Stones that I carry around, Every stone’s a story….

They’re baacck! As of Friday night, I am in the throws of a kidney stone attack. I am high on pain killer and pain induced endorphins. It’s taken me 15 minutes to write these three sentences. I am going to let Rae handle the blog this week. I’ll just sit here and drool.

Well, we didn’t post our blog yesterday. I am feeling better so I guess I can’t leave it just to Rae to write.

So, one of the things I think is interesting is the reaction they have and the advice people give me. I will say that I am often surprised by the basic lack of understanding about the human body and how it functions, even among people that are quite educated. This is more than a belief in traditional medicine because I also have found people who believe in and follow traditional medicine who are not uniformed about how the body functions. At first I thought it was just a language thing; even among the most educated, English is still a second or third language. So, I thought confusing comments were probably related to language differences. Now, over time, I have decided that, no, it’s just a lack of understanding about how the body actually works.

Here’s one example. I was told today that rice is the primary cause of kidney stones. According to this person, (well educated; family in the medical profession) rice is the culprit because the grains of rice get stuck in the kidney. I am not exactly sure what causes kidney stones. I have heard just about everything now but in the States and here, but I am pretty sure it is not because grains of rice have gotten stuck in the kidney.

Aside from my adventures in stone passing, this week has been fairly uneventful from my perspective. Progress continues to mostly be two steps forward one step back and one step sideways. Yes, Larry, I did curse myself when I said we had turned the corner. The corner appears to have a fairly long trajectory. One of the things I have noted is how difficult it is for many of our team members to be truly happy for the success of others. It is as though, somehow, there is a limited amount of good that can happen. If someone has a good thing happen to them, it decreases the pool of good they can hopefully draw from.

An Indian friend of mine said, too often his countrymen are like a bucket of crabs. It they can’t climb out of the bucket themselves, they for sure are going to pull back any other crab that seems about to make it out.

This post sounds much more pessimistic than I really feel. Yes, there are challenges, new ones arise nearly every day, but Rae and I believe we are here for a purpose. If we continue to move forward with faith and positive intention, everything will work out.

Now, the person you’ve been waiting for… here’s Rae!

The first of this week was pretty routine, but a friend came into Delhi on Friday and I spent the day with her.  We went to a place that I have been before called Nature Bazaar.  It features some of the same vendors, but they do change a good number of the merchants and feature different things for a period of time and then change after a while.  This one featured winter weaves.  One thing about India that you can always count on is that nothing is quite what you think it will be and that was the case with Nature Bazaar on Friday.  Their website said it was open from 11 am until 8 pm so McArthur and I met up there just after 11 only to discover that only some of the vendors were open and the actual hours were 3-8 that particular day.  The vendors that were there were more than happy to show us things and sell us things even if they weren’t officially open.

McArthur is married to an Indian man and lives in a village a few hours out of Lucknow (about five hours East of Delhi).  Her husband runs a factory there.  Because living in a village is different than living in Delhi, western apparel is not something she gets to wear often.  November-March is the heavy wedding season and she has many weddings to attend so she is always looking for things to wear to weddings and events.  Weddings in India are VERY different from ones in the US.  Everyone who attends is dressed in the most elaborate gowns.  I’m talking bold colors, elaborate beading, beautiful silks, brocades, velvets; the more colorful and beaded the better.  So, we spent some time looking at gowns and then ended up at Lajpat Nagar (a market I’ve talked about in previous blogs) looking at booth after booth of fabrics and trims. 

McArthur has a tailor in her town that makes her gowns and then someone else who will do all this elaborate embroidery and bead work.  Needless to say, it was fun and educational going with her to shop for fabrics and trims.  I’m going to post a few pictures of some of the fabric stalls.  You don’t find fabric on rolls or bolts like we’re used to, but rather folded and stacked from floor to ceiling.  None of the picture show this, but almost every stall has a large section of white fabrics that can be died the color or combinations of colors you could want.  These white fabrics are laces, embroidered, appliqued, you name it you can find it. I’ve done a very poor job of explaining how amazing it all was.  There are beautiful fabrics and trims and McArthur and I spent many hours there being awed and inspired.

All over the market there are men setting at sewing machines and you can take things to them and they will sew it while you wait.  You can have sleeves added to something, hems put in, kurta sets cut and sewn into the kurta style you want.  If you are wanting them to make something more elaborate then you would probably need to leave it for a day or two.    I’m hoping to find a tailor that I can have a few things made. I think I would like to have one person that I could continue to go to rather than just anyone I find sitting around the market.  (Something I still need to sort out.)

Phil has a couple of employees that are getting married and we are being invited to those weddings, so I need to find a happy alternative that I can wear to their weddings without being too plain and western, but something that I would ever consider wearing anywhere but to one Indian wedding.

There is woman who started working for the people upstairs just a few weeks ago.  I’ve never spoken to her, but she did say Namaste to me through my kitchen window one day.  Well, about a week ago she came to my door and gave Christina (my helper) and me each invitations to her daughter’s wedding.  The invitation is quite elaborate and I’m thinking “ this women is cleaning our driveway and front step and dusting the outside of my windows and, where do they get the money for something so elaborate”.  Anyway, I found it strange that I would be invited to a strangers daughters wedding, but I’ve been told it would be considered a great honor to them if we were to attend.  And, that 1000-1500 rupees would be an appropriate gift.  I forgot to tell you that the invitations was entirely in Hindi and so we had to have parts of it translated.  We aren’t going to attend this wedding, but will be going to the ones from Phil’s work.  Guess I better get going on what to wear since it is clearly a very big deal. 

Well enough of my ramblings.  Hope you enjoy the pictures.              

Namaste.

Honesty is such a lonely word, Everyone is so untrue, Honesty is hardly ever heard…

 I don’t think we’ve mentioned it in the blog, but we have a new driver. The story of that and another situation I’ve had to deal with at work are the subjects of my part of this week’s blog.

First Mehndi. A couple of weeks ago Mehndi told me his father was “dead” (I assumed he meant very ill) and he needed to take a week off to go to be with him in the hospital. Work got a temporary driver for the week and we were off and running, err driving. Shelendar was like the opposite of Mehndi. Where Mehndi was aggressive, even wild sometimes, Shelendar was VERY cautious and careful in traffic. Where Mehndi was talkative, Shelendar hardly said anything. Where Mehndi knew every location in Delhi and three or four ways to get to and from each, Shelendar barely knew his way around. Despite all of that, it was kind of relaxing.

Well the first day, Shelendar took me to a place Mehndi had taken me dozens of times. I should tell you one thing: when there’s a parking fee, the driver may pay it originally, but he then is reimbursed for those fees. So, I said to Shelendar, “What was parking?” He told me 10 rupees.  I didn’t believe I had heard correctly so I asked again and got the same answer. I was surprised because Mehndi had always said the parking was 80 rupees there. The next day was Saturday and we had Shelendar take us to a shopping area. So, when we were through, I asked, “What was parking?” This time Shelendar said 20 rupees. This is compared to the 150 Mehndi would usually have said. Later that day Shelendar took us to the mall. Here the parking was 50 rupees compared to the 350 rupees that Mehndi would have said.

The next Monday at work, I asked, “what does parking usually cost?” I was told that except at the mall, where it might be 50 rupees, normally it would be 10 to 20 rupees. “Would parking ever be as much as 350?” I asked. No that would be impossible. So, anyhoo, I explained the pattern Mehndi had been following for the past five months. It was clear that Mehndi was overcharging me significantly for parking at every turn. Additionally, often I would not have the exact amount Mehndi would specify, so I would give him 100 rupees. I rarely got the difference repaid. Also, I would periodically buy Mehndi lunch or dinner if we were out for a long time. It became clear that Mehndi was systematically cheating me by overcharging. This discovery led to a review of the reports Mehndi had been turning in. It turns out he had also been padding his hours. We decided that based on that he would have to go. Now to find a replacement.

Shelendar was not a choice. A: see the above description about Shelendar’s driving and demeanor; 2: Shelendar lives a long way off and the hours he was willing to work were restricted; and III: he wanted too much money. What to do, what to do?

We had determined we were actually going to get two drivers. One to work Sundays and one to work the other six days. I had suggested the name of a member of our branch who was a driver, who had told me he couldn’t work full time but would like to work weekends if that opportunity ever occurred. So Robinson (his name is Robinson Singh) interviewed for the part-time position and wowed everyone. In that process, he found out we were looking for a full time driver too. Despite the fact he had only wanted part-time, when he found out he would be our driver he said he wanted to work full time and be our driver. So now he is.

Now for the other situation. Through a combination of events, we came to know that one of my directors, a manager, and our handyman were involved in a long standing fraud involving skimming money from contract work, getting kickbacks from vendors, and stealing and selling surplus property. Friday I let them all go. That will put us in a bind for a while as we try to keep things operating. I expect with them out of the way, we will find more ways they have been skimming money from the organization.

In talking to Charu, our CEO about the situation, she had an interesting perspective. She said, In India you always assume there will be some amount of kickbacks, some amount of stealing, and graft. You just think of that as part of the cost of doing business. However, when it gets to the point this had; when the corruption was blatant, wide spread, and there wasn’t even much attempt to cover it anymore, then you have to take action. I know I am just a naive country boy. I know there is graft and fraud in the States as well. But the degree to which corruption here has invaded every aspect of the economy, and the degree of complacency that exists amazes me. It does seem, “…Everyone is untrue, Honesty is hardly ever heard….”

Here is someone’s who integrity is above reproach. Rae, it’s all yours.

Hi all,

Our new driver has been a driver in Delhi for about 20 years, plus he grew up here, so he really does know his way around. He also speaks English a lot better than either of our other 2 drivers which from my stand point is a great advantage. 

If you are on Facebook with me you will have heard a bit about this experience, and I apologize for repeating myself.  On Saturday Phil and I had gathered a couple of pair of shoes that were in need of repair in hopes that Robinson would know of a repair shop.  We asked Robinson if he knew of a shoe repair and he told us he did.  Said there were a couple across the road in New Friends Colony.  He drove down one road slowly looking for what I assumed would be one of the little stalls that are all over.  He then turned onto another road and did the same.  After a short distance he pulled over to the side of the road and said we “are here”.  All I could see were 4 or 5 men sitting on their haunches on the sidewalk.  There was no sign, no table, and from what I could see no supplies.  Robinson got out of the car with Phil and the shoes, had a conversation and then got back in the car with no shoes.  Phil’s shoes needed new heels, and I had a pair of sandals that needed new soles.  I had taken my sandals to a repair shop in the US and was told that they weren’t worth fixing because new soles would be around $50, more than my sandals were worth.  I loved those sandals and so didn’t throw them away because I was going to wear them a bit longer if I could.  After Phil got back in the car he told me that the costs was 300 rupees, (less than $5) and they would be ready in about 4 hours.  We drove away with me wondering if we would ever see our shoes again and also wondering how they were going to accomplish the task with so few tools or supplies.  When we got our shoes back just over 4 hours later, they looked great, and I was shocked and thrilled.  

I tried to quickly take a couple of pictures from inside the car, so they are not great pictures, but hopefully you will get the Idea.  The picture of the back of Phil is him talking to the shoe repair guys.

Just down the sidewalk I took a couple of other pictures.  They are examples of some of the other things or services that you can find on the sidewalks.  One picture is a board of locks.  I’m wondering if these were locksmiths along with vendors.  The other picture is something I’ve noticed all around.  It is a chair facing a fence with a mirror propped up on the fence.  Maybe you’ve guessed already, but this is where you would go for a haircut or a shave, or even both.  I’ve also seen ironing, food vendors cooking on a hot plate, people selling tea or tobacco, and while I haven’t seen it yet, I’ve heard you can get dental work done, (at least a tooth pulled).  I’m going to try to pay better attention in the future, because quite honestly a lot of these things have gone totally unnoticed by me.  Maybe I’ll have others to add to the list in the future.  Hope you can interpret the pictures and find them interesting.  There are so many fascinating things that I’m not able to capture from a moving car.      

Namaste.

Look at this photograph…

First of all, sorry for the delay in posting. I am sure there were scores of you who have been waiting with baited breath for our latest blog entry. There were some challenges on the home front this weekend that absorbed our time and energy. First, our renter decided to go off the tracks and is making noises about breaking her lease. More importantly, our youngest grandson Lincoln (just over one) pulled a pot of boiling ramen down on himself. At least two nights in the hospital. Not only did he have burns over his body and arms but he had an allergic reaction to the burns, or something and went into anaphylactic shock. Not to belabour the issue but there are times that being half way around the world is hard. 

As a consequence of the above, we taking the opportunities to mostly post pictures this week with minimal dialog. For those of you who are tired of our ramblings already, you are welcome.

First, a couple of weeks ago we posted about the Halloween activity at the Branch. Rae and I were too busy to take any pictures but here are a few that were sent to us.

The Branch members thought our devil and angel costumes were the best.

Last Tuesday was the last day of Diwali and the campus was closed. Also, the weather was nice so we decided to finally do some touristy things. First stop was Dilli Haat, which is a market at which there are handicrafts, textiles, and art work available from all over India. It is a little like the seasonal market we mentioned a couple of weeks ago but much bigger and more commercialized. Despite that we were able to find a few things that caught our eye. Got to do our part for the Indian economy, you know? Here are a few pictures. The first one is my favorite. Isn't Rae cute?

Our next stop was to an area Rae had gone to before, Hauz Khas. Rae had been there a week or two ago and we posted a couple of pictures before. Not to be too repetitive of that previous post, but the basics are this. The Sultan of Siri (precursor of Delhi) built a large lake to supply the water needs of the city. Adjacent to that lake, over time a mosque, school, and tombs were constructed. Hauz Khas, which means royal lake, is a neighborhood that has developed around the ruins of those buildings and lake. In addition to the lake and ruins, there are dozens of upscale restaurants and boutiques. A fun way to spend the afternoon.

Last couple of random things. Initially, our temporary driver dropped us off at the wrong place and we had to walk to find the ruins. On the way we made our way through a very attractive park and took a couple of pictures of it. Also, we thought you might enjoy a picture of a sidewalk we passed and a neighborhood electrical hookup. Neither are typical, per se. Not really atypical either, however.

One final picture. We think this is classic and joins the "Mind the gap" sign from London, and the "No Smorking" sign from Tokyo.

Namaste.

In the light, Everybody needs the light....

The episode of the blog is going to cover two holidays. I will start talking about the epitome of Indian holidays and then Rae will report on an American holiday that we helped a little to bring to India this past week.

Happy Diwali (pronounced deevahlee), everyone. Our posts have covered the topic of Indian festivals in general and the details of some in the past. Today is the heart of the most important festival across India: Diwali. As with most festivals in India, Diwali has roots firmly in Hindu religion and tradition but it has morphed overtime so that even non-religious celebrate it. In many ways it is analogous to Christmas. It clearly had religious origins, but now it has a life outside the religious meaning as an opportunity for giving gifts, celebrating, and parties. Actually the parallels extend to gifts. Just as with Christmas where presents have morphed from simple gifts and fruit and candy to the expensive and expansive, the same pattern exists with Diwali. Originally, dried fruits and nuts were the gifts that were exchanged. These items still play a significant role but now their role is more like candy canes at Christmas: an iconic image but if that is all that was given or exchanged there would be rampant disappointment.

Diwali is actually a contraction of Deepavali which means festival of lights. The celebrations cover five days but Diwali proper falls on the third day of the five. As noted above, parties, gifts, and lighting candles are important parts of the celebration. Traditionally the candles are made of small clay dishes filled with ghee (clarified butter) with cotton wicks. Those are still very common but now one also finds electric lights hung on buildings or strung around rooms. Historically, Diwali was the beginning of the new year and as such some of the religious ceremonies had to do with that. Particularly, importunes to Ganesh, who as I have mentioned before is the God of new ventures (in part) and Lakshmi, the Goddess of prosperity. These ceremonies, called pujas, are religious ceremonies in which offerings such as fruits, flowers, oil, water, essence, and other items are offered to a god or goddess. These offerings are usually accompanied with chanted or sung prayers. Such pujas can be done in temples, in businesses or in homes.

Relative to people inviting Lakshmi, a friend of mine told me a Hindi urban legend. As Lakshmi is the Goddess of prosperity, it used to be common for people to leave their doors open on Diwali to invite her into their homes and lives. However, thieves knew that people would leave their doors open so they started robbing all those who left their doors open, so they were the only ones blessed by Lakshmi with wealth and prosperity. Now, people leave their windows open. A crack.

Actually, in some ways the celebration of Diwali is a combination of Christmas, Fourth of July, and Chanukah. The gifts, I have already mentioned. However, Diwali as the firecrackers and explosions of Fourth of July, and the candles of Chanukah. As I am writing this there were a series of explosions that were either fireworks or someone was only given nuts and his disappointment yielded riots in the streets not just disappointment.

Friday we had our Diwali celebrations at work. There were several parts to the celebrations. First, everyone was supposed to wear traditional clothing and there was a winner for the one who was voted best dressed. Here are a few pictures of employees in the dress traditional to their part of India.

Next, different groups of employees participated in a rangoli contest, in which pictures were created on the floor of the campus. Rangoli typically consists of bright colored, decorative designs made in living rooms and courtyard floors during Hindu festivals. They are meant to be sacred welcoming areas for the Hindu deities. The ancient symbols have been passed down through the ages, from each generation to the next, keeping both the art form and the tradition alive. The patterns are typically created with materials including colored rice, dry flour, (colored) sand or even flower petals. Again, winners were selected for the best designs. Below are some pictures of the designs and their creation.

Unlike in the US where any hint of religious practice has to be scrubbed from holiday celebrations, a central part of our Diwali activities was a puja. All the employees who wanted to gathered in our auditorium where cushions had been spread out. As they sat two Hindu priests led our CEO, Charu Modi, through the sung prayers and offerings of the puja. Then towards the end of the ceremony, anyone who wanted to was included in symbolically making offerings to Ganesh and Lakshmi and receiving a cinnabar mark on their foreheads. In respect for the ceremony, I did not take any pictures of it, but here are a few of the set up and how the idols looked after the puja was completed.

After the puja Charu and I gave out presents to each of the employees. Some of the employees, then sat around and sang traditional songs and played games. We then had a joint lunch and most of the employees left early to start their individual or family celebrations. A few of us got to stay and keep the doors open and lights on.

I have been coming to India since 2002 and have been here many times. Over the course of my trips I have heard about Diwali (usually as in, well that’s Diwali so it would be better if you came a week or two later). However, I have never actually been here during one. It has been very interesting and I am glad we have been here to see and participate in it. The other iconic festival is Holi, festival of color. I moved here just after this year’s Holi. I am looking forward to participating in that festival next year.

Here’s Rae. Be gentle; she’s been sick this week.

While I was in the US, Phil said we had been asked to put on a US Halloween party for the branch.  I was able to grab a few items for our party here.  These items in the states wouldn’t have been considered very fantastic, but for people here, they were exciting.  I have come to realize that it doesn’t take much for people here to be impressed, grateful for your efforts, or excited.  I brought back some plastic skeleton rings, ghost napkins, plastic spiders, bats, skeletons, a plastic table cloth and some goodie bags with pumpkins on them. 

As Phil mentioned, I have had some kind of bug since I got back and so getting things prepared was an effort.  I made brownies and candied popcorn for part of the refreshments.  I made 120 brownies which was a bit of a task because all I have for baking is the toaster oven which is a challenge in and of itself.  If I put the rack on the lower setting then the bottom burns and one setting up burns the top, so the rack has to be moved half way thru the baking cycle.  I then made about 75 goodie bags of candied popcorn.  In any case, I got it accomplished and actually felt pretty good on Thursday for the party. Someone came up to me later to tell me how cute the bags were and that she was going to keep it as a souvenir of a great party. The treats were a hit. There wasn’t a crumb left of any of it.

Trying to figure out costumes here is a bit of a challenge as Halloween isn’t done here.  I had brought back some devil horns, a tail and a red feather boa.  I figured I’d go as a devil and Phil could be an angel, (which is typical of our relationship)(Phil - playing against part actually).  Who knew that between not feeling well and not being able to figure out which little store to go to for wire would make constructing angel wings so tricky?  I found 4 wire hangers and a white pillowcase and somehow created some angel wings.  I won’t try to describe the constructions process for the halo.  Like I said earlier, it doesn’t take much for people here to become excited and I had several people who asked if they could have the wings.  I had to explain that they were made from one of my pillowcases and so I needed them back. 

Unlike the US, finding bags of candy is a challenge, (forget big bags of mixed candy) and after checking several places we were able to find some individually wrapped candy that I would describe as equivalent to an individually wrapped life saver.  We had asked families to bring candy that they would pass out to the trick-or-treaters as they went from room to room in our building. Any of the candy that I saw the families bring was also similar to what we were able to find.  As Phil and I were talking afterward we were impressed with how excited the kids were for these little pieces of candy and how upset kids in the US would have been if that was what they were offered as treats.

We had a couple of activities for them to do.  One was a room where we strung string across (string is also a bit hard to find) and then different lengths of string hanging down from those with a piece of candy attached at the end.  The kids were blindfolded and with only theirs mouths tried to find a string and catch the candy at the end of it.  They were so excited to get their piece of candy.  We also had a fishing booth and the kids got a piece of candy and a skeleton ring, also something that really excited them.  I had a mother come to me at church to see if I had any extra rings because her daughter had taken hers off to wash her hands and left it at the church.  She was broken hearted and cried because she had lost her ring. Like I said, it doesn’t take much to thrill them.

Here are some things I am learning.  Things that we can easily get in the states, and take for granted, are not so easily gotten here.  Also, people here have so much less than we do and are so excited about things that we would turn our noses up at and be insulted by.  I’m realizing what a truly blessed life I have lived. 

We were so busy running the party that we failed to take any pictures.  If we can get someone to share theirs, and there were a lot of pictures being taken, then we will try to include them next week      

For now,

Namaste.