http://volcanovent.com/Scheffler.html
OK, not all rants, but here's the link to the articles I've been writing for the Volcano Vent. You can get to the old ones by clicking the Archives link under my photo:
http://volcanovent.com/Scheffler.html
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I think today's headlines were the most optimistic thing I've read since picking up my first Indian newspaper. Omar Abdullah, Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, is taking a no-nonsense legal approach to the harassment spawning from the social boycott and fatwa called against the Kashmiri girls in the band.
Until everyone does everything in their power to ensure that people are treated fairly, regardless of their sex or age, we will continue to see the senseless violence against women and girls that has been in the news since my arrival but only recently brought to the attention of the masses. It's easy to look at cases like this and let them ride: what does it really matter if three girls sing? Most everyone decided their own hides were more important than young dreams and kept quiet in the wake of the controversy. Thank you, Mr. Abdullah, your actions are a ray of hope in the effort to change the violent manifestation of something so much deeper than what we are exposed to in the news. While groups debate the death penalty and juvenile justice, I am uplifted knowing that people are out there, tackling such problems at their long and amorphous roots. (and, no, I'm not just talking about India) Oooh, I have data! Nagendra finished entering the interviews for me and I now have a 66 x 2,366 worksheet full of data. Not all those cells are useful (I set the worksheet up to be easy to enter accurately, but not easy to work with afterwards) but, still, I have data.
What I don't have is a Stats program. Didn't think about the fact that it was on my office desktop, not my laptop (not to mention that the license has probably expired anyway). Now to figure out what to do with it all..... Immo and Diana, Sonampthpur From Jodhpur we flew back to South India where we spent a few days in Bangalore before heading to Mysore on a train, then back to Bangalore for a couple nights, then Immo and Diana departed for the US. Our return to Bangalore coincided with a bout of stomach flu that I naturally assumed meant that we'd gotten bad water, but since a new one of us fell to it every day or two I finally realized that it wasn't something we'd eaten. it put a bit of a damper on our South India time but it luckily passed pretty quickly so no one "lost" more than a day of touristing. We had enough time to find a beautiful kurtha for Diana (Fabindia, of course) and Immo even put together an invited speach at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research. Cold Jodhpur morning Oh, and yes! It is blue! We stayed at the Haveli Inn Pal which promised to have the best views of Meherangarh Fort in the town. It delivered fully with the most amazing breakfast views I've ever seen. Like all of Rajasthan, Jodhpur was cold and I spent most of my time double-wrapped in first my Polartech fleece followed by a Pashmina shawl, that I almost never took off. The hotel was actually in the walled and gated old Sardar Bazaar which meant that all you had to do was step out the door and you were in the thick of it. We asked about going somewhere when we first arrived and the hotel owner said that we should wait until after 10am the next day so that we could see it when it was "animated," and animated it was. A veritable sea of people and goods and, and, and . . . that made it very easy to squint your eyes a bit and float back in time to when the fort was still occupied and the markets were held here. Starting on our sunset camel ride From Jaipur we traveled to Bikaner (north east of Jaipur and further from the main tourist trail). By this time I was getting more than a little fed up with our driver who kept saddling us with "free" guides everywhere we went and trying to drag us into commission shops and restaurants. My frustration peaked in Fatehpur (a new Fatehpur). The small Shekhawati town is known for fabulous havellis but our driver refused to drive us into town, insisting that the police didn't allow cars in town (very much not so). Luckily Bikaner is a small city and easy to traverse on foot and with autorickshaws so we were able to take a break from our driver for a couple days. Yesterday Tim took me to the office on the back of his bike. There are definite advantages of going on the bike, first and foremost being that although it takes over 2 hours to go from my door to the ATREE offices by bus, it's a mere 40 minutes or so on a motorcycle.
Entering the pink city From Agra, we drove to Jaipur, the Pink City. Jaipur is probably one of the most touristed cities in the world, but still utterly fascinating. It's a beautiful place and was a nice start to our week in Rajasthan. Rajasthan was the start of our luxury travel and we stayed exclusively in heritage hotels (all havellis) that were each remarkable. New Year's eve at the Taj On New Year's Eve we drove from Delhi to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Tim and I had been there right after we were married and Kalani had been there less than 2 weeks before, but it was still a magical place whose beauty wasn't diminished by second-timeness. Temperatures were at record lows (falling to just below freezing) and on our second day the fog was so thick you couldn't see anything but we got there just in time for sunset on a lovely clear day and had a great time (tho Tim quipped that the first time I'd been there I nearly had heat stroke (August!) and the second time I was going to freeze to death). Old Fort mosque Immo and Diana visited from 28 December - 16 January, 2013. We flew up to Delhi to meet them then proceeded to travel through the Golden Triangle (Delhi, Agra, Rajasthan) then flew from Jodhpur back down to Bangalore. It was a fun trip, and we got to see a really different part of India. I'll start here with our three days in Delhi.... |
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