Living in an area that isn't so heavily populated by tourists (0% approx), it's only natural i'm going to attract a little bit of attention. Sometimes it's a bit like being the Queen, what with having to say hello and give a royal wave (that easily turns into a w**nker sign if they're taking the mick).
This weekend (after the YMCA) Peter, who is the social worker from the school, took us to visit his home in Tirupattur which is about halfway to Bangalore. His house doubles as a Church at weekends and his two older brothers are the pastors so I had my first dose of religion in a good long while. Most of it was in Tamil and my knees took a pounding from kneeling so much but I got the gist of it (especially after a particularly vigorous rendition of 'Holy God We Praise'). Afterwards, the foreign visitors were presented with lovely flowery necklaces, with my fetching number given to me by a tiny 7 year old child going by the name of Gilchrist, who I was told was named after Australian cricket hero Adam after some smashing performances at the 2003 World Cup. He and his less interestingly named sister had just returned home with their mother after she decided to abscond for 6 months, I was told very casually whilst shaking both the mother and her unfazed husband's hands.
A little later, standing upstairs on the terrace, I was beckoned over to say hello by a couple of 8 year old likely lads on the adjoining terrace. I felt obliged as a visitor so I went over and had a brief conversation which nobody gained anything from because we were speaking different languages but it was nice anyway. I hope that it was about cricket because I definitely started performing batting and bowling motions in front of them. However, within the next few minutes word seemed to spread and suddenly there was a mob of about 20 well-wishers (or naysayers) trying to say hello. There are photos of this incident which wouldn't be out of place in a museum.
The best thing was i'd done nothing. Not a tough crowd.
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