GuerillaZ

The Pariah Dogs of India A new researcher has joined me here in Bodhgaya. As we walked back from a restaurant, the baking sun receding, night falling, Ana, a young Brazilian amateur dog researcher, observed that the Pariah dog had become almost completely a nocturnal animal. Disturbed by me in the darkness they barked and ran after us. In doing so they alerted dogs ahead of us that we were approaching. Immediately we were surrounded by ten howling hounds who still weren't quite sure what to do. As if they wanted to mete out some kind of revenge for their bleak existence but were still too docile  to step over the line. In Delhi Ana reported that she and some friends had been chased by a pack of howling pariahs for so long that they became afraid and it took a security guard on night shift to wave his night stick a la Sam Worthington in Avatar before they gave up and slunked off into the shadows of the city. The Mahabodhi Temple As I meditated briefly at the Mah...

Himalaya Darjeeling Has its own television station. Mostly it covers Ghorkha political rallies and speeches. There was much unrest here in the 1990s. Many properties were burnt or smashed as the ethnic Ghurkas tried for independence. It was not, is not, forthcoming. Businesses now write Ghorkhaland on their shopfronts to avoid similar attacks. Hindu temples are replaced by Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags. While radical politician Chavez has just died, outside my window is a rally of Ghorka radicals. A decade ago they were burning and looting shops here. The campaign is for the establishment of a separate Ghorkaland. Men and women and shout and chant with power, commitment. Easy to see how the Ghurka regiment was the most feared in WWII. Pretty awe-inspiring seen from just above them. Watching the flaming torches, listening. Got a coal fire going here. Not a sight I was anticipating in India. But out of season Darjeeling is numbingly cold. Last night the young wo...

Cochin Kochi, Cochin is a beautiful town. It is really part of the Ernakulam conurbation in central Kerala. The Chinese, Portuguese and Dutch traded spices from this port from the 13th century onwards. They still do. A huge Chinese vessel cruised through as I took this picture. The series of Chinese fishing nets left by the Kubla Khan empire remain operational as seen here. Modern Kochi lies in the background. On Making Proper Chai I was telling someone proudly how I used black pepper during the making of my Chai tea when he told me that on no account should pepper be used; only cinnamon, cardomom and ginger. The way to make satisfying Chai is as follows. I found this to be as tasty as anything I've had here. Take 5 cardomom pods and slash lengthwise releasing the some of the black seeds inside. Take a knob of ginger the same size as the end joint of your thumb or even more. Peel, chop and bruise. Crumble cinnamon bark to make a small mound. Put all ingredients prepare...

First of all a big thankyou to Lonely Planet for following this blog on Twitter. The Pariah Dog: Part II A few more thoughts on my favourite subject. The Pariah Dog. These creatures exist in poetic contradistinction to the pampered dogs of the UK, the King Charles spaniel always comes to mind here. I can also boast a co-researcher, a rather alert Danish woman called Mette I met in Varkala, Kerala, who demonstrated considerable acumen when it came to this curious species, the feral canines of the highways. The Pariah Dog leaves no droppings whatsoever. In Paris spoilt pooches, holed up in apartments leave odd orange waste behing them, in England larger droppings can be found. In India droppings are, incredibly, completely absent. The P Dog sets up night communication in waves of howls that run across palm groves and beaches. Like coyotes the howls spring up in an automatic way and all dogs join in. The pack behaviour also appeared when a European family rolled up with tw...

Kerala Dream State Happy 2013 from Kerala! I fear it might be same old, same old for our canine friends here. The Dogs of India When one has a moment these creatures seem to materialise in the consciousness. They are mainly abject creatures. I have seen two stretched out stone dead on the N47 highway. One at Kallamballam, a black one, with a trail of blood behind and its stomach out; the second, a sand-coloured mutt outside my apartment here in Vazhamuttom. Both appeared pugnacious in death, their lower jaws protuberant, cartoon like, dense-looking with the lower canine standing to attention for the last time. As a person uninterested in pets it struck me what a tough life these dogs live. Often they sleep on the central reservation, or under cars and beside the road perfectly camouflaged in sandy-coloured leaves so that an unsuspecting car could easily roll onto them. They are suspicious of affection. The young ones have the most beautiful golden mustard eyes, l...

Kovalam                          Dec 7th, 2012 I'm getting itchy feet here now. Too many beaches, crashing waves, palm trees and sun. Time for an interlude elsewhere. Trouble is both of the places I chose are terrorist hotspots. Both Jammu and Kashmir are no-nos although Jammu city, according to the foreign office is safe. Think I'll leave that. The other place Orissa, is cripplingly poor and has a crew of Naxalite rebels who have just kidnapped two Italian tourists who were visiting remote tribes. In fact the foreign office has India down as a somewhat unsafe zone. Great!     Classic Keralan scene. A lagoon nearby. The walk past this lagoon is one of the loveliest I have ever been on. The range of flowers and birds and people is rather too much to absorb. I take this constitutional every two days, but while people are generally gentle but there is also some attitude here. Perhaps people are resentin...

On Mahatma Ghandi Road.   I have recovered from my illness, the symptoms of which were compounded by the untimely celebrations of Murugan the Peacock God. Murugan is important to South Indians in particular and both Malayalis and Dravidian cultures on the east side, Tamil Nadu celebrate him as if it's his least coming. Although handsome lemon yellow flags are festooned in every tree the main part of the celebration, only in my village I notice, comes via what appears to be a leftover sound system from a Motorhead concert. A tower of black monster speakers nestle under the Banyan tree with only a pitifully callow youth with the remote control. No council noise patrols here. so what you were left with was 18 hours of Indian music with the inevitable surfacing of Psy's Gangham Style every hour of so. So where was I? oh yes 18 hours a day beginning 5am ending 11pm with occasionally impromptu playing of something less than soothing a 2am. It is quite entertaining to watch som...