december 14 chennai...the start of the adventure

I dont beleive my eyes.....its january 14 today and the day in my reverse diary is december 14...what a coincidence.....karma or what.....may the force be with me as luke skywalker says...i must tell you that i am not a jedi warrior just a bloke in india with his wife on a mad escapade....well we are back in portugal now...i must add here that i did keep a diary every day so far i havent refered to the tome yet....but i am sure that i will..........the first day was wet and grey...great...we got a taxi to take us on a trip around the city so that we could get our bearings....the photo shows marina beach on the south side of the city....it is a favourite spot for indians at the weekend...there are hundreds of stalls selling trinkets and general tat and food stalls sellimg pakora and fresh deep fried fish...yum...yum......later in the diary i will show you some photos...its great this retro diary .....im having fun reliving the ad venture...
the second photo shows the very southern end of the beach......a fishing community....the first thing that we noticed was the derelict houses and the shanty town that had sprung up this is not unusual in india...we stood looking at the scene thinking that the colours reminded us of howard hodgkin paintings,,,we were about to take photos but something inside us said no???? are we voyeurs....why take photos it didnt seem right......we hadnt realized this whole area had been hit by the sunami......obvoiously something had stirred inside..........we chose instead to take a walk and look...and keep the memory in our heads. that day we also visited fab india a trendy clothes shop....thsi is something that happens all the time in india......opposites....from squalor and poverty to affluence....the two sit side by side....in mumbai now they are trying to clear the slums away....they are trying to do the same at this fishermans end of marina beach...clear the slums and put up hotels and develop the area ??????????????????