I feel an energy, a buzz, that had been eluding me for awhile on the road, a revitalization, renewal, smiling endlessly at the wonders of this amazing land. I left my wonderful beach shack amidst anxiety of trading tranquility for hostility; on the way, i've connected with some wonderful Indian folks, and remembered how warm and embracing and Indian smile and head nod can be.
The people of Chennai, the 4th largest city in India; the other support crew, actors, staff, stars, were so open and welcoming today as I somehow found myself on the AVN Studios film lot, fufilling that jewel in the Indian experience, being a Bollywood extra. The picture, plotline, story, will all fade with time; but what will remain in mind is the parade of smiles and warmth of the people on the lot, for the long hours that were spent sitting idly, conversation flowing like the hot, milky chai tea we drank in gulps.
Even the star actors were totally unpresumptuous, open, even shy; its hard to imagine Tom Cruise bashfully talking to an India film extra on a Hollywood lot. The entirety of life on the set; a microcosm of Indian life, endless food and tea, sweeper ladies hunched over cleaning the endless mess left behind; lights and noise; talking and laughter; and somehow, in the end, progress amongst chaos.
Thinking back on the long train rides of the last days, the soreness in my rear has healed, the dull hours have faded in a fog; however, the wonderful young married couple from Delhi on their first holiday to Goa; the young IT worker from Bangalore, traveling with his parents and sister to their ancestral homeland in the north; the middle manager of Ford India who stopped me on the street in Bangalore and ended up treating me to chai and conversation in the dim upstairs of a local restaurant; chance encounters that make travels in this place, and the people who call it home, so unique and special. Pics online at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/JeffreyHDow/GoaToChenai
"The roadway narrowed; roadside huts and lean-tos, without pronounced color, just a mish-mash of brown and black and grey, appearing to encroach on space meant for vehicles, hid the solider concrete buildings behind them, and gave the impression of a very long village road set in dirt. What seemed to threaten in many places...appeared to have happened here: it was like witnessing the creation of ruin: a large, inhabited city was reverting to earth."
VS Naipaul
India: A Million Mutinees Now
