Looking back over the last months

I have come late to this; we have been in Chennai for some months. However, I can add my initial thoughts from the letters and emails sent to home. This is just a beginning.

"Life is a stream
On which we strew
Petal by petal the flower of our heart;
The end lost in dream,
They float past our view,
We only watch their glad, early start.
Freighted with hope,
Crimsoned with joy,
We scatter the leaves of our opening rose;
Their widening scope,
Their distant employ,
We never shall know. And the stream as it flows
Sweeps them away,
Each one is gone
Ever beyond into infinite ways.
We alone stay
While years hurry on,
The flower fared forth, though its fragrance still stays."

~ Amy Lowell, 1874-1925 ~

28th September, 2007

Ten days have passed – who would believe it. The early excitement and hope involved in looking for accommodation has evaporated. We decided to go for an apartment rather than a house. Houses require a number of staff … security for day and night, a maid, a cook, a gardener and then the driver. In India the employer assumes a certain responsibility for both the member of staff and their family, so a house would entail a lot of people to look after. A central flat might prove easier.

We were taken to a number of properties. The houses were very large but near the beach where the tsunami claimed a number of lives some years ago. They are also less wildlife-proof with overhanging trees and gaps under doors. The apartments were often dark and I was shocked at the state of the bathrooms. Typically, they had unhygienic mosaic tiles and old sanitary ware. We found a beautiful apartment with views over the city and offered on it but it was promptly withdrawn from the market.

Since then, we have looked in vain for somewhere new. There are places that we could live in but they are not places I would want to live in. The market is overheated here and rents are high. There is lots of building work going on but none of it near enough finished to risk signing a contract.

It will happen - perumal divalai.