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Day 742

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Being on holidays for most equals luxury. But we also hear of luxury apartments, luxury holidays, luxury hotels, luxury yachts …

What is luxury? Is it a physicality or an emotion or a bit of both?

For me, to wake up naturally (ie. without an alarm) to the rising sun, the sounds of the ocean and the birds, feeling calm within and enthusiastic about a new day is luxury.
To have a pain free body willing to spend a little more energy than it consumes everyday and a stress free mind with no compulsion to be chasing time all day long is luxury.
A generous warm rain shower and no need for air-conditioning or central heating, lots of Darjeeling tea, clean air and clean water, a pair of comfortable shoes, an afternoon siesta, a long walk along the beach, a spacious mattress, firm with a thin top cushion.
To have time for healthy sit down meals, free of anything processed and to be able to share it with Si and all my family, to be in a healing space to just be and be creative with writing, reading, flower arranging, dancing, listening to music, cooking or colouring a colouring-in book. To be able to contribute to our community in a positive way.
Laughter and sharing with friends, time for Yoga and meditation, to sleep under a star-lit sky, to have love and gratitude for this life, a spiritual experience in a human body.

Does any of this cost too much money or does the modern urban life-style just doesn’t allow for it?

To miss out on all the hype around the US presidential election because there is no TV and no one cares. Ignorance is indeed bliss.

Day 741

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As an eleven year old I often felt like I was born in the wrong country with the wrong nose, wrong hair and wrong skin colour. It was all a bit awkward but not much could be done about any of these things. So, the hair was cut short and stayed so for most of my life.

It’s normal for those with dark hair to want them light and vice versa and for those with curly hair to want them straight and vice versa. This is a small example of a much wider discontentment and dis-ease within humans.

We travelled for 36 hours, including an overnight stay at Dar-es-Salaam, 5 take offs and thankfully the same number of safe landings to get here. 3 of these were on the smallest plane I have ever been in. It sits about 14 people including the pilot. It reminds me of ‘Out of Africa’. The engine makes clicking sounds in response to the subtle mechanical actions of the pilot and the scenery is out of the world. Sapphire blue deep waters with turquoise shallow edges dotted with emerald islands with golden crescents along the curved margins.

This is the north of Tanga, a point jaggedly jutting into the Indian ocean with a white sliver of surf marking the reef’s edge. The noon-tide was so far out that it was nothing more than a soft whoosh but we woke up from our post-prandial coma to the rhythmic roaring of the sea that had arrived right up to our doorstep.

The smiles that greet us with ‘Karibu’ are happy and a bit shy. There is no running water or mains electricity. The internet connection comes through a generator and solar powered router, best described as flimsy.  Yet, something about being here brings the word ‘contentment’ to mind. This is what it must feel like.

Saagar would have loved this place – a little piece of heaven.

(Sorry, no pictures as very narrow band width on the internet. May be later.)

 

Day 740

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Since 1st August 2016 ‘concealed carry’ is legal in Texas. It means that the state allows any licence-holder over 21 years of age to carry concealed handguns on their person while on university campus and into lectures.

Most educators in Texas are opposed to this for fear of the impact it will have of teaching contentious topics such as religion, politics and philosophy. But after the notorious shootings at Virginia Tech, Columbine and the University of Texas, some students welcome the ability to defend themselves. They also feel that it is a part of their culture as most of them are into hunting and target practise.

How would I feel if my friends and classmates were carrying lethal weapons? Would my teachers also be carrying them? How would that change the atmosphere of a lecture hall? The play ground? The pub? How would this ‘knowing but not knowing’ affect the relationships within the class?

(Source: https://campuscarry.utexas.edu/)

As indicated by the statistics below, half the suicides in the USA are caused by firearms. This could be due to the ready availability of means.

US statistics 2013

Total number of deaths by suicide : 42,773
13.4 per 100,000 population.

Firearm suicides : Number of deaths: 21,334
6.7 per 100,000 population

Suffocation suicides : Number of deaths: 11,407
3.6 per 100,000 population

Poisoning suicides : Number of deaths: 6,808
2.1 per 100,000 population

In addition 505 deaths occurred due to accidental or negligent discharge of a firearm and 11,208 due to homicide.

I like the proposal made by one of the professors at the University of Texas. He proposes ‘open care’ instead of ‘concealed carry’. If everyone knew that no one was carrying arms, we could be more relaxed and be caring towards each other. How have we come to a place where carrying a phallus shaped toy in our bag is illegal and carrying a handgun is not?

(http://www.cbsnews.com/news/university-of-texas-ut-campus-carry-law-sex-toy-protest-concealed-carry/)

Day 739

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“This is the best daal I have had outside of India” said one of our friends who really does know his food as he runs a vegetarian café and restaurant. I was utterly flattered that he would ask me for the recipe. It was completely ad hoc cooking as most of mine is. Just follow broad principles and keep it simple. Anyway, I jogged my memory and came up with something. Here’s what it is, I think:

Ingredients :

1 cup mixture of 3 daals : 1/3rd each – pink coral, yellow and split yellow with husk
Spinach – about 300 grams.
Chopped onion – 1medium
Chopped ginger – 1 inch piece
Tomatos 2 medium- each cut in 4 pieces
Cumin seeds – 1 and a half teaspoon – coarsely ground
Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
Fresh curry leaves : 6-7 (optional)
Asafoetida powder -pinch
Coriander powder : 1 and a half table spoon.
Salt, turmeric, 1 green chilly
Tamarind paste : 1 tsp
Lemon juice
Sambar powder -1 tsp (optional)
Desi ghee – 1 tablespoon
Fresh coriander leaves

Method:

Wash and boil the daal mix with salt and turmeric. Add spinach when half done.
Heat ghee – splutter mustard seeds, add cumin seeds, asafoetida, coarsely chopped green chilly, curry leaves, ginger and onions – fry till light brown.
Add coriander powder and fry for another minute.
Add the boiled daal and spinach mix, bring to a boil. add tamarind paste and water as required to get the desired consistency.
Then add the chopped tomatoes and sambar powder.
Boil for a few minutes and then add juice of half a lemon just before serving. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

Best served with plain basmati rice and bhindi 😉

It is so satisfying to cook a nice meal for friends and family. I miss cooking for Saagar. He loved my Mum’s cooking and rightly so. I was econd best but I was happy to be second best. I would tell him off for licking his plate after meals sometimes and he would say, “It’s a compliment Mamma.” I know. It was.

Day 738

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It’s Halloween or All Hallow’s Eve, a feast of all saints and all souls.
This morning ‘Thought for the day’ on Radio 4 was delivered by Professor Tina Beattie :
“ ‘Death,’ said Hamlet, ‘is an undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns.’ These holy days seek to bridge the abyss between the live and the dead. Through rituals and imagination they are intended to assure us that those who have died are not beyond our companionship and our prayers.

No tradition can survive unless it is relevant to people’s everyday messy lives and gives meaning to their deepest struggles, sorrows and hopes. Death is the most sorrowful and messy reality of all. It’s a universal truth and the most impenetrable of mysteries.

As a culture we have been alienated from the power of hope to reconcile us to the helplessness and despair we feel when confronted by death. This feast brings us into communion with the dead, not to frighten us but to console. These feasts are an invitation to see what it means to be mortal and to seek reassurance that terrifying though death is, it is not the end. Love is more powerful than death and life, not death, will have the last word.”

2 meetings around Saagar today : one about the future and one about the past. Both called for reliving, retelling, revisiting the circumstances of his tragic death. It was too much! Lesson : plan only one meeting a day. Be kind to yourself.
That I survived the day is proof that love is more powerful than death and life, not death, will have the last word.