Greetings from Kochi, Kerala, India

Greetings from Kochi, Kerala, India, where Iowa Guru along with our two offspring are vacationing. I think that I’ll share some initial thoughts about observations from our first 24 hours in Kerala:

1.    The roads that we’ve been on have been reasonably good, although it’s been a small sample so far.

2.    The roads have some litter, but so far, I’ve not seen any real collections of garbage that I see in Jaipur. Does this inidicate better municipal services? A greater sense of civic pride?

3.    I’ve noticed much less horn-honking and general traffic chaos.

4.    I’ve not seen any human or animal-powered vehicles on the roads, whereas this phenomena commonly occurs in Jaipur.

5.    The language (Mayorayum) and script here are quite different from the Hindi of the north. The script is more like a Thai script or other south Asian scripts that I’ve seen.

6.    The English here seems quite good, and that’s consistent from what I was told by friends in Jaipur. English is, it seems, the common language. I’ve heard that the people here in the south aren’t so keen on the use of Hindi.

7.    Our taxi into town had a rosary wrapped around the mirror and a figure of the Maddona and Child figurine on the dashboard. In addition, we’ve seen a couple of churches, a drawing of the Jesus & the Sacred Heart in the lobby, and a tuk-tub with “Christ” written about the windshield. It seems that Christians are the most significant minority here instead of Muslims.

8.    In reviewing local history, I see that the Portuguese, then the Dutch, and finally the British all were here and left traces. I’d guess that the Portuguese left the Catholicism.

9.    The weather here is hot & muggy. A short walk this morning left IG and I very sweaty, a far cry from current Jaipur weather. As Jaipur shares 27 degrees latitude with Miami and south Texas, I’d guess that we’re more on par with Cuba or an even lower latitude Carribean island. (Sorry, no Internet as a I write this; check it yourself.)

10.  A lot of the food here has a coconut base that my doctor warned me about (quite mistakenly, I think; he’s not up on his Taubes & Sisson), but in any event, it’s quite tasty. Also, since we’re on the Malabar coast, we have access to fresh fish (not so much in semi-arid Rajasthan).

11. Men wear skirts here. I can’ remember what they are called, but I’m not going there. I’m all for dressing native as appropriate, but there are limits.

12. The electricity goes off in the hotel here at random times but comes on again in a few seconds. For several reasons we didn’t venture out much today, so I don’t know if this happens across a grid or it is particular to our hotel.

13. Kerala in the late 1950’s had the first (so they say) popularly elected Communist government. I suppose because of constitutional restraints and the restraints of real elections, they didn’t cause harm here; in fact, they may have done some real good. The literacy rate here is the highest in India, where literacy and poverty levels remain discouragingly high. I don’t know the story of how all of this occurred here, but on the whole, compared to what I’ve seen in Jaipur, Agra, and Delhi, things look pretty good here. (I owe a separate post on Delhi, which is, I think, sui generis among Indian cities, much like Washington D.C. among American cities.)

This concludes my report on the first 24 hours of observations of Kochi and Kerala. Some touring is on tap for tomorrow, so I should learn more and share.

Namaste.

I Hate Writing This Blog

N.B. I posted this in my other blog because I  thought at first it's not related to India, but I'm not so sure of that, and also, I want to reach as many readers as I can (I don't have many!). I first read about this from an online site here in India, so don't kid yourself that these events don't effect the way that we as a nation are perceived abroad. I have a lot that I criticize about how many things work (or don't) here in India, but I must say that those criticisms seem quite trivial in comparison to the tragedies created by our inaction in the face of the continuing problem of gun violence in the U.S.. I feel a real sense of shame that these types of events continue to occur in my country. 


In our compound a young mother worries about her 2 year-old with a slight fever back in the U.S. in the care of his dad. Iowa Guru and I anxiously await the arrival of our quite adult and capable daughters: just two drops in an ocean of concern and love that parents hold for their children. And then I read the new flash here in India about the shootings in Connecticut. I could not bear to look at the list of names and ages on the front page of the NYT this morning as I glanced at it. 

So horrible, so awful. President Obama's comments, here in video, display the common anguish that we all must feel. But after the shock and horror, which has become all too common, we must do something. 

Garry Wills in his blog post following this outrage puts our plight in biblical terms: we have our own Moloch--the gun. His refection on the outrage in Newtown, and repeated too many times before, captures my sense of despair at the idolatry that we practice in this country towards guns (among other things). We as a nation need to repent. 

This article by Nicholas Kristoff provides some thoughtful reflection about this issue, and he suggests changes that should prove politically feasible. I hope that he's only one of a flood of voices that creates a groundswell of action to address the issue of gun violence. I've set forth my opinions here and here. But I will not stop because this is too crazy.We, as a body politic, are crazy not to take practical and reasonable steps to limit gun violence. 

So as I write this and listen to Christmas music playing the background that celebrates the Nativity--the human joy of a new beginning with the birth a child-- let me suggest a Christmas gift for me, you, and all of us: write the President, your senators, and your congressman, and tell them in no uncertain terms that we need to regulate firearms in an effective and reasonable manner. Let them know that you will hold them to account until we has a nation and as a state enact legislation  that will truly work to prevent these all too common occasions of murder and mayhem.  

A Potpouri of Thoughts & Observations

This will serve to download some thoughts & observations that I've been collecting in my head & notebooks for a while, and now seems a good time to get them out of my head & notebook and into the blog. So here goes: 

Motorcycles continue to amaze me. I have been searching for the best metaphor to describe how motorcycles behave in Jaipur traffic. My initial attempt likened motorcycles to water running down a mountain: relentlessly continuing without pause, stopping only when they encounter a great rock, and then only long enough to find a way to flow around the obstacle. Motorcycles hate to stop. They will overflow on to the sidewalk if the curb is low enough (much to my chagrin when I’m walking on that sidewalk), and they will challenge cars and trucks, always finding the least sliver of room to sneak into a gap in an attempt not to stop. Occasionally, they stop when faced with an impenetrable obstacle, but not for long, and those behind will surge around and forward.

While I thought the mountain stream metaphor was a pretty good description, last week in Delhi, while enjoying a dinner with Iowa Guru’s supervisor and her husband, the husband came up with an even better metaphor: ants. Like hungary ants seeking a food source, motorcyclists swarm. Like ants, motorcyclists are driven by purposeful behavior, unlike the cascading water. They just seem to keep on coming. In any event, I hope this gives you a sense of what it’s like with so many motorcycles on the streets of Jaipur. And, oh yes, they often drive down the wrong way to arrive at a more convenient place. 

Why do Indian drivers hate to downshift? On numerous occasions and with several different drivers, I’ve noticed this tendency. I’ve conjectured that they think it saves fuel, but I think it really just drags the engine. There are number of times I’ve wanted to shout out: “Downshift and goose it!”

Saris and curtas are still worn by number of women here, and they are a very stylish way of dressing. These clothes flatter most ages and body types.

One style that did puzzle me was that of young women who would wear blue jeans, a T-shirt, and then a scarf wrapped around their head and face, leaving only their eyes visible from the neck up. I initially thought this was a way for young Muslim women to compromise between a very modern look and a very traditional look. However, our driver (and our guide to Indian culture) informed us that this was not the case, but that was just the style. Given the amount of dust, smoke, and other pollutants in the air, it’s undoubtedly a good idea.

I’m getting a failing grade in Hindi. Well actually, no, I’m not, because I’m not learning very much Hindi and I’m not taking any lessons or a class. Why do I say this? The honest reason is that I’m a bit lazy, but it’s also significant that I can afford to be lazy. At Mind Merchants, where I work, everyone speaks English to some extent, from near perfection to decent. Iowa Guru has the same thing at her work. Our driver speaks English well. Our landlady and her husband speak almost as if they were to the manor born. It does get a little rough with some of the tuk-tuk drivers, whose English is very marginal, but knowing our home address, our work address, and how to point with our fingers gets us to where we need to go. I don’t know if I will rectify this. I’m kind of disappointed in myself, but this truly is a multilingual nation.

I must say am having old bit more difficulty than usual getting into the Christmas spirit because the climate and decoration cues that I normally receive are missing. The weather here is gorgeous. The highs during a day are in the 70s and low at night in the 40s, but by the time I’m up and out the door, it’s perfectly nice without a jacket because of the sunshine. The locals are describing this current weather as “cold”, but I just scoff. I have Christmas tracks on my playlists to help get me in the spirit, but nothing will help so much to establish appropriate Christmas cheer as their arrival of the two daughter units.

The Indian equivalent of Christmas was Diwali. Diwali was a combination of the Fourth of July (for the firecrackers) and Christmas (for the lights and gifts). I did learn from Diwali that when given a firecracker, virtually every Indian male becomes a 15-year-old boy. This infatuation with firecrackers is crazy. During the height of Diwali (which runs several nights), firecrackers went off as if we were in a city under siege. I mean M-80 & Cherry Bomb level firecrackers. (Readers of a certain age will recognize these designations; others just need to know that these create a very loud boom.) During some of the Diwali festivities we attended, I saw grown men running around setting off firecrackers with unabashed glee. I can tell I’m getting a little old and cranky because after a while, I thought “enough already”. However, here, they never seem to have had enough.

The one universal complaint in India seems to be corruption. I don’t go many days without somebody new complaining about some aspect of corruption.

While motorcycles are everywhere and quite challenging, bicycles are the real lurking menace No bicyclist here has any lights or reflectors, so when you’re crossing a busy street and you’re looking for those fast approaching motorcycle and car headlights, all of the sudden you will realize that a bicycle completely in the dark is almost on top of you. They are the silent predators. As yet, none has nailed me, but they do scare me. They are very stealthy.

You know that you've become a true Jaipuri when a motorcycle comes up silently behind you without honking (very odd), passing within inches of you, and you neither jump nor curse. I have attained that level of bliss--sometimes.

India in the Times

 Several worthwhile articles pertaining to India have appeared in the NYT of late, and I thought that I'd share them with you. Of course, I share them with you because they conform, in writing & pictorially, many of the oobservations that I've made about this great but flawed nation. Nothing like having the big guns behind you!

This photo essay in the NYT tells a lot about India, including the paradoxes that we experience here in Jaipur. Gurgaon, along with Bangalore in the south, are both shining stars in the growing part of the Indian economy. However, as you can see and read here, there are large voids in the provision of basic public services here. This video addresses much the same thing.

This article (with charts) compares India & China, which is a minor industry in some ways. Both of these great Asian nations were dominated by the western powers in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and then in the 1940's, one went through independence (India) and one went through revolution (China). Who got the better start? Indian-born Nobel-winning economist Armatya Sen argues that China, because of public health and education projects beginning soon  after the revolution, received a significant boost in crawling out of poverty. However, China went through a horrific Great Famine in the 1950's and a society-shattering Cultural Revolution in the 1960's, which together killed millions and wrecked the lives of untold millions more. India, while remaining poorer, was at least a democracy (albeit an imperfect one), and it seems to have avoided the worst of man-made catastrophes like famine. To my eye, having visited China in 2004-2005, and now India, I think that China is far ahead economically. I think that almost any review of economic indicators supports my observations. That being said, both the authoritarian regime in China (is "communist" even remotely relevant to describing the current regime?) and democratic India suffer terribly from corruption. Almost to a person, when asked what problems India faces, the answer from Indians that I've spoken to has been "corruption". For instance, we were at a lovely restaruant in Delhi this weekend, and it had what seemed a very nice bar. When we inquired about drinks, the bartender shook his head "no" and said they that they didn't have a liquor license. He saw our puzzled looks, and said in a low, disgusted voice, "This is India. Corruption." If this was only a matter of our not getting a beer or a glass of wine with dinner, the result is trivial. But this situation isn't just the tip of the iceberg, it's more like a crystal on the tip of the iceberg based on everything that I read and hear. Political movements are beginning to coalease around anti-corruption themes, but how you change such a regime is far from clear. As I've argued before, I believe that the middle class, with its growing prosperity, must conclude that the public sphere must improve and prosper for them to enjoy the full measure of their growing wealth. 

Mumbai made the front page of the NYT earlier today (at least the online edition). Mumbai is obviously a great city, but how far can it go? Perhaps it's like the great American cities of the early 20th century, with dominating political machines and tremendous wealth and squalor. But as this article suggests, there are ways to improve things, and perhaps this is a good example. 

And finally, to conclude on a second optimistic note, we find that individuals are fighting back against what I and they perceive to be a law abhorant to free speech and the free expression of opinion. Section 66A prohibits use of the internet for "offensive" speech, and based on this provision two girls were detained (and later released) for questioning the deference given in honor of the recently deceased Mumbai political boss Bal Thackeray. India does have a proud legal tradition and a tradition of liberty, so this will be an interesting and important issue to follow.  

 

Parked Outside Our Compound--Need a Lift?

As I returned home the other day I found this big fella (unattended!) outside of our compound. He generously agree to pose for this photo. 
 
I note that this mode of transport saves on the parking meter (actually, I've never seen parking meters here), and it fuels up while parked.  (Note the tree to the right, which lost some leaves during the course of my observation of this bad boy.) The exhaust system, however, can be a bit, shall we say, messy. 

Outside my compound