A kinetic collage

Being here is like living inside one of those films that fast forward, with images flashing and merging, changing to other scenes. People come in, you meet them, they recede into their routines. People burst on the scene, to fill a new job position, bomb out, go back home. Some finish contracts and leave. Families stop thru on their way to other places. some vacation. The elevator goes up and down, up and down dutifully hauling people to eat dinner, or up to deposit them on the level where they are stored, after a brilliant day. Banquets, building, moving in, moving out, private cars, tuktuk taxis, dogs, cats, children, tennis, booming music, quiet birdsong at sunrise. mosquitoes at sunset. The staff are a constant recognizable pillar around the knees of which, all this swirling winds.

Conversations are funny sometimes. Person one,"The sunshine is nice here." second person..."Well, it's going to start raining in July, and it will be constant, never ends until a few months are gone. By then you are gone mad." third person, "It's not THAT bad. It rains and stops.. rains and stops." second person..."No, it's constant, miserable, you will hate it." hmm. probably not from the rain, though.

Time must be fluid. It flows, ebbs, eddies, streams .....and sluggishly sloshes.

I think my fever-whatever-thing, is receding. I feel much better today. It lent itself to horror stories abounding my way about the level of health care available, and how many ways you can die. not to mention your dog. She's in the same boat it seems, with vet care. :D ..... and Dentists? don't ask.

Cynicism is alive and well in India today. oh, and Mickey Mouse conducts business HERE too. That guy is prolific in his entrepreneurist spirit.

"If you're going through hell, keep going." -- Winston Churchill

..."Suzanne takes your hand, and she leads you to the river
She is wearing rags and feathers from Salvation Army counters
And the sun pours down like honey on our lady of the harbor
And she shows you where to look among the garbage and the flowers
There are heroes in the seaweed, there are children in the morning
They are leaning out for love and they will lean that way forever
while Suzanne holds the mirror" ........SUZANNE (Leonard Cohen)

On my way to dinner out with new friends, we had to walk past a bar open to the hallway. It was a huge alcove filled with tables and people, and a long bar. A railing was along the open side, with tables for two placed along it. Slumped in two of those chairs.. asleep and waiting for their parents to stop drinking and take them home, were two kids. They were expatriate children, about eight and twelve. What is it with those parents?? Who in their right minds think that is acceptable, to leave your kids sleeping at the edge of the bar while you get drunk? Nothing can be done by me.

Beautiful, half naked kids along the streets. tiny ones. they walk in threes, fours, stopping to stare at a display of grapes or vendor foods. Do they belong to someone?

I talked to my sister's friend. She is a missionary hoping to instigate a program urging Indian people to take homeless children in and raise them as their own. Can this happen? In this place where caste is written in stone, and the untouchables are lower than animals? where people take children in, but raise them as house help? will they make the transition? CAN they avoid the shunning and disapproval? will the kids be able to go to school?

I read two stories in the paper. One was about three people arrested for not taking care of animals. -----On the opposite page was a story and pictures of a rout by the police who used caning force, beating everyone in their path. The huts and rude shelters of the "slum dwellers" were razed to the ground, and when they protested en masse, they were beaten with canes. Women, children, and boys and men, all alike. The pictures showed a baby with a head wound, and hundreds of sad, well worn shoes left behind as the owners fled in panic. The people say they had permission from the police for the protest, but the police say they obstructed traffic and were unruly. --I see on one hand, a people who revere the rights of animals, and on the other an ability to accept that being beaten by police for causing a nuisance is your lot in life.

(Shades of the sixties. "The times they are a'changin", in India)

People can be cruel and truly dense, when defending what they THINK is right. On all sides. ALL sides. When dealing with heart issues, you need to be able to see with your heart and think with your intellect.