Archive for the ‘Slideshow’ Category

It’s What’s For Dinner

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No, seriously. Ten minutes after this photo was taken, this chicken was bled, plucked, and in a pan. As you will see when you click through the slides above :)

We Like The Baby

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Our maid’s 12-year old son Harish grabbed my Canon 5D and started shooting, but only after he thrust his 6-month-old baby nephew-with-no-name into our arms. The baby is like catnip; whatever you ought to be paying attention to (like the whereabouts of your camera or whether you left the stove on) goes right out the window when that baby is in your face. This is no accident; we believe that this is a deliberate maneuver. And one of these times soon we will see it coming. These are some cute kids man.

Harish, Baby-No-Name, and Sai Baba.

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Harish is the 12-year old son of our 30-year old maid; baby-no-name is her 6-month old grandson, the son of her adult daughter (not seen in these pix).

Harish is on summer vacation, visiting his mother here from his school-and-village-and-ashram at Puttaparthi. He is being educated (programmed ?) by Sai Baba‘s system there, and is full af wondrous tales of Sai Baba’s miracles: “Sooo many miracles, Uncle! He pulled 3 tons of lingam from his mouth! And if you dance really, really nice, Uncle, he will put his hand to his chest, and a golden chain will appear for you!”

Sai Baba has undoubtedly done well by his followers here in India, numbering 6 million or more: hospitals, infrastructure, water, food, and schools like the very one that Harish attends (worldwide numbers are hard to verify but have been stated to be between 5 and 50 million). However, he is also under the shadow of many scandalous accusations involving murder, sexual abuse of children, and plain old trickery. We can’t help but wonder if Harish’s innocent and enthusiastic good looks may lead him somewhere bad; and we also wonder where else he might otherwise be. It’s a tough problem. Despite the persistent accusations, Sai Baba is fairly untouchable here politically, due at very least to his tremendous number of followers in India and around the world.

As for baby-no-name, it is apparently not uncommon for the Hindu people to wait from 12 days to up to a year to name a newborn child here; at some auspicious date during that time, there will be a naming ceremony . I kind of like that idea: give the child some time to make his essence known, and learn what his name wants to be, rather than immediately impose a name that is more arbitrarily determined.

The BBC has done a thorough exposé of Sai Baba, check it out here.

Bicycle Parts

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Check out the details on this cast-iron baby. The metal frame around the rear reflector (note the Atlas logo in the reflector itself), the metal badging on the rear fender and the seat, the incredible “hood ornament” on the front fender, the rack (fully unfolded to show its amazing load bearing capacity), and the chili-and-lime puja threaded to the front hardware. These bikes are a throwback to 50 years ago, built substantial and heavy, free of ergonomic considerations; the antithesis to what we seek out in a bike back home in the States. But here in India they are omnipresent artifacts, on every street in the country, the used relics indistinguishable from the brand new.

Pachydermaphoria

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Second Floor Dungeon – Jewelry Department

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So this time we made it up to the dark and spooky third floor of the giant City Center Market in Bangalore. Unbelievable! Any kind of machine tool you ever wanted – springs, files, drillbits, bearings, anything. Nice people up here, too :)