Sticky in Chennai

Esmerelda was too lazy to get up for the photo, but here is a picture of her wearing a sari.  E prefers cotton sarees, as she does not like the 'flow' of the silk kind.  She was a little apprehensive about wearing this outfit in public as her sari folding skills are not as advanced as she would like.  But, nevertheless, she received many appreciative smiles from people in the street.  I think the locals dug her efforts to fit in.  Certainly at the restaurant we ate at the waiting staff showed a previously unseen degree of deference, grace and gentlemanliness.   An Indian friend who met us for dinner flipped out when she saw E in the sari.  She herself, our friend reported, can not be bothered by the time and effort to wear a sari so she was impressed by E's efforts. 

A typical site and sound in the Esmerelda & Yitzy household.


Update:  For some zany reason the people of blogspirit have raised the pitch of the above sound file by a few octaves...not sure why...

January 26, 1950 is the date India became a democratic republic and its constitution came into force. And so it was India's 57th Republic Day, a national holiday, every year on January 26th. Along with this holiday is independence day, August 15, 1947, which is celebrated every year on this date but then in the blistering heat of the summer. Here are some photos of our stroll on Elliott's Beach in the neighborhood of Besant Nagar on this holiday.

You may not be able to note it but this little boy's bindi is designed as the Indian flag. The puppy had no name.

It was just this couple on this children's ride. They seemed to be having a pleasant conversation the entire time they were spinning.


Body building.


Air gun balloon shooting, loading each pellet after each shot.
Yitzy was 9 out of 10. One we are convinced was a "trick" balloon. Esmerelda was 2 out of 10.

Good looking eats. Fried peppers.

More eats. Yummy (looking) corn. Not brave enough to try it on my wimp of a stomach.

Couldn't get the kids to look in the camera.


Happy family



All three of the above baby animals had a very hard time staying still for a second for the photos.

Yes, I know this is a travel blog, but excuse me for a moment as we descend into the zany world of American politics.

This morning I had another attack of the dreaded Bush Fever. Bush Fever is the condition when your head whirls madly, your whole body gets hot and sweaty, and you begin to ramble and yelp incoherently about the fact that there is a crime boss mafia don sitting in the White House. How, why, what twisted twirk of fate let such a despicable character into the single most powerful position the world has ever known? Why Why Why Why?!?!!???!

And I am not going to slip into that lazy mental trap of thinking Bush is stupid. The Bush=stupid meme is just, well, stupid. A person who is stupid is ineffective, is helpless, deserves pity, and is certainly not harmful. Bush is anything but stupid. He is incredibly effective at achieving his goals and he is a very dangerous man. To all those satirists out there who rifted on the ‘Bush=stupid’ joke during the last election: open your eyes, this is exactly the joke the Bush crime family loves the most. Who can fear a simply dumb cowboy? Actually, who can not but love the simple common cowboy? People of America, Wake up! Bush is not a character from Dumb and Dumber. He’s Darth Vader.

What set off my most recent attack of Bush Fever? Why, reading the news of course. In particular this article from the Washington Post:

Bush says takes threats from bin Laden seriously
By Caren Bohan
Reuters
Wednesday, January 25, 2006; 6:08 PM
FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Wednesday he took Osama bin Laden's threats of another attack seriously and invoked the al Qaeda leader's recent audiotape to defend a domestic eavesdropping program.
"I understand there are some in America who say, 'Well this can't be true, there aren't still people willing to attack.' All I would ask them to do is listen to the words of Osama bin Laden and take him seriously," Bush said at the National Security Agency.
"When he says he's going to hurt the American people again or try to, he means it. I take it seriously and the people of NSA take it seriously and most of the American people take it seriously as well," Bush said.

Listen up people! I am exhausted by the Bush Crime Family's use of such dishonest rhetoric. The critics of the Bush Crime Family are up in arms because the domestic wiretap program is ILLEGAL, because it violates the US Constitution on a very fundamental level. No one ever said we are against the wiretaps because we think Bin Laden doesn’t want to kill us. But Bush knows this. His speechwriters know this.

Know that this is called the straw man attack. It s when you attack an intentionally distorted depiction of your critic’s arguments as opposed to their actual arguments. (You attack the ‘straw man’ as opposed to the real man. I understand that straw men go down real easy.) The above article is great for Bush, because if there is a reader who does not know his critics’ perspective well, he will think: “My God! Do the Democrats really think Bin Laden is not going to attack! What buffoons! We need those wiretaps! The Democrats just can not be trusted with security!”

I want a world where everyone knows the term ‘straw man attack.’ And when someone in a very important position of power uses a straw man attack there should be a headline in the Washington Post that reads : “Bush Uses Deceptive Straw man Attack in Attempt to Counter Critics.” Because that is the real story in this article.
Oy. No. I feel another attack of Bush Fever coming on. I have to go. Arrggghhh!!!!!

Yes, the cover looks hokey but I am going to make a passionate plea for everyone to get a hold of this book.  In particular any American readers who happen to reside in New York City.  Yes, you.  READ THIS BOOK.

I won’t waste your time arguing why you should read it. Instead let me simply share with you a choice passage:

“There is a wealth of humbug in this life, but the multitudinous little humbugs have been classified by Chinese Buddhists under two big humbugs: fame and wealth.  There is a story that Emperor Ch’ienlung once went up a hill overlooking the sea during his trip to South China and saw a great number of sailing ships busily plying the China Sea to and fro.  He asked his minister what the people in those hundreds of ships were doing and his minister replied that he saw only two ships, and their names were “Fame” and “Wealth.”  Many cultured persons were able to escape the lure of wealth, but only the very greatest could escape the lure of fame.  Once a monk was discoursing with his pupil on these two sources of worldly cares, and said: “It is easier to get rid of the desire for money than the desire for fame.  Even retired scholars and monks still want to be distinguished and well known among their company.  They want to give public discourses to a large audience, and not retire to a small monastery talking to one pupil, like you and me now.”  The pupil replied: “Indeed, Master, you are the only man in the world who has conquered the desire for fame!”  And the Master smiled.    

From my own observations of life, this Buddhist classification of life’s humbugs is not complete, and the great humbugs of life are three, instead of two: Fame, Wealth and Power.  There is a convenient American word which again combines these three humbugs into the One Great Humbug: Success.  But many wise men know that the desire for success, fame and wealth are euphemistic names for the fears of failure, poverty, and obscurity, and that these fears dominate our lives…

Yet there is a secondary social humbug quite as powerful and universal, the humbug of fashion.  The courage to be one’s own natural self is quite a rare thing.  The Greek philosopher Democritus thought he was doing a great service to mankind by liberating it from the oppression of two great fears:  the fear of God and the fear of death.  But even that does not liberate us from another equally universal fear: the fear of one’s neighbors.  Few men who have liberated themselves from the fear of God and the fear of death are yet able to liberate themselves from the fear of man.  Consciously or unconsciously, we are all actors in this life playing to the audience in a part and style approved by them.”

A society’s morality or humanity is often measured by the way people treat criminals. (Dostoevsky? “..a society should be judged not by how it treats its outstanding citizens, but by how it treats its criminals.”, I did not do much of a search for the right quote.) Some say society deserves the criminals it gets. Another way humanity can be measured is by the way humans treat other animals. We call ourselves humans to distinguish ourselves from animals but we are all animals, depending on one’s theories of the origin of the universe. That’s obviously another subject but relevant here.

Yesterday, after observing many times that people walking dogs on a leash often have a big stick with them that is not being used as a walking stick, I wondered aloud if this was used to beat the dogs or perhaps quickly push them away from the chaotic traffic that is on the road. The answer I received was “They don’t beat the dogs, they just hit them to train them”. Needless to say I responded that it was one in the same to me. Beating and hitting are the same, whether it is for the purpose of training or punishment. Often punishment is used for training so it is merely the way one looks at it. For the dog, the pain and fear of being struck are the same. (Witness what dogs do when they see an owner’s arm go up in the air.) Sometimes the dog’s reaction is mixed with confusion if the dog is randomly punished/beaten/hit, whatever you want to call it, since dogs are relatively intelligent animals and can connect certain behavior of the human with certain behavior of their own.

As expected I responded that dogs can be trained without physical punishment but it takes patience, time, effort and understanding of canine behavior. Dogs after all do things for reasons-dog reasons-and we as the slightly more intelligent animal, can learn from that and use this to train them to modify their behavior, i.e. not taking food from the dining table. Often all one needs is repetition, consistency and the proper alpha tone of voice. Humans often lack consistency and that’s where the failing is, not with the dog.

I was then told that people also throw stones at dogs and harass them in other ways. (See another blog post about this, link is below. Apparently it is an instinctive reaction, likened to a sport to throw rocks, even bricks, at dogs.) I was surprised to hear this as I have only seen street dogs treated indifferently or sometimes I spot someone giving a biscuit to a stray dog hanging out by the tea stands. Dogs sleeping in the middle of the street are not afraid of people or cars. They are comfortable because of their experience of not being hurt. If they had experienced pain or fear, they would respond accordingly.

As an animal lover, I thought I’d include a quote, from a book Yitzy read and I have yet to finish as it depresses me so, that is topical and more so on my mind given what is being done and what may yet be done in response to bird flu. Something to think about:

“The care of animals brings with it often complicated problems of economics, ecology, and science. But above all it confront us with questions of conscience. Many of us seem to have lost all sense of restraint toward animals, an understanding of boundaries, a respect for them as beings with needs and wants and a place and purpose of their own. Too often, too casually, we assume that our interests always come first, and if it’s profitable or expedient that is all we need to know. We assume that all these other creatures with whom we share the earth are here for us, and only for us. We assume, in effect, that we are everything and they are nothing.
Animals are more than ever a test of our character, of mankind’s capacity for empathy and for decent honorable conduct and faithful stewardship. We are called to treat them with kindness, not because they have rights or power or some claim to equality, but in a sense because they don’t; because they all stand unequal and powerless before us. Animals are so easily overlooked, their interests so easily brushed aside. Whenever we humans enter their world, from our farms to the local animal shelter to the African savanna, we enter as lords of the earth bearing strange powers of terror and mercy alike.
Dominion, as we call this power in the Western tradition, today requires our concentrated moral consideration, and I have tried in the pages that follow to give it mine. I hope also to convey a sense of fellowship that I know many readers will share-a sense that all of these creatures in our midst are here with us, not just for us. Though reason must guide us in laying down standards and laws regarding animals, and in examining the arguments of those who reject such standards, it is usually best in any moral inquiry to start with the original motivation, which in the case of animals we may without embarrassment call love. Human beings love animals as only the higher love the lower, the knowing love the innocent, and the strong love the vulnerable. When we wince at the suffering of animals, that feeling speaks well of us even when we ignore it, and those who dismiss love for our fellow creatures as mere sentimentality overlook a good and important part of our humanity.
It is true, as we are often reminded, that kindness to animals is among the humbler duties of human charity-though for just that reason among the more easily neglected. And it is true that there will always be enough injustice and human suffering in the world to make the wrongs done to animals seem small and secondary. The answer is that justice is not a finite commodity, nor are kindness and love. Where we find wrongs done to animals it is no excuse to say that more important wrongs are done to human beings, and let us concentrate on those. A wrong is a wrong, and often the little ones, when they are shrugged off as nothing, spread and do the gravest harm to ourselves and others.”
From Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy , by Matthew Scully, pp.xi-xii, 2002.

Yes, I went a little overboard but you can always change the channel or in this case, click to another website. Or read more about the treatment of dogs, specifically Chennai, in a post from January 23rd on http://vee-jay.blogspot.com/ Click on "A Puppy's Last Moments".

When buying stuff off the street one has to be careful about the quality and that one is simply buying what one thinks one is buying. I have always assumed buying a book off the street was easy, nothing to concern oneself about, all the pages are there, that's all. But, one must not assume that all the pages are there and in the right ORDER. One the way to the Chennai book fair last week, I stopped at the sidewalk shop above to consider purchasing Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Those of you who know this book or the author in general, may know the books are not short. Not being entrhalled by Rand's The Fountainhead I didn't want to spend too much on Atlas Shrugged. Yitzy cautioned me, he said it may all be there but not in the right order. We started scanning through Atlas Shrugged and on page 370 something it skips to page 500 something. Imagine reading hundreds of pages, turn the page and lo and behold it is a few hundred pages later and all you have to do is figure out where the next page is out of the 800 page book! That would make me batty. Plus the tension thereafter of worrying if the next page is the right page. Never thought of reading a book like that.

I have realized that most of our readers prefer Esmerelda’s posts about fruit juice and dogs to my sociological and theological ramblings, but to enjoy her posts you will have to occasionally suffer one of my own.

Esmerelda has appropriated our copy of the Mahabharata. (She is tearing through it at an admirable pace.) So I have been forced to pick up something else. On a whim I purchased a book that caught my eye: The Importance of Living by Lin Yutang. I am only a few pages into it but I am already deeply in love. One quote that left me in smiles all morning:

“The sense of humor … seems to be very closely related to the sense of reality or realism. If the joker is often cruel in disillusioning the idealist, he nevertheless performs a very important function right there by not letting the idealist bump his head against the stone wall of reality and receive a ruder shock. He also gently eases the tension of the hot-headed enthusiast and makes him live longer. By preparing him for disillusion, there is probably less pain in the final impact, for a humorist is always like a man charged with the duty of breaking sad news gently to a dying patient… If idealism and disillusion must necessarily go together in this world, we must say that life is cruel, rather than the joker who reminds us of life’s cruelty.

I have often thought of formulas by which the mechanism of human progress and historical change can be expressed. They seem to be as follows:

Reality – Dreams = Animal Being
Reality + Dreams = Heart-ache (usually called Idealism)
Reality + Humor = Realism (also called Conservatism)
Dreams - Humor = Fanaticism
Dreams + Humor = Fantasy
Reality + Dreams + Humor = Wisdom"

Brilliant.

Please read. It is short. I had the standard thought "Fact is stranger than fiction", when reading this. Good material for a sitcom.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4619764.stm

Koyambedu market is supposed to be one of the biggest wholesale markets in Asia. From what I saw in the afternoon when people were packing up and sleeping, it looks like it must be bustling in the early hours. I remembered I needed to when I saw another Chennai blog with a post about the market with beautiful photos. My photos are not as nice. Here is a link to the better photos: http://traveltogether.blogdns.net/. I saw the flower, fruit and vegetable markets. Here are some photos to scroll through.

Lotus buds. If you place them in water, they blossom.

Garlands for weddings and other events.
Banana flowers. I am told they are eaten.
Banana branches. I am told these are eaten too, after they are cooked.
Banana leaf seller.
Coconut, before it turns into a hard, heavy, round "nut". Or so I am told. This is what it looks like before it looks like a human head and falls to the ground? What do I know?

Lime
Pooja/Prayer items also at wholesale
A little shrine for the chief minister who is responsible for building the structure for this wholesale market.