Buddy Can You Spare a Dime

Around 4 pm the last few days, the internet and the phones have been going down. Odd in the timing.


The IT techies would investigate and found that the dish antennae which connects us here in the countryside with the rest of the world, would need to e repositioned.


Close watch revealed that every afternoon, one of the local primates would climb the tower to have a look around. We've been experiencing some winds and a bit of rain in the afternoons, and so it's possible that a change in the air pressure sent him up the tallest thing around.

I'd rather think he was just trying to make a call and check to see that everything was all right.

Using Their Heads

Somewhere I have a picture of a parade of women carrying rocks on their heads. It seems odd in so many ways, that women do the carrying, and tht they'd carry them on their heads.

Well the first we should calk up to my internal sexism and the second to my poor understanding of chiropracty.


India is the land of culture clash and absorption. That they can exist with 30 or so languages and dialects is but one example of how the cultures adapt.
As the we try to influence the building culture here, we find that many adaptations have already occurred. When required to wear hardhats, hardhats adapted tot he local customs appeared.



The ring doesn't just accomodate rocks, but also the shallow dishes in which dirt, gravel, even concrete is carried.

Puja

Hardly anything happens here in Tamil Nadu (and perhaps the rest of Hindustan) without a puja. It's an asking for blessings from the gods and banishing of evil spirits. Local priests are brought in for house warmings, blessings of new cars, start of new businesses, whatever.

We finished a new canteen at the job site and some priests were brought in and they built a 'homa kuntam' or literally: ritual vessel in which they built a fire INSIDE the building. The fire, made of special wood of course, had herbs and flowers and ghee and even coins thrown into it.

Lots of chanting and smoke followed by sweets and coconuts and buttermilk and then lunch!