Thrissur

Thrissur Trip – this is some rough stuff at times – hope not to offend but still like to let it all hang out.

Lysette and myself decided to go to the big city to explore the possibility of getting a sari. It was planned and we ordered a car. We were going to leave right after lunch at 1:20 so we could get back by 4:30 for our next medicine. AnneMarie, another guest here, wants to help everone. It is her mission in life and it identifies her. She asked to come so she could find batteries for Mariel and videos for Jerimiah. Now Mariel and Jerimia both have feet and could easily go to a closer town to get these things but NO ………… we are going to a city of 3 million with a driver who cant speak enlish and have to go on errands. And then the Jennine trip started. Here is Thrissur in action…

Jenine is a 71 year old woman without a home, originally from Canada but she knows everything about India, everything about the universe and started saying early in the day. “maybe i should go, no i wont go. Maybe I should….sigh” I smelled trouble. Here it was lunch and Anne Marie is begging Jenine to go and i had a sinking feeling in my stomach. Anne Marie had to go back to make Jennine hurry of course and I wished we had just left at that point. So we listen to Jenines diahreah of the mouth the whole way there whether it was relevant or not. If anyone says anything about anything Jenine ambushes the conversation and never lets go.

We went to the ghandi shop, which i found lifeless and full of trinkets and tourist stuff but when we pulled up the Poolimootil sari shop we found a huge 50% off sale and the fun began.

The 4 of us explored the 4 floors of colors with an entourage of clerks. We saw tops and bottoms and tunics and scarfs and of course saris of every color that could be imagined and more. My hand picked up one blue and green sari and it felt good. I came back to it over and over again until i picked it up and couldnt leave it alone ever again – this was my sari. In a future post I will show how to wear a sari with the help of Shushilla and Malady 2 new guests from Bangalore.

Then at about 3 we began the most frustrating attempts to find batteries and stupid movie DVDs in english. The driver never did understand what videos was and took us either to electronic stores or camera stores. We did get the batteries in a high-end gift shop where Jenine started to become impatient.

Jenine complains about everything: the food, the treatments, the doctor, even herself and in the camera store she had quite a temper tantrum with a clerk who asked her if she wanted shampoo – the nerve. And we then started our journey home.

In the Sari shop Jeninne had been gulping down the sweet tea like a little piggy and now she was having a sugar crash. She yelled out for us to stop at “chinese food” “bryani” every store that sold or cooked food on the way back. Then she landed on the one thing she needed to save her life – a banana. She needed a banana or she would die. We were manauevering through a sea of humanity that included rickshaws, buses, motorcycles, trucks and pedestians. Everyone honking and people running out in front of traffic. and jenine started screaming at the driver to stop so she could get a banana. Unfortunately there were bananas at the shops she could see but there was no parking spaces. We could have been back in 10 minutes but her life was ending and she decided to jump out of the car door.

Jenine screams “I am going to jump out of the car now to get a banana” and she pushes the left hand side car door open right onto the pedestrian area of the street. The driver screams and puts his left hand back as if he could stop her in time. He had a look of terror. Lysette and I cringed. The driver found a banana shop. Anne Marie of course continued to help the lunatic get her banana – which all made sense to her and even took pictures of jenine buying the f+++ing. Jenine ate her banana.

The driver cried later.

post script

Im writing this as if no one will read it. It’s for me. So here is what then happened. As Lysette was leaving the lunch room for the last time she approached Jenine and said “i wanted you know that you should have apologized to all of us but i forgive you. Pretty simple.

I thought to myself “yeah lysette” to have the courage to speak the truth. However the ‘dogooders’ rallied around Jenine who then got to play her victim card; as sociopaths love to do. Poor Jenine. AnneMarie was more incensed with Lysettes ‘rudeness’ than Jenines dangerous behaviour and temper tantrum that risked our lives.
But thats how ‘do gooders’ and sociopaths ‘work together’  If more lysettes told jenine how her interupting, crosstalk, endless negative self talk and then the tantrums offended them perhaps she would get it/ In case you were curious thats jenine on the right.
I admire Lysettes courage but alas i am not that generous. Jenine will get nothing from me. The do gooders will see me as ‘polite’ but im not. I just dont have anything to give – not even truth.