Jitu

Narayanan from Kerala invited me one day to have real Indian food (he said that the mess does not provide proper food). So he cooked all kind of fancy stuff and we ate it from banana leaves. Narayanan (or I call him Naru, because I was not able to pronounce his name properly) was a vegetarian. Being a vegetarian in South India means that he did not eat any meat and eggs. Neither he went to restaurants which offered vegetarian food beside meals with meat, because it was cooked on the same stove and the same wooden spoons were used for stirring.

I have some Indian friends here in Germany and when they celebrate birthday, I usually bake a cake containing eggs. I always inform the people on the party about it hoping that they refuse to eat the cake so that I have more. It is a really tasty one called “Elsässer Apfelkuchen”, but the good taste is always the reason, why I have always the smallest piece. But I have to admit that when I bake it, I have a second one at home.

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When I went with Sunil to Kerala it was my first trip and my first time not being in the office. He did not want to shock me, so he decided to go there in an AC Three compartment, which we shared with four other passengers. It was air conditioned and had cool black colored windows, so nobody could have a look into it during daylight. Blankets and sheets were provided by the train personnel, because the train trip took around 14 hours from Chennai to Kottayam.

The following day we relaxed and went to Allepey through the backwaters by boat. The backwaters are a very complicated system of rivers and lakes. They are a very nice and, after the gear box of the boat broke and the engine was shut off, also peaceful place. There we were: in a very beautiful nature in the middle of fields that were divided apart by little earth walls, which also worked as a path to get to the stilted houses. In the raining season all the fields are flooded.

In the backwaters you can find a lot of big house boats. Tourists, who want to explore the routes in a comfortable way, rent them usually. The boats are also available with a cook preparing the food and air conditioning. After a while (a few hours or so – but time is relative, even more in India) a second ferry came. So we joined the already packed people on the second boat and continued our trip to Allepey, where we had lunch (beef suprisingly).

The next day we went to Erumeli. Erumeli is a little village close to the jungle and is usually only reachable by jeep with a four wheel drive. On our trip through the forest, we met nobody with one exception: The road was not really a road. It was a hilly and dusty track in the woods. Suddenly we heard a strange noise and an rickshaw passed us hopping and bouncing. The driver was very concentrated to avoid the deeper holes. I do not know, how it managed to get there.

With one of Sunil’s family friends and two other guys, we spent a night and two days in the jungle, which was one of the best experience I have ever had. The way to the camp side was a riverbed. Fortunately the river did not have so much water in summer, but still had enough to take a bath or to catch fishes. During the day the air was very humid and Sunil and I sweated like hell. The two other guys wore just a dhooti and a bag, which they usually carried on their heads. They said that it is safer to carry a bag like this, because if we get in contact with tigers or elephants, they were able to drop any unneeded weight immediately. Even today I do not know, if they just wanted to scare and to make fun of us or if they were serious.

The night was awesome. After the fire burned down and due to the absence of artificial light, we could see an uncountable numbers of stars. The whole sky was so packed that it was almost impossible to find an empty spot. On the next day we went back to one of the guy’s house, where he offered us honey from his stock inhabited by very small bees.

On the last day, Sunil and I visited a bird sanctuary. One special thing in India are the entry fees: Foreigners have to pay a lot more. Usually they take the price for Indians, remove the “Rs.” and add “$” in front of the price. So if Indians pay Rs. 5, foreigner have to pay $5, which is around Rs. 250. It is a little but unfair, but it keeps the place going. Unfortunately we did not see so many birds, but we heard them making a lot of noise.

We went back to Chennai by Sleeper Class. This class had similar to AC Three, but is not air conditioned (fortunately), does not have the black colored and not openable windows, and blankets were not provided either. If the windows are open and if there is a problem and the train has to stop, you will be able to see swarms of mosquitos flying into the compartments. But who cares about all the things, if we are able to sleep almost everywhere?

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I always get annoyed by spam mails, which fill up my mail box. To prevent the spam bots to crawl through all sides and to collect valuable (in the sense of working) addresses, all kind of counteractive measures can be taken. Recently I integrated one of them in WordPress. It is quite simple, but it needs JavaScript to be enabled. If JavaScript is not activated, it provides a fall back alternative, which is currently not comfortable. How does it work? It takes every character of an email address, converts it to the appropriate ASCII number, adds 3 and converts it back. The result is an email address, which does not consist of the usual format. Check out the example, where I called the function and as given parameter a correct formatted email address:

The plugin also supports another name to be displayed or a predefined subject. If something does not work, please let me know.

Installation

Please check the included readme file for the installation instructions and how to use the plugin in posts and anywhere else.

Requirements

The plugin has been tested on WordPress 2.0.4

History

Current release: 0.1 alpha – my first plugin for WordPress

Download

Email Encryption Plugin

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Tamil is a language mostly spoken in Tamil Nadu in south India. Although I have been there, I just learned one single sentence. For someone, who does not speak Tamil, one thing is very easy to recognize: almost all sentences end with a long spoken and specially pronounced AaaA (an captial A means a slightly higher voice than the lower case a). So once I had a puncture with my cycle and I needed some air. Since I did not know, how the compressor worked, I looked a little bit helpless. Then a guy came asking me: “AirAaaaaaAAA?”, which I did not understand at first.

In that sense: Aaprom paarkalam (This one without the AaaA-sound. Do not ask me why. Maybe you can explain it).

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I started to learn Bengali, which is mostly spoken in some parts in north India. It took me a while to learn the alphabet and still I have difficulties to read and write the conjunct consonants. I started to learn it from a book called “Teach yourself Bengali” by William Radice, which also comes with two CDs. But since I started to learn it from a book, I am not able to speak or to understand this language (just some basic words sometimes). But fortunatley I found some friends from West Bengal and Bangladesh, who are willing to teach me. So I have started to learn all the unknown vocabularies.

Some words are derived from English words (like cycle, table, post office), but they are written in Bengali letters and sometimes I do not recognize them. So I am flipping through the dictionary searching for that word. But by pronouncing it a little bit different and playing around, you get an idea what it is about (e.g. shaikel is a cycle or john, which is written as j and n since the o-sound comes automatically).
The audio CDs contain the reading part of the book. If you do not understand the people, because they talk much faster than you are able to read, do not worry. You will be able after a few days or weeks (depending on how much you learn in that period of time).
Let’s see, how long it takes till I can speak my first basic sentences besides the normal and memorized sentences. Oh, if someone has the ultimative solution on how to learn to speak the “R” with the tip of the tongue, please let me know.

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Ok, I have to admit that I did not know a lot about India. Exceptions: I knew where it was, the name of the capital, and the fact that India is the country of spices, tea, elephants, fakirs and flying carpets. In December I decided to go abroad again and I went to Tharamani in Chennai to do a project for my graduation at the University of Applied Sciences in Aachen. The project work lasted for 6 months starting on the 2nd of April 2005.

The first days after my arrival were really interesting. First of all it was really hot. In April the temperatur in Germany is around 10 to 12 degrees Celcius. This is quite cold compared to 35°C at 6 am at Chennai Airport. All the auto drivers (rickshaw, etc.) blocked the exit and only a barrier could hold them back. There I was. Sweaty and exhausted in long pants, jacket, pullover, with 2 heavy bags in a country, where people shout at you when they offer a service. Because of the barrier everybody got a glance and I felt like being on stage of a fashion show.
Fortunately a driver from the institute picked me up and skillfully drove the car through the traffic jam while whisteling and singing songs. I sat in the front passenger’s seat and was not able to understand, how my driver could stay so relaxed while I was overstrained by just looking calm.

Somehow no accident happened and we reached the institute, where I had my room. After two hours of sleep and a change of clothes, I started to check out the environment of Chennai. It was for the first time that I got in contact with people from south India and it seemed to me, that they were very curious. They stared at me as I was a pink elephant or a rare animal in a zoo behind glases. Even if they do not speak English, they are able to ask at least 3 questions: “Name?”, “Country?” and “Single?” If I answered “I am from Germany”, there was a high chance that they knew someone in Frankfurt or other German city. After a few hours of walking and getting lost I reached Elliot’s beach and it was about time to get the first serious cultural shock: It was Saturday and a few people were already at the beach. Then I saw two young boys of round about 16 or 17 years old walking hand in hand along the beach like a couple. Well, I am quite liberal and I just thought by myself: “Uh, they are most likely gay. Interesting even in Germany I have not seen that before. I did not know that Indians are so open minded!” After a while I saw a few other male “couples” and I though that there are lots of gay people in this city, where I have to stay for the next 6 months. I was quite unhappy with that situation. It took around a week and a few embarrasing moments till I figured out, what it actually means. It is just a sign of friendship. The emotions are often expressed by a physical contact especially among friends and when I came back to my home country 6 months later, I figured out, how much distance is between the people. Everyone carries an imaginary fence around themselves, which is not supposed to be crossed (only for the boy-/girlfriend and family members).

The food is quite spicy and nothing for a sensitive digestion. But that is not the only difference: Usually it is eaten by hand (but only the right one, since the left one is used for something else). For someone who is used to eat with fork, spoon and knife, it might be a little bit strange. Well, there is even a technique (a combined thumb-pushing and throwing one) so that you do not spoil so much. Be prepared that the waiters in a restaurant might think it is strange, if you ask for cutlery.

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In the past I have never spent a long time abroad (besides going on vacation with my parents). My time at school was a very calm one without any extraordinary events. Some of my classmates went to the US and studied there for round about a year. When they came back, they had been more fluent in English than in their mother tongue (which was German).

But it changed suddently when I was a student. One of my friends met a girl in a chat room and he went to Florida to visit her in December 2002. He came back and was really excited about the American way of life. So the idea came up to study there for one semester. Actually we wanted to go together and it was more a bet. And I have to mention that both of us were drunk.

Well, at least I went and he did not. While I planned my stay, it seemed that a lot of people knew many things about the US. They tried to give me a lot of hints and tips. When I arrived in the US, my head was full of details (e.g. how to behave, what to say, and what better not to do) and I was really nervous. In the end I figured out that the people were as curious about me as I was about them. Any mistakes in my behaviour were overseen generously. After that experience I decided that I do not want to be that nervous again: On my trip to India I knew almost nothing about that country.

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Durga Puja is an Indian festival and it was also celebrated in Stuttgart. Around 40 mostly Indians were there worshipping Ma Durga and Ganesha, Saraswati, Lakshmi and Kartikeya.

It was my first time to get in contact with Hinduism. Usually I feel a deep respect for people who believe. Since I do not know so many things about religion, I do not want to offend anybody by doing anything wrong (e.g. to step on something on what someone should not do). Therefore I did not dare to enter a temple, when I visited Chennai. I just passed or tried to get a glance into it.
But Indians are quite liberally. There are just a few rules to follow, which are normal in daily life. The festival was really amazing and interesting. There is even a bigger Durga Puja in Cologne, Germany. But the best would have been to be in Kolkatte or Delhi to celebrate these days.
Find out more about Durga Puja here:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durga_Puja
• http://www.ganguly.de/durgapuja/

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