then again, it never only takes us a few minutes.