Cluster-bombed streets and dysentery in a bottle...

...The monsoon season does not just bring grey clowds and rain, it also brings everyone closer to their toilets. I am still not sure how much more sick compared to the 'mango season' or 'dry season' or 'which ever seems to be the excuse for every bug going around, but we all caught our fair share of viruses and bugs during the monsoon. The water is more contaminated in the rainy season, which makes you pick up some nasty bacteria even more easily. It's kind of funny as we all seem to be slidly obsessed with the subject... vomiting and diarrhoea are an all time favourite at the dinner table. Our friend Anite came up with a great new business idea.... selling 'dysentery in a bottle' to people that wish to loose weight. You can pretty much bottle up whatever you can find and would surely be successful, you just have to invest in some glass bottles [they dont even have to be sterilised]. Great idea, minimal investment, tested, by most of us. It works.
A good while ago we visited the apparently biggest Tibetan community outside of Tibet, which is 'only' 5 car hours away from Bangalore, still in the same region, in Karnataka. Keeping in mind that only two hours on the as best described as 'cluster bombed' roads with lots of manic bus and truck drivers easily feel like six+ hours on the kind of streets we are used to.

Visiting their commuity turned out to be a very interesting day trip on our long weekend in Coorg. Colourful temples and monks in their traditional clothing, the sound of chanting everywhere, the smell of burned leaves, the smoke filled air and amazingly calm and kind people. At the same time it was a bit sad to think that this is their new home, which the Indian government had given to them [certainly a beautiful piece of land], with visitors+cameras walking around most of the time. But my guess is that the Tibetan communities do need the publicity. The village outside of the monastery was full of little cafes and shops, and young Tibetans sitting together preparing fresh steamed momo's [veg. dumplings]. So yummy.


Life in Bangalore is pretty good, and I would say we have learned enough about the culture by now to feel more settled... but there will be always these odd little things, things we will never get used to I guess... went to the supermarket in a big western style shopping mall the other day. Having had lots of bags, and the car upstairs in the car park I asked if I could take the trolley with me. But no, surely they had to send someone to do it for you. And here i was again... white tall blond person with little indian man next to me pushing my trolley through the mall, up the lift, to the car. It feels soooo wrong. I tried to take the trolley and convince him that I really can push it myself...but no no madam... there I had to remind myself that I can forget about changing the system. Their class system and oh so big passion for it gave me no choice but to feel stupid and walk next to him.

It's absolutely facinating when indians meet for the first time how quickly they communicate each others 'ranking' in society, they tell each other in coded [and sometimes very obvious] wording who they are... which then leads to putting on the appropriate behaviour towards the other person. Materialism here we come! It gets even worth when they know you can listen into their conversation, aonother person to proof their status to.
The behaviour of many wealthy indians towards employees such as drivers, maids, cooks, etc. seems very foreign and often rude to us [A good example of how in many cases they regard people working for them is this photo: 'Attendants, Bearers, Drivers or servants and Pets are not permitted to enter'. We could not believe it really, but it didn't come as a total surprise to us either and proofed what we had seen before.

A must read when interested in understanding the indian way of life is 'Being Indian' by Pavan K Varma'. It does helps to understand bits of this complex culture in transition. We sometimes experience two very different Indian realities in just one day... spending time with Ajit for example, chatting about Ganesha [important god] for over an hour as so it is a real person, talking about pujas, him telling me about the trip to the temple where their family god is, etc. ...and then going to an ultra modern night club that same evening... where good looking young girls wear the shortest skirts possible, drink alcohol and kiss boys in public. Two very different worlds, so close together.

Had a 'feeling very tall' moment the other day. Went to get a facial done at this new place. 'Elvis the Sri Lankan hair-stylist' told me to get ready and lay down on the bench in the facial room. So I did, or rather...tried. The room was too short, I could not lay down. We had such a laugh... had to call my tall swedish friend Jessica straight away... to share the 'pain' of being tall and to tell her that this place is not suitable for us as the rooms are too small. I had many things being to short or small for me... but certainly never rooms.

It was Ajits' son's 5th Birthday on Sunday, and he asked us to come for the cake cutting, which is an important little ritual here. We took baloons, pencils and sweets for the kids, and wrapped up boys toys for Omkar, Ajit's son. It was good to meet the entire family, they all seem very nice. And it was interesting to see how they live, but kind of shocking at the same time. For our standards they are poor and dont have much, here in India they are regarded as not that bad off. Both of us felt very emotional, the person that we spend lots of time with, everyday, showing us around his mini house so proudly... these tiny rooms with hardly anything in it and one very small bed for Ajit, his wife and their son together. We just came from a big sunday brunch with some friends at a 5 star hotel, which made it even more bizarre.
Important is that Ajit and his family are happy, have jobs, have a house, a dog, their son goes to school and is well looked after... and we just had to tell ourselfes that it is not that bad really, just different. We talked all evening about it, back in our home, and realised we felt that way because it was so real, it was all of a sudden so close to us, so personal. Our Ajit. But we were glad we could see their real lifes. It made us think...