silk, sandalwood and talks...

Mysore is known for its beautiful silk and hand-carved sandalwood. Earlier, PSU and an anonymous poster suggested I look in the Kauvery store. There I found a few hand-carved Jesus statues and a Mary statue. The Mary statue had a cross on top of the crown that had broken and, to fix it, it had been put in upside-down. I explained that an upside-down cross was a bad sign to the vendor and he thanked me a lot for telling him and said he would have another the next week. Then we had a nice talk about how we will not know these things about each other's religions unless we talk about it.

Later, I was speaking with a Muslim man from whom I had bought several pieces of silk in the past few weeks. Since we had just haggled, he was sighing and saying that he disliked haggling so much. I told him that fixed pricing was first started in America by the Quakers because - the idea was - that haggling involves lying because each side starts out not saying what their bottom-line offer is. He started talking about business references in the Bible and the Koran and told me that, although he was Muslim, he had gone to Catholic school and was taught never to take more than 100% profit. He then asked me what my religion was and I said "Christian." He said that it concerned him that when he asked the western yoga students this question they often did not have an answer or took a while to say Christian. I agreed that I don't understand the hemming and hawing before saying "Christian" either. He then said that a lot of the yoga students do not seem to understand that Judaism, Christianity and Islam are religions of "the Book" and that you cannot be both a person of the Book and perhaps also worship Hindu Gods. He also said that he felt that a lot of the yoga students have an idea of what Hinduism is that is not the way it is practiced and also they have an idea that Hinduism is one one cosmology when in fact it is a general group of scripture and traditions that have produced a large number of sub-groups that theologically have little in common and many of whom do not agree with each other or recognize each other- and also would not recognize some western yoga students' suppositions about Hinduism. I listened to all this. A foreign religion is always partly experienced - just as a foreign culture is. The foreign religion is often a projection of our fears (if we dislike it) and our wishes (if we like it). He told me he was very pleased to speak with me because some of the westerners concern him. Then he told me that religion is really not discussed in India... that people tolerate each other's religion in India but do not discuss it. He said that Americans will always talk about religion even if they seem slow to admit that they are mostly Christians. Why so slow to bear witness he wanted to know?

At the Green Leaf restaurant at lunch I got the last table for two. A few minutes later a waiter asked me if I would mind sitting with a man who was also alone. He was a fair-skinned Indian man with well-manicured hands, a cell phone, and a palm pilot. He attempted to order in Hindi, then some other language and - I think the waitor responded in Kanada - which the man did not know and he ended up ordering in English. I asked him where he was from and he was from the North, here working on his Phd on Bio-mass as an energy source. We talked a little about the differences between northern and southern food and his thesis and the fact that his father had worked "in government." Then he asked me about my largest impression of India so far.

I told him that the thing that has struck me most is how much less power and choice women have here. He instructed me with the patience that a kind father has for a naughty child not to judge a culture on one thing. If I had said anything else I would have lied. I had simply been truthful about my largest impression; this way of responding is a not so subtle thing in India: Accept Your Place.

A little while back PSU and I had a little discussion about the poor and he pointed out that America is a rich country so I cannot compare the services America has with India. I believe that America is so rich because women are more powerful there in business and in government. One half of our population is not restricted but is mostly promoted by merit, will and ambition. By the way, PSU if you are reading, I thank you for your allowing me to speak my true impressions with good tolerance.

Years ago I remember reading a book by a father who was answering his daughter's questions about Catholicism. She had asked him why women were not able to become priests despite the concept that we are all God's children. He managed to fill a few pages - the major thrust of which was - that this is just one aspect of Catholicism which is rich and beautiful so why don't we not judge it on that one issue? I felt like reaching into the book and shaking this man and saying, "You are talking to a woman!" One major and important lesson I have gotten from this trip is that my rights as a woman are very recently won and extremely fragile and I keep my mouth shut and don't witness that fact at women's peril.

"Every Day Above Ground is a Good Day"
Long ago and far away in a well-ordered society where everyone had their place and everyone accepted their duty, a rich man on a walk idly asked a grave digger, "So, Digger, what do you think of your job and place?" The Digger said, "Well, I do do filthy hard work during all the daylight hours and it is a job that is sad; no one is ever happy that a grave has to be dug. Also, I breathe in dirt and my back is ruined with the labor. I dream of other things I will never be allowed to choose." The rich man said, "Well, other than that what do you think of your job and place?"