A Day At The Park

Last Sunday we decided to visit a pretty popular local park called Tower Park. It's named Tower Park because it has a big tower in the middle of it (shocking, I know). It looks as if you could walk up to the top of the tower at one point, but it seems to be all locked up and closed off now. Neat none the less.

The park is in an upscale neighborhood in Chennai called Anna Nagar, and it has quite a few nice houses on quiet, residential streets. What we saw of the neighborhood was relatively clean and well kept.

The main goal of the visit, of course, was to get Noah and Micah on their bikes and expend as much energy as possible. When we got there Micah was ready to roll and took off without a hiccup. Noah, on the other hand, was a little more hesitant, and even more so after he took an initial spill on his bike. He seemed to be a little rusty on the ol' two wheeler which wasn't surprising considering he just learned to ride it this past summer.

So he walked with his bike while Micah scooted around like a boy possessed. After a while, I convinced him to ride it while I held onto the back of his neck, and after about 10 minutes of that he was ready to set out on his own. I couldn't have been happier since it was in the high 80's and I had jeans on.

We were the center of attention, as we've found is the norm so far everywhere we go. Besides being non-Indian, we all have blonde hair which a lot of people seem to be quite fascinated with. The boys get their hair tussled a lot when we're out. Luanne and I have so far avoided any tussling or cheek pinching, which I think is for the best.

Another thing that caused us to stick out was the use of bike helmets on the boys. Considering that most locals don't even wear helmets on their motorcycles, it must have been a good joke that we had helmets strapped on our albino children. However, our paranoia was justified when Micah took a header after hitting a pothole in the road. I dutifully snapped pictures while Luanne ran to his rescue.

One family that we stopped and spoke to had two boys pretty close in age to Micah and Noah. The younger one wanted to get his hands on Micah's bike pretty bad, but Micah hung on tight and wouldn't give an inch. The little Indian boy was scrappy though, and started slapping Micah, who did nothing but grunt and growl until the assault was over (the mothers broke it up). A lesser man would have let go of the handlebars to shield his face, thereby weakening his control of the tricycle in question. Little did the assailant know that Micah's cousin, Emily, spent the last year slamming his head into walls and shoving him off furniture for a few hours every week. He was well prepared and carried the day.

One interesting thing that we've seen in several different places around town is the use of broken glass on top of walls to keep people from climbing over them. In the US we're used to seeing barbed or concertina wire in loops on top of fences to keep people out, but in Chennai it seems to be common to put a layer of mortar on top of a wall and stick broken glass in it while it's still wet. My first thought was that it's fairly primitive, but I have to admit that it probably does its job really well, and it's a whole lot less visually intrusive than a two foot loop of wire running the length.

Back to the park itself. It was very similar to what we've seen of the rest of Chennai, both nice and messy at the same time. Nice in that there were lots of big trees for shade with paved walking paths and playgrounds. Messy in that there were no less than five construction projects going on with piles of rubble and garbage strewn about. For example:


In the picture you can see a nice little moat surrounding the tower with bridges and what used to be fountains. You can also see that it's now full of garbage in the form of plastic bags, wrappers, paper, and so on.

For an example of one of the many construction projects going on, see below:

Notice the piles of rubble, rocks, dirt, and so on in addition to the "Modern Toilet" sign on the side of the building. Contrast this with the nice walking paths, trees, and yes - even an outdoor (busy) rollerskating rink: