Carnet de Voyage: Inde, 5ème partie
Posted by Frenya Thu, 27 Jul 2006 23:53:00 GMT
July 19th
My colleague, Salena, from San Francisco and I went on a little adventure yesterday evening. We traveled to the Aravind Eye hospital in Tirunelveli. Tirunelveli is about 150 kms south of Madurai, very close to the south point of the indian subcontinent. The clinic there will also enroll patients for the study, so we had to see the site and talk more to the different people involved (they actually worked with us on Monday and Tuesday in Madurai). We worked all day long with all our Indian colleagues and I have to say that I had a blast. I interacted a lot with the chief of the cornea section, Dr Meenakshi, and she is great! She is not only on top of things despite her “ginormous” load of work but she is also funny and relax. Salena and I had the warmest welcome I have seen in ages. I believe this welcome reflected the “famous” indian tradition of friendship and sharing.
Hospitality and coffee tradition:
People at both Tirunelveli and Madurai hospitals are just wonderful. They treated us as if we were family, extremely friendly. The funny thing, and my French friends would love that, is that every morning around 10 am, as much as possible, we would get a cup of coffee or tea as well as a samosa. Everything is prepared by the canteen of the hospital and the samosas are amazingly good! Their teas and coffees are very sweet and contain a lot of milk… not so good for a “loose weight” diet. Of course, most indians do not use silverware and eat with their right hand. In case you are not already aware, there is a golden rule in India: never use your left hand to touch food… this hand is reserved for “non-pure” activities. When you see their traditional restrooms, you understand why!
I have tried to eat their way for several meals and I have to acknowledge that I am not that gifted. Also, I try to say Thank you and Good morning/Welcome in Tamil (“Nanri” and “Vanakam” respectively) as much as possible. People usually kindly smile but I think they appreciate that I try.
