Mango season: oh yes, mango season is in full swing in India and they are delicious. They are also only about $0.15 for the big ones, a marked improvement on US prices. I have had mango shakes, unripe mangoes, ripe mangoes, mango juice, and mango chutney, and I hope to have more. A nice change in pace.
Spreading Rock, Paper, Scissors to the 4 Corners of the World: I continue to teach all of the young kids I meet rock, papers, scissors and thumb wrestling. They seem to be universally liked. Maybe someday you will see that the rock, paper, scissors world champion (there is a rock, paper, scissors world championship; google it) is from the Viratnagar block; now this is development I can believe in. Just kidding, but the kids do really seem to enjoy it, which is the main thing.
A Peculiar Tree: Gopal showed me a picture in the newspaper of a really quite peculiar tree. This tree was producing a most bizarre fruit: goats. There it was, nature bypassed, no longer a need for the process of mating, reproduction, and nourishing of baby goats, as this tree was producing full-grown goats, ready to give milk and all. In reality, some people had gotten the goats to stand on the branches of the tree so that it was called a goat tree. Pretty amusing I thought. I will try to post a picture.
Posting pictures: with the aid of our new laptop (which is currently on my lap) and its memory card reader, I am now much more able to get the photos off of my camera. Hence I hope that this will result in my posting more pictures to enliven my text.
Internet: scheduled to get it in the village in the next few days. Should help with being able to post pictures, updates, etc. Update: got it today, Tuesday June 9th. Not sure if much change will come, but we'll see.
Khejri: This is a tree that has a truly rich lore in Rajasthani history. Its importance comes because it is the most dependable plant during drought. Its leaves and fruits can be eaten by humans and animals, and its bark can be removed, crushed up, and eaten as well. Gopal told me a story where the Maharaja of Jodhpur (in Rajasthan) ordered all of the Khejris to be cut down. Not knowing the tree’s importance due to never having been outside of the imperial city, the maharaja did not know how much of an uproar this order would cause. And uproar it did cause, with the villagers saying that they would die themselves before they would let any more khejris be cut down. In fact, 363 people did die in the effort to protect these trees before the tree cutting effort was ceased. These people are now honoured every year in a festival in Jodhpur, at which a “Tree prayer” is performed and in which the focus is the khejri. The saying is that, to cut down the khejri is to cut one’s own head off. Strong feelings about a sturdy, life-giving, and remarkable tree. Early environmentalism at work. Remarkable indeed.
Watermelons: also in season, and Rajasthan is a desert state, so they are quite tasty. Whenever I get a chance I buy one and eat it in one day (both because it would go bad from the heat and because I would do this anyway; I do it in the US too). Tangentially related, the government authorities are worried about safety because there are all sorts of watermelon stands by the side of what is equivalent to an interstate (though speeds are much lower). Indeed, the watermelons are often spread out along the ground and are close to the road. Definitely a hazard.
Dangerous Things (vehicles): Speaking of dangerous things, there are many things about automobile habits that would terrify Americans here. One of these is that vehicles seem to spend about 10% of their time in the opposite lane. There are many reasons for this. Sometimes there is a gas station where you want to go, but there is no opening in the median so that you can turn. What do you do? You pre-emptively switch to the other side of the road before the gas station, going the wrong direction until you reach the desired gas station. Repeat on the way back. This happens one the equivalent of the interstate as well (though max speeds are about 50 mph in India). Also, many times the roads are simply too small to accommodate all the vehicles, so if there is no one in the opposite lane, you use it (until a car comes at least, then you have to swerve back into your lane or onto the side of the road). Also, there are share jeeps, about the size of a Cherokee but the style of a wrangler, in which anywhere from 20-40 people ride; about 15 inside and 15-25 outside. Indeed, the other day I saw one with no fewer than 15 people hanging outside. I think I have seen more, as in the slow-moving village areas, people also get on top of the vehicles. Makes for very interesting travel. Also, when you are walking, cars and motorcycles come really close to you, terrifyingly close sometimes. It’s interesting anyhow.
Two-wheelers, Three-wheelers: Indians seem to like referring to vehicle by the number of wheels they have. So, scooters and motorcycles become two wheelers, and rickshaws become three wheelers. Not sure if I’ve heard four wheelers, though (can anyone help me here?). It is funny to hear anyhow
“First class” , “Golden Opportunity”: There are a few phrases where Indians seem to really like using the English phrase. One of these is “first class”. It is funny to hear them rattle off something in Hindi and accentuate the fact that something is excellent by saying “first class”, e.g. Mainne mera garee thik karne le aya aur us mistree ne bahut achchee tarah se thik kiya, first class – I took my car to be fixed and the mechanics did very good work to fix it, first class. Also, yah pani aur shikshe ke karyakram men hamara golden opportunity hai – in this water and education program is our golden opportunity. I find it amusing anyhow. I would be interested to see know how these phrases have penetrated throughout Indian society, even in the village areas.
Infidel numbers and infidel bathing: In my reading of Nehru’s “Discovery of India” a rather amusing/depressing fact has come to my mind – that the Christian world once considered both bathing and the use of the decimal number as infidel habits, since they associated both with the common practice of muslims at the time (though the number system actually came from India, and passed to Europe through the Islamic world). As infidel habits, they were discouraged. I don’t know if it was the centuries of stinking to the high heavens, or of having to use God-forsaken Roman numerals to do complex calculations, that made the Christian world change its mind, but slowly change did occur, so that cleanliness became close to Godliness, and algebra became hot stuff. It is interesting how these cultural changes come about. I think similar things can be seen in extremist Islamic circles, where everything Western is denounced as decadent and infidel-ish. Thankfully, most of the world has enough access to outside sources of information to know that this is complete bull. May knowledge and its progress always be viewed as divine, regardless of its source.
Monkeys eating watermelons: saw them by the side of the road. Was envious. Did not want to get attacked so did not try to steal said watermelons from said monkeys. Still an aching desire. Lucky monkeys.
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