We had 2 Thanksgiving celebrations this year: one with Target folks at a hotel restaurant on Thursday (ate outside!), and another in a friend's home with other American families and a family from the UK who'd lived in the US for many years and had come to love our Yankee tradition.
We have felt homesick this week! And sad to miss a 4-day stretch of holiday, too. It felt odd.
Yet, we are more mindful this year than ever of all we have to be thankful for. We made a "thankful tree", cutting out leaves and writing what we were thankful for on each one before pasting them to our "tree". Things like "access to clean water" made the list this year. Among Matthew's leaves: "pizza and ice cream."
Thanksgiving culinary endeavors required great creativity. After a pilot run with a butter pie crust that was too tough, I tracked down "granulated vegetable ghee"--the closest thing to shortening in the country. It worked. Even in my toaster oven.
I googled "sweet potato" for an image to show our driver and then found the word in Kannada (genasu). He found some for us at a local market. I hadn't seen them anywhere in stores but heard they were sold somewhere here. More like a yam, but pretty tasty roasted with onions, garlic and herbs.
Craisins can be rehydrated with water, red wine, orange zest and corn starch; they evolved into an edible cranberry relish.
One point of failure, however... "fresh cream" in India does not whip into anything resembling what we put on pie. Alas, we indulged in the twice-the-price imported squirt whip cream from France. The meal was redeemed for Hannah and Shae.
Below are a few photos of our gathering at a friend's home... lots of delicious home-cooked food, a well-prepared turkey from an Italian restaurant that imported them from the US, and lots of kids, too!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Celebrating Kalpana's birthday
The kids and I made a little cake to celebrate our cook, Kalpana's, birthday. As per usual Indian fashion, she doesn't smile directly into the camera, but I caught her sweet smile in action shots. We are blessed to have her in our home.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
"Functioning Anarchy"
Just read this description of India ("functioning anarchy") and it couldn't been more fitting. It was how John Kenneth Galbraith, U.S. ambassador to New Delhi in early 1960’s described the country.
If you have ANY interest in reading about India, I have to HIGHLY recommend a book I've mentioned before by Edward Luce: In Spite of the Gods, The Rise of Modern India. It's fascinating and brilliant. Check it out from the library and just read the last chapter if that's all you care to. Among the many reasons I loved it, the first chapter is entitled: “Global and Medieval: India’s Schizophrenic Economy”. He captures the contrasts and contradictions of this remarkable country in an astounding way.
He chronicles the rise of India, the many and major challenges it faces, and ends by suggesting opportunities for growth and change.
Here are a few highlights about some of the massive problems in India: (the examples and statistics help me to get my head around the size of the problem)
Education: “According to India’s government, on any given day one-third of teachers are absent from government schools. In the state of Bihar… less than 3% of government schools have electricity and less than 20% have toilets for their teachers. Only a few schools have separate toilets for girls.” (248)
Infrastructure: “Uttar Pradesh has among the worst highways in India. So potholed are they that most of the stat’s villages cannot get their farm surplus to market. Kutcha (substandard) roads are one of the main reasons that only 2% of Indian’s farm output has any value added to it beyond being harvested, or milked. More than a third of India’s vegetables and fruit rot before arriving at market. “ (88)
Aborting girls: “…India has an estimated 40 to 50 million ‘missing girls.’ ... In some parts of the state [Gujarat] the ratio is below 800 girls to 1000 boys. Families in the worst-affected districts are importing girls from other parts of India to serve as brides to several husbands at once—usually the unfortunate woman is shared between 3 or 4 brothers.” (319)
Luce suggests that to overcome poverty, India must establish better economic climate for farmers and create more jobs in manufacturing and services: “The problem is neither money nor technology. It is about the efficiency of government.” (338)
My FAVORITE description of the government:
“”If you were to assess India’s economic situation by walking its corridors of power, it would be impossible to guess the country was going through a software revolution. Instead of computers you have armies of men shuffling paper. Instead of vacuum cleaners you have lower-caste sweepers carefully reshuffling the dust beneath your feet. As a substitute for a specific appointment, you are told: ‘Just come.’ Yes, but at what time? ‘Don’t worry. Just come.’ In place of waiting rooms, you have queues of supplicants spilling over into the corridors and the courtyards outside, each hoping to snatch a moment with the VIP whose mere word or signature can put an end to a hundred sleepless nights and a thousand wasted phone calls. Instead of servants—civil or otherwise—you have masters.” (63-4)
Most complicated tax system in the world. “In some parts of India, the system of octroi—a tax levied on the passage of goods from one Indian state to another—costs more to administer than it collects. Corruption is the only possible explanation for why it has been kept in place.” (340)
Obviously, there are many more issues (poverty, child labor, HIV/AIDS, etc.) but I didn't want to write all night. :) Thanks for reading this much.
If you have ANY interest in reading about India, I have to HIGHLY recommend a book I've mentioned before by Edward Luce: In Spite of the Gods, The Rise of Modern India. It's fascinating and brilliant. Check it out from the library and just read the last chapter if that's all you care to. Among the many reasons I loved it, the first chapter is entitled: “Global and Medieval: India’s Schizophrenic Economy”. He captures the contrasts and contradictions of this remarkable country in an astounding way.
He chronicles the rise of India, the many and major challenges it faces, and ends by suggesting opportunities for growth and change.
Here are a few highlights about some of the massive problems in India: (the examples and statistics help me to get my head around the size of the problem)
Education: “According to India’s government, on any given day one-third of teachers are absent from government schools. In the state of Bihar… less than 3% of government schools have electricity and less than 20% have toilets for their teachers. Only a few schools have separate toilets for girls.” (248)
Infrastructure: “Uttar Pradesh has among the worst highways in India. So potholed are they that most of the stat’s villages cannot get their farm surplus to market. Kutcha (substandard) roads are one of the main reasons that only 2% of Indian’s farm output has any value added to it beyond being harvested, or milked. More than a third of India’s vegetables and fruit rot before arriving at market. “ (88)
Aborting girls: “…India has an estimated 40 to 50 million ‘missing girls.’ ... In some parts of the state [Gujarat] the ratio is below 800 girls to 1000 boys. Families in the worst-affected districts are importing girls from other parts of India to serve as brides to several husbands at once—usually the unfortunate woman is shared between 3 or 4 brothers.” (319)
Luce suggests that to overcome poverty, India must establish better economic climate for farmers and create more jobs in manufacturing and services: “The problem is neither money nor technology. It is about the efficiency of government.” (338)
My FAVORITE description of the government:
“”If you were to assess India’s economic situation by walking its corridors of power, it would be impossible to guess the country was going through a software revolution. Instead of computers you have armies of men shuffling paper. Instead of vacuum cleaners you have lower-caste sweepers carefully reshuffling the dust beneath your feet. As a substitute for a specific appointment, you are told: ‘Just come.’ Yes, but at what time? ‘Don’t worry. Just come.’ In place of waiting rooms, you have queues of supplicants spilling over into the corridors and the courtyards outside, each hoping to snatch a moment with the VIP whose mere word or signature can put an end to a hundred sleepless nights and a thousand wasted phone calls. Instead of servants—civil or otherwise—you have masters.” (63-4)
Most complicated tax system in the world. “In some parts of India, the system of octroi—a tax levied on the passage of goods from one Indian state to another—costs more to administer than it collects. Corruption is the only possible explanation for why it has been kept in place.” (340)
Obviously, there are many more issues (poverty, child labor, HIV/AIDS, etc.) but I didn't want to write all night. :) Thanks for reading this much.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Interesting Article
This is a really interesting(and not too long) article in the NYT about the shortage of coconut pickers in Kerala (state to the SW of us). Great photos and interesting commentary on societal change.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/world/asia/18india.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/world/asia/18india.html
p.s. to "Baffle" post
Shae told me later that at the FRO office there was a cockroach running around the desk of one of the officials signing his paperwork. The official ignored it. Just thought I should add that flourishing touch! :)
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Things that baffle us
Multiple times a week we say to ourselves, "WHERE ARE WE LIVING????"
It's a statement of disbelief. Disbelief at how deeply dysfunctional things seem to us, yet how they continue to function. Traffic. Bribes. Corruption. Bureaucracy. The way people treat one another. The caste system.
This week's highlights:
1. A local fireworks shop is going out of business so it decided to shoot off its remaining inventory... all night long.
2. We just went through the laborious procedures involved in visa renewal, only to find out that our kids' visas have been extended for 1 year (process done in Bangalore), but ours were only granted a 3-month extension (process done in Chennai). This is just a blatant, manipulative way to get us to come and pay more money. The truly frustrating thing: each renewal takes at least 12 (TWELVE) hours of Shae's time away from the office.
And his colleague who renewed the same week? He was granted a 6-month extension. Arbitrary?
Sorry for griping. Just had to share some of the baffling things in our world.
It's a statement of disbelief. Disbelief at how deeply dysfunctional things seem to us, yet how they continue to function. Traffic. Bribes. Corruption. Bureaucracy. The way people treat one another. The caste system.
This week's highlights:
1. A local fireworks shop is going out of business so it decided to shoot off its remaining inventory... all night long.
2. We just went through the laborious procedures involved in visa renewal, only to find out that our kids' visas have been extended for 1 year (process done in Bangalore), but ours were only granted a 3-month extension (process done in Chennai). This is just a blatant, manipulative way to get us to come and pay more money. The truly frustrating thing: each renewal takes at least 12 (TWELVE) hours of Shae's time away from the office.
And his colleague who renewed the same week? He was granted a 6-month extension. Arbitrary?
Sorry for griping. Just had to share some of the baffling things in our world.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
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