Shine On Award

Posted on June 22, 2013 by annetbell
Shine On Award

Thank you Tamara at mybotanicalgarden.wordpress.com  for nominating talesalongtheway.com  for the “Shine On award”! I hope my nominees will visit Tamara’s beautiful blog, soon.

THE RULES ARE:

1. Display the award logo on your blog.

2. Link back to the person who nominated you.

3. State 7 things about yourself

4. Nominate 15 other bloggers for this award and link to them.

5. Notify those bloggers of the nomination and the award requirements.

Seven things about me:

1) I love blogging!

2) I have fallen in love with Incredible India.

3)I have 5 perfect grandchildren.

4) I loved helping students think of themselves as writers.

5) I will not even try sushi, no matter how much my family loves it.

6) I had 7 wonderful years teaching in Mesa, AZ  during my grand adventure.

7) I am very proud of my Virginia heritage.

I nominate:

1) gigisrantsandraves.wordpress.com 
2) kimberlyakinola.wordpress.com
3) clanmother.com
4)oyiabrown.wordpress.com
5) wordsfallfrommyeyes.wordpress.com
6) markovicharts.com
7) walkingwiththealligators.wordpress.com
8) adiaryofamom.wordpress.com
9) culturemonk.com
10) perisspiceladle.com
11) gnatseyeview.wordpress.com
12) thedailypost.me
13) ninagrandiose.wordpress.com
14) undertheskyofark.wordpress.com
15)sakshivashist.wordpress.com 
 
Please visit each other’s blogs and see what great writing is shining through. Keep up the great work.  Anne Bell talesalongtheway.com
Posted in awards, India | Tagged | 29 Comments

Potty Park

Posted on June 22, 2013 by annetbell

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Toilet Garden

Yes, there is a Toilet Garden in Ahmedabad.  Toilets or the lack  thereof are quite a problem in India. Gandhi said that sanitation is more important then independence. And after all these years it is still a  huge problem. Most of the cities and villages where the poor live in slums have no sewage system so if there were toilets removal is a monumental challenge.  More Indians have cell phones and electricity than have indoor, sanitary toilets and bathing facilities.  It is estimated that 640 million Indians still defecate in the open.  In 1963, only 8% of Indians had toilets, but as noted in the 2011 census, 55% of the country has access to clean, safe latrines now. That is progress.

Human scavengers are responsible forthe degrading and dangerous job of removing  human feces from the dry latrines. Due to the indignity of this work, this community of workers were labeled untouchable.  How can anyone who saw Slum Dog Millionaire ever

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Gujarat, the state in which we lived, is making progress in teaching sanitation to the villagers.  There is a large yellow bus that goes from village to village teaching all who come the fundamentals of sanitation. Hopefully the  toilets will arrive soon.

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We would laugh and rate the toilets we visited ….some got a “1” just for being there.  We carried toilet paper and shared when  others were  out. And of course we had plenty of hand  santitizer.   Things are changing ever so slowly for the Indians as far as sanitation and toilets are concerned, but not fast enough, I would say! In my mind clean safe toilets should be declared a “universal basic  human right” by  the UN. That would be positive project for them to undertake to  improve conditions for all the world’s poor.

Posted in India | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

“Nominating Four Outstanding Bloggers for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award”

Posted on June 21, 2013 by annetbell

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Dear Readers and Followers,

Imagine my surprise to be nominated by Deodatta V. Shenai-Khatkhate (deodatusblog.wordpress.com)  for the “Very Inspiring Blogger Award”.  I am always  amazed that anyone would take their time to read my little blog. . . now this!  I thank Deo  from the bottom of my heart. I encourage you to check out his posts to be inspired from his  excellent writings.  Indeed, Deo  a very special man.

My responsibility on accepting this award is to in return nominate some bloggers who have inspired me through their writing.  This is fun to know I can return some joy to these writers who have blessed me with their lives and words, but difficult to narrow the list to just a few. I have  decided on these four bloggers as my nominations for the  Outstanding Blogger Award. My congratulations and best wishes to them.  Keep inspiring us  through your stories, photographs and  poems.

Ivon Prefontaine at Teacher as Transformer  http://ivonprefontaine.com  for inspiring  teachers through prose and poetry

Bryan Patterson at Bryan Patterson’s Faithworks , BryanPattersonfaithworks.wordpress.com   For inspiration in an inclusive style discussing  faith and spiritual matters

Meagan at The War in My Brain, meganhasocd.com , Inspiring through her positive and transparent life while living with the challenge of OCD

Tyler Pedersen at The Ancient Eavesdropper, tylerpedersen02.wordpress.com  Inspiring through poetry and photography

My four blogger nominations, please respond to me that you are accepting this award and then start making your list of Inspiring Blogger Award nominations to honor.

For my readers and followers, if you have not read these bloggers, please visit their sites including Deo’s and be prepared to be inspired!

Namaste. . . . .Anne

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The Blind at Your Doorstep

Posted on June 19, 2013 by annetbell

img_4512One of the universal comments about India is, ” Your senses will be assaulted” which is pretty much true….thus universal in truth.  What if you were unable to see the vibrant colors, the friendly smiles, the cows wondering in the streets, the monkey dangling from all sorts of places?  There are 15  million native Indians who are partially or totally blind and unable to see the incredible world around them. The population of the world’s  low or none seeing peoples is 37 millions. So India has 1 out of 3  of the non-sighted  people on earth. And guess what? 75% of these people in India could be treated and returned to sight.  The blindness is avoidable. 153 million need  reading glasses and there are only 20 optometrist schools in India with only 1000 graduates  a year. Think how we can buy a pair of reading glasses for just a few dollars at the drug store in the States. Imagine never being able to read …or see your computer screen. The rest of the correctable seeing impaired people need cataract operations to restore their sight. Think how blessed we are with the availability and success of this outpatient procedure in the developed world.

I have had little personal contact with  blind or partially sighted people in India. I know there must be mobility teachers available as I have actually seen people with white canes navigating the streets and what’s more……the traffic.74e07_Statues_gI_104371_blindpersoncrossing Usually, a kind Indian will take  the person’s arm to steer  them safely across the streets.  And they can hear perfectly well the never ending honking  which never ceased to frighten me as we crossed the streets. In the States, drivers honk their horns  to alert someone, it India it is a continual symphonic blast just because they can.   I was frightened  and I  see and hear  perfectly well.  You must know that pedestrians have NO rights in India!  I have two mobility teacher friends, one in New York and one in Arizona. They are courageous  in their desire to help the blind become as independent as they are able by learning to navigate their world. At Himalaya Mall, the elevator operator was blind.  You tell him a floor number and his hand goes there immediately and without touching for the braille numbers.  He welcomes  riders  with a polite greetings  and all with the lovely Indian smile.  As always for me, it is the older people and children who are reduced to begging because of poverty or a condition such as blindness that stir my heart.

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From some research, I learned  of one company in India who is using partially sighted people to reach out to its prepaid customers . It is Vodafone India Ltd. The workers undergo training on voice recognition systems instead of braille.  They work in Vodafone Stores in the Delhi area.  Vodafone is another responsible capitalist company in India.

The BPA or Blind People’s Association of India was  founded by a group of blind philanthropists in 1954 ,dedicated  to help promote  self-reliance for the visually impaired of India.  There are numerous programs as well as schools where  children  learn mobility and braille. One of the most interesting opportunities  is the blind masseuse program  where they  come to your home or hotel for a  45 minute therapeutic massage. Same  gender masseuses give whole body massages including the head and face. The therapeutic techniques focus on  relaxation of the muscle and nervous system. indove0002

Further information can be obtained at BPA – phone number 079 26303346

“To be blind is not miserable;not to be able to bear blindness , that is miserable.”           John  Milton

Namaste. . . . . .T I I

Posted in India | Tagged , , , , , , , | 29 Comments

Good Citizen – KFC

Posted on June 18, 2013 by annetbell

This is a rework of a much earlier blog from India that not many people saw. It was one of my favorites. Today is the first of two posts  in response to questions I have had about what is available in India to help the many less fortunate people. Soon, there will be a post about a unique  program for the sight impaired.

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It started maybe six weeks into our time in India…. we started missing the variety of the food we enjoyed in America.  We began a hunt.  Some of the students  found Dominoes, while others visited McDonald’s for paneer cheese sandwiches, which weren’t too satisfying, but the French Fries were great!  And someone saw a KFC in Alpha One Mall!  The mall makes you think you are in America except for its size. There are 4 stories plus a basement where we discovered Hyper City. It became our large box store of choice in India. It was well stock  with our essentials, such as all the peanut butter we could ever want and all the toilet paper we  could ever need!

We decided to try KFC several weeks later. We were greeted warmly by the doorman!  Yes, a doorman at KFC! (He is seen in the photo.)  As we approached the counter, we saw the sign  .Image  All the order takers were  hearing and speech impaired. It was startling in the uniqueness of the situation, but the process ran  quite smoothly. The customer points on a card  to the menu item of her choice while  the cashier rings up the order, hands you a receipt and gives you a radiant smile with his hand over his heart.   We had never had an experience quite like this before.  It was very  moving. We returned several more times and were greeted each time as if we were remembered. Well, come to think of it, I guess the American auntie and uncle were hard to forget.

I am thinking, if you are still reading, that  you are asking, “Why is she telling us about eating at KFC?”   Good question. Truthfully, I have never been much of  a fan in America  except for the biscuits, and they are not served in India. But now I am a cheerleader for the company.  And it is because of the special order takers. Well, you might be thinking that this is one of many restaurants and maybe this is not the policy in all the KFC’s.  Could be true, but  for several weeks, I told everybody who would listen about the Alpha One  Mall KFC!  I talked to a graduate student at Cept and she told me that in Broda, the  city where she is from, there is an identical workforce in its KFC.   She said that it was stated as the Indian business plan policy  to give jobs, meaningful work,  to these hearing and speech  impaired  Indians.   Can this be true…..a capitalist company with a conscience and a desire to help “the least among us?”

I immediately emailed  my  financial adviser  to ask if KFC is otherwise a strong company and compatible with my needs, then I would like to support their work in India.  As you know, India’s main religion is Hinduism and eating any meat is strictly forbidden. From the internet, I learned there were many protests in 2011 to prevent KFC restaurants from opening in Ahmedabad, but the demonstrations were not successful. Granted this hiring policy may have been in response to the protests and an attempt to be responsive to the  them.  Whatever the reason, I think it is commendable.

What is the point of this post?  I would like to encourage support of KFC and their work to be a responsible representative  of capitalism. My hope is this will become the policy in the US, too.  These stories are not often told in the media so I am doing it.  The parent company is YUM and is traded on the NY Stock Exchange, if you feel lead to buy their stock.  Also, give the cook in our homes a break and stop by to get some chicken.  Oh yes, eat a biscuit with drippy honey, and wave to me in the corner!

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Nameste…….T I I I

Posted in India | Tagged , , , , | 18 Comments

Wire Madness

Posted on June 17, 2013 by annetbell

This is almost is an unbelievable topic, but trust me, it is real!  But these pictures are not Amanabad in Gujarat where this situation is much better.  In our four months there , we had a flickering and off of electricity only once and for just a short time.  We were shocked as we  traveled and had no electricity in the * * * hotels were we stayed.

No wonder  the lights flicker and go out for minutes and hours at a time!

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India seems” powerless” to stop electrical theft. 

India Daily Life

The wire business does provide many a man with an electrifying  job.. . . .

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and many a monkey a swinging good time!

Namaste. . . . . This Is Incredible India

Posted in Animals, India | Tagged , , , , , , , | 25 Comments

“California Dreaming” With A Young Indian Filmmaker, Chandresh Bhatt

Posted on June 14, 2013 by annetbell

bollywood-logo1  How did I meet an aspiring Indian filmmaker? Read my post “We Are Really Rock Stars. . .  Action TV Stars” for the details.  The students and I were invited to be tourists playing tourists in two episodes of a very popular Indian action TV  show called Shapath-Sabe Bado Talaaph. Chandresh Bhatt was the line producer for these episodes. He was in charge of the actors, extras, transportation, food, timing and just about all the details needed to run seamlessly for the shoot to be successful.551871_10151525706813838_724174552_n

Chandresh on the phone at the shoot.  The star is in the blue shirt. Shooting was  at Adalaj Ni Vav step well near Amedabad.

When I wrote my post on entrepreneurs in India, I thought it would be fun to add and independent Indian filmmaker. After all, Bollywood is now the world’s largest producers of film. In 2012, there were 155 Indian films released. Hollywood recognizes the huge market that is available in a country of 1 billion people who love film.  New films are released simultaneously in the States and India. That also cuts down on piracy.  The Oxford Dictionary has added Bollywood to its esteemed pages . . . . .Indian film has arrived on the world stage!

Chandresh, at the young age of 35 is on his second career. As a teenager he loved to read and enjoyed the arts. But when time came for college, he chose the secure major of  chemistry, thinking of a stable and lucrative position after finishing his education. After four months working for a pharmaceutical company, he realized that he just couldn’t do this work every day for the rest of his life. He took the courageous, and some might say foolish, step of leaving his job to find and follow his dream.

Chandresh spent much time reading, writing and thinking. He soon decided that film making would fill the need of a creative outlet in his professional life. He began networking and studying film production and was hired as an assistant director for a film in Gujarat. Here he learned the day to day production of films. After eleven years, he has been working in both TV  in Gujurat  and Bollywood films in Mumbai. Currently, he is line producer of  TV in Ahmadabad, Gujarat,  and  feature films in Mumbai. He has been involved in these Indian films: “Aakrsoh”, “Agneepath”, “Matru Ki Bijli Ka Mandola”, “The Grand Masti” and “Two States”.

Halo-Manavyana-Mele-–-Gujarati-Movie-Watch-Online He is rightly proud of a recognition of  his personal  award winning project at the Gujarati Film Festival, 2007-2008.   His film, “Halo Manviyu Ne Mele”  tells the story of a small Gujarati village 70-80 years ago. It won five awards for  story, screenplay, dialogue, director  and producer all for Chandresh.  It was his project beginning to end. Interesting aside: all Gujarati films must have either a  historical or mythological  plot.

When he came to invite us to be on the TV show, he had worked for three months straight, 7 days a week either meeting about new projects, filming, or searching for new ones.  Chandresh is a very hard worker. When I suggested that all those accomplishments were impressive, Chandresh says he is just beginning.  His dream is to be an international  writer/director so that he can tell his own stories to the world. He has put his personal life on hold to focus on this dream.  In the future, he wants to be a caring husband and father, but at the proper time.Definition of entrepreneurship

 

Image by “Secret Entourage”                                                                                         http://www.secretentourage.com

 Chandresh feels that there is a war for the truth in the world. The weapons that Indians learned from Ghandi-ji are ones from the heart . . . kindness and love. His dream is to go to Hollywood because he says that Americans have kind hearts and feel the pain of others’ suffering. He used as an example,  the sacrifices made by Americans in WW II. With all this as a guide, he wants to first entertain, then educate, inspire and motivate audiences through his films. “Then my hard work and personal sacrifice will have been worth it.”179088_10151525724233838_1006320774_n

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“I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.” –Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect and Entrepreneur

Namaste. . . . . .TII

Chandresh Bhatt’s contact information:

chandreshfilms@yahoo.com    email and LinkedIn

chandresh.bhatt.184@facebook.com

Posted in film, India | Tagged , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

The Law Garden. . . Kitsch and Glitter in Ahmedabad’s Night Market

Posted on June 13, 2013 by annetbell

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If you have been paying attention, with this post, I have now shared round the clock market shopping opportunities for you to explore in my Indian  home away from home. As the  name implies, the address is the garden and nearby Law College.  It began about 40 years ago, when a poor man from the country set up  to sell  trinkets from his village to provide for his family. Ah…another entrepreneur!  More sellers came, as did tourists and food vendors.  Now it is a popular spot for tourists and Indians alike.  Image

Image The city improved the garden,  discouraged  unquestionable people and practices in order  to provide for a family friendly atmosphere. There are even camel rides available for the children.  Ahmadabad provided services  and tidied up the area to encourage business. Hmm, big debate in New York as I type,  Governor Cuomo wants to encourage new businesses with  lower  taxes and services…. worked  well for  the people of Ahmedabad. “Build it and they will come”  happens  in real life and not just in films.

Law Garden night market has all the sparkly things people think of as Indian and are sold in the US from  the kiosks in the malls…bags, jewelry, tunics, scarves, and shawls.  Many have the tiny mirrors sewn into the material.  Everything is sold through bargaining and if you like it …have a blast. I always feel sorry and think they need the money to feed their children. I don’t bargain well!

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These are items showing the artisans’ work in Kutch which is a nearby village. The economy is pheasants making and selling crafts. We didn’t go there, but got the flavor with a trip to the Law Garden.

Namaste. . . .T I I

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Cohoes, ( Co-HOS, a Native American name)  New York is an old mill city which had its hay day around the Civil War. But today, there is news from Cohoes about her lovely waterfall located on the Mohawk River. It is really quite unremarkable compared to that huge waterfall near Buffalo, Niagara Falls.  In the last few days, there have been 9 inches of rain.  Believe or not India and Arizona…it is true. There are flood warnings for all the  surrounding areas. Take a peep at the Cohoes Falls as it appeared this afternoon! That’s a lot of water.

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Namaste. . . . .T I N Y

Posted on June 13, 2013 by annetbell | 2 Comments

The Banyan Tree

Posted on June 11, 2013 by annetbell

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“Everyone has a story to tell. Every person, every animal, every tree has a story to tell. Not all stories have words. ”

Beneath the Banyan Tree  by Emil Sher

Namaste. . .  .T I I

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