Monsoon, Mark Twain, and Mindset

A recent post in the Cafe Chennai blog, one of our favorites along with The Better India, really struck me with its eye-opening perspective on travel and what it means–and what it means to enjoy it. Of course, travel is, at heart, based on the desire for the new (even if that means we’re experiencing sites/sights with a couple thousand years of history) and the unique (who wants to go someplace where you feel like you never left home?) and with activities different from our humdrum day to day (so we can take advantage of opportunities to act and behave and, for sure, to eat and drink, in ways we can’t–or just don’t–at home!)

So, when I first saw the post’s headline in the Cafe Chennai blog–“Get Set Go this Monsoon! Plan a Trip to These Getaways in July”–I assumed from my narrow-minded, parochial viewpoint that the destinations would feature places where one could escape from monsoon. Hardly! My misguided yet not unexpected thoughts about monsoon brought to mind a quote from Mark Twain: “The gentle reader will never, never know what a consummate ass he can become until he goes abroad.” Point taken, Mark! At any rate, the Cafe Chennai post offers a nice little broadening and correction of mindset and perspective, by highlighting special destinations where one can actually enjoy and take full advantage of the rains of monsoon. “The charm of getting drenched in the rains and sipping hot chai with pakodas is what keeps many of us going.” The rains of course bring welcome relief from the oppressive heat and humidity of most of India, so, grab your gear and adjust your mindset to check out these spots where you’ll delight in getting wet.

Over the last several months, since Sarah signed on to join the faculty at the American International School in Chennai, as we work on adjusting our mindset, we’ve shared some occasional posts on Facebook from these two great web-based sources of intriguing details about the incredible new places, the captivating new faces, and the mouthwatering new tastes of our soon-to-be new home on the subcontinent, but it’s time as the clock ticks closer to our departure in late July for us to highlight these wonderful sites and collect a few of our favorite posts here.

While most everyone knows the Taj Mahal, that lingering remembrance of his wife by a an emperor of the Mughal period in the 17th century, that dynasty (and earlier ones) left many lovely–and living–reminders of their times. A recent post in The Better India focused on Timeless and Magnificent Mosques throughout the subcontinent, from Srinigar in the north, through Agra where the Taj Mahal is located, to Thiruvanathapuram on the southwest coast in Kerala.

On a more prosaic note, yet one I can’t wait to look into once we’re in Chennai, is the “weavers’ village” in the suburb of Anakaputhur where they are now using an eco-friendly fabric for jeans that acts and wears like denim but is made from banana fibre! Move over, Lucky Brand, here’s a new view of what makes the coolest jeans.

And while we’re thinking about bananas, here’s a recent post from Cafe Chennai about several trendy cafes and resto-pubs along the popular KNK (Khadar Nawaz Khan) Road in central Chennai, “Eat, Drink and Make Merry!” We didn’t get to discover this locale and these eateries on our 2016 trip so it’s high on our list for once we get settled in. The Nasi and Mee Asian Canteen looks especially inviting! With Chennai’s population of ten million, we’ll no doubt be digging into many new and perhaps baffling food and drink experiences from around the world just in our new city, let alone in our travels throughout south Asia and the middle east.

I could go on and on, but I hope you’ll enjoy both Cafe Chennai and The Better India and take your own journey clicking around these sites to create your own path through the delights and challenges of Chennai and throughout India–to broaden your own perspectives and maybe adjust your mindset just a tiny bit!

Mark Twain said it best:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

Thanks, Mark, we’ll do our best to keep your wisdom in mind as we think about monsoon and all the other unexpected places, faces, and tastes we’ll discover on our quest through Chennai, South India, and beyond to fetch that toothpicker.

Author: David Hassler

David M. Hassler was fortunate enough to have become a relatively rare male Trailing Spouse when his talented wife Sarah accepted a job teaching music in the elementary division of the American International School in Chennai, India, in 2017. His role included, for more than three years there, serving as her everything wallah, but also allowed him time for exploring, discovering, and sharing new places, new faces, and new tastes around Chennai, throughout south India, and beyond. When the pandemic arrived, Sarah retired and they moved to Lisbon, Portugal, where they continue to live and love life. David M. Hassler is a long-time member of the Indiana Writers Center Faculty and holds an MFA from Spalding University. His work has been published in Maize and the Santa Fe Writers' Project. He served as a Student Editor for The Louisville Review and as Technical Editor for Writing Fiction for Dummies. He is currently the Fiction Editor for Flying Island, an online literary journal. He is co-author of Muse: An Ekphrastic Trio, and Warp, a Speculative Trio, and future projects include A Distant Polyphony, a collection of linked stories about music and love, memories and loss; and To Strike a Single Hour, a Civil War novel that seeks the truth in one of P T Barnum's creations. He is a founding partner in Boulevard Press. View all posts by David Hassler