India Ink

Reporting Live from Ground Zero Iceland!

Today, I FINALLY got a glimpse of that magnificent volcano that's been wreaking havoc around the world. Our tour guide was able to drive up closer than I thought we could--we were probably within about a mile or so of the site. Of course, for me, even closer would have been better, but the search-and-rescue guys stationed at this checkpoint wouldn't let us go any further. 

Sorry for all the disruptions, Europe, but from where I'm sitting, it's absolutely SPECTACULAR!

Eyjafjallajokull glacier volcanic eruption, Iceland, April 17, 2010

Eyjafjallajokull glacier volcanic eruption, Iceland, April 17, 2010

Eyjafjallajokull glacier volcanic eruption, Iceland, April 17, 2010

Eyjafjallajokull glacier volcanic eruption, Iceland, April 17, 2010

Me with the search and rescue boys stationed at this checkpoint

Proof that I was really there!

Snow Bunnies

We have a group of visitors at work from Chennai, India this month. I convinced them they were game enough to try something they could never do in Chennai -- sledding!

Sledders line up at the starting line

Srisai demonstrates proper technique

Swetha shows off the belly run

Anu and Swetha double up

  

Bollywood It girls do Rochester

 
Someone needs a nap

Anu and Srisai in a snowball fight

Anu and Swetha proudly show off their (miniature) snowman

Basia, Swetha, Anu, and Srisai

To see the complete set of fun-in-the-snow pictures, click here to go to my Flickr site. This will take you to a slide show. To adjust the speed of the slide show, place your cursor over the top part of the black background, and move the slider. If you prefer to view the pictures individually (rather than as a slide show), click on the link in the upper left above the slides.

Soggy Chennai

Saturday morning, I head out for an early morning yoga session, but have to turn back because the road in front of our apartment (at right) is impassable. Four consecutive days of rain have left Chennai soggy and treacherous. In some neighborhoods, the flood water is two feet high and rising. It's not quite that bad in my neighborhood, but even just a quick trip to the grocery store requires galoshes.

View from my balcony

Indoors, the high humidity renders useless a box of matches that I use for lighting the stove. Laundry that has been sitting on the drying rack for days gets moldy before it can get dry. Water seeps in down the walls, shorting out electrical circuits. The monsoon has arrived.

Noah's Ark Needed

I love rain. Truly, I do. I love falling asleep to the sound of rain on the roof, and I like the feel of the air after a good shower. I especially love thunder and lightning. Rainy days invigorate me. (Yeah, I know, I'm weird that way.)

But this monsoon...enough already! We got 447 mm rain this past week. 81 mm is average for Chennai this time of year. I'm going to have to start building an ark soon. Water is seeping into the walls of the apartment. Electrical outlets are shorting out. To get to the grocery store this morning, I had to wade through ankle-deep water. I'll never again complain that I haven't experienced an Indian monsoon...

Monsoon!

I've been complaining for two years that I haven't seen a good monsoon in India yet.

As they say, when the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.

Here is what my drive in to work this morning looked like.

This was on the main road leading to the office. What is normally a 30-40 minute ride, today took 3 hours.

The part that is really worrisome is that in several places, sewer water was mixing in with all the water on the roads. This morning's paper had a warning about an outbreak of leptospirosis from wading in this kind of water.

I didn't know it was going to be this bad, or I wouldn't have attempted to go in to work.

On this stretch, water started seeping inside our car.

The latest in rain gear. No helmet protection, but at least their hair will stay dry!

I felt really bad for the motorcyclists, most of whom were getting completely drenched.

Chris H. (visitor from EK Rochester) surveying the damage on the way to work. (No doubt dreaming of being back in the safety of Rochester!) Is this any way to treat a visitor? :o(

Warning to Rochesterians

Warning to Rochesterians: This entry contains an image that will make you want to scream.

I am still sick and cooped up in my hotel room, feeling restless and bored, so you get two blog entries today!

No, this is not a freak snowstorm in India. This is for my non-East Coast readers - a fabulous photo that my Rochester neighbor June forwarded to me recently, of what I am missing out on, in upstate New York.

It looks like I am missing out on the best winter ever.

I took a picture of my house in the snow just before I left Rochester, and I'm using it as my laptop desktop background, just to have a little bit of snow with me-

Okay, okay Rochesterians who are sick to death of this nasty winter, let me have it!  <ducking>