So some good news here is that C made the Jr. Girls travelling soccer team, which is kind of a big deal since she is only in Grade 6 and is competing against Grade 7s and 8s. I’m not sure what DNA defect makes her want to stand in a net for whatever sport she plays, but she seems to like playing keeper and does very well. I am just thankful that one of her good friends runs like the wind and feels compelled to attack the ball before it gets to the net, which certainly reduces the parental stress level.

The kids’ school competes in a sports league with 11 other international schools in the South Asian region, which encompasses India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. This year the soccer tournaments are being hosted in the city of Chennai which is on the east coast of India, about a two hour flight from Mumbai. Hence, it’s a bit of a big deal, especially for the younger kids. Many of the players’ parents were planning to attend the tournament last weekend, and I figured that I should also be a supportive member of the school community. Also, being on the east coast of India means that it is close to water, and there is supposedly some good scuba diving 3 hours south of Chennai in a place called Pondicherry, so I figured why not go over a few days early, do some diving, and kill two birds with one stone (or one flight as the case may be).

I didn’t want to miss C’s Christmas concert on Monday evening so I ended up catching a red eye flight early Tuesday morning which I really should never do again. As I am getting older I really am beginning to understand that my sleep is worth a lot. Anyways, the plan was that I would arrive in Chennai, at 4:50 a.m., a car would meet me at the airport, and I would arrive in Pondicherry around 8 a.m. just in time for me to start my PADI Rescue Diver and Emergency First Responder courses.

And this is where politics rears its ugly head. Unbeknownst to me, the Chief Minister of the State of Tamil Nadu (equivalent of a provincial premier) died while I was on my way to the airport. She used to be a famous Indian actress, then became a beloved and somewhat iron-fisted politician and was only 68 years old when she succumbed to cancer. Indians, however, take their politics very seriously and many tend more to the visceral side of politics. I remember being in Ottawa when Pierre Trudeau died back in 2000 and people lit candles and left roses and even canoe paddles at the Eternal Flame on Parliament Hill. The Chief Minister’s supporters, however, were threatening to burn down the hospital where she was being treated if she wasn’t cured. And this wasn’t just hyperbole, these threats were being taken very seriously. When her political mentor died in 1987 there was widespread rioting and looting across the state. So the army was put on alert and a three day strike was called, all while I was in the air.

(memorial posters like these were all over the roads in Pondicherry within 24 hours)

So, needless to say when I landed at the Chennai airport at 5 a.m. there was no car waiting for me. I waited for an hour and a half arguing with the car company being told how sorry they were but gas stations were not open and that roads out of Chennai were supposedly being closed down – they left me stranded. Indian airports, like many other airports around the world, are crawling with taxi drivers and touts and all sorts of people just waiting to pounce on poor unsuspecting saps like me from whom they can make a quick buck. It was ugly, but sometimes you just have to throw money at problems to make them go away. The good news is that I did get to Pondicherry, though it cost me about 3 times the regular rate. But since there was literally nobody on the roads the driver was doing about 140-150 km/h the whole way and made what is normally a 3 hour trip in just 90 minutes. Needless to say it was not the most relaxing of trips since the driver was honking the whole way, swerving around the occasional motorcycle or more frequent cow meandering on the highway.

(this is what cows look like at 100 km/h – luckily the driver slowed down a little for the photo)

On the plus side I made it for my 8 a.m. scuba course and I am now certified as a Rescue Diver. The real disappointment, however, was that due to the uncertain political situation and associated security concerns C’s soccer tournament was postponed. There was, thankfully, no looting or rioting and the political transition seems to have gone smoothly enough, but we nonetheless have to wait until January to see how the Jr. Girls soccer team does.