Update

It's been a while since I've posted anyhing so I thought I'd let you all know what I've been up to. I've been pretty busy doing stuff with the owner of the pickle factory, Saleem. Other than the pickle factory Saleem has a few other projects going on. He's building a small resort in the hills which is very nice. Besides his bungalow in Sirumalai he's also got one in Kodaikanal which we visited last week. This town has been a tourist spot since the beginning of colonial times and has only recently started to be visited by Indian tourists. Most of the white folks I saw there were Israeli tourists coming to hunt for the "magic mushroom" in the surrounding hills. Needless to say there's also a few hippie colonies in that area but you don't really hear much from them. They stay pretty busy drinking their tea and smokin their ganja, which by the way is legal in India. Something about bigger fish to fry. Kodaikanal is a very nice town and clean, which is a rarity in India. I would go there a lot if the road up didn't make me so sick. Winding mountain roads and no traffic laws are a bad combination.
Saleem recently had the pleasure of offering his bungalow to the governor's son, a very powerful man. I was able to tag along and meet his family, who were looking for a break from politics to watch the start of the world cup. Even though India didn't qualify, the people here still go crazy for football and that has been pretty fun. We went partridge hunting yesterday which consisted of driving around the open fields outside of Dindigul and blasting the birds from your open window. Not much different from some of the hunting in SD. It's very illegal to hunt in India unless you have the proper permits, which we didn't, but as they say in India, "if your rich, nobody bothers you".
I'm a foreigner here and I've been told to stay away from political discussions so I wont go into how the remnants of the class system are everywhere and it seems to be very much alive in India, and I wont discuss how most people here don't have a clue what to do with capitalism. I wont even think about discussing how corrupt the government is and how shady politicians and public servants keep people poor for their own benefit. I'm just not gonna do it. If you want to here about that you'll just have to watch the news.