Greetings from South India! I arrived in Chennai, in the state of Tamil Nadu, where Kalai and Raju and son Goutha fed me, gave up their beds to let me sleep at odd times, and welcomed me so sweetly that leaving seemed unnatural. Raju and I met squished side by side on a bus last year, and enjoyed our first hour of conversation about his work in sales management at a water purification company, and the Art of Living ashram where volunteers. He was fascinated with Beauty of Water, and we kept in touch. Raju is supporting Beauty of Water in many ways, for which I am deeply grateful.
Here we are in front of the most prominent art piece in their hall: a gigantic, fantastic image of waterfalls; cropped out of the picture for size reasons was an empty box from their just-installed water filter. Ya gotta love synchronicity!The title of this entry came from a conversation with a dear friend Prakash whose family I visited in Chennai, who was absorbing information about Beauty of Water. He said, "So it is about creating love for water." Yes!
I'm now in Trivandrum, in the state of Kerala. Here is a 7-photo slideshow with images from outside of my current digs. USA owner "Gandhi" is sitting on the porch with manager/friend Rajeev, and onsite caretaker Alex is getting the coconuts from across the way.
Synchronous connections continue right and left, such as meeting Paul Molyneaux, avid cyclist, contributor to the New York Times, and author of books on fisheries and aquaculture; a new friend of a couple of hours obtained a sim card for my mobile phone, no small endeavor for a foreigner yet super important for ongoing communications; and the owner of my guest house offered to show me around an arts college. Later this week Santhan will arrive for his group gallery opening. I'll wear a new shirt I'm having stitched for the event.
