Posted on March 27, 2017 under Monday Morning Musings with 2 comments

Master mixologist

 

 

“ It doesn’t matter where you’re from, or how you feel… there’s always peace in a strong cup of coffee.” Gabriel Ba.

On Saturday afternoon, my Irish friends asked me to join them for a walk. We usually don’t walk together as we always like to have someone minding the Bed and Breakfast. However, with the imminent departure from India by the three of us, the Sisters are starting to bring in replacements.

In every village, town and city in India, the tea shops are ubiquitous. It’s hard to go fifty feet without someone beckoning you for a “ chai.” Most, if not all of these, are family run businesses and are often multi generational. India is famous for its tea but make no mistake, there are many coffee lovers as well.

Despite the fact that I was able to secure a reliable source of fair trade coffee a few months ago and now make my own,  there’s still something sociable about visiting one of these small shops and having a coffee or two.

When I arrived in India last October, I remember the first time that I asked for a black coffee at one of these shops. I thought it was a language barrier thing that the proprietor had a puzzled look on his face. I found out later that “ filtered” coffee is quite rare unless one goes to a higher end restaurant. So, I accepted the coffee that I was given. It was served in a shot glass. And so began my love affair with drinking coffee…. Indian style. It is made with boiled milk, a scoop full of coffee and some sugar. It is expertly prepared,  the hot liquid being poured from one vessel to another to make sure the concoction is mixed properly.

As mentioned, there are hundreds of these shops. Early on in my time in Kanyakumari, I found one place that was fairly new. It is partially outdoors and exposed to the elements. There are no tables or chairs. All of the patrons simply stand. Because the serving size is small, there is hardly time to carry on a long conversation unless of course, you decide to have more than one. I immediately liked the feel of the place and decided that this would be my “ go to” place. I have gone there just about everyday since I discovered it.

Did I mention their treats? Sri Devi ( named for the goddess Lakshmi ) , the name of the establishment, also serves goodies both sweet and savory. Cookies, pieces of cake and assorted Indian delicacies are placed in large glass jars with lids. The jars are conveniently located on the counter and once you become “ a regular,” you just help yourself.

The owners are in their fifties and they have several sons who serve the customers. They don’t know a word of English. They smile and gesture. This doesn’t require language skills.

On one of my first walks with Ninian, he told me about his favorite coffee spot. Obviously great minds think alike .

My routine is well rehearsed. I show up at Sri Devi wearing my Tilley hat, perspiring profusely. After all, it has been in the 30’s every day since my arrival in December. I doff my hat, placing it on top of a large pile of bottled water encased in plastic. I waltz over to the counter and once eye contact is made with any member of the staff, the person making coffee swings into action, making my coffee with care and precision… with just the right amount of sugar. A hot shot glass full of steaming coffee is placed on the counter. I dip my hand into one of the large glass jars and extricate a cookie. Depending on the day, this may be repeated two or three times.

You know this is a well run business as there are always people walking up to the counter to get their daily fix. Coffee, tea and treats are not the only items for sale. You can buy cigarettes but these are typically dispensed one smoke at a time. In this part of India, smoking doesn’t seem to be prevalent.

I usually have both cell phones with me: one to tether and the other to check mail etc. One day, while I was looking at some photos, one of the staff came over to look. It was a quiet time of the day and the next thing, I had the whole extended family craning their necks to see pictures of my family and my hometown. A picture is worth a thousand words… more if you don’t speak Tamil.

It’s a wonderful place to spend a few minutes and watch the world pass by. They asked me through an interpreter about opening a shop in Canada. Once I described February, they didn’t think franchising to Canada would be a great idea!

They always give a big wave when I`m leaving. And I wave back.

New friends.

 Worlds apart but closer than one might think.

Have a great week.

 

Posted on March 23, 2017 under Thursday Tidbits with one comment

Hauling the boat to shore by hand

 

People power.

Despite its reputation as an emerging economic superpower, there are many signs that India remains in the old millennium. And this is not necessarily a bad thing. How do you keep 1.2 billion people gainfully employed?

Those of us from Western countries have watched the dizzying advances in every industry. Yes, we can make things quicker, cheaper and faster but at what expense. And what about quality? Countries like China are one step ahead of us when it comes to inexpensive, mass produced items.

Because of global competition and thirst for profitability, every company is forced to find efficiencies and in many cases it comes at a cost in the labor market. While not wanting to single out any one industry, we need to look no further than the forestry industry in Canada to see how mechanization has put many people out of work. A job that may have taken weeks by a small crew of men can now be done in hours with a single operator using sophisticated equipment.

India does things the old fashioned way in many of the towns and villages. Every day while walking, I watch the progress of several construction projects. These are incredible labor intensive operations. All of the work to prepare the foundation is done manually. Picks and shovels are still used to prepare the footings. The cement is mixed by hand and transported, bucketful by bucketful to be poured. Very often the wet cement is put in shallow steel containers and the women carry these on their heads.

 The scaffolding is comprised of long wooden poles strapped together with natural raw material. All of this work is carried out in blistering heat. I saw one man carry a 50 kg bag of dry cement up two flights of stairs. It is mind boggling. And a few days ago, here at the convent, four sinewy men moved an old generator that must have weighed a ton. They did it the old fashioned way, slipping steel rollers underneath and moving it a few feet at a time before taking the back roller out and bringing it to the front. It was 36 degrees with high humidity at the time. They moved it a quarter of a mile away.

The fishermen are also amazing to watch. There always seems to be a hefty swell on the Indian Ocean and the crews on the boats are standing the whole time they are on the water in vessels open to the elements. When they get the boats to shore, it usually takes about 8-10 men to haul them out and up on the sandbar, once again using a roller technique to move the boat a few feet at a time.

Ditto for farming. Very labor intensive.

There are many, many examples where a job at home done by one person is done by several people here. A few weeks ago, I found a bakery that makes great stuff and it’s very cheap… a deadly combination for someone with a sweet tooth! There are two people behind the counter. The first person waits on you and the second person packages your goodies. On the other side of the counter, there are two more people. One guy writes the amount of the purchase on a tiny slip of paper. The other guy records the amount in a journal. You don’t get your purchase until you pay the man at the front of the store. He also records the purchase in a journal.

The same thing happens in restaurants. It is not uncommon, even in the smallest of eating establishments, to have 3-5 people waiting on your table. They can’t do enough for you even though it seems like a bit of overkill… until you realize that this is just the way they do things.

And as I mentioned in a story last week, Pothy’s department store must have 200 employees. I’m not exaggerating. There is a sales clerk every 30 feet or so.

Maybe this is why there`s no big rush to have everything modernized. If things became mechanized in India quickly, it could cause massive unemployment. So, while it looks a bit archaic, everything seems to work and the craftsmanship is second to none.

While I love the food and the weather, the best thing about India is its people.

Have a great day.

 

 

 

 

Posted on March 20, 2017 under Monday Morning Musings with one comment

Reunited again… for one hour

 

 

“ Silence and smiles are two powerful tools. A smile is a way to solve many problems and silence is a way to avoid many problems.”

I saw this saying on a bulletin board the other day. There is a great deal of truth in it.

Well, it was quite a week. After a month of teaching English to 14 young girls, the Mother Superior sent me three full fledged Sisters to assist them with their English language skills. Two of them are going abroad to study medicine while the third is taking over as principal of a school. A few days ago, I gave them a big dose of home showing them videos of Canada, Nova Scotia , Cape Breton and of course Antigonish.

We went on a few road trips this week to visit some of the villages where the Sisters do their charity work. We ( Len, Ninian and Carol ) always draw a lot of curious onlookers when we arrive in a village. One of the places we went this week, we were told that this was the first time that many of them had ever seen a white person. We get the royal treatment wherever we go and usually receive a garland of flowers ( or a shawl ), a bindi or two placed on our foreheads and we are sprinkled with flower petals as we are paraded through the village. The first time that this happened, we found it all a bit much but you come to realize that this is custom and you just go with the flow. It is quite moving and beautiful, actually.

Some of you may have seen the picture I posted a few days back of me and an old guy ( OK. Two old guys! ). He lives in a tiny house in a slum along with his adult ( mid 50’s ) son who recently developed paralysis, the son’s wife and their four children. They have no electricity or running water. They invited us in for a visit. Candles provided the lighting. We visited many homes and while most were in pretty bad shape, they were all immaculately clean. Many of the homes have thatched roofs which have holes in them. The slum is next to a swamp and a railroad runs within 50 feet of their homes. It is hard to imagine that grinding poverty like this still exists.

We were heading back to the vehicle when one very old woman gestured to me to come and see her home. Her door was a piece of plywood leaning against a dilapidated structure. I used my cell phone flashlight to guide the way as it was dark outside. Her hut had a cement floor. There was a fire pit in the corner and a pile of branches and sticks. There was nothing else. Not a stick of furniture, a chair or a bed. The few pots she owns for cooking were hanging outside her home. Pretty sobering stuff.

The evening ended on a high note when we visited another village where several children did some traditional dancing. Ninian and I joined in causing quite a stir. It was just the tonic that we needed.

Something very interesting has been happening lately. Because I have been in this part of India for three months, a number of locals know who I am and where I’m from. It turns out that several young, educated men are looking at Canada as a possible new home. There are only so many employment possibilities in this country of 1.2 billion people and wages are generally not very high. In the past few weeks, I have been approached several times to see if I could assist them with visas, letters of introduction and jobs. Of course, I am ill equipped to do any of these things and am quick to point this out so as not to create false hope. As our population ages in North America, I can see a future for many of these bright young Indian citizens.

On Saturday, we visited one of the 11 orphanages run by the Sisters. It is literally smack in the middle of a jungle. When we got out of our air conditioned vehicle, we could just feel the intense humidity enveloping us. It is an orphanage for boys and most of these children have been abandoned by their parents. They sang and danced for us. They are also in dire need of indoor plumbing… $1000 would be enough to install an indoor toilet. When they need to “ go” in the middle of the night, they have to walk through the darkness.

Snakes. Because I live in a mostly urban area ( although the convent is about 1 kilometer from town ), bumping into a snake is not that common. Yesterday, as I was walking back from mass at the leprosy colony, a very large snake crossed the road in front of me and, man, was he moving. I estimated that it was 15 feet in length and about 3-4 inches thick. I wasn’t frightened as I was not directly in its path. But I immediately thought about those young boys at the orphanage wandering around the outhouse in the dark of the night.

I continue to be grateful for my lot in life and feel very blessed to have good health.

Have a great week.

P.S. Two musical notes. While visiting an old age home yesterday run by the Daughters of Mary, I was honored to sing “ The Lord is My Shephard “ to a dying woman.

And at the orphanage adjacent to the Sisters main convent in Marthandam, I met up with little Ashwin, the sweet young boy who used to live at Stella Maris with his mom. He cried when I first picked him up. Ninian and Carol suggested that I get my guitar out of the car and play him a song. He gradually stopped crying was clapping steadily to the music a few minutes later. Perched on his mother’s shoulder, he blew us a kiss… and the world was right once more.