Friday, October 28

For three or four days now the two mosques in Vinzhinjam have hosted a spectacularly loud festival with loudspeakers pumping the prayers, readings, and music all over the surrounding neighbourhoods. We have heard it quite even though we live several kilometres away.

We decided to go and see it in the belief that we would see lights and decorations and more. Rajeev took us in his rickshaw and we walked down the lanes between the mosques, passed an endless of candy, cake, and fish shops.

We hadn’t expected a travelling fair, but when we got past all the lights and reached the end of the lane we found one. We wandered around and had a ride on a version of what I think we used to call The Whip. Then I spotted the Wall of death.

I had never asked myself whether you could do it with cars as well as motorcycles but I discovered that you can, as three cars chased two motorcyclists around the inside of an imaginary washing machine.

All three of us left impressed.