Primal...

After working all day on New Year's Eve Day, the teams converged (minus the Justice Team, who were still farther away in Ranipet) at the Construction Team site for a bonfire to celebrate the coming of the new year. It was absolutely awesome (and hilarious) to watch as Raj gradually coaxed more and more of us to join him in various dances and songs around the campfire.

As soon as the air began to split with laughs and shouts, some of the villagers came to join us. Some of the younger girls especially twirled and spun to the tunes of old Tamil traditional songs hammered out by deft fingers on goat-skin drums or overturned aluminum pots. In addition to the pulsing blaze of the fire, the effect was both timeless and mesmerizing. Staring up at the crystal-clear sky at a blackness that was dotted with an unbelievable view of what must have been literally thousands upon thousands of visible stars, i was suddenly struck with the notion that we could have been doing this in 2008... or 2008 BC without much difference in overall effect or feeling. It was amazing!

Finally, one of the things that Americans learn very quickly when visiting here is that Indian culture has a massive and rich tradition of history and lore that is kept and "bottled" (if you will) through the medium of song and dance. Some of the songs that i've heard sung in these types of performances date back hundreds of years (or farther), and have a weight and "flavor" of the passage of time that contemporary pop will just never touch. I mean... can you picture Americans singing Katie Perry songs in two thousand years? I can't.