Of weddings, nuclear plants and bribes for politicians

Bangalore must certainly be the wedding capitol of the world.  Weddings may occur on any auspicious day (could be a Sunday or a Tuesday, etc.)  There are various stratifications of wedding venues, but the most glamorous are on the Palace Road, and the cost of these affairs is enormous.  (We keep hoping for an invitation, but none has arrived.)

There are strings of twinkle lights throughout large grounds with tents, gazebos, food courts, etc.  Large signs welcome the guests saying, for example, “The families of Vidya and Pratam welcome you!  Today they are wed.  We wish them a lifetime of happiness.”  Brides dress in silk, with lots of gold jewelry worth the price of a new Mercedes.

There is actually legislation proposed here to limit the amount that people can spend on weddings.   It's not always so light-hearted -- sometimes resulting in suicides and/or murders over the lack of money for a proper betrothal.

Contrasting with this was a wedding we observed while driving in Rajasthan.  We were first attracted by the sounds coming from a small open truck that featured a person in a lion costume dancing to upbeat music.  In the U.S. it might have been a promotion by a radio station of a special event.  Behind the truck there was a procession of people, and in their midst was a young bride, dressed rather simply, riding on a horse to meet her groom.  Traditionally the groom rode in on a horse, so seeing her was surprising, but the driver confirmed that it was a wedding procession.  This occurred in a rural and fairly impoverished area.  So these are the extremes of modern India.   

A couple of other experiences on our roadtrip were worth noting.  The nuclear power plant near Ahmedabad is quite open and exposed.  It was near a military area, but didn’t seem heavily guarded or separated from passers-by.  In India, it is now commonplace to be searched when entering a hotel or mall.  The security guards put a mirror underneath the front of the car and open the “boot” (as the British called the trunk of a car.)  How very strange that we get searched entering 5-star hotels but that the nuclear plant seems accessible to all.

We were stopped at a roadblock on the way to Rajasthan and the guards opened our suitcases and searched them.  After we were back on the highway, we asked our driver what it was all about.  He said that a public official was coming on that road shortly, and they wanted to make sure we weren’t carrying suitcases of money to bribe him!  Would that we had such means, eh?    

When we had worked on campaigns for local politicians in Pittsburgh, the bribes were carried around in small bags to poll workers on the morning of each election -- very discreetly.  I'm quite certain that the police and judges were a part of this network in the U. S.  -- as I'm sure they are here, too.  Must have been an election ruse that we encountered in Gujarat.

World Water Day, Happy New Year and a Limerick for Laura

Yesterday was World Water Day.  One gains a new appreciation about the significance of a supply of public drinking water while in Bangalore.  The city used to have adequate drinking water for all its residents, but over-development is now creating water shortages that are significant.  

Some have proposed to begin charging for water, so that it could then become the private property of the newly monied.  Standing on a balcony in an old neighborhood in Bangalore I watched as housemaids came in a steady stream to the public water tank to refresh basins for the homes of those who either can’t afford or aren’t supplied with running water.   

Whole neighborhoods in Bangalore, including some affluent neighborhoods have been at a loss for running water since early in the spring (it’s now summer here.)  Some families have moved out of their homes due to lack of water and inability to find replacement sources.  Of course, this is not a Bangalore problem.  

In Kolkata we found ourselves not liking to drink the filtered water that came from the public supply because of its very sweet taste.   We wondered what additives had been put in the water that would cause it to have such a clearly discernible artificial taste.

Today is Ugadi, the beginning of a new year in the Hindu calendar.  This festival is celebrated in Karnataka, but not in all regions of India.  According to the Times of India:

“Ugadi is the start of a new era – a new beginning.   The age in which we are living – Kali Yuga -- started the minute Lord Krishna left the world.  It began on Feb 17/18 in the year 3102 BC.  In this terminology Chaitra is the first  month of the Hindu year ( it occurs in March/April) – mainly celebrated by gatherings of extended families and large feasts.  It starts on the first new moon after Spring Equinox.  Eating a specific mixture of 6 tastes is part of the feast.”  These tastes are:

>  Neem for bitterness, signifying sadness
> Jaggery and ripe banana pieces for sweetness, signifying happiness
> Green chili pepper for its hot taste, signifying anger
> Salt for saltiness, signifying fear
> Tamarind juice for its sourness, signifying disgust
> Unripened mango for its tang signifying surprise

Later in the day, people gathered to listen to the ritual reading of Panchangam (the almanac) of the new year, and the general forecast of the forthcoming year.  The advent of television has changed this.  The almanac used to be read by a wise elder – now people turn into TV to hear the recitation.

It is marked by poetry readings, literary discussions, music and dance performances.”

Lots of theater performances.  We plan to see Copenhagen (which we have also seen in New York and London), so it will be interesting to see how it is adapted here in Bangalore.

Also in this weeks newspapers, a limerick that I thought my friend Laura might enjoy:

"There was a young man from Trinity
Who solved the square root of infinity.
While counting the digits,
He was seized by the fidgets,
Dropped science and took up divinity."

Happy New Year -- Happy Ugadi!

Seeing Kokata Again

We are currently in Kolkata staying with an old friend, who has recently been widowed.  Her energies are low and she is not engaged with life in the way that she always has been.

Today is the Holi festival in Kolkata, although much of the rest of India celebrates the holiday tomorrow.  We have pink colors on our foreheads, (so I didn’t wash my forehead when bathing).  The cook, Krishna, placed the colors on our foreheads this morning – and we on hers.  Very special.

This is the first house that we have stayed in with a tik-tikki – that is, a house lizard.  I am reminded that having such a co-habitant is a good thing, because it eats spiders and other unwanted guests, but I am, nevertheless, always a bit shocked when the tik-tikki races across the wall or ceiling.

In Kolkata, there is lots of talking – perhaps a bit like Italy.  Everyone talks very quickly and with great animation in Bengali for several minutes about a given subject.  But when I inquire about what has been resolved, often it seems that no movement has occurred.  It’s confusing.  Yesterday we had a driver take us to a mall here in the household’s private car.  It seems that the ignition lock had frozen, but the outcome was quite chaotic.  The chief household manager told the driver to have the lock repaired on the spot, so we gathered heavy bags of groceries and then emerged to find that parts of the car had now been taken to other parts of the city.

There was much going back and forth to the car and loud discussions while I sat next to the heavy bags of water, etc., (which we now had to somehow transport home).  We were also late (for the second day) for lunch with a friend.  After much consultation we ended up renting a cab, with the driver waiting at the mall, the piece of the car taken to another part of the city and the household manager accompanying us on a circuit -- to leave us at the restaurant, then to home to leave off the groceries and back to the mall to find the driver and the car (which was eventually repaired).  It was a bit chaotic, but eventually all of us – the groceries, the car, the household manager, our friend and us – arrived safely home.

Today is the holiday when people throw colors with great abandon, drink bang (sort of a liquid version of Magic Brownies), and get time off of school and work.  It’s a time to let loose from the normal restrictions and pressures and be silly.  Holi derives from the stories of Krishna engaging in these same games, and has a religious basis, although the temper of the day is a little bit more like a New Year’s eve event.  All the color throwing is supposed to end by 3:00.  Many, including senior citizens, tend to stay  behind closed doors until then in order to avoid the excesses of a somewhat bacchanalian celebration.

I love to go to the markets and look at all of the beautiful silk and embroidered saris.  They are very lush and ornate – brilliant oranges, reds, blues and greens.  I don’t need to have them – just to see them and appreciate all the craft of their creators.  Calcutta is known for handloomed saris, that have a lot of intricate work.  Also a center for a certain type of silk sari that looks like liquid gold – in colors.

Like other cities in India, Kolkata is changing rapidly, with new shopping malls and flyovers in the midst of traditional neighborhoods and still considerable poverty.

Tomorrow we will meet with several old friends at an art gallery to discuss some questions that we have put out to them about the rapid changes taking place in India and what they think it all means.  Then I’ll be off to Bangalore, while Ran remains in Kolkata to meet with more special friends whom he rarely gets to see.

A Letter from Gandhi to Hitler in 1940

Found this letter from Gandhi to Hitler at the Gandhi Ashram and thought it might be an interesting piece of history that is little known.  Apparently he wrote an initial letter to Hitler -- seeking peace -- that the Indian government did not allow to be posted.  

The text below was apparently sent but was suppressed for a time by the Indian government:

Letter to Adolf Hitler

Wardha                December 24, 1940

Dear Friend,

That I address you as a friend is no formality.  I own no foes.  My business in life has been for the past 33 years to enlist the friendship of the whole of humanity by befriending mankind, irrespective of race, colour or creed.

I hope you will have the time and desire to know how a good portion of humanity who have been living under the influence of that doctrine of universal friendship view your action.  We have no doubt about your bravery or devotion to your fatherland, nor do we believe that you are the monster described by your opponents.  But your own writing and pronouncements and those of your friends and admirers leave no room for doubt that many of your acts are monstrous and unbecoming of human dignity, especially in the estimation of men like me who believe in universal friendliness.  Such are your humiliation of Czechoslovakia, the rape of Poland, and the swallowing of Denmark.  I am aware that your view of life regards such spoliations as virtuous acts.  But we have been taught from childhood to regard them as acts degrading humanity.  Hence we cannot possibly wish success to your arms.

But ours is a unique position.  We resist British Imperialism no less than Nazism.  If there is a difference, it is in degree. One-fifth of the human race has been brought under the British heel by means that will not bear scrutiny. Our resistance to it does no mean harm to the British people.  We seek to convert them, not to defeat them on the battle-field.  Ours is an unarmed revolt against the British rule.  But whether we convert them or not, we are determined to make their rule impossible by non-violent non-cooperation.  It is a method in its nature indefensible.  It is based on the knowledge that no spoliator can compass his end without a certain degree of co-operation, willing or compulsory, of the victim.  Our rulers may have our land and bodies but not our souls.  They can have the former only by complete destruction of every Indian – man, woman and child.   That all may not rise to that degree of heroism and that a fair amount of frightfulness can bend the back of revolt is true but the argument would be beside the point.  For, if a fair number of men and women be found in India who would be prepared without any ill will against the spoliators to lay down their lives rather tan bend the knee to them, they would have shown the way to freedom from the tyranny of violence.  I ask you to believe me when I say that you will find an unexpected number of such men and women in India.  They have been having that training for the past 20 years.

We have been trying for the past half a century to throw off the British rule.  The movement of independence has been never so strong as now.  The most powerful political organization, I mean the Indian National Congress, is trying to achieve this end.  We have attained a very fair measure of success through non-violent effort.  We were going for the right means to combat the most organized violence in the world which the British power represents.  You have challenged it.  It remains to be seen which is the better organized, the German or the British.  We know what the British heel means for us and the non-European races of the world.  But we would never wish to end the British rule with German aid.  We have found in non-violence a force which, if organized, can without doubt match itself against a combination of all the most violent force in the world. In non-violent technique, as I have said, there is no such thing as defeat.  It is all ‘do or die’ without killing or hurting.  It can be used practically without money and obviously without the aid of science of destruction which you have brought to such perfection.  It is a marvel to me that you do not see that it is nobody’s monopoly.  If not the British, some other power will certainly improve upon your method and beat you with you own weapon.  You are leaving no legacy to your people of which they would feel proud.  They cannot take pride in a recital of cruel deed, however skillfully planned.  I, therefore, appeal to you in the name of humanity to stop the war.  You will lose nothing by referring all the matters of dispute between you and Great Britain to an international tribunal of your joint choice.  If you attain success in the war, it will not prove that you were in the right.  It will only prove that your power of destruction was greater. Whereas an award by an impartial tribunal will show as far as it is humanly possible which party was in the right.

You know that not long ago I made an appeal to every Briton to accept my method of non-violent resistance.  I did it because the British know me as a friend though a rebel.  I am a stranger to you and your people.  I have not the courage to make you the appeal I made to every Briton.  Not that it would not apply to you with the same force as to the British.  But my present proposal is much simpler because much more practical and familiar.

During this season when the hearts of the peoples of Europe yearn for peace, we have suspended even our own peaceful struggle.  It is too much to ask of your to make an effort for peace during a time which may mean nothing to you personally but which must mean much to the millions of Europeans whose dumb cry for peace I hear, for my ears are attuned to hearing the dumb millions.  I had intended to address a joint appeal to you and Signor Mussolini, whom I had the privilege of meeting when I was in Rome during my visit to England as a delegate to the Round Table Conference.  I hope that he will take this as addressed to him also with the necessary changes.

I am,

Your sincere friend,

M. K. Gandhi

Ahmedabad, Gandhi and Pigeons

We are now in Ahmedabad, which has  more of a desert climate and lots of camels.  There is much less traffic than in Bangalore.  Nevertheless, when travelling last evening in an auto rickshaw, our driver missed his turn, and he then turned 180 degrees, going back to the previous intersection – in the wrong lane, against the flow of traffic.   

Sometimes in India, I feel that I’m in a miniature train display – the kind where the trains race headlong toward one another and then divert just at the last instant, so that a collision is avoided.

We visited the Gandhi Ashram where he built the non-violent movement that influenced many throughout the world.  We purchased a copy of his letter to Hitler (will post to the blog space shortly). The atmosphere at the ashram is simple, along a placid river (where Gandhi’s ashes were scattered following his assassination).  Everything here seems to be named either for Gandhi or Patel.

Food here tastes very good.  In India people refer to green peppers as ‘capsicum.’  I find them to have a sweet and more aromatic taste than in U.S.  Everything has some spice, which feels good on the tummy in the midst of hot days.  I do miss my avocadoes though.

Ran is lecturing at IIT-Gandhinagar on mass media.  There is a new branch here of the foremost technological institute in India, led by a visionary from Cal Tech who is committed to interdisciplinary and student-centered approaches to learning.

Again pigeons, this time nesting in the fan on the kitchen window of the guest house we are staying in.  Pigeons make a great deal of noise when laying and hatching eggs!

Next to Udaipur and then on to Kolkata.