Sunday, March 15, 2009

Karen's Update #5

Because I can't seem to keep this blog updated enough, I've decided to include my wife's update. She emails this out once in a while. Obviously, more often then I!

Here goes....... I hope you enjoy it.


Vannakkam!

It's been a long time since I've sent an update and so I have lots of photos and a few stories: some funny, some happy, some sad.

I'd rather start with a fun story. Today is Holi which is a festival celebrated more in North India than here so my friend & I went to the area of Chennai where lots of Gujarati people lived. It's a fun holiday associated with Krishna, the mischieveous, fun incarnation of God. People throw brightly colored powder or colored water all over each other. And boy do Indians love color! Each color is so deep and intense. I've never seen this depth of color anywhere else. There will be bonfires tonite and of course the day is begun with Puja, or worship.

Each day begins with the women sweeping and scrubbing the house floors in preparation for a new rangoli. Rangolis are patterns made with chalk, white or colored, simple or very complex. They are a welcome sign at the entrance of most Indian homes. Each family member will then bathe and then they are ready for Puja. It is very ritualized, involving offering the Lord flowers, incense, light (oil or ghee) food (usually a coconut in South India) and sometimes sandalwood paste. The light is probably the most important aspect as it symbolizes knowledge, whereas darkness symbolizes ignorance. Knowledge removes ignorance as light removes darkness. The oil or ghee in the lamp symbolizes our negative tendencies and the wick is our egos. So our negative tendencies are burned away as the flame burns upward toward higher thoughts and actions. Almost every home has either a Puja room or each building will have a small shrine. Shoes are never worn inside a Puja room or inside a temple. Every morning a Hindu priest comes to clean our Ganesh shrine and decorate it with flowers and perform Puja.

Knowledge is revered in India and there is of course, a festival to celebrate learning. This is a perfect time for asking blessing for exams etc. Books are never touched with the feet. There is a festival almost every week in India. There is one for brothers & sisters, tools & beasts of burden, remembering our past relatives, and the birthdays of all deities, etc. Sometimes the festivals last for days or there may be several in 1 week. I esp. like the festival for tols & beasts of burdens because that includes the animals which are painted different colors on their bodies and horns. The ricksha, truck & bus wallahs (drivers) get into the act too by decorating their beasts that they manuever around the crazy, crowded cities.

Festivals almost always begin with ritual bathing and usually involve gift giving of clothes, money or jewelry. Wearing new clothes, if affordable to the family is typical. Most large temples have tanks, or manmade ponds surrounded by steps, where people practice these rituals. Most Indians bathe twice a day. With all the personal and home cleanliness, it is hard to reconcile the filth and trash found just outside everyone's doorstep.

India is a complicated place. So much beauty but it has it's share of ugliness. So much purity but there's also filth. The political corruption is staggering and expected. The suicide rate is astronomical but no one will admit it. They are listed as "heart failure" which is true, esp. after one pours kerosene over oneself and strikes a match. Or an entire family swallows poison because they cannot repay their debts which were at an enormous interest rate. Students are under so much pressure during exams that the suicide rate goes even higher.

Back to happier things:

I love this picture. Joe took it when he first arrived. These lovelies are of course, water buffalos. What can I say? We love cows.

Hema with Mary-Chitra helping Cesca with her first saree.

A brahmin wedding Joe went to. The groom always arrives on a horse. Notice his hands are hennaed too.

The weddings usually last several days. This is the actual marriage ceremony the time of which is set by astrologers, numerologists and the lunar calendar. It could be @ 4 a.m. Sometimes there can be 1000s invited and everyone comes. People feast after they have greeted the bride & groom. In South India the marriage is official when a gold colored string is knotted around the bride's neck several times. She never takes it off except for replacing it once a year on their anniversary. The groom places a toe ring on each foot. Only married women wear tikkas--the powdered mark on the forehead. Widows usually stop wearing tikas. Tikkas are blessing, usually gotten at a temple each day. Those that worship Vishnu will wear a different mark than those that worship Shiva, etc.

One of my favorite stores, full of lots of shiny things.

The mall. The first time Joe & I went it was a weekend and we had to leave because we couldn't take the crush of people. Now I'm a pro and can make my way through any crowd.

A typical sweet shop with lots & lots of help. Still, service is usually agonizingly slow.

Preparing for the arrival of Krishna's Chariot during a festival procession. Now that was fun & joyful.

Remember the Hari Krishna's in the 60's with all the dancing & chanting? I went with some friends who are followers.This typical South Indian dress. They may have a small towel over their shoulder which has many uses. Check out the cell phone.

One way to deliver chickens to a shop or restaurant.

Blessing of the groom by a relative.

Mix of modern & ancient India.

Our Puja man.

Puja for our car and our driver, Raj's two-wheeler (motorcycle) of which he is very proud.

High Holi!!!

Holiday Update: Australia and New Zealand

Because I can't seem to keep this blog updated enough, I've decided to include my wife's update. She emails this out once in a while. Obviously, more often then I!

Here goes....... I hope you enjoy it.



HELLO FRIENDS, JANUARY 2009

WE SPENT OUR CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA AND DRIVING ALL OVER BOTH ISLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND. SO WE THOUGHT YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE TO SEE SOME PIX OF OUR TRAVELS IN THIS PART OF THE WORLD.

WE ALL FELL IN LOVE WITH BOTH COUNTRIES. CESCA ESP. LOVED SYDNEY AND MAY APPLY TO SYD U. WHEN THE TIME ARRIVES. IT'S A GREAT CITY. OUR VISIT TO SYDNEY WAS ENHANCED BY OLD FRIENDS TONY & KELLY REDHEAD WHO WERE GREAT TOUR GUIDES AND LOADS OF FUN.

ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC BUILDINGS IN THE WORLD, THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE LIVED UP TO ITS REPUTATION.

ABORIGINALS PERFORMING BY THE HARBOR

UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

NEW ZEALAND WAS ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACES I'VE EVER BEEN. WE SPENTA GOOD PART OF EVERY DAY SAYING, "WOW!" THE AIR, THE OCEAN, THE MOUNTAINS, LAKES, RIVERS & STREAMS WERE ALL SO BEAUTIFUL & PURE.

HOLE IN THE ROCK AT BAY OF ISLANDS:

I HOPE THEY USED ORGANIC SPRAY PAINT ON THESE SHEEP. I GUESS IT WSA MEANT TO GET OUR ATTENTION & IT DID!

LOTS OF SHEEP & LOTS OF COWS IN NZ. THESE ARE OUR FAVORITES. THEIR FACES LOOKED LIKE DOGS.

NEW ZEALANDERS LIKE THEIR ADVENTURES, ESP JUMPING OFF HIGH THINGS. CESCA & WALKER BUNGIED, SWOOPED, SHWEEBED, ZORBED AND FLEW. JOE & I WERE CONTENT TO REMAIN WITH THE TERRA FIRMA. I REFUSED TO LET THEM JUMP OFF THE AUCKLAND SKY TOWER WHICH HAD TO BE 35-40 STORIES UP. SELFISH OF ME BECAUSE I WAS MORE WORRIED ABOUT ME HAVING A HEART ATTACK WHILE WATCHING THAN THEM NOT MAKING IT SAFELY BACK TO EARTH.


ROTORUA IS THE MOST SACRED AREA OF NZ FOR THE MAORI. IT HAS AMAZING GEOTHERMIC ACTIVITY INCLUDING GEYSERS, BUBBLING MUD POOLS AND SULPHURIC STEAM ESCAPING EVERYWHERE. PEOPLE LITERALLY JUST PUT OUT A SHEET OF METAL TO BBQ ON IF THEY HAVE A VENT IN THEIR BACK YARD.

INTERESTING MAORI CULTURAL EXPERIENCES TOO. NEW ZEALANDERS SEEM TO REALLY HONOR & RESPECT THE NATIVE PEOPLE AND THE MAORI SEEMED TO HAVE HELD ON TO THEIR CULTURE WHILE STILL BEING VERY MODERN NEW ZEALANDERS. WE ALSO BECAME FANS OF THE ALL BLACKS, THE NEW ZEALAND RUGBY TEAM THAT DOES AN AWESOME MAORI WARRIOR DANCE AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH MATCH.



WEST COAST OF THE SOUTH ISLAND
AND PANCAKE ROCKS

ON CHRISTMAS EVE WE WENT ATV-ING AND THEN TOOK A HELICOPTER RIDE UP TO FRANZ JOSEF GLACIER FOR A HIKE. ITS THE ONLY PLACE IN THE WORLD WHERE A GLACIER IS RIGHT NEXT TO A SUB TROPICAL RAINFOREST. THE ICE BECOMES THIS BEAUTIFUL BLUE BECAUSE THE WEIGHT OF THE NEW SNOW SQUEEZES THE OXYGEN OUT OF THE ICE BELOW. THE WATER WAS DELICIOUS. THE RIVERS AND LAKES NEAR HERE HAVE AN UNBELIEVABLE COLOR THAT THIS (LOUSY/FRUSTRATING) CAMERA CAN'T QUITE CAPTURE.




WE STAYED IN LOTS OF B&B'S AND ENDED WITH A FARM STAY ON A RARE BREED FARM WITH ALPACAS, PIGS, SHEEP (OF COURSE) GOATS AND ALL MANNER OF STRANGE LOOKING CHICKENS, ROOSTERS & DOVES, TO NAME A FEW. EVERY SINGLE PERSON WE MET IN NZ WAS FUN, FRIENDLY AND WELCOMING. IF YOU EVER GET THE CHANCE TO VISIT THIS PART OF THE WORLD, DON'T PASS IT UP!

STILL WAITING FOR OUR FIRST GUESTS IN INDIA,
KAREN, JOE FRANCESCA & WALKER

Karen's Update #4

Because I can't seem to keep this blog updated enough, I've decided to include my wife's update. She emails this out once in a while. Obviously, more often then I!

Here goes....... I hope you enjoy it.



VANAKKAM! Hello! in Tamil

Several of you have asked for more pictures so here you are. This is basically the 2nd half of my most recent India Update (yesterday's) as there was just too much and too many pictures to include.

I wanted to include pictures of the Jain Temple we visited in Mumbai. In the Jain religion there is extreme respect for all life. They don't eat any meat or even root vegetables in case some tiny insects have bored their way into the root. Very devout Jains wear thin screens over their mouths & noses to prevent them from accidentally inhaling any airborne insects.
Worshipping at the Jain Temple.
A women makes intricate patterns in rice as an offering.

We passed a circus family on their way to or from work. They set up on the street or near a market and their children perform tricks on the "highwire" that they set up using poles. The little guy in the basket may not be working just yet.

We visited a Spice Plantation while we were in Goa and it was really interesting. Pepper, cardomom, coffee, turmeric, bay leaves, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, clove and of course, chilis. No wonder Columbus called the Native Americans Indians when he was searching for India and it's spices.

Ayurvedic Medicine is an ancient method for treating the body and it was developed in nearby Kerala State so there was an Ayurvedic doctor and medicine available. Ayurveda means the "science of life" and the medicines are derived from vegetables, minerals, spices and more. It's practice incorporates exercise, yoga, meditation and massage.

Years ago I heard of a type of Ayurvedic massage given WITH the feet , involving long strokes from the soles to the outstretched fingertips while the practitioner steadies herself by a rope hung from the ceiling. I finally got to try it in Goa and it was great. Somehow though, I don't
think I'll be adding that to my repertoire.

Who cleared out the Memory Tea?? Oh yeah, that was me.

Lots of waterways on the southwest coast. This one by the plantation had some lounging water buffaloes.

Did I tell you we met Tarzan? This guy climbed up & down the trees and swung from tree to tree so fast I couldn't get a clear shot of him until he stopped--obviously enjoying himself.

Here we are enjoying the traditional cool off at the end of the tour, poured down our spines. It worked!

Everybody loves color in India.

Paan Wallah in Mumbai. A beetle leaf is spread with nuts & spices, folded and popped into the mouth as a mouth freshener. It's pretty good.

Karen's Update #3

Because I can't seem to keep this blog updated enough, I've decided to include my wife's update. She emails this out once in a while. Obviously, more often then I!

Here goes....... I hope you enjoy it.


December 4, 2008

Namaste!

India has certainly gotten a lot of press lately and I cannot ignore this tragedy here. We are praying the terrorists won't win one of their main objectives and cause a war between India & Pakistan. Things are really tense now. The Indian people are also rightfully furious with their government for ignoring specific warnings from the U.S. and being woefully unprepared for this kind of attack despite all the relatively smaller attacks they've had previously. I wonder how many lives could have been saved if there was a central intelligence gathering agency or if everything in India wasn't politicized by all of the innumerable political parties trying to get a little power. The police and army have very little training or equipment and the commandos need much more too. They all did the best they could, considering. Many in India are saying "enough is enough!" I hope this time they mean it. So many lives lost and it seems at least some of them could have been saved.

It was the usual chaos throughout the ordeal with mobs of people allowed to be only yards away from the Nariman House (incredible even for India) and the crowds allowed to be within firing range of the terrorists inside the Taj. There was plenty of drinking going on too. That really got me. What a time for that. The Taj is my favorite hotel in the world and Francesca & Walker love it too. All that the newscasters were saying about it being a huge Indian icon are absolutely true. It is probably second only to the Taj Mahal. I have stayed there every time I traveled to India in the last 30 years--except this time. So I could picture where all the hostages and those that were trapped inside were waiting and praying. It is such a beautiful, elegant and old world place, especially the old colonial section. The terrorists wanted to take it down but it was just too strong. None of this has dampened my love for this country but we are so sad.

Walker & Cesca at the Gateway of India across from The Taj.

Just a few weeks ago we were all in Mumbai for Divali. We were at the Taj for lunch with friends and left from the beautiful old Victoria Station which is now renamed something unpronounceable. Both these sites will have a very different memory now. I try not to think what a few weeks delay in the terrorists' plans could have meant to our family.

We visited Gandhi's Bhavan and that was inspiring. India needs him or someone like him now. He was against the separation of India into India & Pakistan. And of course his abhorrence of violence is known the world over. I'm including a picture of his library and of his room. You can see his bed and the spinning wheel which is represented on India's flag. The English exported Indian cotton to Britain where it was manufactured into cloth and then shipped back to india where the cloth was sold at a high price. Gandhi believed that if every Indian spun a little yarn every day and refused to buy English products that India could soon be free. Again, a small step that led to many more, and eventually Independence.




Every region of India celebrates different festivals. Some are obviously more important in some regions than others. But Divali seems to be the most important and widely celebrated. It is the "Festival of Lights" and there are many, many strings of electric lights decorating homes and businesses everywhere. The Indians LOVE to decorate. Also, the Indians love to light candles, which are really oil in a small, pretty clay bowl with a wick. There must have been hundreds just in our hotel lobby arranged in a beautiful pattern around a Rangoli. But the meaning of Divali is quite beautiful. It is time to celebrate the victory of Light over Darkness, Good over Evil. Light symbolizes knowledge while darkness symbolizes Ignorance. The festival focuses on Lord Ram and also on Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity. She is supposed to visit every house during Divali, attracted by the light within. So even the poorest household tries to find a candle to light.

Indians also love fireworks and light them for many festivals, especially Divali. And just for fun, it seems--any time any where. The festival lasts for days and the fireworks go on ALL NIGHT. On rooftops, in the streets--everywhere. Of course there are no regulations and the quality and therefore safety of them is suspect. Cesca & I had to wait 20 minutes to get by a gang of 30 or so young men who weren't going to stop lighting M80s, Cherrybombs and who knows what all else to let us by. Sparks are everywhere as the fireworks don't make it very high in the sky. Fun, but a little scary. I guess it's a good thing it's so dang humid here or else half of the city would burn down every year!

This is the Launderia in Mumbai. 100, 000s of clothes are washed here every day.

Next we headed to Goa after a 14 hr. train ride down the west coast, stopping at hundreds (not kidding) of villages or ?? Those were the places that were so unidentifiable as a station that I don't know how they knew where to stop. One stop was the remains of a cart, toppled over, by the rails. It was mostly village life once we got out of Mumbai. There are hundreds of thousands of villages in India where life is hard but simple. My Tamil professor likes to say that "The village people are very good people. Very simple people." I think he yearns to return to that way of life. I wish my camera could have captured some of the scenes we passed but the windows were too thick and too dirty. Fields, ponds with water lilies and the famous lotus flowers were scattered across the landscape. Years ago, a friend who was the first person I knew to travel to India likened the country to a lotus flower booming in the mud. Pretty close. So much pain, filth and suffering here but also such indescribable beauty. My favorite visual memory from our train ride was a group of villagers in their field separating the wheat from the chaff by beating the wheat against an old drum barrel. The beauty of it was the rhythm they had. Two beaters on one side, one on the other, alternating swinging the wheat over their heads down onto the barrel. The chaff would fly away while the bran would fall onto a burlap sheet. Lovely.

Goa is the big vacation spot in India, kind of like Hawaii but it's not an island. I had heard about it for decades. The hippee culture really embraced it from the 70's on. Lots of drugs, drinking & nudity. Much tamer now but very over developed and crowded, which is why we headed for South Goa which was beautiful. Big Portuguese influence complete with old churches, one of which contains the remains of Francis Xavier. They had a pretty wicked Inquisition here which went on for 200 years. They destroyed many Hindu Temples and threw in prison any Hindu who would not convert. Those who survived that were burned at the stake. Did I warn you that these Updates would contain the good, the bad and the ugly of India?

I think we were the only Americans at the resort, with lots of Indians. As we were leaving, the Russians were pouring in as their high season was about to begin. The Indians who worked there much preferred westerners, esp. Americans. We seem to treat the locals in the friendliest, most respectful way of any other nationality. I have heard this everywhere, over & over again, so we Americans must be doing something right.

Walker on a Goan fishing boat.


I realize I haven't written much about the city we live in as a lot of friends didn't know how close we were to Mumbai. Chennai is on the southeast coast in the state of Tamil Nadu. The city was called Madras (as in the plaid from the 60s). We are the 4th largest city in India behind Mumbai (used to be Bombay), New Delhi and Kolkatta (used to be Calcutta). The idea to de-Anglacize the names comes from the politicians. Chennai has somewhere between 4 and 7 million people--but how could they possibly know?
South India is more Hindu, more conservative and more vegetarian. Hotter too. We are about 1 1/2 hr flight across the country to Mumbai, the financial & film center. Chennai is the gateway to South India. I think it's prettier than Mumbai because there are a lot more trees and less pollution. There is a surprising 20% Christian population here in Chennai. That is due to Saint Thomas settling here and converting many. Saint Thome contains a relic from his body and is one of the three churches in the world built around a relic of an apostle. St Peter's in Rome of course and another in Spain.

Something we find appalling here is the amount of skin whitening ads there are in the media. 60% of all cosmetic sales (male & female) are some cream that claims to whiten the skin, which is quite dark here in South India. They are Dravidians and quite beautiful to my eye. But the skin whitening craze is all over India. I guess it's the result of the English rule here.

A little on the caste system of India which is ancient and very slow to change. There are many subdivisions but the four major caste divisions go like this:

Brahmins: priestly caste
Kshatriya: the warrior caste
Vaishya: the merchant caste
Sudras: those who do the manual labor
Untouchables: those who deal with things that are unclean. (cleaning latrines, working with leather, removing dead animals etc.) Nowadays they are referred to as Dalit " the oppressed". After the government passed laws providing assistance to some Dahlits several other low castes have claimed that they too are oppressed and deserve some handouts from the government. They are arguing that they are lower than each other.
Brahmins and others of a higher caste would cross the street rather than come in contact or proximity of a lower class person, esp. an Untouchable. This system is obviously much more complex than I have room to explain here. Change is coming to India but it will take centuries to completely root out this deeply ingrained social system. Gandhi was very much against the caste system and was also for equal treatment of women.

Any Indian can take a look at another Indian and know all about them including their caste, probable job, their religion and if they hear their last name, what state their family is originally from. I showed a picture of a baby shower I attended to my cook and she immediately said, "Brahmin. North indian."
The government has passed many laws trying to do away with this system but as usual with the many laws and regulations in India, there is almost no enforcement. Corruption and bribes are the norm and expected. There just isn't any justice here. Everyone gets paid off and it takes years & years for anything to come to court, if ever.

Cotton Candy

Four of the ten richest people on The Forbes World's Billionaires list are Indian. Yet close to 87,000 Indian farmers committed suicide between 2001 & 2005 because they couldn't pay their debts. No idea how they came up with that number. Who is there to report these deaths or care, beyond their families, who of course are very rural and very poor? Banks don't lend money, even before the credit crunch. Money lenders charge high interest and most never get out of debt no matter how hard they work.


I realize this Update has been a lot more somber than the others so I will end on a brighter note. I was invited to a baby shower "Vallekappu" in Tamil. They rent a big hall and bless the expectant parents. These people are Brahmins of the Jain faith and originally from Rajasthan which is why the saree pallau is worn over the head. They have this ceremony at 5 months, again at 7 months and again at 9 months during the pregnancy. Each guest, beginning with family, blesses the couple by placing a tika (Hindi) or pottu (Tamil) on the forehead. This is the red and yellow powders. Then a few grains of rice are sprinkled on their heads and the person doing the blessing feeds them both a small bite of special food from the Thali. The mom-to-be has had bangles placed on her arms because they believe the baby in the womb is old enough to hear the sounds they make. They are seated on an ornately carved wooden swing because the mother will soon be swinging her baby. Gifts are given, usually money. Then of course there is a huge feast!


Notice the Communist Party flag in front of the Christian Church? Just one of the many political parties.

Henna

Joe at a wedding--there is a 4' tail in the back! Next to him is Abahya Kumar--one of the partners at Sonyimageworks India. We call him the King of Chennai. Whatever you need, just ask Abahya.

I have so much more to write so I am splitting this in 2! Bye for now and God Bless!
Karen