Ramble on. And now's the time, the time is now...

26 May 2013

The musical title for this week directly ties to what I anticipate will be the tone and nature of this blog entry. I had thought of a very clear, direct topic that I was going to address, but life has intervened and I think the results will be rambling. So whilst I am not a “rambling man” this blog entry will undoubtedly be so.

Let me start with how I ended last week: the devotional with Elder Neil L. Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.  He spoke with his wife and with President Watson (of the Area Presidency) and his wife. All the talks were good and there was a warm convivial spirit. There were perhaps 500 – 600 people in attendance. Elder Anderson told several stories from his life that presented how the Church has grown in France and in Brazil. He spoke about the role the members of the Church in India today have in helping lay the foundation for future growth. As you know from the blog last week, I have been thinking a great deal about that very topic. Needless to say, his choice of topic resonated with me.

So let me jump forward to yesterday (rambling). I mentioned in my last blog that I had been called as Second Counselor in the New Delhi 1^st Branch. We had met earlier in the week and decided that on Saturday we would go make some member visits. One of the visits was eye and heart opening.

India is changing (here comes some more rambling). Historically there was a small middle class, with a relatively few having great wealth and a great number of poor - many profoundly so. Over the last twenty years, that has been changing. At least in the urban areas the middle class has been expanding and the number in extreme poverty has declined. In the decade plus I have been coming to India, I am able to see a clear difference in the number of homeless and in the beggars on the street. Poverty remains a serious problem but improvements have definitely been made in the urban areas (rural poverty remains a significant problem). Well, in the six weeks I have been here, I have been involved with those in the growing middle class. The people I have met and the homes I have visited could all be categorized so. Yesterday however the veil was peeled away from my eyes and I saw those who are struggling economically much more clearly.

We visited two related families: a mother, father, and teenage girl and a young husband, wife, a three year old and an eight month old baby. These families live next each other and both families came to New Delhi from a small village to make a better life for themselves. The younger family with two children are all members of the Church. The teenage girl of the other family has been taking lessons and wants to be baptized. Now her mother and father say they are interested and want to take the lessons too. In order to find them, we had to make our way through a warren of narrow passageways between buildings. These paths were dirt with patches of paving stone. There was no place where I couldn't extend my arms and touch walls on both sides; some places I didn't need to extend my arms, my shoulders were touching the two walls. The sky was barely visible. When we finally got to their homes, I was astounded.  The home of the younger family was a concrete cell with no doors and no widows that couldn't have been more than 6 feet by 8 feet. There was electricity but no running water. The husband, wife, two small children and the wife’s brother all live in this space. The family of three live in relative luxury: their home also had no windows or doors but their space was about 8 by 10. I believe these cubicles had originally been added to the back of existing buildings as servant quarters.

Both of the homes were neat and clean; we took our shoes off before we entered to keep the concrete floors as clean as possible. Each had a small burner with a couple of pots which they kept stacked in a corner. There was no art or any decorations on any of the walls, although they had been painted and, again were neat and clean. Each family is living on what we would consider the barest of incomes. The thing that struck me was how happy they seemed; the love they clearly have for each other; and their desire to be an active part of the Church in the case of the one family, and the interest the other has in the Church based on lives of the relatives. As I made my way back to my relative palace (large, clean, air conditioned) I was struck with how blessed I am, we all are really. I have reflected continually since then about what I have done with those advantages. I feel more than a little ashamed.

Rambling again and back to a lighter topic: there is in Old Delhi a bazaar that has continuously operated in the same place for nearly 1500 years. My well planned original blog was to go there, take some pictures, and share that with you. However, it was like 1000 degrees yesterday and the idea of plowing around a bazaar in those conditions was not something I wanted to do. However, I had shopping and pictures in my mind, so what to do? Quoting that hit Canadian song by Robin Sparkles, “Let’s go to the mall!” Which is, as it turns out, is what many in the aforementioned middle class also do on a hot Saturday afternoon.

Enclosed malls are a fairly newish development in India, really in the last 10 years or so. They definitely are following the model form the US. If you were suddenly dropped into one, it would seem much more like home to you than Oz did to Dorothy. Sure some of the stores are different, but as the pictures below show, there are so familiar brands. What would a mall be without a Sunglass Hut? And yes, that is a Starbuck’s lurking in the corner of that one picture. I didn’t take pictures of other known brands, like Polo, Gant, MAC, Nike, Adidas, Puma, HP, and others.

Well, as this picture shows, not everything is like a mall in the US.

As you see below, there is even a food court, although the offerings skew definitely to the cuisine from various parts of India. No hamburgers and hot dogs here.

They also don’t take money. At the desk below, one buys a card, or gets one reloaded with money and this is used to pay for the food. I assume the idea is this way counter workers don’t have to handle dirty money as they are cooking. It may also be a way for the food court to make a bit more money. How many people lose their card of stick it in a drawer with available credit still on it and forget about it, so that they have to buy a card the next time they get the desire for some delicious mall food? My lunch was good. I had a dosa (which is kind of like a giant crepe) stuffed with vegetables. But the very best part of lunch was the scoop of gelato made with ripe mangoes. Delish!

They even have their own version of a kids' fun zone. Sort of.

Just like in our malls, they have small, island kiosks through out selling all kinds of merchandise. Rae, as you can see by the picture below, your reputation has preceded you here to India. I saw this on display at one of those kiosks. They clearly know what sells!

The other thing you might find different about an Indian mall is security. Before you can enter the mall, you have to go through a security screen, kind of like the airport. As you can see in this picture, you have to pass through a metal detector and then a security guard scans you with a hand wand. Finally, at nearly each store there is a guard, sometimes two, checking people in and out of the store. You have to check your bags before you go in and, like Costco, they check your packages and receipts on the way out.

Well, I warned you at the very start this would be a rambling entry. I believe I have kept my word. I also promise when the weather cools off that I will make a tour through the Old Delhi bazaar and send a report. Until then....

Namaste.