SO FULL OF LIFE

Sugarcane smile, made me happy, it'll make any one happy

She has seen better days, now poverty written all over her and yet she is so full of life, full of giving. Nirmal Sindu and i landed near her hut after a long and tiring trek. This is Wynad, Kerala, going there next week.

forgot her name, she made kattan kaapee for us it was a life saver, and said if we can wait for half an hour she'll catch some fish from the river and prepare lunch for us.

No, thank you, said Nirmal earnestly, you have already been so kind and generous. And she refused to accept any money from us. We just sat by the river and relaxed in her company for an hour and left.

Their life is not easy, misery and suffering right since the day they are born. Yet they know how to smile. This is poverty by design, this is misery by design, they are condemned by the society.

Racism of the worst kind. Its a very clever system. They accept cast system as their faith. They embrace poverty misery and suffering as religion.

India is a cursed land. India will never come out of misery even if we become the next economic super power.

we will remain miserable for ever. We seem to love our misery. Any country where people flee at any given oppertunity is a cursed land, another example is China, where you see oppression of the worst kind. All the flag waving Indians who shout, 'Mera bharat Mahaan' would flee given a chance, and i don't blame them. The conditions are so miserable.

She is smiling through her Ghunghat (veil), She invited me to her house, a mud house, this is the exterior

Do i feel miserable not living in a penthouse ??

Look at this.

I said WHOA !! when i entered

Ha ! this is joy. Just a mud house and the whole thing would come crumbling down just by leaning on it. Look at her interior design. This is love.

You did this all by yourself ?? i asked her

Yes she said, handing me a small mud pot of some fruit juice, she was beaming.

This should get in to an international Interior design magazine i thought.

This is something. This is so full of life.

Hey ! where is your smile ?

Here it comes, these are the farm hands of kutch

i would not smile with such a load on my head. Poverty becomes a way of life. Nothing stops them from feeling good, Indian movies play a big role in their lives. They want to be like movie stars. And they have thir own fashion. Some traditional and some new.

Anything, a piece of jewelry, new clothes, to make them feel good, to make them less miserable,

they flaunt it. i can't measure their joy by my yardstick.

i don't remember what i told her in my broken Kannada that made her laugh. It takes very little effort to ease the situation and bring some lighter moments. i am a clown always. i reach out and touch them.

Some new pictures in PASSION GREEN, PORTRAITS and BLUNT KNIFE, you can find the links on the side bar right under the clock, i don't like posting just pictures, wanted to delete these blogs, i am obsessed with the page design, so they stay.

Traveling again on herbal medicine trail, just for information that could be useful for my friends, going on a forest trail next week to Coorg and Wynad.

All my love

SOME TIMES I WISH

This is the last i saw of her. She smiled.

That smile was a final blow on my head

it came down like a sledge hammer and i sank.

That smile was a slap on the emerging economic super power.

Will the lady wearing red be her future ?

i hope not

This is a desert.

A thoughtless husband allows his wife to walk miles in the scorching sun of Rajasthan to fetch a pot of water in such an advanced stage of pregnancy.

i hated money all my life, but i have desires.

This is a contradiction. If you hate money, don't have any desires.

My whole life is a story of contradictions.

i could never accept that money is a necessary evil

i hated the system of money which created poverty. i am at my best with no money in my pocket. Completely relaxed. i get rid of what i earn very fast, i travel. never saved. Not a wise thing to do. i am allergic to wisdom any way.

it is my duty to keep an eye on my friends, notice changes in their behaviour, protect them from any tension. i am a pain, i interfere in their lives. i am nosey.

not a good thing to do, but i do.

There are times when i wish i had money to help those in need.

it hits me on my head and i go weak and depressed.

There have been a couple of such blows in the recent past

This is Kiran.

She wants to be a doctor.

How i wished all her dreams come true. just wished and wished.

'My parents have already started discussing my marriage'. She said

She is just a child. But this is India, a remote godforsaken village in Rajasthan with no drinking water.

She'll be a mother of three by the time she turns eighteen.

how i wished i could help her. i don't even remember where this village is.

She is the first of five children in her family. A girl child is considered a burden. She has to take care of the younger ones, go to school, study, do her home work and help her mother cook and clean up. i was sinking deeper and deeper. That is pretty normal for her.

i kept showing her pictures on the camera screen. She was giggling to glory.

Any one would love to help. But helping her is not easy as you think.

There are people out there who take advantage of your kindness.

Kindness is a big source of money. its a big racket.

Your money goes to the wrong people.

You can sponsor a child, but not directly. There are agencies involved, nearly all of them connected to Churches or other religious institutions. And you are convinced that a Church would never cheat you.

All you see is a picture of a child and you reach for your check book. Like you there are four or five other people interested.

A B C D, the agency takes money from all of them.

D is not aware that he is sponsoring the same child as A.

i have burnt my fingers. No details, here's the story in short.

my friend in the US sponsored a child in India. the Agency was run by some missionaries.

i wanted to see the sponsored child. They wouldn't give me the address.

'we are protecting you' said the Nun.

They arrange the meeetings.

i started digging, i don't give up, it was a wild goose chase. i got the child's address from his school teacher after a couple of attempts. Another ordeal followed. The child was not there. Got him finally, living in pathetic conditions above a cow shed.

Met his mother, she was a bigger problem. Big yerdake she was. i wanted to wriggle out of the situation. She said that the Agency makes the boy write three 'thank you' letters to three different sponsors.

That was shocking. All the dealing go through the Agency. They don't let you deal with the child directly.

You give 100 dollars to the agency, only 5 dollars reach the child.

Indeed there are children all over the world getting education with the help of sponsors. But most of your money goes to the wrong people.

You can take the trouble of reaching a child like Kiran in some remote village of India. You will not be allowed to handle the child's education directly.

'Give me the money' father would say, we'll take care of the child's education.

The child will not receive the full benefit of your help.

what else can you do ?

i don't know.

There is no guarantee that your money goes in the right direction. A little of it does.

off they go. To fetch drinking water in the desert.

India claims to be an emerging economic power, a software giant ??

what ever.

This is life, bitter and sweet.

VINAYAKA

This is Vinayaka, the elephant god, Man with an elephant face, or elephant with a man's body. He has many names, most popular name is Ganesh. Business people love him. Shops and business establishments love to keep the idol or a framed picture in the office, He brings money and every Indian artist loves to paint Vinayaka, he is the artist's favourite too.


Please check AAARTI's blog for details.






i missed last year, nearly missed this ear too. I love festivals, though i don't follow any faith, i love to participate and i get some goodies to eat, from neighbours and friends. Vinayaka or Ganesh Chaturti was celeberated last month. Colourful festivals make our life interesting. Nice to see people celeberating Christmas Eid, Diwali, wearing new clothes enjoying themselves.

Life would be so dull without festivities like the good old Soviet Russia, May day was the only celeberation.
And you had to sit infront of the TV watch the mayday parade and force a smile on your face.
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EEEEEEEEEEEEEE


Besides, people make a living out of the festivals. They generate business. Buying new clothes. shopping, presents, decorations.






These poor potters are making Vinayaka idols, which would be dried and painted and sold on the roads. you are not supposed to use the same idol next year. You have to buy a new one. This helps these potters.












Vinayaga has some accessories, like an umbrella, sold seperately.











Myths and beliefs should remain myths and beliefs. But people go beyond this and try to prove and establish that these elephant gods or gods with many hands and heads really existed.


Like believing the superman spiderman.

We grow out of believing in Santa Claus. But people don't seem to grow out of these myths. People go for confessions in the Churches, or take a dip in a holy river to write off their sins. They sincerely believe that they are coming out clean and all their sins are erased in the hard disk and from the recycle bin.

There is nothing beyond our minds.

Its just a feeling of purification.







A godess with four hands, is any woman's fantasy.

Would you marry a woman with four hands knowing karate' ?

i'll keep my mouth shut always.

i'll make a rough draft before answering any question.

Would you like to have some tea ? My wife asks me holding, tea, sugar milk and water in her four hands

i have to be very careful in answering.

You can't say no.

one wrong move, all her four hands would go into my mouth. And a thorough shake,
tea is ready in my stomach. DOOINK !!!























I was in a village near Salem, this was a sweet experience for me, i started clicking and the priests were pretty excited and they offered us the Prasadam, a bowl of SUNDAL, what is sundal ask Aaarti. yumms. Karthik and i ate it right there on the road. Very sweet of them. You can take pictures anywhere any place in India, no objections. They are too pleased to pose. i love it here.






The idols after pooja are immersed in the river or the sea, causing pollution. Very depressing. The government has slapped a ban on it, but not very effective. Very hard enforce laws on religious practices. Hope people would understand one day.

please read Nasra's interview of Mystic Rose, you would love it.