Karaikudi/Chettinad
https://photos.app.goo.gl/CkiZ2mFWGEZVYUpj8
Final dinner at The Heritage was delicious. I thought the staff were asking if I was non-binary (I thought WTF??), but it turns out they were asking if I wanted Naan with Biryani – I’m still having trouble with south Indian accents and my tinnitus.
A short drive today – 2 hrs to Karaikudi. Krishna refers to cows on the road as ‘traffic police’ – they make you go slower. Staying at the Bangala Hotel, whose restaurant ranked in top 50 in India by Conde Nast in recent times. Everything is eaten by hand, no cutlery, off banana leaves. They have written their own cookbook, based on Chettiar cuisine.
Having been on the road for 2 weeks, I am now quite used to Indian traffic, and I’m seeing beauty in its self-organisation, unfettered by external rules.Drivers go as they please, in full knowledge others will slow and give way. Horns don’t shout ‘Get out of my way!’, like in Straya. They are not aggressive.
They are a gentle ‘I’m here – please notice me’. Indicators are meaningless, as they are often left on for hours after a turn, but generally unused. Who needs rules, when everyone is accommodating? The traffic bends and pulses, like a jazz improvisation, with potholes the staccato notes. I was finding the ebb and flow almost meditative, then Krishna said “There was a big crash here yesterday – three trucks and a car. Eight people incinerated in the fire. Huge inferno.”
Sometimes musicians hit the wrong note.
I was inspired to write an Indian traffic Haiku en-route:
Car-eography
Trucks and bikes dance like ballet
Will I burn today?
(Car-eography is a 2 level pun – imagine the word ‘choreography’ spoken with an Indian accent for double the groan…..)
Dinner was great, but maybe not top ten. Seemed like too many staff, and service was random but very friendly. I’d rate it very good, not outstanding. They run a Chettiar cooking school here – 7 days intensive $USD1500, all inclusive. At the moment there are chefs here from New York and Japan studying. I had a small cooking demo of black pepper chicken and masala prawns.\
Old Chettinad mansions are aplenty here, but most are run down, abandoned and derelict. It was clearly grand times for them in the last two centuries. The Chettiars were wealthy merchants. The wealthy here have relocated overseas.
Unknowingly, I ran into really massive traffic jams caused by people attending Jallikattu events (a ‘bull taming’ sport).
Bulls from different villages are brought to an arena. The bulls are then let loose.
Participants grab the bull’s hump and try to tame it by bringing the bull to a stop, or riding for as long as possible.
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