auntie

Southern Indians have large families.  Families are made up of your immediate kin, as well as a complicated network of close friends, members of your caste and those who are part of your inner circle be that work, school or social.  Your elders are your aunties and uncles.  Peers are brothers and sisters.  Before I deciphered the naming system, I thought Chandra came from a family of upwards of seven brothers.  

Unlike the rapidly homogenizing US, people tend to settle down close to their kin.  Part economics, part necessity, all tradition (bad anthropological math, I know), families build strong foundations.  Literally.  Most of the actual home-homes (not hovels) I saw were built of concrete.  The one feature that most stood out to me was not the bright paints used to color their homes or the roaming goats and chickens in the yards, it was the rebar.  No matter how old a home appeared, there was always rebar sticking up out of the tops and sides, as if each homeowner had become impatient with his contractor and decided half a house was better than none.

I asked Chandra what was up with all the unfinished business...  The answer made perfect sense.  The homeowner was waiting for the inevitable need to add a room or a story to accommodate a returning child and his wife or an aging parent or auntie or uncle.   So smart too. Why build more than you need before you need it?  And, If you build it, they will come... (harping mother-in-law, lazy cousin-brother, sister-auntie with questionable hygiene habits...) 

Practical if not entirely aesthetic.  This is true about so many things in India.

But I digress.  I bet you are wondering about the regal woman pictured above.  

Once again, we were speeding towards our next destination through villages and past road side cafes and open air markets.  We were not too far out of Chandra's hometown when we passed a row of vendors selling everything from produce to license plates.  Out of nowhere, Chandra does a double-take and shouts, "Hey, that is my auntie!"

We screech to a halt (really) and double back.  Sure enough it was.  And she is.  Really.  His actual aunt.  So regal and lovely.  Chandra said that as long as he could remember, she was always dressed formally even when shopping at the market.  Elegant, stylish, lovely.  

Not to lay it on too thick, but I could envision her at home in a mansion with fountains and velvet cushions sipping sugar cane juice while embroidering a delicate linen.  (Yeah, okay, maybe a little thick. )

Instead, I find her shopping here.

Hey auntie, don't forget to pick up your new burner cell and watch out for that puddle of chicken guts!  

India may be the epi-center of bizarre juxtapositions, but at least you got your family.