ேநாரா ஸ்வீனி

My name is Nora Sweeney and I'm doing a two-year fellowship in Madurai, India through Shansi, an organization affiliated with Oberlin College. I'm teaching art, filmmaking, and English at a small women's college called Lady Doak. In addition to teaching, I aim to work on my own documentary film, continue studying Tamil, and travel throughout India. Madurai is a city of about a million people in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It's about 10 hours south of Chennai, and the local language is Tamil. The weather is extremely hot - temperatures range from 86 degrees in the winter to 115 degrees in the summer. Therefore, life is rather relaxed and slow, unless you are caught in the middle of traffic. Tourists come to Madurai visit the Meenakshi Amman Kovil, a large Hindu temple in the downtown part of the city. However, for the most part, foreigners are few and far between. The culture in Madurai is much more traditional than in bigger Indian cities. Most people still have arranged marriages. Men and women often segregate themselves, both in public and private spaces. The city shuts down late at night, but from about 5am to 10pm, it is full of life. A walk down the street means dodging auto-rickshaws and scooters, being bombarded by the sound of people honking their horns, listening to Tamil movie music blasting from enormous speakers, weaving through crowds in front of bus stops, smelling an intense mixture of jasmine flowers, spices, burning trash, shit, pee, car exhaust etc., being blinded by the dust in the air and being awed by the color everywhere.