Waking up on the wrong side of the road...

I was only in Chennai for a day. Stayed up almost all night catching up on a lifetime with my cousin. We'd only met once or twice previously, most recently in 2004(?) when a mutual cousin of ours got married in Norcal. We are third cousins depending on how you define that. Our paternal grandmothers were first cousins; their mothers were sisters. After we sorted out how we were related with the help of her father, we spent the rest of the night filling each other in on our love lives with the help of Facebook.


As per usual, I had a busy day scheduled for my one day in Chennai before joining up with my Ayurveda group: the tailor's to get measured, the OFERR headquarters to sort out my mobile internet situation, the farm to see how they make spirulina, and at breakfast, my cousin got a call about a movie premiere that evening to which she invited me. I was to meet the rest of my group at the Chennai airport when they came out of customs or I'd be left behind. Their flight from Newark was landing at 12:05 am.


All of those things happened. The tailor was unhappy that I slept in and arrived late. She was waiting to measure me before she took her daughter to nursery school. Oops! Good thing it's just nursery school. The farm was awesome and I got to see how they made ghee from raw milk as well as spirulina. I also had a glass of fresh spirulina with lime and sugar. It was delicious and nutritious! I went to the Tamil movie premiere with my cousin and her friends. It was not subtitled, so my cousin translated the entire movie for me while we watched. I don't think she realized it, but she even described what they were doing. ("He told him to go look in his trunk. Now he is going down to his car to look in his trunk.") On the way home from the theatre, we rescued a dying kitten from the street.


I met my group at the airport (under construction, extremely crowded and chaotic) just as they were exiting the building. Before I could even look for them, I turned a corner and heard my name. "Neha!" It was my good friend, Monica, from my Ayurveda program, the only person in the group I knew. She had decided that they were going to find me within 10 seconds and there I was!


We had a 15 person van with no interior luggage space for 12 adults, 2 kids and a driver. In addition, Dr. Shekhar (our slightly neurotic but very sweet leader) had about 10 extra suitcases filled with donated medicine, clothing and toys. After strapping more than we should have to the roof, we piled into the van filling the aisles and our laps with the rest of the bags.


Turns out that whole "be there or you'll be left behind" thing was for real. One member of our group was arriving on a later flight. We gave her two hours to clear customs and then...we left without her at about 2:30 am.


The first stop on this Ayurvedic journey was to Dr. Shekhar's hometown, Tangutur. He built on clinic on the site of his childhood home and we were holding a four day free medical clinic "for the poor". He had doctors of all kinds coming in from all over to donate supplies and their services.


Tangutur is 310 km north of Chennai. The journey took about six hours with pitstops and toll lines. I was able to sleep for most of it thanks to a window seat and my airplane pillow and blanket. I woke up at sunrise, driving on the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic.