Bicycles, Tricycles

An article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung recently featured a modified bicycle for car-less environmental zones in Europe. The article gushed on about how the bicycle was an innovation from a "hippie commune," waxing euphoric about how it solves the environmental problem of transporting large amounts, "up to 100 kg!", without those pesky combustion engines.

I'm all for reducing use of fossil fuels through whatever novelties available, and I generally have nothing against hippies, even die-hard European ones. But have these journalists ever traveled outside of their hometowns? As the photos here show, this bicycle is not newer than sliced bread. It's hard to mirror their enthusiasm, seeing variations of this innovation being used daily on the streets of Chennai. Modifying bicycles for transportation is essential for the livelihood of hundreds of vendors in Chennai and other cities in the developing world for delivering fruit, ice, construction materials, and a thousand other wares and goods. And I doubt these guys are thinking about the environment as they peddle well over 100 kg per load, in flip-flop sandals.

Beaches and Dancing

When I first got to Chennai I was overwhelmed with an assault on my senses, some positive (smell of incense, taste of spicy food, outlandishly colorful clothing, shy friendly smiles) and some negative (stench of sewage, deafening traffic, creulties of poverty). I thought--for a day or two--that leaving the house would always be a challenge. As you've seen here, I got over that pretty quick.

One place that I avoided at first but have embraced of late is the beaches in Chennai--Marina and Elliotts. These long stretches of sand are less appropriate for sun-umbrella-and-beach-ball fun and are more a carnival atmosphere. It's one of the few places in Chennai where really everyone can go. It's massively long, about 8 miles, completely free, and since swimming isn't usually advised, everyone just sits and looks eastward, chows on local fried foods, and maybe plays the carny style games where you shoot the balloon to win a prize. So, when the visa workload is particularly daunting, it's very calming to just go and let the crash of the waves and the ringing bells of the cotton candy sales cart fill my ears.

I've made a pastime of another tradition in Chennai--bharatnatyam dancing. Now, I can't dance like that, but when I view dancers on stage moving meticulously with rehearsed, precise movements in perfect rhythm to Carnatic musicians, I feel I can transcend differences in language and religion to access the ancient stories such as the Ramayana, for example, than reading a poorly translated version of that ancient epic. These photos [click here] are from a revue of various Indian dance types.