Off To Paradise – Kerala State

Here is the first update from our last week of holiday in the southwest of India.

February 23, 2010

Kochi, Kerala - Cherai Beach

We sprang out of bed in the dark to get to the airport to catch our 7:50am flight to the state of Kerala located on the southwest coast of India. This will be our first trip ‘on our own’ since we have been in India, so we are very excited to see how we do. We boarded our Air India flight, a 747-400, for the short 1 hr. 20 min. flight to Kochi, Kerala. The huge airplane had just come from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and had dropped everyone off in Hyderabad. We flew to Kerala with only 19 people on that double-decker monster of an airplane. We could sit wherever we wanted. Rowan and I sat and talked to a couple of flight attendants the whole flight and learned a lot about Kerala State. As we flew, we noticed how the terrain was changing into a tropical paradise. Coconut palm and banana trees now dominated the landscape in a sea of green. Our excitement grew as the plane prepared to land. The humidity hit us like a truck as we exited the plane and in 5 minutes we were sweating like pigs; a welcome environment after the very dry, dirty and brown streets of Hyderabad. Maybe I’ll be lucky to get some moisture back in my old dry wrinkly skin! Our driver (yes, we have them everywhere we go!) was there holding a sign for us and scooped us up to take us off to our first stop, the Cherai Beach Resort (for 3 days). The journey to the resort took us south about 1.5 hours through lush, green, water-filled landscapes. The resort is located absolutely in the middle of nowhere (exactly what we prefer) on a long jetty that is surrounded by the Arabian Sea on one side, and salt water lagoons on the other (they are known as ‘the backwaters’). There is a tiny, tiny village just a short walk from the resort with a number of small local restaurants and shops; otherwise fishermen and their families occupy all the surrounding structures. Here are some photos of the resort and a video of the surrounding village:

The resort entrance

The resorts natural salt water lagoon. The water is filled with tropical fish that swim in from the backwaters. Since this is salt water, there are no mosquito's to eat Rowan alive. Whew!

The village

We checked in and were shown to our bungalow where we wasted no time unpacking and getting into our beach gear for a walk on the beach.

Our bungalow

The shower is half indoors and half outdoors

The backyard that faces the Backwaters. Our Bungalow is in a new area of the resort just finished in December, hence the vegetation is still re-developing.

Our back porch

Our back porch view of some Backwaters fishermen throwing out their nets.

We just couldn't wait to see the Arabian Sea and stick our toes in the 78-degree water. As we hit the beach we noticed the resort is occupied primarily by Europeans (German, Swiss, French, Brits) and a few Indians. It seems that many American tourists are not traveling to these parts these days (I seem to be the only American here). I believe this is driven by fear; too bad because since I have been here, I haven’t felt afraid of anything (except maybe Shrikant when he is flashing his neon blue eyes at me :o)

After our walk on the beach we had an afternoon nap and then had a wonderful sit on our back porch facing the backwaters. We watched the birds and fishermen and had a nice cold Kingfisher beer (we could sure get used to this!). We then went out to the beach and walked up to the public beach area where busloads of children had come to play in the surf and watch the sunset. The children were so excited to talk to us, ask where we were from and exchange names with us.

The public beach

Can you find Jenni in the photo?

It is so neat to talk to the kids here in India. They are all so smart, engaging and curious. We now know we will be coming down to the public beach every evening to talk to the local people. Much more interesting than talking with all the European white people!

As the sun started to set on the Arabian Sea, we had to pinch ourselves to make sure we were really here seeing all of this in such an enchanting, far away place.

Now to food........Tonight’s dinner was a highly anticipated event since we are on the Sea and will have a cornucopia of fresh fish to choose from (the food in Kerala is prepared in a much different way than up north in Hyderabad as they have different ingredients here). We could see the smoke rising from the outdoor grill from our back porch so we wasted no time getting over there. I had the mixed seafood grill (scampi, squid, king fish and shrimp) and Rowan had the mixed grilled veg & fruit platter. One word – HEAVEN! Food coma #3!!! It did not take long for our heads to hit the pillows once we were back at the bungalow.

Jenni's yummy seafood/grilled veg & fruit platter. Spiced to perfection.

Rowan's extremely delicious grilled veg & fruit platter, served with peanut curry paste.

Work update

Of course you know that the main purpose of this trip is for Rowan's sabbatical work to continue. By no means has this trip been all play for either of us (it's just WAY more fun to blog about the fun things we do and not our work :o) She has been doing a weekly seminar on statistics at the Eye Institute, continuing her work on the seven papers she is working on for publication, working via the Internet on her Associate Dean for Research duties at the IU Optometry school, conducting endless skype meetings with her lab and other colleagues around the world, exploring international grant opportunities with Shrikant for future collaborations between IU and the LV Prasad Eye Institute and starting to set up equipment in Shrikant's lab. The crate that was shipped from Indiana just arrived yesterday, so upon our return from Kerala next week, the next phase of testing will begin.

Shrikant with the men who helped unload the equipment yesterday.

Besides eating and blogging, Jenni has been monitoring the functions of her lab back at IU over the internet aswell. She attends lab meetings on Thursdays via skype to talk about study protocols and works on trying to keep the lab's grant account status healthy. It looks like there will be a few new human subject research projects ready to go by the time we get back. Good news in this financially strained environment.

Blah, blah, blah..............I know, this is really boring! :o)

More fun stuff coming soon.

Food Frenzy

I can’t believe I have actually posted 5 new blog entries in a row without mentioning food once! Don’t worry people; I will make up for it now.

Happy Birthday to Sumit

We have had all sorts of food adventures in the last few days. We celebrated Sumit’s birthday last Wednesday night at a really wonderful Chinese restaurant. We had a private room for the event and ordered our food about 10pm and didn’t leave the place until just after midnight. We started off with kim chi and then went to deep fried veggies. There was burnt garlic soup, creamy garlic cauliflower, potatoes and water chestnuts, crispy lamb in honey, soy and sesame, a squid dish and a seared fish dish. So many fabulous flavors all over again! And then they brought the birthday cake… I didn’t take pictures of the food, but you do get pictures of all of us.

Charanya & Shubha

Shrinkant ready to give us a beer bath!

More Food Confessions

OK, so now that we have our own kitchen, we went out to the Q Mart (the American/European grocery store) to get some back-home favorites. Now we can secretly eat some comfort food from home when one more spicy Indian curry dish is just one too many…. and Rowan can have real back-home British food too. I am still searching for that American hamburger! :o)

Oh, and don’t think you will find a barista pouring a Starbucks for you here. We have not seen one Starbucks. Hardly anyone drinks coffee during the day, although they do drink tea. It’s just too bloody HOT outside to want a cup of coffee. I treat myself to a luscious pot of Nescafe Gold freeze-dried coffee with 3% extra long life milk every morning. The milk comes in a box or a bag. It’s growing on me and I like it. Just like what I drink when we go to England to visit Rowan’s family.

Long Life Milk and the coffee

morning brew, in an instant!

Rowans Chappathi’s & Yogurt

Rowan had her first chappathi and yogurt making session on her own in the apartment the other day. She is very serious about learning how to make Indian breads and yogurt, and I totally support her. I SUCK at making bread (it always turns out like a rubber ball), so I am behind her on this one. It is important to have some kind of bread with most Indian food as it is used as a vehicle to pick up the food on your plate to get it to your mouth. Remember, we eat with our hands here. A short video of her very first chappathi at the apartment.

Rowan is totally into making the yogurt too. It is usually included with every Indian meal, so having it on had is important. Charanya gave us some live culture starter to get us going. Rowan heated some milk, added the culture and let the mixture sit in a bowl on the counter in the afternoon heat. By dinner time we had a DELICIOUS pot of homemade yogurt. We will definitely be doing this one at home too!

Food Coma #2

This gathering was all about fish. Shrikant and Sumit (the other two carnivores besides me and sometimes Rowan) have been talking about fish for days, so I told them if we got some I would cook it up for them. This got the ball rolling for us to have a dinner party for 8. Rowan and I said we wanted to get all of the ingredients for the dinner and cook it as a ‘thank you’ for all of the wonderful hospitality our friends have shown us. Sumit requested grilled Surmai fish (also known as King Fish or King Mackerel) so Shrikant took us to ‘THE’ fish market to pick up some Indian Ocean Surmai fish. We had it chopped into steaks and also picked up some beautiful giant prawns. The next thing on the agenda was to buy a grill to cook the fish. Rowan and I were already thinking we’d like to pick up a grill as a ‘thank you’ present for Shrikant & Charanya, so off we went. We spent a day collecting all of the ingredients for what was heading into our food coma #2 dinner party. I found what looks like a delicious recipe for a Pakistani Tava paste marinade for the fish. It will be fun to see how this works out.

Shrikant and Charanya opened up their house for the party. We put the grill together, took it to the roof-deck, got some cold beer, fired up the hookah and set off for another wonderful evening of good food and friends.

Here is the menu:

Grilled Surmai and Giant Prawns

Grilled Vegetable, Paneer & Pineapple Skewers

Palak Paneer

Tomato Rice

Chippathis

Cold beer, beer and beer

Homemade Custard with Assorted Fruits

And, here are some photos:

The Pakistani Tava paste: Onion, garlic, ginger, curry leaves, red chili powder, black pepper, turmeric, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, salt. Blend in a spice blender. Rub paste on fish and let marinade in the fridge up to two hours. You won't be disappointed!

Rowan mastering the Palak Paneer and Tomato Rice

preparing the fruits for the grill and the custard dessert

Sumit helping Jenni to get the new grill going. He was very keen to learn how it all works so he can be the grill master after we leave. For some reason the Indian's have not embraced the grilling outdoors culture (must be the weather is too hot?). We found the grill at the American grocery.

The Surmai on the grill

This is our scary monster friend Shrikant bringing the Hookah pipe up to the roof. You can tell by his eyes he has already had some (or, maybe the dog Lali bit him and now he is going to bite us?) :o) Hookah is a single or multi-stemmed (often glass-based) pipe for smoking tobacco in which the smoke is cooled and filtered by passing through water. Kind of like the bong in the US. Doing this with a group of friends is customary here.

Sumit is getting the pipe going by lighting a charcoal disk that is then put on top of the tobacco. The tobacco tonight will be flavored with Pan spices. We could call it organic toiletry tobacco! :o)

S & C grilling up the Paneer, vegies and pineapple

The Surmai steaks and prawns served on a bed of sliced cucumber and tomatos.

Extremely delicious!

Beer anyone?

Jenni trying the Hookah. I must say that I prefer to smoke my Pan . The organic toiletry is kinder and gentler this way.

Rowan, Shrikant, Shubha and Suresh

All us ladies. Shubha, Sandhya and her daughter Anusha, Charanya, Rowan and Jenni

The whole evening was just wonderful. We finally got to the custard with fruit dessert course just after 11:30pm. This was definitely a food coma #2 night! YUM!

Our Own Apartment

Monday, Feb. 15, 2010

Time to catch up on other things besides food and sightseeing. After being well trained in what to eat and how to prepare it, cultural dos and don’ts, and how to get around safely on the streets, last Monday, Rowan and I left the comfortable confines of The Mother Ship (Shrikant & Charanyas place) to step out to our own apartment. Our place is just a mile from S&C and only a mile from the Eye Institute, so we will be able to easily go on foot just about anywhere we need to go. Walking is always an adventure, so that is how we prefer to get from one place to the other when we can.

Our apartment is on Road No. 10 in Banjara Hills. The building has a sari shop on the bottom floor called Srishti, owned by Ravindra Rao, who also lives in and owns the building. He lives with his family on the top two floors of the building and we have the entire 3^rd floor. The place is very clean, well kept and most importantly has a kitchen so we can cook. There is also air conditioning :O) There are 3 bedrooms. We are also provided with three houseboys who clean the entire apartment every day. They do the floors (by hand!), change the linens, do the dishes, and will bring us whatever we need, plus shop for us if asked. They are just charming and extremely polite and shy. They call us 'madam' and always knock before they enter the apartment (I could get used to this!) We are having a fun time trying to communicate with them. Ramesh is the only one who knows just a little english, so finding a common way of understanding each other is comical at times. Somehow we always seem to get through it.

Here are some photos:

The stairway leading to the apartment

Our front porch

Entering the apartment. Notice the string of mango leaves above the door. You will find these above most doorways and entrances to buildings. They are hung there for good luck. The yellow painting on the threshold of the door is a turmeric based paint used as an insecticide to keep bugs out of the house.

Livingroom

Dining area

The master bedroom

Master bath vanity

Master bath includes tub and shower

on the way to the kitchen

Let the cooking begin!

Jenni with the houseboys. From left, Manju, Das and Ramesh

We have been in the apartment almost a week now and are really enjoying the place - especially the house staff and neighborhood.

Political Unrest

Real time report: Sunday Feb. 21, 2010

We don’t know if our US friends are getting any of the reports of the political unrest here in Hyderabad (don't worry mom, we are AOK!). Yesterday, there was a HUGE protest on the Osmania University campus in the heart of the city. Over 30,000 police were deployed for security in view of the students' threat to storm the Assembly (the state government headquarters). The police virtually took control of central Hyderabad. Luckily, we are staying a safe distance from this area. The protests have been happening for some months now with great regularity (especially when the Assembly meets) and can shut down movement in the city center completely. The protests are based on the future splitting-in-two of the state of Andra Pradesh. The Telangana region (the northwestern region of Andra Pradesh where Hydrerabad is) would be one state and the remainder another. Hyderabad being the financial and technical center and largest city in Andra Pradesh is being fought over. This latest round of protesting all started on Dec. 9, 2009 when the government of India announced the process for the formation of the Telangana state would be initiated upon introduction and passage of a separation statement by the state assembly of Andra Pradesh.

It is being reported here that yesterday, incensed students engaged the police in pitched battles including stone pelting. The police responded with tear gas and club swinging. A 19 year-old male student doused himself with kerosene and set fire to himself in protest. He died later last night. It is so sad he felt he had to go that far. It appears the reason the students are protesting so passionately, is that many many of them are from the side of Andra Pradesh that will be separated from Hyderabad, leaving their towns and communities without support from the money generated through Hyderabad for jobs, budget allocations, educational facilities.....and there are water issues too. The Telangana region also contributes about 76% of the state's revenue. It appears the fight for this separation has been going on since about 1969. Of course the pro-side and the con-side are both protesting. (Note to our Indian friends-please email me and let me know if I need to change any posted information that is not quite right. I am writing this from newspaper reports, conversations and my own understanding of the situation).

I am getting so engaged watching this entire thing going on. Being born and raised in Northern California and working for so many years at UC Berkeley, I certainly love to witness the passions and debates that drive a meaningful protest. I have taken some pictures from this morning's newspaper headlines in The Hindu to share with you.

You can see the big white Assembly building on the right in the left hand picture. We went to see a dance concert at a theatre just across the street from there (on the road that goes left) last Wednesday, Feb. 17. Notice how the police have completely cleared the road of traffic and people. Something you just can't imagine seeing when you witness the daily chaos of these roads! The photo on the right shows the very angry people who got caught on the other side of the road blocks.

Charred remains of a private bus that was set on fire during the protest.