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Lying awake in bed in a hotel in Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu - Iām planning to write a travel essay on my blog, but in the meantime Iāll do a quick thread of pics and thoughts so far? https://t.co/Yanxe66nFX
Iāll work backwards from my camera roll š Dad bought this vegetarian fried rice earlier. It tastes like a peppery cup of instant noodles in rice form; a little fresher. First time Iāve seen or tried green chilli sauce. Tangy and slightly sour, I dig it https://t.co/InIuMNR4KG
A street cow just hanging out near my hotel https://t.co/qLz38wrnSD
Iām going to write an essay one day titled āthe unbearable whiteness of ads for brown peopleā https://t.co/XDiZHRIqsK
A street view. (And one of my favorite Tamil songs on the radio.) Weāre already in Karaikudi at this point so itās kinda relatively packed and a little crowded, but colourful, messy, lively and fun. Itās always trippy to realise billions of people are going about their lives https://t.co/jDIAg2gBk8
Oh I didnāt even bother to read the ad until somebody asked. Thanganagai kadan- gold jewelry loans! Good prices/rates for your gold! Did yāall know Indian housewives own over 10% of the worldās gold? https://t.co/S4Sz2KJ3z5
Nobody bothers with helmets around here, not even... the police š https://t.co/KJ9ayT5cEc
The open road between Trichy and Karaikudi - I have a growing fascination for Indian trucks https://t.co/StX5d0EhpO
Sometimes you come across some guy cycling with a bunch of wares on the open road. He probably cycles something like 20+ kilometres...? Maybe each way...? Some of the old people in this part of the world seem really fit. Good posture, teeth, skin https://t.co/sbNszePfrV
āIn India, the cow is supposedly a sacred animal to which motorists must give way. Nowhere in the world is the human being similarly sacred.ā ā Mr Social Control, as quoted by Jay Griffiths, in A Sideways Look At Time https://t.co/u6hsHPuI46
Just 90s of uneventful driving. A thing thatās unintuitive for me, as a city boy from one of the densest urban environments on the planet, is that land... aināt scarce. The vehicle horn is used liberally around here. Listen closely and youāll find thereās a whole language to it https://t.co/7futaYGlvO
We stopped along the road for lunch. The dosai and parathas in India are *phenomenal*. Maybe the flour is fresher or something - you canāt get anything like this in SG. Super fluffy, fragrant. I donāt care how good you think it is at some posh restaurant - this is the real deal https://t.co/bzO9NPfW2p
The coffee is fantastic, too. The servings are small - I get the sense that people here probably drink several small ones throughout the day rather than get a big fix in the morning. I believe the milk straight from the cows, which has a textured, nuanced sweetness to it https://t.co/nlW8ZYLQXl
Fairly common to see images of Gods on the back of vehicles. Maybe to remind people to be courteous...? š https://t.co/lgkUp0Rieb
Lots of trucks and buses have āSOUND HORNā painted on the back, which is surely part of the Honk Liberally traffic culture https://t.co/hK5FVBtjl3
Tried to get some shots of posters along the roads - the colourful one appears to be a wedding invite, the black&white one a funeral announcement, a Rajini movie, and I think a bunch of political ads that have been torn down or pasted over https://t.co/q5ApBKaVgQ
Itās always an interesting experience to be somewhere where the national flag isnāt your own. You feel like a guest in a place that isnāt yours; the sense of place is particularly pronounced. This was at Trichy airport; lots of people eagerly waiting for friends and loved ones https://t.co/8mmcH0Q1hu
The radio and electrical infrastructure was interesting to me; you donāt really see it in Singapore because itās all underground, or on rooftops, etc. Something about the visual metaphor I want to explore in my work - ideas of power, monuments, sacredness https://t.co/DnmRjSeaBM
Apparently the roof of this toll booth was blown off in a storm recently https://t.co/L1GkbvDb5J
Couldnāt quite get the shot in time, but thereās an ad for Uber Eats(?) on this auto. Iām intrigued by how relatively recent tech companies get their ads into relatively obscure seeming locations, and how local people think about these mysterious apps built in faraway lands https://t.co/UBtrCT7yDG
Save the holy cow, save the world https://t.co/meauE6tUCQ
Soldier in me is idly curious about where these guys get their weapons https://t.co/xaQrEMqoze
Say NO to bribes https://t.co/Q6PBoXwa0Q
No euphemisms here https://t.co/Xw1okggUkl
Again Iām curious about how these digital/mobile ecosystems develop. Iām guessing most Indians are Android users? Sent from my iPhone https://t.co/uECV5kDn1o
These were the stewardesses on my plane, who were very nice. Being fair-skinned is definitely a leg up for anyone looking to have any sort of public-facing career in India - and this is certainly gendered, itās more significant for women than men https://t.co/IBj96B416N
This was when we first landed - again thereās something here about the whiteness of the images vs the brownness of the people https://t.co/FncURNyDZZ
Anddd thatās all I have for day 1! Stay tuned for day 2. š¤ Iām going back to bed, lulled by the sweet and soothing sounds of a finance ministerās willingness to cooperate. š“ https://t.co/Yu4osS6XwI
