Dear 90% of callers in India,
If I do not answer your call the first time, it probably means I'm busy or don't want to talk to you. I understand voicemail doesn't really exist here, but "missed calls" do and when I see I missed your call, I will call you back when I can. Calling immediately after a second time will yield the same result of me not answering. Calling a third time right after will make me even less likely to answer even when I am available. Calling a fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh time in immediate succession will make me never want to speak to you again. Also, why the hell don't you have anything better to do and thanks for ruining my nap.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Dowry
Dowry may be illegal, but the practice is still alive and well everywhere. This made me glad that Dan's parents didn't ask for a CAR in addition to a washing machine, bed, sofa, TV, fridge, jewelry, clothes for the family and a sewing machine like the family in this article did. Crazily - this family got everything except the car.
Bride goes to cops as demand for car derails wedding
Times of India, May 26, 2010
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Bride-goes-to-cops-as-demand-for-car-derails-wedding-/articleshow/5975117.cms
NEW DELHI: If only more women were like Neelam Rathore. The 24-year-old called off her marriage on Sunday and ensured that her mother-in-law was arrested after the groom’s family refused to go ahead with the ceremony until they were given a Maruti Alto. ‘‘ The bridegroom who impersonated as a senior MTNL employee is on the run. We will arrest him soon,’’ said DCP (Outer district ) Chhaya Sharma.
Neelam being the youngest among three sisters and a brother was the pampered one. Five months ago, when when her marriage was fixed with one Ajay, a resident of Kanjhawala, her brother Devender Singh Rathore wanted the day to be a ‘memorable one’ . Ajay claimed to be an junior engineer with MTNL. Devender booked a banquet hall in the posh Vasant Kunj area. It was decided that the tilak ceremony would be held on May 22 and the wedding the next day.
The groom’s mother, Kamla (52), said since Ajay was a ‘‘ government official’’ , they should be given dowry. ‘‘ We agreed as Neelam’s happiness was our priority. We did not even check the antecedents of the boy as we stay in Mahipalpur, some distance from the groom’s residence,” said Devender.
They demanded a bed, television, fridge, sofa, washing machine, gold chains weighing 15 gm each for Ajay and his sisters-in-law , gold ear rings weighing 5 gm for his mother, sewing machine , watches, 71 utensils, 40 pairs of shirts and trousers and a desert cooler. ‘‘ The gifts were handed over on the day of the tilak ceremony ,’’ said the police.
Drama started on the wedding day. ‘‘ Around 5 pm, Kamla called up Neelam’s mother to tell her that the barati will not leave Kanjhawala until Devender met them there,” said Neelam.
When Devender and two other relatives reached Kanjhawala , Kamla and one of Ajay’s uncles demanded that a Maruti Alto be given to them. ‘They said there will no wedding without the car,’’ said Neelam. She said they had made elaborate arrangements for the 1,200 guests expected at the marriage and reception at Vasant Kunj on Sunday. The Rathores tried to talk with Ajay but he was missing.
According to DCP Sharma , Khanjhawala police station received a dowry complaint from the Rathores. ‘‘ When we investigated the matter, we found that Ajay was a peon at the Connaught Place MTNL office. His father, a junior engineer, died on duty and he got the job on compassionate grounds even though he had just passed class IX,’’ said the DCP.
The police said the Rathores had spent more than Rs 5 lakh on the reception . ‘‘ We have filed an FIR under sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act. We have arrested the groom’s mother. We may further arrests or add other sections like impersonation soon,’’ said Sharma.
Devender runs a local news agency and is the only earning member in Neelam’s family.
Bride goes to cops as demand for car derails wedding
Times of India, May 26, 2010
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Bride-goes-to-cops-as-demand-for-car-derails-wedding-/articleshow/5975117.cms
NEW DELHI: If only more women were like Neelam Rathore. The 24-year-old called off her marriage on Sunday and ensured that her mother-in-law was arrested after the groom’s family refused to go ahead with the ceremony until they were given a Maruti Alto. ‘‘ The bridegroom who impersonated as a senior MTNL employee is on the run. We will arrest him soon,’’ said DCP (Outer district ) Chhaya Sharma.
Neelam being the youngest among three sisters and a brother was the pampered one. Five months ago, when when her marriage was fixed with one Ajay, a resident of Kanjhawala, her brother Devender Singh Rathore wanted the day to be a ‘memorable one’ . Ajay claimed to be an junior engineer with MTNL. Devender booked a banquet hall in the posh Vasant Kunj area. It was decided that the tilak ceremony would be held on May 22 and the wedding the next day.
The groom’s mother, Kamla (52), said since Ajay was a ‘‘ government official’’ , they should be given dowry. ‘‘ We agreed as Neelam’s happiness was our priority. We did not even check the antecedents of the boy as we stay in Mahipalpur, some distance from the groom’s residence,” said Devender.
They demanded a bed, television, fridge, sofa, washing machine, gold chains weighing 15 gm each for Ajay and his sisters-in-law , gold ear rings weighing 5 gm for his mother, sewing machine , watches, 71 utensils, 40 pairs of shirts and trousers and a desert cooler. ‘‘ The gifts were handed over on the day of the tilak ceremony ,’’ said the police.
Drama started on the wedding day. ‘‘ Around 5 pm, Kamla called up Neelam’s mother to tell her that the barati will not leave Kanjhawala until Devender met them there,” said Neelam.
When Devender and two other relatives reached Kanjhawala , Kamla and one of Ajay’s uncles demanded that a Maruti Alto be given to them. ‘They said there will no wedding without the car,’’ said Neelam. She said they had made elaborate arrangements for the 1,200 guests expected at the marriage and reception at Vasant Kunj on Sunday. The Rathores tried to talk with Ajay but he was missing.
According to DCP Sharma , Khanjhawala police station received a dowry complaint from the Rathores. ‘‘ When we investigated the matter, we found that Ajay was a peon at the Connaught Place MTNL office. His father, a junior engineer, died on duty and he got the job on compassionate grounds even though he had just passed class IX,’’ said the DCP.
The police said the Rathores had spent more than Rs 5 lakh on the reception . ‘‘ We have filed an FIR under sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act. We have arrested the groom’s mother. We may further arrests or add other sections like impersonation soon,’’ said Sharma.
Devender runs a local news agency and is the only earning member in Neelam’s family.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Knocked around by a U Knock!
You see them at red lights and you hope they don’t see you. No, it’s not the neighborhood beggar or the holy cow making a beeline for you, or the guy touting cheap metal head massagers and dish rags on the side of the street. These are not your average beggars. They are eunuchs (pronounced U-KNOCK locally)– castrated men dressed in women’s saris with horrible makeup and looking quite mean and intimidating. Not your friendly American crossdresser.
Today, I was accosted/assaulted by a eunuch while sitting in an autorickshaw, waiting desperately for traffic to start moving before the eunuch noticed me. Traffic didn’t move though, and sure enough keeping my head down didn’t work. He/she saw me, yelled at me for keeping my head down, and violently shook my shoulder and pushed me which hurt given that I’m a weakling. I couldn’t do anything to fight back considering there was a eunuch on each side of me and I figured if I put up a fight (which I really really wanted to do) I might end up the loser.
Eunuchs in India are quite prevalent on the streets of our part of Delhi, acting as beggars. They wait at red lights and howl at, threaten, and apparently, assault, people if they don’t give money. They also keep an eye on neighborhoods that have new babies born or new neighbors moving in. When we moved in our place, 2 of them showed up at our doorstep asking for money to bless our home. I declined their oh-so-wonderful “offer” and was about to close the door in their face when they asked for our Pepsi which they saw across their doorway. Ha. My coveted Pepsi? I think not. It’s said that if you don’t give them money when they give you their wonderful “offers,” you’ll be cursed. Oh well. I’ll take my chances.
More on Eunuchs
There is an interesting history of eunuchs in India dating back to the Mahabharata and Ramayana, which are the stories of the gods Krishna and Ram, respectively. Then during the era of Raj’s (princes and palaces and kings), they used to guard the premises and were relatively high up on the chain. Today, what eunuchs have had to endure is really quite gut-wrenching. Many are created out of force in their villages, obviously not using high-end medical equipment or medicine. But even the ones that choose the procedure end up being shunned by their families and end up being forced to make a living by begging in the cities or work in the sex industry.
Today, I was accosted/assaulted by a eunuch while sitting in an autorickshaw, waiting desperately for traffic to start moving before the eunuch noticed me. Traffic didn’t move though, and sure enough keeping my head down didn’t work. He/she saw me, yelled at me for keeping my head down, and violently shook my shoulder and pushed me which hurt given that I’m a weakling. I couldn’t do anything to fight back considering there was a eunuch on each side of me and I figured if I put up a fight (which I really really wanted to do) I might end up the loser.
Eunuchs in India are quite prevalent on the streets of our part of Delhi, acting as beggars. They wait at red lights and howl at, threaten, and apparently, assault, people if they don’t give money. They also keep an eye on neighborhoods that have new babies born or new neighbors moving in. When we moved in our place, 2 of them showed up at our doorstep asking for money to bless our home. I declined their oh-so-wonderful “offer” and was about to close the door in their face when they asked for our Pepsi which they saw across their doorway. Ha. My coveted Pepsi? I think not. It’s said that if you don’t give them money when they give you their wonderful “offers,” you’ll be cursed. Oh well. I’ll take my chances.
More on Eunuchs
There is an interesting history of eunuchs in India dating back to the Mahabharata and Ramayana, which are the stories of the gods Krishna and Ram, respectively. Then during the era of Raj’s (princes and palaces and kings), they used to guard the premises and were relatively high up on the chain. Today, what eunuchs have had to endure is really quite gut-wrenching. Many are created out of force in their villages, obviously not using high-end medical equipment or medicine. But even the ones that choose the procedure end up being shunned by their families and end up being forced to make a living by begging in the cities or work in the sex industry.
Monday, May 17, 2010
India has no middle class?
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-has-no-middle-class/articleshow/5895989.cms
Times of India, May 6, 2010
NEW DELHI: Could the Great Indian Middle Class be the Great Indian Mythical Class? A proposed new international definition of what constitutes the middle class in a developing country has thrown up a startling conclusion by global standards, India has no middle class.
Noted economist Nancy Birdsall, president of the Center for Global Development, has proposed a new definition of the middle class for developing countries in a forthcoming World Bank publication, Equity in a Globalizing World. Birdsall defines the middle class in the developing world to include people with an income above $10 day, but excluding the top 5% of that country. By this definition, India even urban India alone has no middle class; everyone at over $10 a day is in the top 5% of the country.
This is a combination both of the depth of India's poverty and its inequality. China had no middle class in 1990, but by 2005, had a small urban middle class (3% of the population). South Africa (7%), Russia (30%) and Brazil (19%) all had sizable middle classes in 2005.
While many economists have in the past as well attempted to define the middle class, Birdsall puts into monetary terms the broader concept of what a middle class really is, as opposed to merely counting the middle third of a country. In socio-political terms, the middle class is traditionally that segment of society with a degree of economic security that allows it to uphold the rule of law, invest and desire stability. They do not, unlike those defined as rich, depend on inheritances or other non-productive sources of income.
Birdsall argues that while the equivalent of $10 per day in 2005 as a lower limit is on the low side by the standards of industrialized countries, somewhere around $10 a day per person household members are able to care about and save for the future and to have aspirations for a better life for themselves as well as their children because they feel reasonably secure economically.
OECD countries define their poverty lines as 50% of median income which works out in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) terms to about $30 day. In US the poverty line for a single individual in 2008 was $29 per day and for each individual in a four-person household was about $14 per day.
However, people in developing countries living on even $10 a day still have extremely low social indicators. Economist Lant Pritchett has shown that infant mortality of households in the richest quintile in Bolivia was 32 and Ghana 58 per 1,000. Fewer than 25% of people in the richest quintile in India complete 9 grades of school, Pritchett showed. "An upper limit of the 95th percentile, while on the high side, is just about sufficient to exclude the countrys richest," Birdsall adds.
Times of India, May 6, 2010
NEW DELHI: Could the Great Indian Middle Class be the Great Indian Mythical Class? A proposed new international definition of what constitutes the middle class in a developing country has thrown up a startling conclusion by global standards, India has no middle class.
Noted economist Nancy Birdsall, president of the Center for Global Development, has proposed a new definition of the middle class for developing countries in a forthcoming World Bank publication, Equity in a Globalizing World. Birdsall defines the middle class in the developing world to include people with an income above $10 day, but excluding the top 5% of that country. By this definition, India even urban India alone has no middle class; everyone at over $10 a day is in the top 5% of the country.
This is a combination both of the depth of India's poverty and its inequality. China had no middle class in 1990, but by 2005, had a small urban middle class (3% of the population). South Africa (7%), Russia (30%) and Brazil (19%) all had sizable middle classes in 2005.
While many economists have in the past as well attempted to define the middle class, Birdsall puts into monetary terms the broader concept of what a middle class really is, as opposed to merely counting the middle third of a country. In socio-political terms, the middle class is traditionally that segment of society with a degree of economic security that allows it to uphold the rule of law, invest and desire stability. They do not, unlike those defined as rich, depend on inheritances or other non-productive sources of income.
Birdsall argues that while the equivalent of $10 per day in 2005 as a lower limit is on the low side by the standards of industrialized countries, somewhere around $10 a day per person household members are able to care about and save for the future and to have aspirations for a better life for themselves as well as their children because they feel reasonably secure economically.
OECD countries define their poverty lines as 50% of median income which works out in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) terms to about $30 day. In US the poverty line for a single individual in 2008 was $29 per day and for each individual in a four-person household was about $14 per day.
However, people in developing countries living on even $10 a day still have extremely low social indicators. Economist Lant Pritchett has shown that infant mortality of households in the richest quintile in Bolivia was 32 and Ghana 58 per 1,000. Fewer than 25% of people in the richest quintile in India complete 9 grades of school, Pritchett showed. "An upper limit of the 95th percentile, while on the high side, is just about sufficient to exclude the countrys richest," Birdsall adds.
Udaipur photos
There are way more Udaipur photos to show you but our computer is dying and as a result it is excrutatingly difficult to upload photos from it. Rather than backup the computer to make sure we don't lose the photos, it's much easier to just hope that it doesn't completely die before someday we have the time and motivation to problem solve. This, we believe, is the Indian way. Either that or it's a convenient justification for laziness.
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