Of, course, that was only the beginning of how crazy everything suddenly got.
It all started Wednesday night. We'd heard good things about the movie The Reluctant Fundamentalist and so took an autorickshaw all the way across town to the only theater where it was still showing. When we got there we were told that it wasn't showing (error on its webpage) and since Wednesday night was Rs100 night, the place was crowded and the next show of any film that wasn't sold out wasn't until 9:40pm. Reluctantly, we ate a rather lackluster mall dinner and went outside to bargain our way back to Nitin's house (where we're staying these last few weeks).
Of, course, that was only the beginning of how crazy everything suddenly got.
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U.S. playgrounds are for sissies. Seriously. Yesterday I went to two of the best playgrounds I've ever been to. One was part of the Nehru Planetarium, the other near-by. Both were science and inquiry based. Most of the equipment in both of them would probably be illegal in the US.
Today's paper had a story about a woman who was beaten up and raped by a man from her village who was known to be a "local criminal" and knew that she lived alone. After the act he passed out (he'd been drinking heavily) and she prepared to self-immolate due to the shame. Something stopped her though and instead she threw the the kerosine-soaked sari on him and burnt him alive. A rape case was registered by the police against the deceased, and on request from the widow, a murder case against the rape victim.
So, I wonder: If your spouse brutally raped a neighbor who turned around and killed him, would you press charges? There's not a day that passes that I'm not flabbergasted by at least one news article. Here's a selection of news from today's main section of the paper:
Yesterday while riding pillion in the heavy traffic of Bellary Road on my way to ATREE I saw what looked like a Christmas tree made of flowers rising above the traffic. As we drew closer to the apparition, I decided that it looked more like a woman in a bustle (but made of flowers) with a long, thin top, a ballooning butt and a small taper at the bottom. It was held on a stout (~5cm) bamboo pole, and fluttering above an autorickshaw. Rising about 2m from the other side of the auto were longer, thinner bamboo poles that were leaning out precariously over traffic.
Feb 9 was Kavitha's 33rd birthday so we got her a cake. It turns out it was her first birthday celebration and her first cake. I'm really glad we did it.
It took awhile to sink in but it wasn't long before I realized I had no idea how to plan an urban birthday party. We lucked out (tho I'm pretty sure Kalani doesn't see it that way) with Kalani's because we were traveling (see Eastern Ghats blog) on his birthday and he was denied a party. But we were here for Kekai's and I had to figure out something to do that didn't include kids going wild at Bird Park, Namakanipaio, Kulanaokuaiki, or anywhere else with wide open spaces since there aren't any of those around here. Last week we got a flier in our mailbox, inviting us to join a group meditation in honor of Valentines Day. The idea was that you could "embrace Mother Earth & actually contribute an "I love you" to her" through meditation. It was all pretty sweet sounding until the end of the flier which had the following:
Who should not practice Meditation on Twin Hearts? 1. Pregnant Women 2. Children below the age group of 10 years 3. High BP patients 4. Heart patients 5. People with severe Kidney Ailments Wow. I get not wanting loud little kids in a group meditation, but what do you think they're going to do everyone's heart, blood pressure, and kidneys? 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.
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