I have wondered about the wisdom of blogging about the following. It is a bit of a scary story. However, I believe it may be useful to fellow travelers on this Spaceship Earth. I have mentioned before how, in September, I accidentally broke a strike against the Beijing Olympics in the Majnu ka Tila Tibetan refugee colony in Delhi. In their culture as traditional mountain folk, the guest house could not refuse me entry after I arrived off of the street and asked for a room. The three young, stout men working there seemed happy to have an opportunity to practice [View Full Entry]

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The evening before last, I met an Irish friend at a restaurant on top of the hotel. At the gathering, there were three other Americans and about a dozen Irish citizens. It was the most Irish gathered in Kolkata (I reminded them) since the great rebellion of 1908-1909, when fourteen Irish revolutionary conspirators who were forced to flee from Gallway to Kolkata disguised as Spanish sailors. Their plot to assassinate an English general was betrayed by a drunken Frenchman. The rebels then met up with twenty three Bengalis and Biharis struggling for the freedom of their homeland. The Irish and B [View Full Entry]

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A few days ago I was wandering around central Kolkata in the evening (probably around eight or so). I got turned around a bit and was walking near the Writer's Building when I noticed a man (very strong arms) and a woman (older, somewhere between 40-60 most probably) sitting by their tent on the sidewalk on a mat. The man was smoking a cigarette, and the woman was smoking a biddi. Whenever one sees a woman smoking tobacco in traditional clothing, one can be just about positive that she is an Adivasi . The Forest Dwellers do not have the same [View Full Entry]

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My friend (we call each other "cousin") Sandeep asked me a bit more than a week ago what the best thing is about America. I told him after a second and a half of thought "taco buses". I then explained how a family can come from anywhere in the world, and if they can scrape together enough funds and work their butts off, they can provide a future for their progeny. Hopefully this remains true. [View Full Entry]

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Let's review some things in life that bring me great joy: 1) Music. Especially street music. 2) Crowds of people, especially if they are dressed in their finest clothing. 3) Seeing other cultures and how their people interact with their innate human drive to relate to Nature and cosmic and supernatural forces through communal puja . 3) Delicious food. 4) Long walks. 5) Not spending much money. Today I left Sudder Street around 6:22 and started walking west to Babu Ghat on the Hoogli. On the way, I asked directions from a few people. Everyone, from the most affluent business [View Full Entry]

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durga http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durga_Puja Myself and a group of three friends- an Irishwoman, a German and an Austrian were checking out all the Durga Puja festivities last night. Everyone is in their finest clothes- Western for the "middle class" (upper 20ith percentile) Kolkata-vallas , lungis, saris, and salwar-kameez for the more traditional. There are many temples set up with the image of Durga slaying the demon every third of a kilometer or so. The Hindus offer up a little thing almost like the Sign of the Cross (they touch their foreheads, [View Full Entry]

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-If she is a woman, does she have nice jewelry? -Are clothes dirty or clean? -Do they have shoes, and if they do, are they in good condition? -How many teeth, and in what condition? -Do they have emergency reserves of fat on their ribs? -Does the person have a bhen, bhai, ekta bhalo bondhu to watch their back? Perversely enough, obvious cripples often do better than those who are merely very hungry and dirty. Pity is a human universal. I've decided not to try to actively learn Hindi. Although it would be hugely useful, it is simply too nasal, and [View Full Entry]

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It is the end of Ramadan. All the Muslims are dressed in their finest clothing and in a very joyful and festive mood. Yesterday was the birthday of Mohandas Gandhi. And in a couple of days Durga Puja begins! It is a Hindu celebration of the triumph of feminine divinity over the forces of chaos and evil. All of Kolkata is moving fairly slowly (not that most people are usually rushed by any means) due to the various holidays. Everyone in Bengal, no matter what holy books they read or how they have been taught to commune with and worship the [View Full Entry]

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6,403 Indian Rupees, 6174 Nepalese. My time in India has greatly exposed me to the way that old people and babies are cute in the same way. I'm sure there is one word for the phenomenon of both types of innate, helpless human need and the desire for our species to care for its members, regardless of creed, "race" or language.The English words cuteness and love or compassion are obviously imperfect. If anyone knows a word for this type of human bonding in a non-English language (as applied both to the very young and helpless and the rather old and helpless [View Full Entry]

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I'm fairly desensitized to most of the "unusual" sights a Westerner can see on the streets in a major Indian metropolis. Nursing newborn puppies, dying people, old men smoking chillims, elephants, young men selling (hopefully) fake guns, giant rats..... I barely notice such things now. Children defecating into the gutters or on the sidewalk.... this is no big deal either. However, today I saw a kid, maybe three or four years old, expelling some solid waste onto Park Street that was bright green . I hope he is in good health. [View Full Entry]

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