What's it gonna be- democratic rule or megalomania era?

What's it gonna be- Democratic rule or megalomania era ??

It has been an interesting few months since I last communicated. I attended my family reunion in March in Kochi where the 6 of us siblings met and enjoyed reminiscing about the ‘good ole’days’ and enjoyed good food along with laughter and those priceless moments to treasure!  My oldest sister who is a nun turned 85 and she has not lost her sharp wit and humour which was delightful to experience. We also celebrated another brother’s 74^th birthday as well. I baked my hummingbird cake with cream cheese icing for their celebration which was a big hit.  

My brother and wife travelled from the US for this reunion and I travelled to Kochi by car and had a great ‘acting driver’ who got me there in less than 4 hours! Unlike highway travel in the US, there are no rest stops where women would be able to find ‘suitable’ toilet facilities- so I usually stay dehydrated, sipping water like wine until I get to my destination!  Having a car and driver at my destination has become important for me so I can have the freedom to just come and go as I need, instead of depending on others for transportation.

It is an interesting concept of having drivers available when you need them to come and drive your car, whether it be local jaunts or outstation tour. You pay them a minimum rate for the first 4 hours of Rs. 300 which is about $5 and every additional hour at Rs. 50 or about 90 cents! For outstation duty, you pay Rs. 800 and per diem for food of Rs. 200. There are agencies that are in the business of providing drivers- they have profiles of drivers and their background checks and they hold the driver’s original license- one needs to give them an hour’s notice based on where you live and they will send out a driver according to your request. After a few trials of drivers you can even request a particular driver if you feel he fits your comfort zone as far as driving and knowing the city etc. I still experience some level of gender bias which as is the case so ingrained in the men that I don’t know if they are even aware- buying a laptop, smart phone, paying the restaurant bill etc. is still in a man’s world over here- the sales person doesn’t even look at me when I ask the questions, hand over my credit card and keep taking the bill to the man at the table even though I requested the check!

So the big news in India right now is as the Times of India calls it “the dance of democracy”- I have never experienced the chaos, name calling, communal rifts, tiffs, violence and amazing flurry of activity like the current times in India! There are 543 seats being contested for the lower house or Lok Sabha and numerous parties that are either going it alone or aligned with the 2 major parties in India- the Congress and the BJP.  So few women candidates are in the fray which is a pity considering the heightened dialogue currently about the status of women in India.  In the last general election in 2009, the Indian electorate was estimated to total approximately 714 million individuals, out of whom around 415 million actually cast a vote. Voting takes place in different times across the country and counting of votes will only happen on May 16^th. Some states in the Northeast have started the voting already. In Tamil Nadu it takes place on April 24^th.  A model code of conduct has come into force with immediate effect restraining the state government that is in power from making any new announcements that would be seen as an advantage with voters.

The election commission has been charged with ensuring that voters are not ‘bought’ with money and other goods- so they do roadside spot vehicle checks to see how much money one is carrying- you are allowed to carry up to Rs. 50,000 without documentation. Any higher amount must have the documents to show whether it is your business sales that is being taken to the bank etc. I have been stopped 4 times and once was even videotaped while I counted the cash I had in my purse for the officer!! A few times, I gave these fellas a hard time and communicated only in English which infuriates them and they start speaking in Tamil to my driver asking why did he not explain that this is a procedure mandated by the election commission! Of course these vehicle checks for unaccounted cash being transported to voters have yielded more than what the officers hoped for. Many criminals on the run have landed in the police net and several unsolved crimes have been cracked and stolen gold jewellery worth over Rs. 270,000 has also been seized in the state! Apparently the road that I live on has been the scene of many seizures and I wonder if the fact that my license plate being from Chennai makes me a target for these checks- since much of the money does come from outside this area.

I am in the process of getting my retirement home built. I have gorgeous views of the mountains in the north and west – similar to feng shui, the Indian equivalent is vaastu and I’m trying to ensure that the home complies with vaastu principles. It is an elaborate system and I’m glad that my architect has a good vaastu consultant to help with the details. I will be living in a village that has a local government system called the Panchayat and I must say that the people in this village are very hospitable, friendly and willing to help as much as possible. I anticipate that my retirement days will be filled with interactions that are just more simplistic, no frills and better connectedness with people and nature.

In fact the wind in that area is great perhaps because of the mountains making the heat more bearable as a result. Speaking of heat- we are in a heat wave with temperatures in the upper 90- 100 degree F which is hot for Coimbatore since we are so close to the mountains. The nights and mornings are very cool and comfortable. Of course Chennai is in a worse position with the heat wave. Seems like weather changes are happening all across the world.

I will be visiting the US in June for about 2 weeks and hope to connect with a few of my friends. Until the next time enjoy your springtime weather before the heat sets in. Do let me know how you are doing – I love to hear from you.

Fizz, Fizz, What a relief retirement is!

Hello Friends

A very happy new year to all of you! It has been a long time since I wrote to you- my move to Coimbatore has been the best since my relocation to India. I love the simple lifestyle, quiet surroundings, enjoying the natural beauty of trees, flowers, birds that keep me enthralled and aware of how wonderful it is to be home again.

My greatest pleasure right now is my retirement from corporate life as of December 31, 2013. It is such a relief to be out of the rat race although in India it wasn't as bad. Now I can focus on my next phase of life - finding some property, building a home for myself and a training centre for village women. My dream of "Paying it Forward" has been delayed but not quashed yet. The series of events over the last three years in India has taught me to develop a lot of patience, learned to deal with a greater level of ambiguity, understanding that people don't always respond in a timely manner or at all and that ‘what's meant to be will be’... These are not easy lessons especially for a highly energetic and hot headed woman like me! Perhaps the universe is helping me learn to live in harmony with and incorporate some of the simplistic and relationship oriented values of village life.

I have started using my free time engaging in activities that help me build on my long term desire to support the underprivileged community. I have volunteered to provide spoken English classes on Saturdays at a middle school not far from my current home. I had 40 students from 6^th to 8^th grade with very varying levels of understanding and speech fluency. I bought posters with pictures and started with a number of questions that are possibly so very basic for us but incredibly helpful for these students. They love to scream out their responses and I had to raise my voice to discipline them about side talk! They were not familiar with nursery rhymes- so I had a little fun with a poster that had a few of them. I have recommended to the headmistress that I need to meet each grade separately in order to make this meaningful to them.

I am also providing customer service modules for a hospitality course run by an NGO called Unnati. They train students for 70 days preparing them for careers in hospitality, para-medical and retail sales. So hotels, hospitals and retail companies provide the sponsorship and Unnati engages volunteers to provide the training for 4 days of the week and they work as interns at the respective sponsor locations for 3 days a week. Then these ‘graduates’ get placed in the company

The biggest challenge here is that most of the students have only completed their high school in the local medium of instruction and are expected to be able to converse in English as well! So I use signs and slow talk in English to get them to understand my communication- then I have them role play various customer interactions. I am amused at my own pronunciation of words that seem to be familiar to their ears and gets them to smile at my efforts! They seem to be engaged and interested in learning to speak even if it is a faltering speech- after all we all started somewhere and practice gets us to a greater level of confidence!

I am also providing customer service training at a friend’s resort outside Chennai in a tourist town called Mahabalipuram also called Mamalapuram- she moved from Vancouver back to India after selling her popular Indian restaurant and has created a great restaurant L’Attitude 49 that features global cuisine. Check out her web site www.grandebayresort.in

I am still working out the bureaucracy around getting some property and hope to have some positive response in a month or so. I have learned so much about doing business in India- I had so many unanswered questions about what a person who is a citizen of the US but with an overseas citizenship of India allowed to do in terms of land ownership- interestingly, I found a free legal forum www.pathlegal.in where you can post your question and lawyers from all over the country will attempt to give you a legal opinion- if you pay a minimal amount like $6 you will get even more opinions and can keep asking additional questions on the topic for 48 hours! You can then rate the lawyers’ opinions and if you paid for the service, your payment is divided among them!

I have been reading about the extreme weather conditions in the US and hope that all of you are managing well. We have a mild climate right now with temps in the upper 80s- 90s during the day and in the 60s at night. I will be attending a family reunion in March in Kochi where my sister lives- the remaining siblings from my family (6 of us) will get an opportunity to catch up on life, reminisce and share about our past and enjoy some great Kerala cooking since my sister is a wonderful cook.

I am slowly getting better movement of my shoulder after rotator cuff repair surgery- physiotherapy is not easy- but absolutely necessary to regain my use of the right arm! So I try to get to the Ortho Centre at least every other day to get scolded by the physiotherapist for not doing all the exercises and he makes me stay there for supervised attention for an hour!

Hope to hear from you when you get a chance- in the meantime have a great Valentine’s Day!