11.26.2006...NY News

This is not India related and normally I don't like to just regurgitate news, but this one was exceptionally irritating to read.

NY Police Kill Man on Wedding Day

What is so compelling about this piece is that it is reported that the police were trying to stop something they 'thought' was about to happen.

For the number of bullets shot and the fact that these men turned out to be unarmed was particularly disturbing.

Likely, as with case of many police abuse injustices of this extreme nature in recent years, their behavior will be acquitted.

Seriously, how can people anywhere in the US (as there have been incidents in recent years in Georgia, Oakland, LA, and Florida to name a couple off the top of my head), trust these enforcers of the law?

They are touted as protectors of the peace, but seriously that isn't their job as much as it is to enforce the law and HUGE part of that in America entails the focusing on punitive actions rather than remedial or rehabilitative. I'm just be honest here.

I am not against cops as people. They are just regular folks trying to do their job under the guidelines given then. I just take issue with any group to appears to routinely and actively condone, covers-up or deny incidents of power abuse and lethal miscalculations. The typical rationale is that it is a hard job (which it can be) and they need some leeway to execute their duties. When this leeway turns into killing people in the anticipation they were about to be part of a crime....well it seems that Federal level attitudes are trickling down to the local levels.

Peace (and I wish there really was more of it),

A Pink American

11.24.2006...Ooooh Black Friday and More Tales

This is one day when I really feel as if I'm missing being in America. Few things throw the modern American into sheer survival mode better than the pushing, squeezing, heckling and down right animalistic frenzy than shopping the day after Thanksgiving...aka Black Friday.

I've braved the wilds of the malls and free-standing stores a couple of times. An actionable plan for shopping strategies must be laid out and rehearsed in the days leading up to this day, lest you fail in your mission of holiday savings (hmmm, maybe we could save by not spending/buying so much??). Few days see such activity in the US between the hours of 4am and 12noon as this day.
I've tried to calculate the cost-savings ratio for the lost sleep, gas used, and intense stress felt on this day of shopping and have concluded that there are no real savings to speak of.

The great thing about Americans, and an increasing number of their worldy cohabitants, is that this practical knowledge will no way disuade them from one of their favorite consumer rituals.

Let's pause for a quick moment. I don't want anyone to get the impression that I'm a pure cycnic. Yes I can be cycnical about some things, but most things I find too humorous to care about chastizing, so when I make these observations they aren't in any way judgemental. I'm just sharing the humor and irony of what I see.

And in resuming...

I must provide a followup to yesterday's Thanksgiving tale.

However, it will be in straight 1st person delivery.

I had planned on fibbing a bit to the instructor so as to cowardly bow out of not meeting with her anymore nor giving her the press she wanted. Boy, I was feeling low.

This morning I awoke refreshed and realized that I couldn't let her dishonesty beget dishonesty in me. But, I also didn't want to get hostile over the money because that really wasn't the point.

After the lesson, we told her that I would not return tonight as we do have dinner guests (which is true) and that I would not come next Friday as I had only felt shakey confidence at performing for the press with the knowledge of 11 lessons ahead of me, but felt even less confidence in doing so with only 7 lessons done (this was true too, although not entirely the reason for intially wanting to back out).

She really seemed sincerely sorry to hear that. She tried to explain that she believed I wanted 2 lessons a week for 3 weeks (or six lessons) only. This may have been true, but we kept repeating clearly that we were expecting 3 weeks of lessons. Maybe she didn't pay attention, I don't know.

She offered to give us back some of the money and we declined saying it was a fair amount, but she should have been clear with as about what she was planning on giving when we had been clear about what we expected.

We reaffirmed that she is a very good instructor. With the exception of this matter, I would recommend her. Just be CLEAR on the arrangements.

In the end, honesty was the best policy. Okay, blarf, that I said that, but it was true. Plus I feel better and don't have to second guess my appreciation for having learned what I did.

It's funny how when you are willing to let go the hurt of being wronged that you can either find the humor in the situation or you can find the peace of mind to address it head on, thus realizing it won't kill you to confront troubling matters. In fact I ALWAYS feel better for having done so.

Another quick tale...

Lest I leave a taste in my audience mind that ALL Indian busines folk are shady or corrupt, I did want to share another quick story.

When we visited Mt. Abu, we shopped at the Rajasthan Emporium. Among other things, we picked up several leather bound journals.

When we returned home I realized that either we were one short or we had been charged too much. Again, we felt bad. We prepared ourselves for a more typical response of "we don't know what you're talking about" followed by a swift click.

However, when we called, they quickly remembered us and told us that had set the journal aside after we left. They sent it by courier that day and it arrived at our house the very next morning.

So you see, all isn't bad in India. In fact ALL isn't bad anywhere, but as humans it seems we tend to gravitate our minds to focus on such misfortunes and miseries rather than addressing them as what they are: small and temporary in our lives.

There definitely is a basis for saying 'if it bleeds it leads"...not only in newspapers but in many of our minds about the way we view life. No, we don't need a world of Pollyanna's, BUT we could try a bit more to let the sunnier side of life shine in from time to time. It feels pretty good.

Peace

A Pink American

11.23.2006...A Thanksgiving Tale

Well if you are in America, you are no doubt getting ready to slip on the stretchy track pants or sweats and let slide an enormous variety (and quantity) of food down into your belly. The annual gorge-fest, more popularly known as Thanksgiving, has arrived. Let us rejoice.

But here, on the other side of the planet, well let's say I get to see first hand why our American mothers always told us"you better eat that because there are starving children in________!" Fill in you favorite guilt provoking country.

It's not that I am trying to provoke guilt, just making observations as I see them

So for the promised Thanskgiving tale...

I will title it in the traditional elementary school manner of "Why I Give Thanks." But I will also give it working subtitle of "The Nature of Business in India."

Let us begin...

Once upon a time there was a fair Westerner--pink you could say--who decided to travel far, far away to the land of spices and call centers. She was hopeful of acquiring exposure and experiences in this oh-so foreign land.

Filled with this hope, she traveled throughout the land of India tasting its tastes, seeing its sights, delighting in its delights. She saw beauty and misery in step with one another everywhere she looked. Her heart filled with wonderment and pained from sorrow.

Well into this journey she was offered the chance to learn a traditional performance art form from a master artist and instructor. She had been connected with a guru. She reeled with enthusiasm at the possibility of training for three weeks with this guru. Dates were agree upon. Fees were agreed upon. Press coverage was agreed upon. And so the lessons began.

Our fair Westerner learned and practiced with sincere dedication, as the guru noted. Upon the closure of each lesson they discussed the plans for the next lessons and days to come. The girl was nervous at the prospect of just three weeks training before performing, but felt confident with the guidance of such a capable guru.

On the sixth lesson, which was near the end of the second week the girl asked:

"When will be the last day that you will teach me something new? How much time will I have to practice?"

"Friday will be the last day."

"You'll teach me something new the day I'll perform?"

"Yes, you will come two times tomorrow. Once for lesson. Once for the press."

This gave the girl pause for thought: tomorrow? That was only the end of the second week, only the seventh lesson.

"If you want to wait until next Friday and take more lessons, then you can."

What was this? The girl felt ill at the thought that she was being fleeced. The number of lessons, the dates, all of these things had been confirmed in the beginning and again just two days before. It wasn't meerely the money, although it had been a fair amount. It was that a guru of dance, of a creative art, was trying to swindle her.

Some fast talking ensued between the girl's host and her guru. The guru would grant two additional lessons.

Two additional lessons? the girl thought. It was more like two lessons less.

After leaving that day, the girl resolved to only take her seventh lesson on the last day of her second week, and not return. She realized her mistake and was sick from disillusionment.

In her time in India prior to meeting the guru, she had seen many slick business dealings where a sales or service person told her hosts one thing, then denied it the next day. Would promise to come and then not call for four days. Would quote them a rate and then see the girl and ask for double. It was clear and present fleecing all around, and not always because of her presence.

Her mistake had been to assume that someone of the arts wouldn't pull such a slick move. Someone whom she had been personally recommended to. Someone who wanted her to perform for the press and say good things.

She was simply wrong.

In the end the fair Westerner was only sad that such an excellent teacher could be such a treachorous business person. After all, in her short time she did learn more than many do in a year's training, for that she was happy.

And being that she was in India, she firmly believed that karma would likely counteract such an underhanded deed.

So she went on with her exposure and experiences with this foreign land and only took with her her dance steps and the lesson of never blindly trusting anyone in India with a business arrangement, unless, of course, it is writing AND signed by two witnesses.

The End

So really, I am thankful that I was able to take these Kathak lessons from such a good instructor, but I'm not kidding at how sick I felt with disappointment when I realized we were being fleeced.

I'm not going to punish myself though...how could I have known? I'll finish my lesson tomorrow and then be done with it. I can't even pretend that what she did was okay and therefore cannot, in good faith, allow her the press coverage of my training.

What to do, what to do.

I am giving thanks today, that I am in this wonderful land filled with beauty, depth, misery and deception. I have definitely been getting what I hoped to get out of this experience.

I will say that there are many unpleasantries (some simple and subtle, some downright shameful) that I have been privvy to since I've been here, but I've refrained from discussing them as they are generally passing and a lesser part of this experience. But I couldn't keep quiet on this one because it was quite a shameless act of greed that was even stunning to me, an American.

With that, I bid farewell. I hope that I will bring more pleasant tidings with my next post.

Peace,

A Pink American