Chennai
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The International Coastal Cleanup: Chennai, India
Today we joined thousands of Chennaiites in taking part in the 2013 International Coastal Cleanup. Regular readers in this blog will recognize that Chennai struggles to maintain clean beaches and waterways, like many large urban areas on the coast.  It was impressive to see the number of people involved and active in this annual event.
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Ganesha Chaturthi, Chennai Style (Part 2: Video)
Yesterday I explained a bit about the festival currently ongoing in Chennai (and across India) – Ganesha Chaturthi – and posted some photos. It’s hard to really capture the atmosphere of the event with photos only – a video in this case is much more helpful. Â After watching this video, if you think this is
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Ganesha Chaturthi, Chennai Style
Today was day 7 of Ganesha Chaturthi, the Hindu festival celebrating the (re-)birth of Lord Ganesha, the son of Shiva and Parvati. Â To celebrate this festival, many Indian families display a statue of Ganesha in their homes, and after making specific types of offerings and engaging in certain rituals, will immerse the (usually clay) statue
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Is There Really Such a Thing as Too Many Cameras?
I was very excited to get a package this week containing twelve new old junk vintage cameras, bringing the size of my collection to around fifty. Â Here are the new arrivals: And (changing subjects briefly, but I’ll come back to this) India has a lot of monkeys – 13 types, in fact – but we
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Chennai Fish Market
Living on the coast has its benefits – fresh fish! Unfortunately, when it all gets gathered in one place, the smell of fish becomes so strong that I quickly lose interest in actually eating any. But it’s good to know it’s there and suggests that what’s being sold in the shops is likely also pretty
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St. Thomas Basilica or San Thome Church
I had the opportunity to take part in an event sponsored by local Ahmadiyya Muslims encouraging peace between religions, and I was impressed by the diversity of religions represented by the guests at the event. One of these guests represented there told me about San Thome Church in Chennai, so named because it is built
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More Scenes from the Hood
Sharing some more general impressions from my neighborhood. I go walking around for 15 minutes and every time I come back and feel like I’m about to start reciting “And to Think that I saw it on Mulberry Street.” Today’s post is nowhere near as dramatic – but this is literally 15 minutes’ walking, and
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Riding in a Rickshaw
This post is from the point of view of the auto rickshaw – or as I like to call it, “the scourge of the developing world’s road network.” OK so maybe that’s a bit over the top; but as exhibit A, I present the fact that in Mumbai, they have banned auto rickshaws from the
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R.A. Puram, Chennai in Photos 3
This is the second part of a post describing a 90 minute “photowalk” around my new neighborhood in Chennai, India. Everything you see is within a 500 meter radius. So continuing yesterday’s story, the main destination I’d had in mind when starting this walk was yet to come. The other day I had heard drums
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R.A. Puram, Chennai in Photos 2
This morning I decided to take my camera for another jaunt around the neighborhood in what seems to be called a “photowalk”. So I discovered today. It wound up being kind of a crazy 90 minutes or so – I came home soaking wet (sweaty) carrying a bag of jasmine and my forehead covered in
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Driving in Chennai: Timelapse
In time-lapse photography, it’s common to keep the camera pretty still and let the subject do the moving – or if at all, to move the camera very slowly. But it can also be fun to do a moving camera time-lapse, especially when you want to convey something about the sometimes frantic (at least to
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R.A. Puram, Chennai in Photos
There’s something both scary and exciting when you get off a plane in a strange foreign country, knowing you’re going to spend the next two years of your life here, whether you like it or not. The first thing that hits you is the humidity. Then, all your bags collected, you head into town and
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Chennai Snake Park
One of India’s few urban national parks sits in the center of Chennai. Guindy National Park, India’s 8th smallest national park, is also host to a snake park. The Chennai Snake Park Trust, founded in 1972 by American herpetologist Romulus Whitaker, is a fun place to spend a few hours and check out not only
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Chennai: Early Impressions
Driving in Chennai can be a harrowing experience, especially for a newly-arrived foreigner. And it typically takes more than a month to get your Indian driver’s license. So when you first get here, you’re somewhat limited in your movement, and you really get a feel for how important mobility can be. It’s even worse when,