Sunday Driver

IBM leases a car for us but neither Donna nor I have ever driven it. IBM strongly discourages assignees from driving so we have a driver who takes us wherever we want to go. He works six days a week and on Sunday we have Chand and his auto-rickshaw, commonly called an "auto" in India. There are taxis in Bangalore (normal cars which will take you from here to there for a fee) but you need to call ahead to arrange for one and it's much more expensive than an auto. So if you go out on the street to hail transportation an auto-rickshaw is the thing. All autos have a meter, like a taxi meter, although few use it unless you insist. By the meter it's 14 rupees (30 US cents) for the first 2 kilometers and 7 rupees a kilometer after that. Without the meter it's a matter of negotiation and it's best to discuss the fare before getting into the auto. At lunch one day a co-worker was complaining about an auto driver who asked him for an extra 20 rupees because the destination was on a one way street and he would have to go a long way before he could turn around and go back to his normal territory. I replied that no auto driver would ever asked me for an extra 20 rupees. With the "white man discount" he would asked me for at least 100 rupees extra.

Our first few Sunday's here we simply walked a block from our apartment to the main street and waited for an empty auto to come by. After taking us to church one week, Chand came back the next Sunday to see if we needed a ride again.
Since then he has become our regular Sunday driver. If we are going to be away on a Sunday we tell him the week before. Otherwise he is waiting outside the gate of the apartment complex for us every Sunday. Chand's mother tongue is Urdu and he speaks some English, Hindi,and Kannada, so we can communicate simple things pretty well but not anything complicated.
One Sunday he brought a hand written note inviting us to visit his house the next week and meet his family. (Jaya later told Donna that this was a risky thing to do.) This picture is two of his children standing in front of his home. The shadow to the right is pretty much the end of their apartment and the curtain on the left covers the window of his neighbor's window. The building is one story, comprising perhaps a dozen such apartments . The "street" in front too narrow for anything bigger than Chand's auto to navigate.
Once we entered his apartment his wife brought out a tray of refreshments, soda, chips, various kinds of fruit and an India desert called gulab jamin. There was much more food than Donna and I could eat but none of them would eat anything. This is an Indian way of honoring a guest.

What you see in this picture is literally about 1/6 of their living room/kitchen. To the right of the wardrobe behind Chand is a "kitchen" area about 2 1/2 feet wide, consisting of a gas burner, and not much else. We sat on 2 plastic lawn chairs, which was all they had room for. The only other room was their bedroom.

We discussed their family and then they showed us an x-ray of the youngest daughter's broken leg. I thought perhaps they were going to ask for money for medical bills but they did not. We were supposed to figure that out. It was a little confusing because his daughter's leg was obviously fine now. Since we didn't understand and couldn't communicate very well we went home.

The next week Donna asked Chan to come to the apartment when the maid would there. He was petrified. He offered to give back the Barbie and airplane toys she'd given his youngest kids the day of the visit. He finally relaxed a little when Jaya told him that Madam had a "helpful nature", and wanted to know what he needed. With Jaya to translate Donna was able to learn that he needed Rs 6000 (about $130) to repay money he had borrowed for the medical treatments. Donna gave him the money.

She was also able to determine that he wasn't offended that she had given his Muslim daughter a scantily clad Barbie. He had put that and the airplanes on top of the wardrobe in the living room, a place of honor, because a foreigner had given them to them--and wouldn't let the kids play with them! Donna promised to get or make some decent clothes!

I really wish I had thought to take a picture of the last story. Donna bought a deck of UNO cards because she thought it would be a game his children could play. But she didn't have the instructions and we didn't know that anyone in the family could read the instructions in English. So she asked Chand to pull the auto over in a quiet neighborhood and the three of us played UNO using the front seat of his auto as a table so that he could learn how to play it.

Kids traveling in Bangalore

These three pictures were taken on the roads of Bangalore this week. Many kids travel on a motor scooter like these three girls on their way to school. That head in front of the father belongs to the smallest girl and she is standing in front of her father between his legs. This is the safest place for a kid on a scooter because the driver's arms and legs provide some protection against accidentally falling off. You can tell these girls are going to school because it is early morning and they are wearing their school uniforms. I took this picture while I was on my bicycle and both vehicles were in motion. They are passing me and I think the motion, has somewhat distorted the girls heads in the picture. This was the third time they passed me as we both picked our way through the traffic. The one in the middle smiled and waved at me each time.

This little girl appears to be asleep. Donna snapped this with the camera phone as we were sitting in an auto-rickshaw at a traffic light. The girl did not stir when the light changed and the scooter moved forward, nor when a car passed blaring its horn. It is the law in Bangalore that the driver of a "two wheeler" (scooter or motorcycle) must wear a helmet. The law does not apply to "riders" so you almost never see anyone but the driver wearing a helmet. And helmets on children is virtually unheard of.

This boy is riding on a bus. We were both stopped for a traffic light and I was trying to capture the sleepy expression he had on his face when I first pulled up next to him. But he became more attentive when I got out the camera.

Ananth's Wedding

Ananth (a member of the compact modeling team) married Asha in Bangalore on 1 Feb. Or as the wedding invitation described it "We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it Marriage!" With such an invitation we wondered if the wedding would also be very nontraditional, but it simply contained a number of traditions we had not seen before. Donna and I arrived around 9:30am for the 10:30 wedding, following Baliji and Prabhu so we could find the wedding hall. As expected, the process was already underway. A Hindu bride and groom need to perform many rituals in the process of getting married. It takes many hours and few of the guests have the stamina to witness it all. There are certain crucial steps which most people try to watch. The rest happens with the bride and groom surrounded by a crowd of family and photographers, while other guests visit or enjoy dinner.
This shot shows the bride and groom in a swing outside the entrance of the wedding hall. There were a number of rituals here before they went into the hall, including walking together around the swing and a song by the little girls in the next picture.
I like this shot of the bride and groom walking around the swing because of the priest's arm in the foreground point the way. Except for the priest, the participants in a Hindu wedding seem to have very little idea what is going to happen next. I have suggested to friends that this is because the priest is making it up as he goes along, but they are quite adamant that this is not true. These are centuries old traditions which have evolved differently in different parts of the country and which can be performed in various order or some parts can be omitted.

After completing the ceremonies at the door of the wedding hall the wedding couple proceeded inside the hall and up onto the stage. At center stage was an iron fire box surrounded by various objects to be used in the ceremony, coconuts, leaves, seeds, cups of various liquids. At this point in time there was no fire in the box. Among other things that happened here, the bride's father washed the groom's feet. Many objects of significance unknown to us were passed back and forth between the bride and groom and sometimes their parents.

Then the action shifted to stage left where brides father sat on a chair (as opposed to floor, or a platform 2-inches off the floor as in the rest of the ceremony and all other Hindu weddings I've seen). This was so that the bride could sit on his lap as you see her here, offering a banana to the groom. Eventually the bride's father put his hand under hers and together they handed the banana to the groom, who then took the bride by the hand and led her around her father. I think much of this had to do with the symbolism of the father giving his daughter to the groom, the equivalent of the bride's father walking her down the aisle in the U.S. termed "giving the bride away." Another Indian guest said he thought this went back to the days of brides being married while they were still children.

In the next picture, she is again seated on her father's lap for the tying of the wedding necklace, but sometime in between she has gone off and changed into a different sari. This is a gold necklace, called a mangalsutra or Tali, which a Hindu woman tradionally wears at all times to symbolize that she is married. In modern times they are not always worn continuously, especially with western clothing. Or they often receive a set of 2 necklaces at the wedding, and can shift which one they wear, by putting the 2nd one on before taking the other one off. Because the wedding necklaces are very expensive, when moving about in everyday life one often wants to wear the long one, hidden under your clothes, where it is less conspicuous and less susceptible to being grabbed and stolen by someone in a crowd.

Here you see the bride on her father's lap and her mother standing behind her in the green sari. Behind the groom is his father, and his mother is nearby but didn't make it into the picture. Both fathers have a white cotton thread across the chest indicating that they are of the Brahman caste and are qualified to perform Hindu rituals. The man partially hidden by the bride is the priest who is officiating at the ceremony.
After tying the necklace, the groom again led the bride away. This picture shows the bride's family just after she left. The mother looks quite sad to see her daughter leave. Then there was a part which I couldn't see very well, were the bride touched a stone with her foot. Then the groom led her a short distance by holding her toe.

For the final part of the ceremony the fire was lit. I'm told that it's important to be married in the presence of Agni the fire god, so there is always fire at a Hindu wedding. Some times it is only a small lamp but in other weddings it is a large fire as you can see here.


During and after the ceremony, a meal was served in the lower level. At weddings in south India the meal is always served on a banana leaf, as you see here. The leaves are on the table when you sit down and the first thing you do is sprinkle a little water on it and wash it off with your fingers. Then a whole series of servers will come along and each will place a spoonful of a different dish on your leaf; rice, bread and various vegetables cooked in different sauces. You eat all of this using only your right hand, mixing the sauces with the rice until you have a small sticky ball you can pick up and put in your mouth.
When I went to I.I.T.-Madras in Tamil Nadu my host took me to a restaurant where they served the meal on banana leaves in much the same way.

And we end with a picture of the happy couple. Ananth has been to America and Asha recently returned from six months training in Japan. So they begin life together having already seen much of the world. I hope they discover, as Donna and I have, that wherever you find yourself can be home if you share the space with someone who truly loves you.

Happy Pongal

Pongal is a harvest festival. We had the day off 14 January (Wednesday) and had an in office celebration on the 16th (Friday) when this decoration appeared on the floor of the elevator lobby on our floor.

I took the picture of this girl decorating the sidewalk in front of her home while riding around on my bike on Wednesday. Her sister was helping her and this was the second design of this size they were making.

Sugar cane is an important part of the festival and I saw many vendors like this one selling sugar cane on the street as I rode around on Wednesday. You can buy a whole stalk complete with leaves or you can buy just a small length cut from the cane. Everything can be purchased in small quantities here, I suppose because many people have very little money and must live from day to day. At the pharmacy around the corner from our apartment you can buy just 1 bandaid, if that's all you need.

At work everyone was asked to come in ethnic clothing on Friday, although fewer than half did. We had sort of a fashion show with everyone who came in costume walking up and down in the boardroom. There was a prize for the best male and female outfit.

And the winners are...

Moitreyee and Tony !

Moitreyee not only had a beautiful outfit but she had sashayed down the "cat walk" with confidence and style. Tony wore a traditional man's skirt and he is demonstrating how you can convert it from floor length to a knee length by folding the bottom up and tying it at the waist. You see many laborers on the streets of Bangalore in skirts of a similar design but the are typically blue or green or grey plaid.
I have included below the pictures of everyone who took part in the fashion show. As each contestant walked the judge (Anirban) asked what part of India the costume represented. When he asked me I had to confess that all I knew was that my wife bought it somewhere in Bangalore.

There was also a prize offered for the best decorated cubical. A few people brought in things to display in their cubes, they decided to combine them in one cubical. So this next shot is of the winning (and only) decorated cubical.


In the afternoon we went out to fly kites. We started in the courtyard between the buildings but the security staff came and told us we couldn't fly kites there. So we moved to an open area near a building under construction. There was no actual contest but Rajan (seen in action in the picture below) was clearly the best kite flier. He got one kite high enough up that it was at the end of the string and turned it over to me. I promptly pulled in most of the string trying to keep it up and finally crashed it into the ground. So I turned over to someone else.

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Married Lady in India

In India, almost all married women have a gold necklace as a symbol of their marriage. It is given to her at the wedding by her husband and traditionally is never taken off, much like an wedding ring. Indians also view gold jewelry as an investment. This is a country where many people still have no bank account and handle their finances entirely on a cash basis. Since it is an investment, most of the gold jewelry is 22 carat gold, (91% gold). In the U.S. lower percentages are common because pure gold is very soft and very expensive.

For our anniversary Donna and I went out together and picked out a wedding necklace for her. The style of necklace varies with the part of the country and this one with a chain of black and gold beads is typical of Karnataka (the state where we live), as well as many others.

When you are looking at gold jewelry and you ask the price, first thing the salesman does is to plunk it on a scale and announce it's weight. Then he will look at the tag, pull out his electronic calculator and calculate a price based on today's gold price. The design aspect of it doesn't seem to come into the equation! (The artist in Donna finds this very cold and disconcerting!) Most shops will have the daily price of gold posted; in one shop they had an electronic sign with the daily prices of gold and silver, along with the exchange rates for U.S. dollars, euros, British pounds and Japanese yen. When you buy a black bead necklace, there is a separate number for how much of the weight is comprised of the onyx beads. These are priced at a different amount. After the weight of beads is subtracted from the total weight, they figure out how much the gold part costs, and how much the beads cost, and add them up. Wedding necklaces seem to traditionally come in either this short 18" length, or 24"long one, that is often worn under clothing, or below other special occasion necklaces.

Our housekeeper, Jaya's, husband is from Tamil Nadu. They use only gold chains on their necklace. Her necklace has 3 tali's (symbols) on it. The symbol for Tamil Nadu is a rectangular shape with two points on one end, and one on the other. (It looks very painful to roll over onto when you're sleeping!) The other 2 tali's are coin-like disks that have symbols of a god on them. These are used in Karnataka, as well as the half-sphere designs we saw at a previous wedding. They are almost always tied onto the bride by the groom with 3 knots of a golden cord during the wedding. (This seems to be the "I now pronounce you man and wife" moment.) Sometimes the bride wears them on only the cord for the first year and then they are attached to a gold necklace. Nowdays it seems more common to have the gold cord attached to the gold necklace at the wedding. (The talis on the long necklaces are seldom seen outside the sari, and thus seem more private, but Donna says most people seem happy to show them to her when she inquires.)

I included the next picture so you can see the whole sari. Donna and I are getting better at wrapping her in a sari. Getting the pleats to be straight and even is the part where an assistant is very helpful. We can now accomplish it in about 15 minutes with hardly any cussing.


Switching subjects, and authors:

These boys come around to the apartment complex after school and go through the garbage to find any recyclable that they can sell. Sometimes one of the boy's father is with them, or a friend. I usually invite them up to our apartment to pick up any other recycling we may have. Usually I can also give them a little money and/or a snack. Lately they have been reminding me that they are Christian and Christmas is coming. Hindu children get presents at Diwali, which just passed, they didn't get anything. One is always barefoot, and it is worrying to see him going through the garbage with no protection for his feet. (What's the best way to get him shoes?)

After reading a book on recycling and the role of "ragpickers" in the recycling system of India, I contemplated trying to set up a separate place for storage of recyleables. However, if they were clean and easy to pick up, it seems like many staff members would just help themselves to them, leaving nothing for the truly poor, for whom it is often their only income. So until I think of something better, I will at least make sure they get only clean sanitary recyleables from me.

Like many children on the street, they greet Luna by name, or will call friends over to introduce her, pointing out that she can (bow) Namaskara (Hello). She is getting a reputation and quite a following.
Donna & Joe

Cement

I stopped on my way to work and snapped this picture. If I had had more time I could have eventually gotten the picture I was trying to take of the human chain passing pans of concrete up to the second floor of the building. (Actually in India the ground floor is zero and the first floor is the one above that so this is the first floor.) The guy in orange appeared to be the foreman and he definitely thought he should be in the picture. So did the young boy holding a carrying pan.

Behind them you can see the man in the white sleeveless shirt shoveling cement into a pan. He is using the standard India shovel which has a handle about two feet long set at an angle of about 150 degrees to the blade. Meaning the handle is folded back over the top of the blade. It positions the handle well for lifting and carry with the shovel but means you must bend way over to dig in the ground.
When he has a pan full the man with the red head scarf will lift it, pass it to the man in the black shirt, who passes it to the man in the white cap, who passes it to the man in the striped shirt. They execute this so quickly and smoothly that the pan flies up to the next floor in one smooth movement taking less than a second.


The next two pictures where taken at a different place and time. These people are casting concrete slabs which will become a sidewalk. Sidewalks are not cast in place because the storm sewer runs under the sidewalk. The slabs have two holes in them to use when lifting them on and off of the sewer.

These three kids were in charge of loading the cement mixer with sand, gravel, cement and water. Each of these they carried on their heads from the staging area to the machine. Young kids can be seen at working at construction sites all over Bangalore.















From Donna:

People who make cement sidewalk panels should have plenty of work available.
Between the roads being widened and the fact that sewers on the sides of the road under the sidewalk are usually just unstructured ditches, they are constantly in the need of repair. Walking is treacherous and one always has to look where you're stepping.


Since my feet have a tendency to roll to one side, I was tripping a lot. After learning that Luna could get sick if she even picked up a bit of poisoned or rabid animal dropped by a crow, I was watching her like a hawk, and had an even harder time watching where I was going.

I took to walking everywhere with a long walking stick, so that I didn't end up falling in front of traffic. Soon some of the kids at the apartment complex proudly presented me with an even better stick. And some apartment complex guards that I visited with on my walks with Luna found the "mother" of all walking sticks, a big piece of bamboo pole that was painted on one end.

It became my trademark, and was known around the complex as my "Moses stick". I met people who thought I used it to control my dog, since big dogs here are usually aggressive, untrained guard dogs. Some people thought I used it for self-defense, in some sort of martial arts.

One day I stopped at a small grocery, and someone asked me about my stick. I explained why I used it, and they told me that they were part of an organization that helped provide mobility aids to those who were disabled. I commended them on their work, and was happy to hear such an organization existed. After some more conversation I realized that they wanted to know if I wanted a cane! Besides being quite happy with my walking stick, I figured that the persona of someone who could defend themselves, or who had a dangerous dog was probably much safer from attack than someone who looked frail enough to need a cane. (Especially since I have been known to walk my dog on the street outside the apartment complex at 1 a.m.!)

Blessing the Machines

India celebrated Dasara last week. A part of this is to perform puja (worship) to bless machines which are important to you. As I came up toward this digger the shovel was moving up and down as if it was bowing over a small fire which was on the ground in front of it. By the time I got there and snapped the picture the ceremony was over. The motorcycle seen here leaving the scene has also been blessed. You can tell because it is decorated with banana leaves and garlands of flowers. In addition to decorating the machine there are a variety of fruits which are smashed on or by the machine as part of the puja.

Here is another machine I photographed on my way to work. Notice that in addition to the traditional flowers and paint this has a more modern addition of balloons.

Our driver brought leaves, flowers and fruits and blessed our car. He left it decorated for two days then cleaned everything off. I was at work but Donna was there for the puja so perhaps she will write something about it.

From Donna:

Joseph, our driver, spent all morning cleaning the car. It was spotless--more spotless than its usual spotless. And he had decorated it with great care. He had bought all the items used with his own money. I came down to watch the puja, which pleased him very much. Each door was marked with several lines, and the tires had them in 4 different places, besides the hub caps. (I had noticed three lines on the control panel inside the elevator on the way down to the garage. Elevators need blessing too.) Yellow mum petals were sprinkled on top of the car and around the car.

Joseph put a small lime just in front of each wheel. He put another half lime with a red powder on it in front of the whole limes by the front wheels only. Then he smashed a white pumpkin open and put one half in front of each of the half limes. (This is filled with pomegranate-like seeds that makes it look sort of like a bloody honeydew on the inside.) With our housemaid/friend's direction, he moved the car forward far enough to crush all the fruit and end up right on top of the white pumpkin. From what Jaya said I understood that running over the fruit, etc. would keep you from running over any people, and protect you from other accidents.



Joseph also lit some small flat oval lozenges on a silver tray, which he carried around the car. I think these might have been the same substance that was burning on the last tray that is presented at a Hindu wedding. He made an offering of a pile of puffed rice and a banana on a banana leaf in front of the car. He also lit several cones of incense, which were placed on top of a coconut and another fruit during the ceremony, and also several incense sticks, which he tucked into the decorations on the front of the car at the very end. The ceremony ended with smashing open a coconut. Smashing the coconut and pumpkin alarmed Luna. Otherwise she had watched the whole thing from a safe distance, and surprisingly stayed out of the water on the floor around the car. There were several containers of Indian sweets and many fruits on Joseph's tray. They were just there for the blessing, and then he shared them with Jaya, myself, and guards and other people who work in the complex.

The last part of the process was to take a short drive in the car. So we all loaded in. I cringed when Luna made a huge black footprint on the threshold of the car from finally stepping on the wet floor. Her towel was spread on the back seat, so she could do no more damage to his hard work.

I suggested that I could send down a broom and dustpan to clean up the fruit and pumpkin pieces when we got back, but Jaya said they had to stay there until the next day. She said other people would be doing puja too, and that the cleaning people would clean it all up the next day. I saw several other cars that had undergone the same puja already, so I didn't worry about it. I realized that we had seen all the decorated vehicles shortly after our arrival last fall, but didn't know it was a once a year ritual. We just thought ,"That's what they do in India! They must like pretty cars!"

Although he is a Christian, our driver Joseph was determined to do a puja. A friend at church was surprised when I asked if he had done a puja. I think it is a cultural tradition as well as a religious ceremony. Joseph was raised Hindu, and converted when he married. Perhaps if you are a driver you have more of an investment in both keeping up appearances with other drivers, and doing anything you can to avoid accidents, as well. And Joseph is a GOOD driver. When visiting the Infant Jesus Church after Luna's big scare, I thought that that Catholic church had many of the same forms of offerings and mood as the Hindu temples. Many Indians seem to embrace at least parts of several religions at the same time. The "more is better" philosophy, I suppose. Or an extension of a common public sentiment that all religions are equal.

That is the public policy, but all sorts of violence has been happening lately in Orissa on the part of some "religious" who claim that others have forced people to convert to a different religion, and then proceeding to force the people involved to convert to Their religion. I guess every religion has its extremists. Public tolerance still comes down to one on one.

Grocery Shopping

It's Saturday and I did a little grocery shopping. This cat walked passed me several times before it occurred to me that in Vermont that would be an unusual sighting. So I took his picture. This is Thom's Bakery which is one of our favorite shops because they bake very good whole wheat bread. Maybe the cat is "Thom".




The second picture is of eggs on their way to some market. I took this picture by holding my cell phone out the car window and up over the roof of the car. Most of the frame was actually of the roof of car. The truck is really level and the camera was tipped. I'm not sure what is under the bottom layer of eggs, but the eggs seemed to be stacked from one side of the truck to the other without any boxes to contain them. Just the corrugated dividers to keep the eggs from rolling around. You also see eggs for sale like this. One divider on the bottom and then several layers of eggs separated by more dividers. The stacks are actually amazingly secure. When you buy them, they put them all loose in a plastic bag, which is not amazingly secure. Sometimes some cleanup is needed when you get home, especially if you carry them home on a bike!