I spent 4 days in New Delhi - it is amazing.
Folks,
I uploaded pictures to the Picasa picture sharing site, listed
below. You may need to have Picasa2 loaded on your computer to
view them. Let me know how this works.
http://picasaweb.google.com/timclarkx/Travels
Having a wonderful time. I'm doubtful you'd enjoy being here.
It's dirty and smelly. I am a rich american sticking out like a bulls
eye and assailed by friendly entrepreneurs who understand "No", means
"maybe", until I get unfriendly. On the other hand it's intensely
interesting. How can people who have so little be so alive and
engaged. I got a hair cut. Included a shave and face
massage. The man is an artist. And has great pride in being an
excellent barber. Duty and helping are very important here.
Even when people are, on the one hand, trying to relieve me of my
excess of dollars, they are, on the other, really, really trying to
help. And they do.
Check out the pictures of the electric wires. The
wonder isn't that it's so haphazard, the wonder is that it works at
all. The fellow who configured my computer's Vista (MS hid where
to put in the IP numbers) to connect to his network is a wonder of
ingenuity and perseverance. He is clearly very proud of his
accomplishment - keeping a dozen archaic computers connected to the
internet. The whole culture seems impossible. The cows are
really sacred. People touch them as they go by to get spiritual
blessings. There are similar cows in America. What exists is
possible. I'm enjoying adjusting my mind.
Then I'm having wonderful conversations with the
Israeli's who primarily frequent this hotel. The fellow I met
today was so upset with the Israeli government he ignored the summons
for his yearly military service until he was threatened with
jail. He went and was in command. He told his soldiers they
could go home if they wanted. The army hasn't called him
back. He's a professor of "Behavioral Economics" in Tel
Aviv. I'm enjoying meeting French and other nationalities but few
americans, mostly - Jewish, with ties to Israel. Later.
Tim