All day I faced the barren waste without a taste of water…

We have talked about water before: floods in the basement; floods in the street; our shower, our RO unit that wasn't working and so I was drinking, basically, effluent, among other things. Well Tex, I am going to beat that same drum a bit more in today’s blontry.

I guess it is self-evident that clean, potable water is a key building block of society. Cities often arise (Delhi as an example) because of proximity to water. Well, it can happen that cities grow to the point that they are larger than available water can support (Delhi as an example). It turns out Delhi has a significant water issue. It is worse in the summer but it exists to some extent all year round.

First there are some apartments (fairly nice one’s too by Delhi standards) that do not have running water. There will be a sink shared by several apartments. Water is carried in for all uses. Second, even if there is running water, the quality of that water varies quite dramatically from place to place. Rarely is the water quality up to US standards but some parts of Delhi definitely have better water than others. Finally, there are whole neighborhoods that have long periods where there is no water. Water is trucked in tankers each morning and people queue up with bottles and buckets to get the water they need for the day.

Well, where there is a need, someone will step in to meet that need. Enter the water mafia. Apparently there are cartels, is a cartel (I am not sure if they are actually all part of one group) that controls water. Whatever neighborhood, building, or individual that is more able or willing to pay is the one who gets preferred access to water, which is supplied by the private water cartel. I never know how much credence to give the various conspiracy theories, but here’s the water one. Yes, water is an issue but it need not be as bad as it is. The water mafia gets buildings and neighborhoods approved by zoning with inadequate provision for water so they can sell it privately.

Our water pressure issues aside, we live in a home and neighborhood where access to water has not been an issue. Our water pressure issues have been related to the kind of weird (by our standards) way water gets moved into the building. First, water is piped into a cistern. When the cistern gets low, the faucet is turned on and it is refilled. Then, water is pumped from the cistern to holding tanks on the roof of the building. From the holding tanks, water comes into the house through cold water pipes or through a “geyser” into hot water pipes. The geyser is kind of a combination or hot on demand and “small” holding tank. Our pressure issues have had to do with 1) the cistern not being refilled; 2) problems with the holding tanks; 3) problems between the holding tank and the geyser. So, yeah, pretty much throughout the entire system.

One other thing about water. Initially when we moved here, I also made sure I drank bottled water. I was told that at work it was okay to drink the water at the campus because they bring large bottles of water into the campus. So, I shifted from bottled water to the campus water. All was okay until a couple of months ago when I spent a few days with GI issues. Someone asked me if I had been drinking only bottled water. I said, yes, except at work where I also drink water the campus supplies. He laughed and said, well, there’s you trouble. Apparently as a way to save money, they often just fill the large bottles through the tap. Yikes! So, back to bottled water again.

One last, non-water related topic. Diwali is next Thursday. Preparations have been going on for the last couple of weeks, as I mentioned in an earlier blog. Friday night Rae and I went to dinner with our friends the Slocombes at one of the malls and they, of course had their Diwali decorations up. The lights were very pretty but I was particularly impressed with the 40 foot statue of Rama. In some Hindu traditions, Diwali is primarily a celebration of Lord Rama, his wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana’s return from exile. Clearly, those in charge of decorating this mall had that in mind as they were decorating. He looks pretty triumphant, to me.

With that, I’ll pass the baton to Rae.

This week I was educated about a piece of furniture in our house.  I will just say that I’m sad, embarrassed, and excited about this new information.  When we were looking at places to live we had thought we wanted 3 bedrooms.  Our place has two bedrooms plus the basement which was going to be an added bonus and help compensate for the lack of one bedroom.  Little did we know that our basement would be a huge let down and an area that we just don’t use; well we do store a few boxes and our Christmas tree down there.  I had thought that it could work as a third bedroom on those rare times when we would need one, an art/craft area, and a good exercise area, WRONG.  Even after being cleaned up and repainted it still smells musty and I just don’t trust that we won’t have another unexpected flood. 

We have, on three different occasions, had enough people staying here that we needed three bedrooms.  So for someone that meant an air mattress on the dining or living room floor.  I’ve felt bad at those times that we didn’t have a 3^rd bedroom.  We still don’t have three bedrooms but it turns out I do have an additional bed that I wasn't aware of. YAY! Someone was visiting me the other day and they asked me if my couch was a “converter”, hide-a–bed.  “No, I wish it was but it’s just an uncomfortable couch”.  I lifted the top cushion to show her there was no pull out mattress.  She then told me that she really thought it was a converter and began removing the next cushion under the top cushion.  Then she began pulling on the front panel of the couch.  I thought, “Oh dang, I hope she doesn’t break our couch”.  I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.   

 

I haven’t actually laid on it yet to see how comfortable it really is but it can’t be worse than an air mattress that goes flat by morning.  I’ll just end my blontry by apologizing to those who have stayed here and been given a, by morning, hard tile floor for their bed.

I didn’t do it on purpose.  Come back, we’ll treat you better. 

Namaste 

There he stood in the doorway, Flicked his mundu in style…

For those of you who are Eagles fans, you might be thinking, that’s like the lyrics to Hotel California. Well, you are correct. They are they lyrics to a parody song entitled Hotel Keralafornia. Rae and I were in Kerala over the weekend (see more below) so I was looking for lyrics that referred to Kerala and voila, I found this. I think this proves that you can find lyrics that tie to any topic.

With that intro, I am going to turn over the blog to Rae whilst I work on the pictures.

Phil had a speaking engagement and was sitting on a discussion panel for a group that works with SMEs, (small and medium enterprises).  He has spoken in other areas for this group but this one being in Kerala meant I was definitely going along.

For those who don’t know about Kerala, it is a coastal state on the southern end of India.  It is green and lush and reminds me of Singapore, relative to weather and vegetation, and Malaysia, relative to environment, weather and vegetation.  Singapore is much more modern and much cleaner.

The climate in Kerala doesn’t vary much and the humidity is always high, thus the lush vegetation.  Besides the Arabian Sea there are a series of waterways and connected lakes throughout Kerala.  These waterways are called the back waters.  Everyone says you should stay on a house boat on the back waters.  Since we were only there two nights we chose to stay in the hotel where Phil had his meetings.  Hopefully there will be another time and a backwater houseboat adventure. 

Pictures from around our hotel.

The backwaters and the plants that float on them.

Our walk along Marine Drive walkway, beach, and the Chinese fishing nets.

This is the Saint Francis Catholic Church; one of the older Christian churches in Kerala. Of the states in India, Kerala has a much higher percentage of Christians for some reason. 

A lot of the men there wear lunghis.  They look like the optimal hot weather attire.  We bought one for Phil maybe we’ll get a picture of him later (or not he says).  If nothing else he’ll be able to tell you first-hand how cool and comfortable they are. 

 

Other miscellaneous shots.

Hope you enjoyed sights of Kerala. We sure want to go back and spend some relaxing time.

Namaste  

Gandhi mate, remember Gandhi….

This was an unusual week. We had Thursday and Friday off of work. Thursday was a national holiday: Gandhi Jayanti (the celebration of Gandhi’s birthday) and Friday was Navaratri a Hindu holiday (actually the culmination of a nine day festival). Saturday was also a festival (Dussehra) but since it fell on the weekend, it was a festival without being a work holiday.  Come to think of it, tomorrow is a Muslim holiday as well (Eid) but that’s for next week. I’ll not get ahead of myself. I’ll talk a bit about each and then Rae can talk about how we spent Gandhi’s birthday and, of course, anything else that grabs her fancy.

So Gandhi Jayanti. Even if a person knows nothing about India, they are likely to know two things. Or more properly, one thing and one person. The thing is Taj Mahal, which coincidentally was somewhat the focus of last week’s blontry. Therefore, I guess it is appropriate that we write about the person. Mohandas Karamchand Mahatma Gandhi is the George Washington of India, the father of his country. Except in typical Indian fashion, it turns out the Indian Constitution prohibits anyone being given that recognition. So, everyone in India thinks he is in fact the father of the country, they call him that, but he cannot officially receive that recognition.

It is interesting to me to think there are people alive who knew Gandhi; who associated with him. That makes the origin of India very real. Gandhi has achieved mythical status. Knowing there are people alive who knew Gandhi somehow makes him seem more human; less of a myth.

Anyhoo, even though they will not designate him father of the country, his birthday is one of three federal holidays; Republic Day and Independence Day being the other two.

Navaratri, as mentioned, is a Hindu festival. It lasts nine evenings and all activities and rituals celebrate the mother aspect of God, as conceived by the Hindus. While the festival lasts nine days, it actually is divided into three sets of three days. The first three days focus on Durga, the mother aspect, and cleansing from all impurities and imperfections. The next three days focus on Lakshimi, the goddess of wealth and the bestowal of spiritual wealth. The final three days focus on Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom.

Dussehra is the first day after the nine evenings/nights of Navaratri and it marks the victory of the goddess Durga over demon Mahishasur. There are ceremonies and celebrations associated with Dussehra, just as there are with each evening/night of Dussehra. In some ways the biggest thing about Dussehra is that it launches the Diwali season, coming as it does 20 days before that “festival of light.” It also launches a barrage of Diwali related ads focused on getting people to spend, spend, spend on Diwali presents.

Well with that historical and religious background, I yield the floor to the Honorable Lady, Rae.

Since Phil had Thursday, Friday and Saturday off, he was available to teach a workshop for the YSAs (Young Single Adults) who had a conference on Thursday and Friday. He was asked to teach two classes on Thursday.  So, we headed to Camp Wild Thursday morning.  Camp Wild is located about 2 hours outside of Delhi.  I tagged along because I wanted to check out the facility to see if it is appropriate for our YW’s camp that is scheduled for the 24^th and 25^th of this month.  After our visit, the jury is still out.  There are some things that we have to have clarified before we are totally sold.  It was still pretty warm (by that I mean HOT) and none of the buildings are air conditioned so if anyone wants to join your prayers with mine that in 20 days the weather will have actually cooled off, that would be great.  I’m sure you’ll hear more about girls’ camp in future blontries. 

From here most of our blog will consist of pictures of our drive to Camp Wild.  I ‘m always fascinated with the things we see as we travel out into the country and thru villages.  Here are some of the things we saw. 

 New construction amidst the huts.

 This stone wall has chunks of broken glass embedded into the cement top layer. This is not an uncommon security technique, even in Delhi.

I’m always fascinated with the various huts or shanties or shacks that we see as we go out into the country.  In actuality you don’t have to go into the country to see some of these.  It’s fairly common to see dwellings here in Delhi that are constructed right on the sidewalk, or on some tiny piece of ground just off the road.  If there’s a trash or dump site you will almost always see some shacks.  Often these are made of some sort of framework draped with tarps.  Maybe corrugated tin is involved. 

It’s the mud huts that I find intriguing. These huts are actually constructed mostly of cow dung but I think mud huts does sound better than dung huts.  As you look closely at the pictures you will notice piles or rows of round discs.  These discs are cow pies [Phil – I think the politically correct term is bovine fecal patties].  They are collected, dried and stacked to create the walls and shape of the hut.  Think a stack of poop pancakes. Yum right?  Once they are stacked they are coated with a layer of mud or dung, not really sure what the finished wall is made of.  Once the walls are mudded they are decorated with different designs. See some of the close ups. The finished result is a wall that is about a foot thick.  Usually the only opening is a small opening to get inside.  A cloth is hung to create a door.  These huts are small and would probably sleep 2-5 people, snuggly.  Usually the roof is some sort of thatch.  

Hopefully the pictures explain things better than I did.  Enjoy.

We also had a wedding and a baptism in our Branch – busy week!

Namaste