there is a war in the kitchen

where i live, the kitchen leads a double life.  by day it seems like any other normal indian kitchen, but at night it becomes a war grounds for geckos and cockroaches.  somehow they sense when the kitchen door gets shut and bolted for the night. when i wander in after to get some water before i go to sleep, i'm stepping into a foreign world i don't belong in. a gecko bolts noiselessly and 7 or 8 cockroaches scuttle for cover.  they're everywhere, on the floor, on the counters.  apparently the geckos eat the cockroaches, and one time i saw a gecko with something that looked like half a cockroach hanging out of its mouth, but most of the geckos i've seen are only slightly larger than the cockroaches themselves and they're desperately outnumbered.

the rains have arrived!  there's apparently a post-monsoon monsoon season that hits tamil nadu (because of the bend in the east coast of india) as the monsoon is receding.  and it's wonderful, driving temperatures down into the mid 80s F... awesome!  though i did get caught in a torrential downpour a couple days ago (walk outside, weather is totally clear, 10 seconds later it's like a mini-typhoon hits, soaked through completely even with an umbrella, right as my friend and i are hurrying to try to catch the last bus home of the night)... kind of the most hilarious thing that's happened to me yet.

went to another wedding yesterday... well, technically, i've only been going to the betrothal ceremonies, i haven't been to any actual weddings, they always take place the next day.  but my teacher sometimes plays at the betrothal ceremonies (wedding gig india-style), so i've been coming to hear her play.  this one was complete with cotton candy and people in big furry animal costumes.  basically the ceremony involves the couple standing on stage bedecked in jeweled saari and kurta, huge flower garlands draped around their necks, receiving a seemingly endless stream of guests bringing them presents and getting their pictures and live video taken.  after that, there's a huge meal.  if anything, it's been an interesting exposure to the different manifestations of wealth in india.  i feel like there's a big difference between old money and new money here.  old money seems to be a lot more conservative, more frugal, the women might dress up in saaris vs. new money is more ostentatious, women seem more likely to wear modern-fashionable chudhidar.  apparently there were no fancy cafes in chennai until the IT boom.  now these places cater to expats and the wealthy, where you can get a cappuccino for about 10x the cost of indian coffee at a street stall (still, only about $1-1.50).  unfortunately, these places are kind of the only relaxed havens in the city... it's been hard to find a compromise between the crazy that is india and these places, which, while comforting sometimes, are kind of an escape from india.