Feb 25 - March 8
We spent some time with Rocky’s parents, Manjula and Sridhar, in Ammapettai, Tamil Nadu (about an hour from Chennai, India). We lived like unburdened college students on a summer holiday. Rocky’s mom, Manjula, made incredible meals, the most lovingly prepared idli, dosa, and sambar you can imagine.
The first time I met Rocky’s parents was in December of 2024, and we dutifully trekked to Mahabalipuram (UNESCO World Heritage shore temples and rock-cut sculptures), DakshinaChitra (museum of South Indian homes and culture), and the expansive beach right by the city. We toured the school that set Rocky on his path, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), and met an inspiring former classmate, Siddarth Daga, a social entrepreneur developing equitable mobility for wheelchair users. (Listen to How NeoMotion's CEO is Building "Freedom" for Everyone - IIT Madras.) We took a trip to Erode and Coimbatore.
This time our trip was less exploratory and more introspective on my part. We allowed ourselves to be still and adjust to the time zone. Inexplicably, we did have an outsized exposure to the animal kingdom. We pedaled rusty bikes around India’s first and largest Zoo, Arignar Anna Zoological Park (coinciding with at least 100 elementary field trips). We regrettably watched Jurassic World Rebirth. I made the obligatory friendship of 50 mosquitoes. Cows. Everywhere. Monkeys? Very mischievous. We also meandered through a bird sanctuary, Vedanthangal.
As an animal myself, I was impressed to learn some fellow species migrate allllll the way from Siberia to the South of India. These little birds know everything we should about transnationalism and the lexicon of homecoming. Who would call them aliens?
We certainly discuss immigration a lot in the context of Rocky’s journey. The Sridhars’ apartment complex is close to a private medical college, which in turn, is close to a community temple. On one of our final days, we biked up the hill to this temple. While a challenge for US, it is a daily journey for the young man who tends the site. He was following in his father’s footsteps in this ancient profession. I wonder what this attendant thought about the students scooting on scooters in and out of campus on their own path of devotion. Some will stay in Tamil Nadu. Some will journey out. We stood in our socks on the paved oasis before Shiva, looking into the temple and out toward the college.
These small proximities between old and new, sacred and institutional, insider and outsider, are all around us. Most of the time I don’t perceive the forces that propel us forward or hold us back, but we choose them or they choose us. Basic instincts persist. When cold months lay ahead, we all want to soak in the warmth of a Barringtonia tree in the Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary. We all want to return to our mother’s idli dosa.
Topical Queries
Waste: what we keep, what we discard, and how we manage the overflow. Only 30% of cities in India have proper waste sorting facilities; in some spaces entrepreneurship is finding a path forward. I read a smidge more about the issue, just enough to understand that I don’t understand much:
Waste Experts on solving India's Garbage Problem, Health Risks of Garbage, Business ideas & more - The Better India
How Singapore fixed its big trash problem - CNBC Reports (An incinerator in Singapore processes 1.08 million tons of waste annually.)
Global Snapshot of Solid Waste Management toward Circularity until 2050 - World Bank Group