This Indian woman named Bhumik Patel (yes from the Gujurat Patels) fearlessly if not foolishly fought off a robber with a hammer in a store in Georgia. She said she was not scared at all because her Hindu god was with her.
I say let’s have more immigrants from India. . . . brave, committed, faithfully Incredible Indians from Incredible India! Thanks for being a role model for Americans in your new country Bhumik Patel !
Friday night was the family 10th birthday dinner for lovely Alice shown here with her cousin Georgia. We feasted on Alice’s favorite dinner, Shepherds’ Pie complete with a heart shaped Red Velvet cake.
After dinner, we were off to a play at the Middle School. Here we are waiting. One of my daughter’s friends wanted to know if Bofa (David) was live texting during the play? Katie said that he hates musicals and uncomfortable seats, but loves his grandchildren!
I am sure that the director knew that Dr. Suess’ 112 birthday was just past. The play had a respectable run on Broadway. It is an amalgamation of Dr. Suess’ most famous books and characters. It is a musical so much was sung with a job well done for these Middle Schoolers. Some very strong singers, great scenery and a very enjoyable evening.
I have to admit that my favorite was Henry, my grandson who is Alice’s brother. He was a member of the Wikersham Brothers who were mischievous monkeys and antagonists who tormented poor Horton the Who. The monkey brothers, sang, danced, hopped and scampered, peeped around the curtain and generally made all in attendance laugh with the fun of their shenanigans. There was Henry, shall I say typed cast, leading the monkey brothers.
Isn’t he adorable? I have been blessed with perfect grandchildren!
Fun facts about Scotland!
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As we were touring around India, the smoke stakes of the brick factories dot the landscape wherever we looked. I am so thankful that IJM is working with the Indian government to free the slaves, help them get readjusted to freedom, and work to bring the traffickers to justice.
| Dear Marilyn,
Our largest anti-slavery operation just ended: You helped rescue 564 children, women and men from a massive brick factory in India. Because of you, these families won’t wake up as slaves today.
You might already know about this brick kiln. We’ve been there before. In 2011, we helped rescue more than 500 people from the same sprawling factory. The fact that the owner re-opened his factory with hundreds more slaves is unacceptable.It highlights why traffickers cannot remain free. Thankfully, the government leaders who led this week’s operation arrested six suspects, including the owner. (Read more.) Click here for more details and testimonials! Because of you, we’ll keep working on this case to see justice done. We’ll help the 564 survivors to return home, find work, go back to school and rediscover their dreams. We view our Freedom Partners like our frontline workers—you are the reason slavery will end. Thank you, Sean Litton |
This is keeping with the election cycle that the United States is suffering through ! After viewing the video, guess the political party these stranded riders are associated with. . . . . Democrat or Republican ? Have a lovely weekend !
Today, I was going to post on death rituals or mummification and reincarnation but as I was doing research, I got interested in learning about caste systems in India and ancient Egypt. I always feel a tad tenuous speaking as an authority on subjects, I have only read about…I dip my toes gingerly into the pool of history and beliefs of cultures not my own. I would be most happy if any readers from India and or Egypt would step in and make corrections or comments. I can only say I have the deepest respect for both these cultures and the accomplishments and ideas they have given to the world both then and now. Please know that any mistakes I make are not malicious but because I lack the knowledge.
First a caste system is defined as a way to organize society into groups based on heredity. For Americans, we can understand this by the English system. It was ordered on a system of marriage only from the same group and heredity as a transmission for occupation, though education has become more important since the industrial revolution. And of course, Prince William married Kate Middleton, a commoner, and she will one day be Queen of England. They met and graduated from St. Andrews College in Scotland. This is quite similar to the caste system in India. And before we American deny a caste system here. . . . . have you noticed that most politicians come from a few select ivy league collages?
Since the ancient Egyptian system is no longer in use, unless my Egyptian friends can elaborate, I will just talk about the Indian system. The charts are pretty self-explanatory so I have only a few comments to make. It is interesting to see similarities in the two charts of systems that started so long ago. In India, there used to just be the top four classes, until Mr. Gandhi , the father of modern and free India, made a lower caste called the untouchables, Dalits or the “children of God.” The Indian constitution has outlawed the caste system and has instituted “affirmative action” programs to help these people with the challenges in their lives. I think of the programs for hearing, speech , and sight impaired Indian people I blogged on earlier. Both of these are private organizations, though I am sure that the government has programs as well.
https://talesalongtheway.com/2013/06/19/the-blind-at-your-doorstep/
https://talesalongtheway.com/2013/06/18/good-citizen-kfc/
Today in India, there is a different approach to the caste system in the cities than in the villages. In the cities with the rising middle class consisting of 50-75 million people, the emphasis has shifted more to education leading to work and marriage as the division. But in the villages, the caste system still usually dictates marriage rituals, births, deaths and occupation for all who lived there. Habits passed down from generation to generation are difficult to give up especially if you are a member of a higher caste.
This is a reblog from a 2014 blog entitled The Caste System where you can read the 89 comments on this very provocative topic. Yesterday’s topic caste and quotas in India today made me think of reblogging this former post as clarification. Please share your comments and thoughts.
Patel demonstration in Amadavad, Gujurat, one million strong.
Patel community threatens BJP with poll losses in Gujarat if it can’t have OBC status... as rally turns violent and police resort to teargas. This is the quota method for giving opportunities for different social categories (castes are no longer legal. People who are expected to release power to others, though it is, which are ns right, it is hard to do. Though we don’t have castes per se in the US, quotas are hard to take when someone who is less qualified is chosen over you solely for the sake of diversity. ) Mr. Modi the Prime Minister was the Chief Minister in Gujurat before being elected PM. Gujurat is his home state. Gives you a peep at the complexities of Incredible India!
By MAIL TODAY REPORTER I only found this yesterday though it happened months past. I thought it quite interesting to see how India is trying to cope with such diversity in people groups, religions, languages. Hinduism is the major religion. I am remembering 80 % of the country. Patels are very visible in Gujurat and Amadavad in particularly like the name Smith in the US. When meeting someone new from the area, assume the sir name is Patel! I remember sitting in the hospital, up the street, waiting for one of the students and noticing 6 office doors in the space. Dr. ,Mr.. or Mrs. Patel was the name posted on 5 of the 6 doors!
PUBLISHED: 15:53 EST, 25 August 2015 | UPDATED: 20:06 EST, 25 August 2015
In a mega show of strength to push their demand for inclusion in the OBC category for reservation, the Patel community on Tuesday warned the BJP government in Gujarat that it will face consequences in the 2017 Assembly polls if the plea is not accepted, saying the lotus will not bloom again.
The warning was sounded by 22-year-old Hardik Patel, the convener of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti which is spearheading the agitation, at a rally.
The stir turned violent, and police resorted to baton-charges and lobbed teargas shells in a bid to control the situation.
The Patel community of Gujurat converged to take part in a rally which brought the city to a grinding halt
After the rally, Patel sat on a hunger strike at the GMDC ground without permission, for which the police detained him. He was released soon after.
The numerically and economically strong Patel community of Gujarat had converged in large numbers to take part in the rally, which brought the city to a grinding halt.
The ‘Maha Kranti’ rally comes after a month-long agitation by the Patel community for their quota demand.
“If you do not give our right (reservation), we will snatch it. Whoever will talk of interest of Patels will rule over Patels,” Hardik told the gathering.
“In 1985, we had uprooted Congress from Gujarat, today there is BJP. 2017 (state election year) is coming…lotus will not bloom in the mud, it will never bloom. If you will talk about our interest then only we will nurture your lotus,” he said, warning the state government. The lotus is the BJP’s party symbol.
The Patels are unrelenting even though the chief minister has expressed her inability to include the community in the OBC category, and requested the leaders to end the agitation and come forward for negotiations.
The CM had cited Supreme Court guidelines and judgements for her inability to include Patels in the OBC category.
“Some parties say you do not not know about Supreme Court guidelines (of 50 per cent cap on reservations), this cannot happen. If SC can open at 3.30 in the morning for a terrorist, then why not for the youth the future of this nation?” Hardik Patel said, amid cheers from the crowd.
“If the country’s youth come on the streets to demand their right and if they do not get those rights, some of them will become Naxalites, some of them will become terrorists.”
Clashes between Patel community members and local residents were reported in certain areas when they tried to enforce a bandh called by Hardik Patel after their mega rally.
The protesters of the Patel community allegedly vandalised shops and buses. Reports have also come that some miscreants damaged window panes of city buses at various places.
Who is Hardik Patel?
No one would have imagined a couple of months ago that a 22-year-old BCom graduate would lead a mass movement of Patidars (Patels) in Gujarat to spearhead their demand for reservations in the OBC quota.
Hardik Patel hails from Viramgam, near Ahmedabad, and is the covenor of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) formed in July, this year.
While he passed his graduation with less than 50 per cent marks from the Sahajanand College, Ahmedabad, and thereafter helped his father’s business, the youngster has become the face of the Gujarat-wide Patidar movement.
He entered the movement because he feels the community is losing out in the race of development owing to the discriminatory reservation policy.
He was a member of the Sardar Patel Group (SPG), and was also its Viramgam unit president.
He was ousted from the post because he insisted on the idea of promoting PAAS while SPG leaders were against it.
Hardik has become a political problem as he has emerged as the new face of the Patel community, who have been traditional supporters of the BJP.
To stop him in his tracks, the SPG also lodged an FIR against him on charges of bungling money.
From the Washington Post: Who are the Patels?
If a tired traveler pulls off a highway in Texas or Michigan or Virginia, looking for a cheap but clean room for the night, the odds are that he or she will end up in a motel owned by someone whose last name is Patel, an immigrant from India who also lives on the premises and runs the front desk, the laundry room and the food service.
Over the past 30 years, members of the large Patel community, a sub-caste of Hindu traders in India’s complex caste system who are based in the western state of Gujarat, have come to dominate the American motel business. More than 40 percent of the motels in the United States are owned by Indian Americans, and 70 percent of them are Gujaratis. Of those Gujaratis, three-quarters are named Patel.
You might remember that I noticed that from 2013 to 2015, trash bins had appeared on the streets of Amdavad. I also commented that care needed to be taken to empty the bins before the trash over flowed. Well, some smart Indian students have taken on this project with a great idea combining the Indian love of the internet and cleaning up mother India! Another example of the Indian entrepreneurial spirit!
Two Indian commerce graduates have come up with an unique initiative that provides you with free Wi-Fi whenever you dump garbage in a dustbin. These Indian duo have created a ‘Wi-Fi Trash Bin’ that generates a unique code whenever someone dumps trash in. This code can then be availed for free Wi-Fi.
Pratik Agarwal, one of the two founders of the initiative says “When somebody dumps trash into a dustbin the bin flashes a unique code, which can be used to gain access to free Wi-Fi.”
Mumbai-based Agarwal and his partner Raj Desai, a self taught programmer, traveled extensively to many different countries like Denmark, Finland, Singapore etc and realized that apart from a difference in structure, in order to keep surroundings clean, a change in the attitude of the people was needed.
“We took a lot of help from countries like Finland, Denmark, Singapore etc and decided to build a system similar to that,” says Pratik.
They both came up with the idea during their visit to a music festival called NH7 Weekender. The music festival is spread over a large area and is full of food, drinks, music, crowd, resulting in a lot of garbage.
” …It took us six hours to find our friends. Since there was no network, we could not reach them through a phone call. It was the trigger for the idea and we thought why not provide free Wi-Fi to people using hotspots,” says Pratik.
The driving force behind their innovative project was to keep the place clean and help in connecting with their friends.
As of now, the self-funded experiment is supported by operator MTS and has proved to be a success at the various Weekender Festivals held in Bangalore, Kolkata and Delhi, however, it is not functional at the moment.
The duo said that they have received queries from GAIL and currently talks are in due process. To bring about a behavioral change among people, the founders want to set up network of Wi-Fi bins.
“We wanted to change the attitude of the people and how things are structured, thus affecting an individual’s behavior,” says Raj Desai.
Even though, the venture is not operational now, the aim is to satisfy the need for the internet while keeping the environment clean and bringing about a behavioral redesign among people.
“… We want to work more for it,” says Pratik.
Recently displayed at “Networked India”, a unique initiative by Ericsson and CNN-IBN, the venture aims to recognize and facilitate clutter-breaking innovations in the field of mobility and connectivity.
Thanks to my researcher, Judy ~
Namaste!
Jesse lived to tell about this photo taken, I think, in Jaipur either at the Amber Fort or Jantar Mantar. As brave as Jesse looks with that cobra wrapped around his neck, you need to know that we were told that the poison sacks in cobras are removed before they are used to amaze and frighten tourists. I have to say that there is no way I would ever have done this, photo op or not!
The video is from the south of India. There is a clue to that in the video besides the title. The men and boys are wearing skirts made from a long piece of material wrapped around the waist. This area in India is very hot a good part of the year as well as quite humid. The skirts known as lungis are cooler. The boys as well as David bought at least one on our south trip in 2013. There was big talk about wearing this unusual clothing to the architecture school, Shane might have done it , but David never did. Seemed like a good idea in India!
I guess I can say that men in skirts in south India are quite brave. . . . or are they?
Alright, Parker or Toy Boy is my grandson. He is branching out from his love of playing sports, mathematics, and constructing lego buildings to making videos of him reviewing a new toy. The family just returned from winter vacation at Disney World with this current action figure from Star Wars. Perfect opportunity to review a figure from this amazingly popular movie. If you have Star Wars’ fans in your family, this will help you know what you might be asked to buy.
Parker would love some words of encouragement if you so desire. There is a comment section on the YouTube page or at the bottom of this post.
Keep up the good work, Toy Boy !
TalesAlongTheWay 