What is that sound?

Today I was riding my bicycle home after clinic at the Charity Hospital.

I was riding through Roria Talib, by a large Muslim seminary, and at a place where there were fewer houses. For a minute or so, just by chance, there were no scooters or motorcycles or motors of any kind close to me. And -- unusually for Varanasi -- there were several trees close by.

Suddenly I noticed a sound. "What is that sound," I thought. It sounded so familiar, like something I had heard in the past. But it sounded so out of place. What in the world is that sound?

It was the sound of the wind rustling the leaves of a tree.

I guess I heard that sound just two months ago in Thailand, but before that I think it has been over a year since I heard that sound.

Silence is a rare, almost impossible, thing where I live now.

Affirmative Action is not so popular

Lots of Protests in the city yesterday.

The government has instituted a rule that 27% of all seats at University have to be reserved for lower caste students.

This has not been so popular here, especially with Medical Schools. So there have been protests off and on for several weeks, and they got really big yesterday.

So many main roads were blocked by hundreds of students chanting slogans and waving signboards. Not particulaly dangerous, but very inconveient.

We have enough problems with traffic in this city without this.

Cordon Bleu Vegetarian Restaurant

Don't you just love that name? Think about it.

A vegetarian restaurant that uses a dish with not one but two types of meat in its name?

Of course I love India.

(By the way, the restaurant is in the bottom floor of our apartment complex, and makes a very nice mutton stew, as well as tandori chicken. It is "Halal"-- the Muslim form of kosher-- so there is no ham, which is one of the types of meat in Cordon Blue.)

Proverbs one

I preached on Proverbs chapter one yesterday at Kashi International Fellowship. As the crowd there becomes fewer Westerners, and increasingly becomes locals who are curious or want to improve their English skills, the level of understanding of basic Bible knowledge goes down a lot.

Hence, I spent a lot of time just explaining who Solomon was, how Hebrew poetry works, and about half the time trying to explain "The Fear of the LORD" (being the beginning of wisdom and all).

The Fear of the LORD is not an easy thing to explain to anyone, so I just went through the Scripture and pointed out how it is used to build a framework on which to understand it.

Saturday was a rainy day

On Saturday, we awoke to a steady rain. This is the kind of thing that North India needs for a good harvest in the next few months. And so it rained all day.

"Waterlogging" (The Indian word for street flooding due to poor drainage) was rampant throughout the city. When it got waist deep in some of the shopping areas, most people decided to stay home. As did we. Had a good day inside with family.

Busy Day Today, too many wallah's

"Wallah" is a Hindustani term that loosely translates as "Guy". For example, the "Bus-Wallah" drives bus, the "Petrol-Wallah" pumps petrol at the gas station, the "Lumba-Wallah" would be a tall guy (Lumba can mean tall), and so on.

We had ten different wallah's in our apartment yesterday morning at Eight AM. The main group was a group of "Welder-Wallah's" (they" operate welders), who had come to weld screens onto our windows (Yes, it took a year of trying before we got screens attached to our windows, it is Varanasi, after all). Also, our electric meter had quit working, so the electician was here. And we had two carpenter wallahs in to make a bunk bed for Nora Grace (more on that later), and a couple of Painter Wallahs showed up to paint the screens and brackets after they had been attached, and finally our landlord showed up to help with crowd control.

Well stuff happened, anyways. Most screens are attached (but not all), most are painted (but not all), the meter has been repaired (and appears to function legally, what a deal), and most importantly, Nora Grace has a bunk bed.

Oh, is she so proud.

From "Freddy's Boy" to "Nora Grace's Daddy"

Yesterday as I was riding my bicycle to work, a rickshaw passed me, well nigh laden with a gaggle of early school age youngsters. As it turned out, they were coming home from Nora Grace's School.

One of them recognized me and immediately began to shout, "Noora's Papa, Noora's Papa". All the other's joined in, hollering, "Namaste", "Hello", and other greetings and messages, and nearly falling from there respective seats in their enthusiasm for getting my attention.

For most of my life, in many parts of the world, my name has not been "Lowell", but instead is, "Freddy's Boy" or "Fred and Jean's Boy". (Fred being my Dad, Jean being my Mom). Being named "Freddy's Boy" or "Fred and Jean's Boy" is a badge I have worn with honor, even when I am 40 years old, and make a six digit salary. (Well, I don't make a six digit salary now, but I used to, and maybe I do make a six digit salary if you count it in Indian rupees).

So it appears I have now gone directly from being "Freddy's Boy" to being "Nora's Daddy", with nary a stop in between. I guess I thought there might be awhile where I was just me, instead of being associated with someone else.

Oh well, there is much comfort in being associated with others, especially when they are as cool as Fred and Jean, or as Nora Grace!

Uh Oh

"Uh Oh" is Miriam's latest word. She is quite good at it. She says it a lot. Uh Oh.

Tuesday was a good day

Hello,
I am writing on Wednesday morning. Tuesday was a pretty good day.
In the continuing saga of our electrical supply, we stripped half a cord away, used the extra copper to short circut a fuse, switched a cord around, and things work again.

Of course, every time we touch the shoe rack by the Inverter, we get a good solid shock. Not enough to loose bladder control or anything, but enough to remind you that things are not actually real orthodox yet.

Had a good day in clinic, saw some stuff. Guy comes in...
Too many antibiotics, was the diagnosis. A common enough problem in Varanasi. Should perk up with normal food and stopping the Flagyl and Norflox.

Stopped and visited SandK and they are doing well.

Class this morning was fun. Talked a bit about Black Magic and curses and so on. Locals dont like to talk about it. It obviously happens a lot, but people refuse to admit its out there. Got some good vocabulary to work on.

Will make a few more phone calls today to try again to get an electrician.

The Death of Ustad Bismallah Khan

As I was biking to clinic today, I noticed a lot of stores were shutting down during the busiest part of the day, and the streets were starting to empty. When I got to Hospital, I found out that Ustad Bismallah Khan, who had been admitted last week, had died.
Estimates of his age ranged from late 80's to over 100, but he was clearly a beloved son of Varanasi. He played a reed instrument, which I will not transliterate, and was considered one of the best ever.
As a Muslim, but not a politician, he was a neutral figure. Thus there was a huge outpouring of goodwill from many different communities, with numerous high ranking political figures coming to offer condolances to the family.
He was a greatly respected man. Although he could have been richer, and lived in far nicer surroundings, he chose to spend his time deep in the intricate, intertwining gulleys of Varanasi. It is here he lived, and learned, and it is here he died. He will be missed.

Another Day in Banaras

Some days are good days, and then there are some days where lots of things dont work out. Before bed last night, one of our electrical plugin's spit flames out, and our system crashed. Large things (like the fridge and AC, thank goodness) worked, but all the fans, lights and outlets were on Inverter. We got through the night, and got an "electrician" this morning. The good fellow wasnt real clear on many of the priniciples of electricity, managing to get himself shocked quite hard several times, and then "fixed" the problem by stripping the ground wire out of one plug, and using the wire to circumvent several fuses.
It worked for a few hours, and then the same thing happened, and an outlet spewed sparks all over the girls bedroom. We will try for a different electrician tomorrow.

It did rain a bit this evening, and really cooled the city down quite a bit. That was nice, although I got soaked biking home.

God is good.

Saturday, August 19, 2006. Post number two.

I am learing to use this blog.

Today is Saturday, 19 August 2006. I am trying to set up a blog. This is a trial to see if it works.