Obama goes here, Obama goes there, Sayin' yes we can…

With careful editing I was able to use Lil Wayne lyrics from “Barak Obama A Milli”. It is appropriate because President Obama is in Delhi this weekend as Chief Guest for the Republic Day festivities. I tried to find lyrics about “they’ve closed the middle of the city to all traffic and so what is usually bad traffic is now horrific.” For some reason, I wasn’t able to find a song about that. Too bad too. All of Delhi has been living that song for the past few days.

It has been kind of interesting watching the political kabuki (sorry, wrong culture I know) around President Obama’s visit. You may have gathered from previous posts that pride and protection of honor are significant characteristics of current Indian culture. That has been on display with the President’s visit. Overall there is tremendous pride that a sitting President of the United States would come to help celebrate Republic Day. India has a bit of an inferiority complex. Anything that reflects well on India, or is perceived as reflecting well, is heralded and lauded.as the most significant, most important event or news. So, the fact that President Obama is coming is Great. Big. Important. News. His flight from Edwards Air Force Base was tracked in the news like Santa’s on Christmas Eve.

However, all is not entirely well. It would seem that the security requirements of the Secret Service do not sit too well with some in India. The current center of this angst is the disrespect President Obama has shown India because his security detail want him to be driven in his own car. Many in India seem to be taking that as a direct insult against Indian made cars and Indian security. Indian cars, you hear people saying, are just as good as any made anywhere. Further, since India is surrounded by terrorists, its Security Forces are exemplary and it is insulting that the Secret Service would want to provide its own car rather than using one provided by Indian security.

This combination of pride and outrage over an insult has also played itself out over the issue of whether or not President Obama would go to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Understandably, there is great pride in India about the Taj Mahal. Nearly everyone believes that Shah Jahan (Mogul/Muslim Emperor) had the Taj Mahal built in the 1600s as a tomb for his wife and the great love of his life, Khurram or Mumtaz Mahal, as she was also known. However, while everyone in India thinks it is a magnificent structure, not everyone accepts this history. To have the most iconic structure in India be the product of non-Hindu construction is not acceptable to some. Therefore a small but significant minority believe that Taj Mahal is actually Tejomahalay a Hindu temple dedicate to Shiva that Shah Jahan confiscated from the Maharaja of Jaipur.

Actually, the above description is all a diversion from what I was going to write about. For the past two weeks, all of the talk about town was that President Obama was going to visit Agra and Taj Mahal. Pride turned to outrage again. “What!? The monument was going to be shut down for all other visitors?” “What!? The main highway between Delhi and Agra was going to be closed to all other traffic?” “What!? Again with his own car? What is wrong with Indian cars?” Finally, it was decided it was decided President Obama would not visit the Taj Mahal, since he is going to Saudi Arabia after the death of King Abdullah. Now you hear, “What!? He doesn’t trust Indian security?” “What!? He doesn’t think visiting the Taj Mahal is worth his time?” “What!? Is Saudi Arabia more important than India?” Like I said, pride and an overactive sensitivity to insult.

So the proximate cause of all this hubbub is Republic Day. Well, OK, President’s visit did increase the disruption, but just a regular old Republic Day does that pretty well on its own. Republic Day celebrates the day the Indian Constitution went into effect, 26 Jan 1950. Getting to that point took a number of years. The Indian National Congress declared India’s independence on that same date in 1930. It took until 1947 for the British to leave, and until November 1949 for the Constitution to be ratified. Because of the symbolism of making the officially recognized Republic Day the same day independence was declared, the 26^th was chosen.

Official ceremonies and activities are held all over India but the largest is in Delhi. The morning starts with a flag raising and ceremony at India Gate. A parade the proceeds from the Presidential Palace down the Rajpath (King’s Way) past India Gate to the National Stadium. The parade is made of floats, bands, representatives of military units including those on foot, horseback, camel, elephant, and on various mechanized vehicles. Each State also has an official entry which represents some significant cultural or industrial emphasis from that state. The parade ends with a flyover by military jets.

Rae went to the walk through practice last year. I haven’t made it yet but next year it will be high on my priority list. I have heard it is amazing. After four days, the whole process (well maybe not the whole process) is reversed in what is called Beating Retreat, in which all of the military units and bands formally make their way back up the Rajpath and then officially disband. I have heard Beating Retreat is also pretty amazing. Both events (as well as the practice too for that matter) are invitation only for VIPs or ticket only for the throngs. Security is always tight but, as noted above, has been taken to a new height this year for President Obama.

Well that is about it from your humble correspondent for this week. I will only add in passing that I am getting even more excited about the vision for the future that is being revealed by our strategic planning process. I do hope we can present the vision clearly enough and with enough conviction to get our Board’s buy in next month. Until next week…

Namaste  

I will remember you, will you remember me?

I am a little focused on goodbye this week. And yes I am a bit melancholy. We have become good friends with a couple from Saskatoon, Canada who have been serving a mission here for the past 18 months, Eric and Jean Slocombe. We have served in the Church together; gone sight-seeing in and around Delhi together; have gone to dinner with each other at least monthly I’d say; we even spent a couple of days together in November at Jaipur. Needless to say, they have become great friends. When we’ve had it with India, we always knew they would listen and understand, and vice versa. We’ve laughed with them, worked with them, and cried with them when their daughter died in an accident.

Today, I said goodbye to them. Their mission is over and they are going home on Wednesday. We’re going to miss them.

One of the interesting things is when we have second time experiences, like a second Diwali, or Christmas. It gives one the chance to think back to the previous experience and marvel at how quickly the year has passed and how much (or little) has been learned since then. We had one of those events this week: Lohri. I don’t know if you remember Lohri from last year. Lohri is a festival that started in Punjab and is still most popular there. It celebrates the end of winter. The central parts of the celebration are a bonfire, music, dancing, and throwing peanuts, popcorn, and sweets into the fire (eating them too of course). Here are some pictures of our Lohri celebration on campus Tuesday evening.

The focus this week has been on strategic planning. We are behind, as I mentioned before, due to us going to the US for three weeks at the end of December. Still it has been an enjoyable, rewarding, process. I am almost always optimistic. For reasons that are not entirely clear or logical, I believe we are on the verge of not just the incremental improvement we have enjoyed but an exponential improvement.

Gee, I hope I am right.

Namaste  

What time is it where you are? I miss you more than anything, And back at home you feel so far…

Thanks to Simple Plan for today’s lyrical blontry title: a little ditty called “Jet Lag”. Both the title and they lyrics are pretty applicable to our situation. I do think, after over a year and a half of weekly titles using lyrics, that you can find lyrics for anything! I have actually done pretty well overall. No falling asleep during the afternoon and little phasing out and staring blankly, while drooling. The only problem has been waking up at 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning.

It may be just as well that Rae stayed on in Oregon. I have been working pretty hard trying to get back up to speed. It’s particularly busy because, since I was out of town at the end of 2014, we are behind on finishing our 2015 plans. I am excited about this year. In the last year and half I hope we have set enough of a foundation that we can take some exponential steps this year.

It was good to be back at Church today and reconnect with the members. Of course, they all asked about Rae. They were disappointed that she will not be back until the end of the month but happy she wasn’t sick. We has a new “gora” couple at Church today, the Hites (BTW, gora literally means fair but is now a non-derogatory term used to mean any white person). They are both Education professors here for four months on Fulbright Scholarships; they are teaching at University of Delhi. They seem excited about being part of the Branch while they are here. It is her first time to India, but he was here 20 years ago. That doesn’t mean they are new to living and working internationally. They have been working for years, a few months at a time, in East Africa.

I have written before about my frustration with the Indian banking system. I had another opportunity revel in the amazing incomprehensible bureaucracy that is banking in India this week. Wednesday morning, I went to make my monthly transfer of funds. There was a bit more urgency because I was a couple of days later in the month than usual because of our trip. After the usual rigmarole, the said the money would be transferred that day. Thursday about noon I got a call that the transfer had not been made because someone had questioned why I needed to transfer funds each month. Really? I have just completed 10 pages of forms for the 18^th time. Why, this time, did someone decide they should stop the transfer? Besides, after completing all of the forms and complying with all the requirements, why does someone think they can stop the transfer? ARGH!

Tomorrow night, University of Oregon is playing Ohio State University for the national collegiate football championship. I wish I was there to watch it with the family. I know it is a dumb thing but I am quite sad about not watching it with them. Go Ducks!

There’s really not much else to talk about this week. I don’t know if I will have more to write about next week, but I am sure I can’t have less!

Namaste  

I'm leaving on a jet plane....

Well, I have some catching up to do. As I write this blontry, I am in an airplane headed back to Delhi. It is Monday the 5^th, or perhaps by now it is Tuesday the 6^th. Sometime during this trip it will cross over. I left Portland Monday morning and arrive in Delhi Tuesday night.

There’s a story even in that. I was supposed to have left Portland Sunday morning. My flight was at 7:15 and Brendon dropped me off and I was checking in at 5:15. When I tried to log on to the ticket kiosk to get my ticket, I received an error message stating it was too close to flight time and I couldn’t process my ticket request at that location. I asked the helpful attendant (this is one of those cases a sarcastic font would be handy) how that could be. She asked, “What flight were you supposed to be on?” I said the 7:15 to Newark and then on to Delhi. She said, “There is no 7:15 to Newark. Only a 5:50.” I asked, how that could be, seeing I held in my hot little hand an itinerary showing I was on the 7:15 flight. “Well, there used to be two flights, one at 5:50 and one at 7:15 but the 7:15 flight has been cancelled since September and there is only the 5:50 flight. You should have been notified.”

When I assured her I had not, in fact, been notified and asked, “now what can I do?” In her most caring and concerned voice she said, “Go stand over there.” “Over there” turned out to be a line to meet with the Solver of Problems. A woman who, through her access to all the flights on all the airlines can magically make problems disappear. However, in my particular case she seemed in no great need of providing said solution. First she offered me a flight through Chicago. The only problem was, it didn’t arrive in Newark until after my plane to Delhi was scheduled to leave. No worries, I could just spend the night and the next day in Newark (who wouldn’t want to?) and take the flight on Monday night instead of Tuesday. Now I have had experience with Solvers of Problems before and know they can be immensely helpful. If the airline in question does not have the right flight, they have carte blanche to use a code share airline. If that doesn’t work, they are even authorized to put a person (me) on a competitor airline.

Well our Solver of Problems must have either been new, already exhausted, or really didn’t care because she did not try any of those solutions. No, my option was to fly to Chicago, have a layover; fly to Newark have a really long layover; and then leave a day later. “So,” I asked, “that means I will be on the same flight out of Newark that I would have been on only a day later?” “Yes,” came the forthright reply. “But in order to do that, I need to fly to Chicago, have a layover, and then fly to Newark and have a really long layover?” “Yes” she affirmed. Pause 1, 2, and 3 … “Well, I guess you could just take the same flight on Monday you were going to take today and then you wouldn’t have a layover in Chicago.”

Let’s see. I have my choice of the Grand Tour of airport terminals in Chicago and Newark, complete with accompanying layovers, OR I can have another day with my family? Hmm. That wasn’t too hard of a decision. So back home I go with tickets for the next day in my hot little hand. It was kind of fun seeing the confusion on the faces of Jeremy and Sarah at home and then Ben, Becca and company at Church when I was where I clearly was not where I was supposed to be. Overall, they seemed glad to see me. At least they did not sing the “They don’t go” song from Pirates of Penzance.

The extra day was actually a blessing. I had one more Sunday with our friends in our home ward; got to hear Lauren and Becca bear their testimonies; Ben teach Sunday School; Julien give a talk, and give blessings to Jeremy and Rachel. All of that was the good part. The bad part was another night with very little sleep as I got up early to catch the flight and even worse having to go through another round of saying goodbye to one and all. I really love our family and enjoy just being with them. Having to say goodbye, even though I know we will talk on the phone, or Google-Chat, of Facetime is really hard. I hope that someday we can all live in the same area. For now, I will just count it a blessing that we can get together for some time and that despite the occasional emotional jostle, we enjoy that being with each other.

Saturday, we had a great family event: Quincy’s baptism. For those of you who do not know, in our Church there is no infant baptism. We believe that children are born without sin and have no need of baptism until they reach the age of accountability, which is eight. Prior to that age, a child can do wrong (boy oh boy we all know that is true) but they cannot sin for they have not reached the level of maturity to make decisions truly understanding the consequence. So Quincy turned eight just before we got to Portland and he decided he wanted to be baptised. Due to the press of the holidays and to ensure the maximum number of people could be there, the date was set for the Saturday after New Year’s. Here are a couple of pictures. I love the one of Ben and Quincy talking.

It was a very nice service with many tender, sweet feelings. Rae conducted the music, Aunt Sarah gave a talk on baptism; Becca gave a talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost; and Ben performed the baptism and confirmation. There was way more than one tear shed during the service I can tell you. I for one was quite verklempt. I almost asked people to talk amongst themselves (reference anyone?) but I could see they also were also touched by the spirit of the occasion. After the baptism we went to Ben and Becca’s for pizza and desert. I good time was had by all.

Moving further back in time (I seem to have a whole reverse chronology thing going here. Just call me Benjamin Buttons. Or Merlin) we had a very quiet New Year’s Eve. We made it to midnight but just barely. Everyone came over for an early dinner. We had Indian Fry Bread. Then one family at a time, people peeled away to their various and sundry commitments. We were left Jeremy, Sarah, Merrick, Carrigan. Sarah and Jeremy had recorded a New Year’s countdown by King Julien of Madagascar fame. Shortly after 8:00 they played it and we all counted down from 10 and shouted Happy New Year when we reached zero. Merrick and Carrigan were very willing to go to bed at that point, having observed the sacred ritual, not realizing it was about four hours too early. After they went to bed Sarah, Jeremy, Rae, and I watched a movie (don’t ask; it was not a great example of the cinematic art or even otherwise very entertaining). At midnight we toasted with Martinelli’s. Kissed our respective spouses, wished each other a happy new year, and went to bed. I will refrain from mentioning that someone whose initials are Rae Lundberg got an early jump on the going to bed part. She would periodically punctuated the movie with the most delightful, feminine snoring, come to, and ask, “Did I snore?”

Roughly a week, no actually just a week, prior to New Year’s we had Christmas. It was a great event at the Lundbergs, Browns, and Cliffords. There were plenty of great presents and even more of laughter and good company. Christmas Eve we had a family dinner with four different types of soup and homemade roll, followed by pie and other deserts. I don’t think it was too taxing on anyone. It was all delicious, and it allowed us to quite easily accommodate the various no gluten, no dairy, no eggs, and no nuts dietary requirements of various family members. I think it should become the traditional Christmas Eve meal.

After dinner was cleared up I read the Nativity story from the Bible while the Grandchildren acted the various parts. It wasn’t the most spiritual nativity play that has ever been produced but everyone enjoyed it and the message was there, if somewhat obscured. The cousins then exchanged Christmas presents and each family went to their respective homes to prepare for the arrival of Santa Claus.

In between these events, there was much laughter, shopping, football, cooking, and great cheer. I think I may have mentioned I really love my family and enjoy spending time with them. The only mar was that Emily and her brood had to go back to Phoenix the Monday before Christmas but at least we did have time with her and Kai too, although Michael missed the frivolity. Probably not next year, since we are not planning on coming back to the States for Christmas, but one of these years we will get everyone together for the whole shebang. Then, Katie bar the door!

Namaste