A Thursday evening lecture

Good evening !

I keep meaning to show you where all the action takes place ... The blogging action that is .

That's my mosquito net tent , brilliant unless  occasionally like last night one gets in under the net . I cant always hear the buzz if I have the fan on. Mosquitos are a big pain  here but at least they don't carry malaria in this area.

So this evening we were invited to an evening lecture given by The Association of  Consulting Civil Engineers  held in a meditation centre  locally and was  coordinated by a friend of the Lakschmanans. It was a 6pm. start so no Orphanage this afternoon.

The topic if I got the gist of it correctly was about the power of positive thinking and a positive attitude while facing adversity and how it can alter the outcome of events.

Quote for the day written on the board at the entrance to the centre.

A meditation Room.

None of us had any dea what to expect.

The lecture hall.

What you can't see are the hundreds of huge Mosquitos buzzing about . A man came round and placed coils on the floor but they didn't seem to make much difference. In the end we wrapped Anitha 's scarf around us but at first it felt like they were all over us !

This large group of uniformed men sat opposite  until the talk was about underway then they all trooped out and that was the last we saw of them , very strange.

By which time the important dignitaries had all been seated on the stage and presented with a posy of flowers.

The M C was introducing everyone when a phone went off on the stage . It belonged to this man , our lecturer for the evening . No one batted an eye lid when he proceeded to answer the call .

The lecture was comical . He asked us to repeat phrases , he repeated himself and asked us to smile all the time and we would become contented happy people .He was delighted that the " foreigners " ,all two of us were doing a lot of smiling . Little did he know that it was his delivery we were smiling at . It was like being back at school, he had people standing up introducing themselves and him  then commenting on the lovely names people have in Tamil Nadu . The crowd seemed to like it , it was a real hoot.iI have no idea what the connection was between the Civil Engineers and natural disasters and I am now learning not to question !

When the lecture finished a  "meditation lady "got  up onto the stage and did a 10min.relaxation and meditation session for the crowd. I would have joined in but as it was in Tamil we just closed our eyes and listened.

Lecture over ,they insisted we join in with the photo shoot .

Followed by a light meal 

Rebecca Anitha and me . Not an easy task eating this sort of food with your fingers and on your knee.

Once you were done you took your plate outside and washed your hand.

The people in white are the residents. 

You don't hang about after these events it would seem because we had no sooner finished the hand wash tham we were out the door.

So here is another interesting event to add to the list of firsts and in this case hopefully lasts in Madurai .