Iowa Guru in the Land of the Coconuts

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Victory is MINE!

Any of you who have been watching my blog since I came to God’s Own Country (thanks to both of you!) may remember that when our possessions arrived from Jaipur in the late summer, several of them were damaged. Since September 8, I have asked the moving company to make good their contract and pay me damages for the items. I have them photographed, itemized, and sent several forms at least 6 times to no less than 3 people. Still, no love, no rupees.

At the beginning of April, I lost my patience and decided to try a different track. I wrote to the most recent moving company employee who lied and told me they would resolve the issue within 21 days and told them HE had 21 days to resolve this issue, or I had prepared a very damaging advertisement that explained how unresponsive their company had been, and was going to put it in the Jaipur newspaper when I visited there in early June. That seemed to get their attention. A flurry of emails asked me be patient (7 months doesn’t qualify, I guess) and that my case would be resolved. I responded with a simple “21 more days of patience left, oh, no, now 20.” I expected to be placing an ad (hadn’t written it yet, but somehow I feel like I could have come up with a homerun) when surprise of surprises, I got an email today that looked like another apology without action, but had an attachment of a check made out to me, which they didn’t bother to tell me how I was to receive. Actually the email was confusing, because it sounded like they were congratulating themselves pretty heavily on getting the stuff here at all. Here’s the beginning:

Dear Sir,

This is in reference to your email message dated 17-04-2014 regarding the subject consignment. We thank you for your continuous support and patronage. We have the best network and proper infrastructure for the safe delivery of your sensitive and high value consignments. State of the art warehouses, mechanized handling, containerized vehicles, Online Tracking; CCTV vigilance etc. is to ensure its safety and security.

However, sometimes due to external factors and rarely due to human error, there are unforeseen cases of loss during transit.

As I read on down it explained that even though they were basically not at fault, and “ We also agree that a cheque cannot compensate the inconvenience caused. This gesture to compensate with a cheque is to purely minimize your monetary loss.”

Whatever, somehow I think I will still feel better if you pay me what you promised to pay after you broke my bookshelf into several pieces, broke several pieces of other stuff, etc.

I was elated to have made them do their jobs, but I responded and said this was a nice beginning, but I still didn’t have the check…. and now comes the the part that made S really guffaw….. They replied thus: Mam: Same has been couriered to Trivendrum address through overnight courier on 20^th may’14.

Same will be receiving within 2 working days.

An overnight courier that takes 2 days, now that’s India!

Sunday, May 11, 2014

America, Heck Yeah!

We were in America last week for a wonderful wedding celebration, and in the spare moments (very few) we reloaded our supply chest. Several people have asked me what kinds of things we need to get in America that we can't find here, so I'll list a few. You'll notice the distinction blurs between "need" and "want" quickly: Dri-weave sports tops (Target, I love you.), crazy glue, Sharpees, baggies, sticky-backed hooks, jeans, underwear, pharmaceutical supplies, hiking boots…Definitely on the "want" side we feature chocolate, oatmeal packets, almond butter, black beans, tea, Italian spices, high-end vinegar, and parmesan.
A few of my favorite things: It was great to see family, be part of the celebration, and also to visit America. My but there are a lot of enjoyable parts to our country, including but not limited to family, chocolate milk (obviously no order here!), clean streets, the fantastic Frontera Grill food at O'Hare (Thank you Rick Bayless, for making my coming and going so pleasurable) beautiful rubble-free landscapes, friendly people, no horn honking, street lights, pedestrians and drivers obeying street lights, safety, Mexican food, the ease of using a credit card or checking out of a hotel, any financial transaction that is filled with carbon copies here but paperless there, the chatty friendliness of Midwesterners, HGTV (the property brothers still ROCK) people who speak English and understand me (well, understand my English, anyway), etc. Not a small list, but an important one.
We leave here in less than 2 months for China to visit Eldest Daugther, and it will be fun to explore that culture again, but it was so comforting to be in a culture where you knew what you were supposed to do, even if we didn't always do it.

We could 't believe our eyes. This level of service in an airport seemed uniquely American.

Had quite a few of those, as it hits 2 pleasure centers.

FRONTERA Grill at O'Hare

And that's what you missed….

During my 6-week writing hiatus, India has been holding national elections. They spread them out by sections of the country because it gives the national election commission sufficient time to oversee the voting to avoid "irregularities", etc. The results are to be announced this week sometime. It's been so long even the newspapers are getting bored of writing about it. One highlight for me in the campaigning came a few Sundays back when I read the following in the newspaper:

The Headline: Day of Embarrassment for BJP, Congress

On the one side, a Congress candidate threated to chop the BJP prime ministerial nominee into pieces… He was arrested on charges of hate speech. Caught on video, he said, “If Modi tries to turn U.P. (his home state) into Gujurat (Modi’s state), then we will chop him into tiny pieces….I am not scared of getting killed or attacking someone.” OBVI

On the other side, the BJP announced that party membership of one guy had been annulled on Saturday. He had joined the BJP only on Friday…. Hmmmm. Not sure what is happening on that one, but someone conjectured that they discovered the guy was Muslim.

In other news, the great Gabriel Garcia Marquez died. If you haven't read either Love in the Time of Cholera or 100 Years of Solititude, put them at the top of your list. The man was a genius, and his short stories, along with his novels, are some of my favorite reads. Here is the opening sentence of 100 Years...

“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Col. Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. At that time Macondo was a village of 20 adobe houses built on the bank of a river of clear water that ran along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like prehistoric eggs. The world was so recent that many things lacked names, and in order to indicate them it was necessary to point.”

“One Hundred Years of Solitude” sold tens of millions of copies. The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda called it “the greatest revelation in the Spanish language since ‘Don Quixote.’ ” The novelist William Kennedy hailed it as “the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race.” I concur.

Below are some pictures I've been saving for various blogs that I have to condense today because of time constraints. They are from a recent trip to the beach, our train ride to Bangalore, and the birds of my neighborhood. I'll let the pictures do the talking...

This guy was in the park. Check out the bluish legs.

The view from the rear of a loaded truck

Small load by Indian standards

Standing and watching the tide roll in!

Punk Woodpecker

Oh, Bangalore!

Way back in March we were in Bangalore for a few days, some work some play, and it was a bit like being in another country much of the time. Part of the fun was visiting our former Iowa City chums P and R, and it reminded us that we used to have friends and there is great comfort is laughing over the same stuff, and sharing a cultural base.
They showed us the best of what Bangalore has to offer, and that is a pretty impressive set. There is serious money in Bangalore, NRI and international, because of the technology park and subsequent high-end industries. You notice it as soon as you step off the plane onto the pristine marble floor of the airport, and walk down a corridor lined with gorgeous plantings but no garbage. We saw several trash cans in Bangalore, a rare sight in India, along with restaurants of every cuisine that rivaled major cities around the world. And yes, we partook of as much as we could. We visited R's very impressive lab that had state of the art equipment, management, and cleanliness, and P's progressive, gorgeous, well-equiped elementary school campus and we had a sense that we were not in the India we had come to know thus far. It was a great respite, though, I'm not complaining. It is curious, though, how much difference an infusion of money can make on a culture. Sure there was lots of horn honking and crazy driving, and other Indian-markers, but there were also several experiences that seemed rather out of place.
We were hoping to go back in June, but the deal fell through for another workshop, so we'll have to settle for a great memory of time with friends and great food and hotel experiences. Sigh…. Some pictures of our time, yes, they are of food, a salad and great dessert, to be specific… the burrata cheese in the salad was top quality, as were the micro greens and the tiramisu was fabulous. Keep up the good work, Bangalore!

Mother's Day Garden

For me, Mother's Day has very often been about gardening. In Iowa it was a great time to set plants, both perennial and annual, and mess around in the dirt. This year saw a return to the garden, this time of a tropical variety. In addition to the mango festival next store, a couple of nurseries set up their wares, and for very few coins I was able to amass a lovely array of tropical exotic flora. Enjoy the show.

MANGO FESTIVAL!

I've been on blog hiatus while I've been traveling, working like a fiend, and visiting America, but I'm back and have lots to catch up… First and foremost, there is a MANGO FESTIVAL across the street at the palace grounds!!!! There's always some cacophony and crowd there for some exhibition or other, so I don't usually pay much attention, but when I saw the giant mango at the entrance, all I could think was "Oh yeah, baby, that's what I'm talking about!" and I made a bee line for the ticket counter.

At first it reminded us a bit of a state fair atmosphere with the informational pavilions, but the mango hawkers' pavilion was pure India: loud, messy, crowded, colorful, and delicious. I thought I had more than my share before I happened on the sales pavilion, but I guess I was wrong, because about 30 mangoes later I emerged with full bags. These are by far the most delicious mangoes I have ever eaten, and so far, the Alphonsa is still the queen of them all. A couple of hawkers insisted yesterday that their "rare" variety was sweeter than the Alphonsa, so I bought a kilo, but I've yet to taste them, as they are still ripening. I'll believe it when I eat it. Last night we had mango lassis made from 8 Alphonsa mangoes and some yogurt, and I'm sure a sweeter drink has never passed my lips. I did indeed swoon.

And, as if the mangoes weren't enough to get my heart going, there was a drum group at the bottom of the hill, but not just any drum corp.

It's normal to hear drums around the city about every day, because they are employed to "drum up" business for any new opening of a store, exhibit, or just because. But these drummers were on fire with the beat, and I capture some footage I'll try to upload for your enjoyment. Not sure this bandwidth can handle it, though... They were incredible, really, as good as any drum group I've heard, and they had great stage presence. One drummer would subtly announce a shift by bending forward over his drum, or something I couldn't ascertain, and then they were off. Sometimes they would gather in a circle and try to outbeat each other, and sometimes they got so loud I had to back up. Notice the curved drum sticks, by the way, and also the ages of some of the drummers. I guess they are getting better with age like some of us!

All in all a great experience. This is some of the best of what Kerala has to offer, and I was loving it! I've been waiting all year for mango season in Kerala, and it has not disappointed. I'll be "putting up" some mangoes in the freezer with some lemon juice and a very small dash of sugar, blended, to use as a sauce for yogurt or ice cream, or just to take a direct hit from. I don't want to be caught without mango goodness during the monsoon season, in case the mangoes stop coming… Enjoy the photos below, sorry, I know it will make you quite hungry for the mango nectar….