Suprise Party at Preem

Some Thoughts for Food

All the beautiful sarees and shawls the women wear caress the men as they unwrap them to wed or to bed like gifts on Christmas. To be passed by a sultry woman and have the train of her accordion folded saree tickle your arm hair as her figure diminishes while her feet carry her away. This is not incentive or innuendo, but it is as traditional as the cutting instruments the agriculture workers use to harvest paddy. To define culture by their way of dress is one thing, but to examine the modern day interpretations is entirely different.

You can have more than a family of Indian brothers and sisters, aunts and cousins, but they will never treat you like their family. They will never ask anything of you, you have to be forcefully persistent to share even minor expenses, cooking or cleaning means you are taking rest. But at the same time they accept you under any circumstances. If a family member is ill, they will still welcome you to stay with them. They will always offer you the best food even if you ask for kanji. There is a love and dependency, a connection with a foreigner, a desire to expand their familial relationships to include you. Yet there is also the burden of the third world, the lack of entertainment and sedentary lifestyle, and the obligations to their immediate and inclusive family. The acceptance I feel and the experiences I am gaining from are not only teaching me about the culture and people, but about their lives and history.

The men are sneaky only because they know the stereotypes the foreign women are attached to and stereotypes always relay some kind of truth. A drunkard or sober man who dares to touch a foreign girl or interact with them or be perverse toward them, would never dream of acting in that manner as openly with an Indian woman. The key word being as openly.

If you open your eyes you can see the light, but if you let the light shine on you, only then can you be enlightened. If this is in any way linked with the mind of Ambedkar I would be flattered. The idea of obtaining enlightenment, is it really possible to measure its attainability? How can you measure something like enlightenment or infinity and when it is mixed with religion, spirituality, and money? Which factors are really supporting the idea of enlightenment and who is going to publish a book of my blogs?

The road ahead is as dangerous as the curves the speedy Indian bus devours. Sometimes there are bumps and everyones body experiences a moment without gravity. Sometimes there are stops where everyone is either sleeping or making faces expressing their annoyance. Sometimes passengers change and get on or off going up and down the three or four steps to the road. All the while the driver is seated in his seat grinding the gears and giving diesel to the engine. All the while the conductor collects bus fare and monitors the passengers ensuring some amount of safety and order until reaching the final destination only to embark on another journey with completely different encounters.

water water everywhere but not a drop to drink

Last night was surely an adventure. For the past two weeks in Chengelpattu the motor bringing water from the well to the homes has not been working. A technician came 3 times to fix the motor unsuccessfully. For most of this time I was frolicking around Tamil Nadu, but I have returned to the comfortable apartment that Mathew resides in and with my return I automatically get enrolled in the water informational course in D2 of the Ranga Apartments. The first day I got back, somehow I managed to do all my washing with the water had been saved in three buckets. I had to fill one small bucket for proper rinsing so I went to the kitchen to because the water in the bathroom had been shut off. That water was spitting and spurting like usual, so I left the bucket to fill. Then the neighbors niece came to tell me more about the motor problem, so I hurried to turn off the water. She informed me that we can use one tap at a time so I finished the rinsing, filled the buckets, and hung the clothes to dry. The next evening her father came and said at 9:00 the water would be shut off so we should prepare for a day at least without any water. It was 8:45 and we had just finished eating so Mathew hurried to collect extra buckets we purchased for the LF students camp and began the water transportation to all buckets in the apartment. With the new buckets that was at least 12 buckets and containers. After filling the buckets we waited for the water to stop, but it kept coming, so Mathew washed the dishes and I took a bath. Good thing we collected all that water because the next day there was running water all day! No problems for cooking, washing, cleaning or rinsing. I kept waiting for the water to stop. In Mathew's apartment there are two types of water being used. One from the well, which is for drinking and one from the municipality which is for washing, cooking, or bathing. Usually around this time there is a great shortage of well water which everyone is depending on. The problem with the motor is only affecting the well water so at the time we were filling buckets every family in the apartments were also doing the same. The water shortage is really serious and not much is being done in terms of conservation. Many people are not aware or careful with the water and will leave taps on overflowing as this precious commodity trickles down the drain. We can be sure when people start dying from dehydration the government will be forced to do something, but will it be too little too late? For the sake of my friends, i sure hope not.

Some government assistance please!

The government of Tamil Nadu has many incentive programs and free products for poor families, but are they really helping to uplift them from poverty or are they just giving them a good dose of materialism and greed?

Extra! Extra! Read all about it. Free Televisions for the poor!
If a slum dweller in Chennai gets a free television from the government that's great! Here's the downside: That person potentially doesn't even have electricity, but it will make a great table for a shrine to Jesus or Shiva. If they have electricity they have to buy cable or a dish satellite. They have to pay a monthly fee, minus that from their huge bank account or wad of rupee bills stashed in a plastic jar. All the neighbors will come in the evening to enjoy programming, but individually owned and politically owned television channels will monopolize their time away from family discussion or study time. Finally if your neighbor gets a television you will have to one up them and buy a TV plus a DVD player. The grass is always greener on the other side.

Free low grade rice! 20 Kilos per month!
Thank goodness for free rice because the agriculture workers earning 30 rupees a day can't afford food for themselves let alone for their collection of children. Too bad their not giving free birth control, but wait! There was one village that was subject to free vasectomy's. One village. If a coolie worker is getting 30 rupees per day they may try to work 20-25 days a month depending on where they are living. If a coolie worker is getting a free 20 kilo bag of rice they may only work 10 days a month. There's no note attached to give the laboring class ideas about saving for their future, children's education, or medical emergencies, so that means they don't have to work as much. If a family eats rice and sambar or kanji once every day, they are not motivated by this 20 kilos of rice to eat rice and sambar with chicken, or a carrot side dish. There is not note attached giving them a lesson on nutrition either. I assume some people are not working less and maybe their meals improve, but the local perception is people are lazy and basically bad, so why would they even bother.

Other incentives:
+ 20,000 rupees from the government when you marry off your daughter... after paying the dowry which is supposed to be illegal
+ free gas stoves, then you can buy an expensive fuel tank instead of cooking outside with firewood... this is definitely good if it is raining outside, also the food will cook much faster with the gas stove and the women will have to spend less time cooking. If your daily work and toil is not appreciated then throwing together a fast rasam and sambar is more beneficial than squatting in the backyard over four stack of bricks and a bubbling pot.
+ free bicycles will get you to work more easily and the whole family can use the bike
+ in rare instances scholarships for better education are given, hopefully this will increase in the future

A dose of religion

After spending some time with my family visiting the place where Buddha conducted his first lecture, meeting one of our lead forward students and his family who practice Jainism, and having repeated discussions with my family friends about Jews, Jesus, and Christianity it is easy to perceive obvious similarities and differences. It is interesting to see the different personal opinions and practices in the varying sects of Christianity. There is a large Roman Catholic following in Pondicherry, the French coastal state that is surrounded by Tamil Nadu terrain. To experience a centennial celebration at the most notorious Pondicherry Roman Catholic church and see the flocks of Indian people mixed with foreigners, bikers, and children running about really shows how religion can give so much sanctity and feelings of togetherness for its followers. The Lutheran movement is strongest in Tamil Nadu especially in the vicinity of the Pondicherry and Cuddlore parish. There is also a following in Bangalore, but more missionary presence and strong devotees are said to be in Tamil Nadu. The Muslim belief in 'Allah' is very similar to Jewish prayer and worship for 'Adonai'. One television program on Prayer TV followed the speech of one doctor who was explaining the confusion of giving a male or female sex to Allah. This is the same for Adonai, the thought of an all knowing being or spirit that can't readily be explained or defined, just that it is ever present. If I tell my Christian friends that I don't believe in Jesus they are shocked and can't understand what Judaism is based on. Many Roman Catholics have pressured me to convert to Christianity giving me bibles or explaining the New Testament. This has also happened with one Protestant friend. They don't identify with Adonai, just how I don't identify with Jesus, but some are first generation converts from Hinduism and others have become accustomed to their religion since attending childhood religious school or cathecism class. Varying strength in belief or devotion can be seen between couples, but most times their children take on a strong religious belief. Is this due to the lifestyle where the chance and practice of a religion is give more time and respect from the culture. India can be stereotyped as a religious country, but that does not make it spiritual. I think some aspects of religious practice are very repetitive. I haven't seen any difference in RC weddings I have attended. There is one style present, in my experiences, full of tradition and ritual that is followed almost identically regardless of caste. At a village wedding in a poor rural place, you won't see all guests covered with gold and breathtaking sarees, but the same sense of tradition and customs are incorporated. The lack of spirituality might lead people to depend on religion as a crutch or as a way they can pray for better lives, but other incidents are completely ridiculous. This also applies to western practice (I'm sure you've read stories online or in the news). Last week I read an article where two frogs were married and fashioned in a red wedding suit (complete with cape) and a red dress for the bride. The village Hindus who married these two amphibians were giving them to a specific god for more rain during the monsoon season. The ceremony took place on a rock in the woods and afterwards the frogs were released. The village had been experiencing a very dry season and their harvest was minimal. Whatever your belief or however you are practicing I just want to state that the mind is a very powerful tool that can be used constructively or destructively and avidly affect a person, group or situation.

Tamil Music Television

Tonight I was fortunate enough to be completely appalled by one music video. If you think MTV and VH1 are negative affecting the minds of the youth then you have no idea what the Indian youths are being subjected to. I was doing my routine activities after cooking lunch with a couple students, drinking cool water, painting toe nails, talking about the hot weather when a music video began that was more obscene that I could have imagined. The video began showing a bus full of students going or coming to school. The girls were in pink plaid with braided pigtails tied up in white ribbons and the boys were wearing button down shirts in dusty blue. All the students were in uniform looking neat and clean. After the initial scene was represented the camera zoomed in on two students, one boy and one girl. The two people were staring into each others eyes more intensely that any boy and any girl have started at each other in history... except maybe Romeo and Juliet. The camera zoomed in on all eye twitches and lip quivers instigating the thought process that these two students were going through. They stared at each other while everyone else was concerned with their own business going about like normal students. Mind you this was supposed to be a group of high school kids. The girl, was definitely not a girl and was most likely a woman around 21 years old and the drooling boy was at least 35. It is typical here to marry a man much older in traditional arranged marriages, but these actors were supposed to be students. If someone bumped into either the boy or girl you could feel sexy thoughts pounding out of the tv. If the bus jerked or went over a pot hole or speed bump the girl fell into the boy strategically having her head go into the crevice of her neck. There were so many close ups, the boy would sneakily touch the girls shirt, the girl would brush up against him. Without even opening their mouths, only the lip quivers were apparent. I have to question why girls are becoming pregnant and their lovers are going off and killing them and their unborn children. Why are there newspaper articles where young people run off wanting to have a love marriage and their own parents go after them and kill them? If all the people in villages are getting free televisions from the government and sitting around during and after dinner watching music videos and soap operas no wonder people are trying to live the fantasy life. Only after being abused by your husband, getting aids and joining a support group will any women leave their families. The male student on the bus would ruin the girls reputation, destroy respect for her in her village and worst of all impregnate her out of wedlock tarnishing the whole family. But for the boy student even after these actions have been committed, even after going before the village court, even after his own parents reprimand the girl and her family, he will only have to pay a fine of $3 or $4 dollars to the village council. Why is it that when they two students were staring so deeply into each others eyes it is always the girl whose eyes first look toward the ground? Because the women are pushed down in all ways, even though the men will take the women to bed with them they won't respect them. Even though the women cook and clean and cater to all the men's needs the men won't respect them. I would like to create one Indian holiday opposite from Women's Day that is already celebrated here where the women actually leave the house eat at restaurants and relax. Where the husbands all have someone like a British Nanny scold them and even beat them if necessary. I'm waiting for this day to come.

When you're faced with poverty

As a person who is clearly foreign with white skin in a country where white skin is idolized and cherished it is most difficult to know the situation of those who live with nothing in comparison to my own personal background. I am definitely not individually wealthy, but I am coming from a family where I never had to worry if the heating bill would be paid or there would be food in the cupboard. This put me in a constant predicament. Tonight I am staying in Chennai with a social activist who is really changing peoples perception and motivating them to support others from different castes and classes. She stays in a third floor apartment in one district of this enormous city. There are three fashion design students taking courses and staying with her and one boy she sponsored to get his bachelor's in social work who frequents the residence. These kids are like my Indian brothers and sisters. We talk about social issues, read together, make jewelry and design fashions, cook, wash clothes and eat. They are all originally coming from rural villages, but now they can get around in the city with basic social interaction skills. Tonight after dinner and creating some new hairstyles we were enjoying the breeze on the balcony. One girls said she wanted to show me something so I went and we crossed the apartment, looked out the barred window and saw about 8 or 9 men sleeping on the roof of a building next door that is being constructed. These men are sleeping on cardboard boxes. All their belongings fill half a burlap sack. They work every day from 6am to 10 pm making 100 rupees per day. These men are my neighbors. They earn 2 dollars per day. How can you eat three meals, support your wife and young child with these wages. We know their contractors and managers are living in nice houses with air conditioning, they are able to feed their children 3 meals a day and send them to school. Their wives are decorated with silk embroidered sarees and gold jewelry but they have no concern for the people they depend on for this lifestyle. The coolie workers who are fulfilling the managers tasks can't defend themselves or protest this wage and lifestyle. If they protest the 100 rupee per day salary with disappear from their pocket and another eager oppressed person will come fill their place. Not being able to support your family but having your mouth glued shut so you can't speak about it, and your hands tied together during your daily labor, this is why i wake up everyday and bear the heat and pollution. This is why i meet officials and try to motivate students and leaders. This is why the Indian people can't bring about this change themselves.