Chennai today, my first time in the state of Tamil-Nadu. It was a quiet day, welcome after all the recent travel. I gleaned some interesting facts from Vivek, including some regarding the relative rectangularity of the Tamil script and the political inconsequence of Hindu fundamentalism here. But I must say that one of the main highlights was getting my ear cleaned. The left one had been plugged since Goa, at least 4 days ago, and my asymmetrically dulled hearing had been increasingly getting to me--in quiet moments, I caught myself straining to hear signs that some colony of organisms had moved in. But an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist referred by Vivek's family took care of the issue, which turned out to be a major chunk of ear wax. I feel a victim of injustice in that I had never heard of the importance or even existence of ear cleanings. I did not know that my ear, even after 28 years of accumulation, could even hold that much wax.

The doctor, of typical short Tamil height and with the requisite South Indian mustache, was a quiet man whose opening words to me were "Hello. Tell me." But after the wax was removed, he leaned back and the conversation came forward. He had found out that I live in the US. He smiled, kind of. "How do you like that man?" I have been in India for much of the time between the US election and Tuesday's inaugaration, so I knew the man was Obama. Before I could answer he told me that Obama likes to talk, but would any of his change materialize. I said that no, I didn't think so, that he is not a radical at all and that most things would stay the same. He bobbed his head in ascent and described how the platitudes offered in the inaugaration speech (which I haven't heard) about Afghanistan and Pakistan and solving the Kashmir problem were not so easy. Yes, I said. And then, awesomely, "I heard a speech by another American president. Eisenhower, I think." That speech of Eisenhower's about the military industrial complex is a singularly weird document. Prominently authored, conspicuously delivered, incredibly prescient and still relevant, it is essentially ignored. This doctor who I had met haphazardly was tuned into the fact, still heretical in America though proffered by a President, that American foreign policy is on more than one scale a capitalist industry. Of course this is a minority opinion about Obama in India, as almost everyone loves the guy, including and maybe especially many of those who sell tourist trinkets. But still, a small reminder that critical thought is alive.

There was that today, and also the signoff of a correspondent of the CNN channel that airs here. I'm not sure where it originates, but it's not the US one. In what seemed like their main piece about Gaza that hour, he ended his transmission with the statement that, to paraphrase, "Israel intended this offensive as a deterrent. But it's not clear that anything has been accomplished outside of the destruction of thousands of lives." Predictably, the sentiment echoed the dominant opinion here, which sides with the Palestinians--in Cochin yesterday I'd seen posters calling Israel terrorist. But still, being American, it was weird to hear truth spoken in the news about Israel/Palestine.