(Cor) Cleanliness

Boy, that's a problem. Generally, people's sense of hygiene is very different. People will throw anything, anywhere. Not a thought is wasted on dropping paper, plastic, or any kind of trash anywhere. You see cars that pitch paper bags, candy bar wrappers out of the window all the time. Pedestrians do the same. Some people do not pay for trash pick up, instead they drop it out of the window on the way to work.

Ok, that's a huge eye sore. But does not necessarily affect your own health unless you have to walk through it (many people walk from place to place, but of course we're in our car most of the time).

But more dangerously is personal hygiene. For example servants will use the same rag they use in the bathroom in the kitchen. You have to tell them all the time to wash their hands after cleaning the bathrooms. Not to mix sponges used for cleaning on the food. Not to use food that has fallen (on the dirty) floor. Not to sneeze on the food. And then of course they don't use toilet paper here, so use your imagination.

No wonder so many people fall ill with stomach trouble. For poor people this can mean death (de-hydration), for people more well off, it means feeling very crappy for a few days. So many times we hear in the neighborhood that someone has fallen ill due to stomach upset. A couple of months ago one of Rohan's friends was sick for 3 weeks, had some 20+ injections, because of something he ate at a candy shop. He lost 20 pounds.

Today Simone is sick with a bad stomach, but we have no idea where she got it from. We try our best to be as hygienic as possible, but when 99% of the people don't follow the same rules, you can get it fomr just about anywhere.

(Cor) Holi.

Yesterday we celebrated "Holi" a festival where everybody throws colors on everybody else.

Sorry but I don't know the significance of it, perhaps Swagata will explain.


But it's pretty much mahem, as you take this colored powder (yellow, read, blue) and just put it people's hair, clothes, face, anywhere. Then add water guns and you can pretty much imagine what it looks like.


Kids love it and yesterday the adults got involved too. I was the last one to (forcibly) submit.


Then, like every "real" Indian get together, a good meal was served.

(Cor) Justice? Talibanisation in India.

Last weekend a party was being held at a farm house in a rural area of Bangalore. Over 100 youths attended. By all accounts no drugs were present, just alcohol and loud music. Neighbors complained after some time and the police showed up. This is where it got bad. The police alleged that it was a "rave" party and instead of just breaking up the party and telling everyone to go home, and perhaps fining the organizers, the police arrested everybody! This is the same police that will often refuse to file a report when other crimes are committed, the same police that will witness a family getting beaten up over a traffic accident and do nothing (as was reported this morning in the paper).

Today is Wednesday and some of the kids are still in jail. Bail was set at Rs20,000 ($400) but some had a hard time raising that money. And even when they did, the police came up with excuses (papers were filed too late, names were written down wrong or whatever). Yesterday was a holiday, so nothing was done either. So you have up to 100 kids in jail (and jail is NOT a nice place here), they are not allowed to see their relatives, get (perhaps) one meal per day (which you may not want to eat anyway), being treated like criminals. One girls suffers from asthma and needs medication, but her brother is not allowed to give it to her. Apparently she is unconscious.

Why? Well there is an increase in "Hindu Nationalism", which is similar to the Islam Taliban - although not nearly as radical (yet?). A couple of months a go a half dozen girls got beaten up by boys for visiting a pub - it is supposedly against "Hindu" culture. Then there are many reports about girls being bothered (yelled at, and even beaten) for wearing indecent clothes (spaghetti strap tops or jeans are 'indecent' in the eye of these people), or whatever. Many times the police does not do anything. And all this is supported by some political parties - although not overtly.

It makes me realize the dangers lurking all around us here - while we live our nicely isolated and protected lives here in Ferns Residency.

Or are we safe and protected .....?

(Cor) The "size" of our lives

How small our lives are here:

We relish the fact that we have found a fruit cake that we like at a local bakery. We eat it all the time and find great satisfaction in it.

(Cor) Are we safe?

What a world we live in.

American corporate greed has taken a big chunk out of our investments, greedy banks and lenders have depreciated our real estate holdings and here in India our personal belongings are at risk of theft.

Is there any place to hide?

In the Holidays (in Simone's own words)

October 2008
About my trip to Kerala

Me sleeping in the train

First I went to Kochin. In Kochin, I saw KATHAKALI dance. In KATHAKALI, 3 men put on makeup. When they finished, they put on their costume. Then they danced.

Then we went to Kalari. Two men showed us how to fight.

They also taught us a little how to fight. I was too little to learn. My parents and brother learned how to fight.

Then we took train to Kovalam Beach. In Kovalam, I and my brother played in the sand. I played in the hammock.

Kovalam is very beautiful.

We swam in the swimming pool whose water seemed to meet with the ocean. We also ate good food in the restaurant.

Oh, I forgot to write that in Kochin I went to a Garba dance!

Lighthouse Beach

Then we took the train and went to Alleppey. We stayed in somebody’s garden in a cottage. I went to Rosemary’s house and played with her. My parents drank tea out in the garden. There was a little hammock, they sat on it and drank.

We went for a boat ride in the backwaters. It was a small boat. Just enough space for the four of us.

Then we took the train back to BANGALORE.

More than a year has passed

August 18, 2008
It has been a year and 3 months since we moved to India. I no longer yearn for home (America). Slowly, we have searched for “comfort” foods, “comfort” trips, libraries, restaurants, and slowly we have found them all. I no longer yearn for a trip to Java City, instead we just take the 15 mins drive to Breadz, the bakery where we buy our fresh breads without preservatives, and indulge ourselves with the “Mind Blower Chocolate swirl coffee”. We have bought the Times food guide, and have been visiting all the recommended restaurants in town.

I am often touched by the special treatment I get being a “lady driver”. Often I have gotten lost in Bangalore roads, there has never been a dearth of help. Even the policeman once let me make an illegal U-turn to the nearest main road because he did not want me to get lost some more. India’s ability to “tilt the mirror’, as Shantaram said in his book. Just a couple days ago, in my effort to find parking, I ended up in a narrow blind alley, from where I could not steer my car back to the main road. Two men came out to help me, one of them even drove my car out of that alley. Total strangers they were.

The library that we discovered on Infantry road, carries such a wide range of books. At a time when it seems like that fantasy books are taking over every bookstore, the different genre of books we can find at the library for our son has been very much appreciated.

Last Friday, we went to a Pizza Hut, this was just our second trip there, but the lady remembered our daughter and came after her saying “Last time you did not talk to me, today at least you tell me your name”. At Breadz, they ask my husband “How is the family?” They remember that I like to limit the plastic shopping bags that I use.

I am realizing that such personal touches calm people down, reduce stress, there is something about human nature that makes it appealing.

Not to mention all the trips that we take. India is such a beautiful country. Living in India, we are able to visit the little gems, places that can be reached only by road. We have the luxury of time now.

We are finally getting familiar with the lanes and bylanes, the little alleys, the specialty shops, that new Italian restaurant that just opened. The discovery of all these has been a challenge and adventurous.

Our childrens’ lives are full of their friends. School friends, who come over for sleepovers. Neighborhood friends, who stay up all night and exchange ghost stories. Our daughter, who looks at the clock every evening to see when it is 5:30, so that she can don her helmet and take off on her bike to meet up with her friends.

Life has been good to us so far in Bangalore.