Kyle's Blog & The Coorg

Hi again everyone -

I'm in Mangalore now, on the western coast of India in the southern
part of Karnataka state. The past twelve days have been extremely
eventful, with so many sights, sounds, and thoughts that the task of
summarizing them for you is quite daunting. Luckily, my friend Kyle
is keeping a very detailed weblog of our experiences, which you can
read at http://indiainkyle.blogspot.com/

In addition to that account, I can provide you with a few of my
reflections from the last twelve days. We spent three days trekking
in the Western Ghats, the details of which you can find in Kyle's
blog. I would just like to comment on the village in which we stayed
during that trek. Imagine a landscape much like the Santa Lucia
mountains near Stanford. Now replace the oak-madrone forest with a
jungle full of big-leafed, buttress-rooted trees, wrapped in vines,
buzzing with the deafening hiss of cicadas. Along the valley bottoms,
imagine rice paddies interspersed with small gardens, bordered by
footpaths, bisected by a small creek. Above the paddies: small cement
houses, painted white with red tile roofs, surrounded by banana trees,
coffee and cardamom plants. Inside the houses: small families, no
cars. What I am trying to say is that this villiage was the most
sustainable community I have ever visited. It was not perfect, of
course - and I got only a three-day impression. But if any of you are
interested in self-reliant, sustainable communities, I highly
recommend the villiage of Cherangalla, Karnataka, in the Western
Ghats.

Other thoughts: I'm very interested in solar cookers. I think they
could do a lot for India in terms of preventing deforestation and
reducing particulate polution. I need to do further research.

This week in reading:
The Ramayana (translated by R.K. Narayan): the great Indian hero
story: a triumph of honor and strength.
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (Tom Wolfe): the story of Ken Kesey's
Merry Pranksters and their experiments with LSD, set in a very
familiar location: Stanford, La Honda, San Francisco. How many times
did I bicycle through those towns, never suspecting what once went on?

India wears on you. People here look older than they actually are.
I'm learning a lot from this experience, but sometimes it's tough.
Other times it's exhilirating. I think every citizen of the developed
world should spend some time in a developing country - to learn how
most of the world lives.

Okay, that's all for now. Take care everybody.
-Josh