May 28, 1998<\/p>\n
Hi From Bombay,<\/p>\n
Today Pakistan tested three nuclear bombs.\u00a0 How incredible this whole mess!\u00a0 The arms race between the USSR and the U.S. in the 70s and 80s was bad, but at least the two countries were rich superpowers, though both countries should have thought of better ways to spend the money.\u00a0 What a tragedy when developing countries that can’t even feed or house all its citizens properly or provide uniform access to roads, transportation, communication, basic infrastructure and services, spend time and money building and testing nuclear bombs.\u00a0 I’m also stunned that what we read in the local press is how the Indian leadership sees building nuclear bombs as good for its citizens, providing them security.\u00a0 Many citizens of India resent the west and especially the U.S. for wanting them to stop the build-up.\u00a0 Help me understand this.\u00a0 How does moving these two nations closer to conflict provide security?\u00a0 How does depriving citizens of funds for infrastructure and development provide security?\u00a0 I understand that U.S. policy has its share of contradiction and hypocrisy.\u00a0 Still, we have learned (I hope) what a fruitless resource drain an arms race is.\u00a0 A tragedy that these two countries, formerly one, are at each others throats.\u00a0 A few weeks ago I heard about a form on which the person had listed Karachi (in modern Pakistan) as his birth place, and “Undivided India” as nation of birth.\u00a0 Poignant and sad!\u00a0 <\/p>\n
We are experiencing very little of this bomb situation here in Bombay with one exception.\u00a0 Some of the more nationalist Hindu groups have chosen what I consider an odd way of protesting U.S. sanctions and what they see as U.S. imperialism.\u00a0 They attack Coke and Pepsi!\u00a0 The paper published pictures of jubilant, smiling people standing around sewers, emptying\u00a0 bottles of both soft drinks.\u00a0 Also, local activists ransacked and even burned several Pepsi or Coke delivery trucks.\u00a0 An odd switch from burning the flag, eh?\u00a0 Kind of makes me want to laugh, or possibly cry, or maybe feel a little sheepish that corporate icons like Pepsi and Coke represent my country.\u00a0 I think I’d prefer flag burnings.\u00a0 The ultimate irony is that Indian soft-drink bottlers, truck drivers, and franchise holders suffer the most from such attacks!<\/p>\n
On Monday we celebrated Memorial Day.\u00a0 I was off work, but the children were not off school.\u00a0 We heard it was hard to convince the school to even take Thanksgiving off, let alone Memorial Day.\u00a0 Though it is the American school, most of the students are Korean, Japanese and assorted European.\u00a0 Our three felt a burst of patriotism early Monday morning (commendable) wanting to stay home from school to commemorate the holiday.\u00a0 The semester is nearly finished and anyway, they had exams that day so off to school they went.\u00a0 And off on a nice date went my wife and me.\u00a0 Our driver, Hasmukh, picked us up at 10:00.\u00a0 First, we went to Crawford Market.\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 It is hard to capture all the color and interest of the place in words.\u00a0 A lot of what’s sold there is fruit and vegetables.\u00a0 The sellers work hard to get you to buy.\u00a0 With all the competition, even an obviously non-Indian like me gets a fairly decent price.\u00a0 Of course we bought nothing there; that’s Patsy’s job.\u00a0 Plus, she pays one fourth what the sellers would charge us.<\/p>\n
Right now is mango season and oh are they plentiful and beautiful.\u00a0 I was also amazed at the spice stalls.\u00a0 Spice wallahs sell jars of aromatic powders and herbs you can either buy straight or have mixed to your own specifications.\u00a0 Every cook, every mother, every auntie, grandmother and cousin-brother has his or her own masala (spice mixture) recipe and probably many varying mixtures for different dishes.\u00a0 Also at Crawford Market a person can get dishes, suitcases, toilet paper, Kraft salad dressing, nuts, chicken and other freshly slaughtered meats, candy, baked goods, plastic goods, Kelloggs Corn Flakes, …get the picture?\u00a0 Paraphrasing Arlo Guthrie, you can get anything you want at Crawford Market.\u00a0 Also, the place is old.\u00a0 Rudyard Kipling’s father even designed some of the carvings and one of the fountains.<\/p>\n
From there we explored other places and ended up at the Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal hotel.\u00a0 As we were filming the Gateway of India, a prominent tourist destination that looks a little, in size and basic shape, like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, a cute, dirty, ragged and forward girl walked up to me and said, “Hello, hello, hello!” Here is how the dialogue between us went:<\/p>\n
Girl:\u00a0 Hello, what’s your name? (I ignored her for awhile, but she persisted, so I answered)
\nMe: Mr Sahib (pronounced saab, like the car).\u00a0 What’s your name?
\nGirl: Adjitya.\u00a0 What’s her (pointing at my wife) name?
\nMe:\u00a0 Mrs. Memsahib.
\nGirl: What country are you from?
\nMe: America.\u00a0 What country are you from?
\nGirl: Bombay.\u00a0 I work here.
\nMe:\u00a0 What work do you do?
\nGirl:\u00a0 I beg.
\nMe:\u00a0 Where is your mother and your father?
\nGirl:\u00a0 They died.<\/p>\n
At that point we went past her boundary and into the hotel.\u00a0 I felt bad and guilty for being relieved to be away from her.\u00a0 Interactions like that are uncomfortable and make me feel so ambivalent.\u00a0 The common wisdom is that you don’t give beggars money.\u00a0 We’re still following that, though it feels bad to ignore a begging child.<\/p>\n
We had lunch at a jazz restaurant with good food and nice atmosphere.\u00a0 Very upper class Indian, expatriate oriented; very, very trendy.\u00a0 Total cost for the two of us?\u00a0 Around $8.00.\u00a0 Classy places for lunch in D.C. could cost two people $40 or $50.\u00a0 Even normal places could cost $8 per person!<\/p>\n
‘Till next time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
May 28, 1998 Hi From Bombay, Today Pakistan tested three nuclear bombs.\u00a0 How incredible this whole mess!\u00a0 The arms race between the USSR and the U.S. in the 70s and 80s was bad, but at least the two countries were … Continue reading