TAMIL NADU [tah-mull naw-do]--- Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula along the Bay of Bengal. The region has been the home the Tamil civilization since at least 1500 BC, it has numerous archeological sites. Tamil is the most widely used language. It has many natural resources, hill stations & beaches. It's a leading producer of agricultural products in India. It’s crops include: rice, grams, sugar cane, bananas, tapioca, mangos, coffee, tea, coconuts, groundnuts [peanuts], onions, palm oil. It is the leading producer of fruits & flowers in India. It has a peaty type soil with more rainfall & irrigation than other parts of India. It has low plains & mountain plateaus.
I’M A COMMUNIST-----Janie [N. Carolina] & I had arrived in Madras, Capitol City of Tamil Nadu where we were going to spend the night before visiting with state officials to learn our host assignments. I got to my hotel room late, midnight or after, ready for a good nights sleep. Shortly after I had gotten to bed there came a knock on my door. I got dressed, answered the door and found 4 college age young men standing outside. '' Are you from America?'' they ask, ''May we come in and talk''? Reluctantly I agreed. They ask what I was doing in India and where had I been. I explained about the IFYE program and the places I had been when one of the guys proudly announced he was a Communist and wanted to argue politics. I didn't say much hoping they would go away so I could get some sleep. When it became obvious I wasn’t going to argue politics with him one of the other boys started defending Democracy and a heated debate ensued. This went on for much longer than I wanted when the fellow arguing for Democracy said, ’’Enough of this!". “Imagine I have two letters for you, in one hand I have a letter from the University of Moscow. In the other hand I have a letter from a College in America, which one are you going to take?”. The Communist started asking a lot of question about the supposed letters. The one fellow says stop stalling and answers my question! One letter says you have been accepted at the Univ. Moscow. The other a letter of acceptance in an American College. “What American College?” The one persisted. The other said any college, he basically said Podunk U. meaning some college only the people living in that town knows about. Finally the guy admitted he would take the letter from the American College. The other fellow said. “I don’t want to hear any more about how great Communism is!” This is about 3 a.m. & one of the other guys looks at his watch and says, "Aren't we going to the 3 o'clock movie". And these two guys that have be arguing, or debating intensely, took hold of hands, and walked out the door talking calmly about the movie they were going to see. I got my sleep finally but it was short.
INDIAN MOVIES----Since I mentioned movies, I didn't go to many movies, maybe 2-3 with a host brother of high school or college age. Of course there were no romantic scenes between an Actor & Actress any romantic moments cut to scenes of butterflies, flowers in meadows, and such. Although I could not understand the language I could get the jist of the movies quite easily. They were quite politically orientated. The bad guy was always a big, overweight, over bearing, self-centered, materialistic capitalist, interested only in himself & money. The hero was a skinny, not to big, give everything to the poor, everybody before me, socialist. People of India would proudly say they were the worlds biggest Democracy, but it was a very socialistic democracy. I saw one English language movie, ‘The Man who would be King.” It was the first time I saw it. Much of it was filmed in India. It is still a favorite today.
MADRAS DREAM--That same weekend in Madras before I went to my first host family I had a dream. I seemed to be setting under a tree by a quiet stream of water when a dove flew through my line of sight. The picture disappeared and I could see in my mind lettering. A specific book in the Bible, a chapter, the numbers for 4 verses. At that point I woke up. I got my Bible out and read the verses. I read a few verses and at a certain point I got a tingly feeling all over my body & it seemed like the hair was standing up on my arms. I thought OK this is why I am supposed to read these verses but what does it have to do with India. So I read it twice more and experienced the same feeling at the same verses, but still could not find the connection with India. Three-four years later at a Holiday gathering my mom mentioned the passing of her mother. For some reason a light came on and I remembered the dream in Madras. I went home got my India diary, checked the date, roughly figured the time difference and decided that God could have given me that dream at the time my grandmother had passed away. I don't remember if I recorded the Bible verses, but I remembered having the dream vividly.
 |
An irrigation pump & canal in Tamil Nadu |
THE LAND OF TAMIL---Tamil Nadu [taw-mull, naw-due] was my favorite part of India that I saw. It was lower plains with plenty of irrigation water. This was one thing I had the hardest time grasping of all the unusual things I saw throughout India. In the U. S. farmers thought they needed more money, more machinery, more land, more equipment. But in India you could have all the money, land and machinery imaginable, but if you didn't have water you had nothing. Since it was lower plains & costal there were rivers and some areas got some rain other than just Monsoon rains so it was greener that some of the Northern areas of India. Gujarat had been more in the northern part of India but the need of irrigation was similar, probably even more, I have a picture of 2 men standing by a pile of rice in Tamil. It was an area where they raised only one crop of rice after the monsoon rain. In some places they often drilled over 100' to get water. The pile of rice would probably have fit, in a Pick Up truck bed. The striking thing was this was going to be their only crop and the 2 brothers and their families would live a year on the money gained by this one pile of rice.
Like Gujarat I only remember the name of two families in Tamil.
 |
The man or the right of the picture was Pamanji my host. |
RAMANJI REDDIAR FAMILY-----. [ Rah- mawn- juh—Read- E- ur]-- Ramanji had two wives. It was ingrained in the India culture, no matter your occupation, or financial status, that you needed two sons to carry on the family business and take care of the parents in old age. I was aware the custom of having two wives existed in India. Ramanaji & his wife had tried for several years to have a child. They had been to several Doctors trying to figure out how to have a child, but had been unsuccessful. He also had 2 older brother and their wives who were childless so there was great family pressure for him, by his parents & brothers & their wives, that he take a second wife. Reminding me of the story of Abraham, Sarah & Haggar in the Old Testament. The second wife had a son, & perhaps with the pressure lifted, he & his first wife had a son. I didn’t understand their language but it was obvious he made every effort to treat both wives equally, but I could tell a bond existed between him & his first wife that didn’t exist with the second. He made great effort to treat the sons equally, but I could sense most family distention was over how the wives perceived their sons were being treated. Like Abraham, Sarah & Haggar. Of course they spoke to each other in an India language but I could sense it.
 |
V.K. weight his grain at Harvest before taking it to market. |
VISHNU [V.K.] SUBMARIYAN FAMILY---
[ Vish-new, Sub-muh-rain-e-un] Vishnu was a Brahman. Although the caste system was supposed to be outlawed it’s influence in the culture existed. {Kinda like there isn't supposed to be racial prejudice in the U.S. any more}. With my experience with other castes I expected the Brahmans to be the most conceited, self-righteous people of India. Vishnu was totally the opposite. If good works or living right could get you into Heaven he had it made. He lived by what would be considered the best Christian principles. His honesty was very evident. He was very interested in what the Bible taught & he shared Hindu religious beliefs that no one else had. I gave him a Bible & he gave me a book, part of it explained what sacrifices had to be made for those who had broken Hindu religious laws. Some similar to those you read about in the Old Testament. I became closer to Vishnu than any host father in India.
I have two fond memories of staying with him. One involved taking my camera to the fields. One day I was going to leave my camera at the house but Vishnu was gently insisting I take my camera to the field. I ask why a few of times & he confessed if I took the camera the workers would work harder if they thought I might take their picture. I told him I had taken my quota of picture for my time with him, 3- 36 exposure rolls. I thought about what Vishnu had said so I took the camera. On the way home he said, ''I thought you weren't going to take pictures.'' I confessed I had no film in my camera, but the workers didn't know that so they thought their picture would be going back to America. We both had a good laugh. He did something no other host did that reminded me of the book of Ruth in the Old Testament. [ After coming home when I read the Old Testament it would almost come alive. I saw so many things in customs & religious tradition that when I read them I'd think, '' I saw almost this very thing in India'']
 |
Farm Laborers threshing bundles of rice in the fields on a smoothed section of the field for that purpose. |
At day’s end he allowed workers to go back through the fields & pick up heads of rice on the ground & take home to feed their families. All other hosts expected their workers to pick up everything and put in his threshing pile. It was one of Vishnu’s ways of following his Hindu teaching that the wealthy had an obligation to share their wealth with the poor. Farm workers were among the lowest of occupations in the culture of India.
In the Hindu Religion there is a belief that the rich have an obligation to share their wealth with the poor. Not the old American, ''I earned it, It’s mine. I don’t have to share with anybody. I can do whatever I want with it. What I do with it is no ones business but mine.'' In India the poor have a right to DEMAND a share of your wealth. So with the influence of the old Caste System I saw a lot of people treated in a way that bothered me, but I also saw them doing things for the poor that we would never do in the U.S. So it was kind of a two side coin.
V.K. weighed his rice & other grains before taking it to the market, and more than once I saw him politely ask a buyer to check their scales and reweigh his bags after the buyer had weighed them and offered a price. If the scales were set to weigh light, most were, the merchants would reset them & make an apology saying they didn’t know their scales were wrong, but of course they did. This is something his father and grandfather before him would not have done. Most farmers didn’t know how much grain they had & just took the word of the buyers. They would simply be at the mercy of the grain buyer.
 |
The bullock cart was still the primary way of getting things to market |
One day V.K. ask if I would like to go to the village of the field workers for a meal. Apparently they told Vishnu they wanted me to come to their village & eat with them. Field workers are of a 'Secluded Caste' living in their own village so have little contact with the other people of the main village, where the landowners and other types of workers and business people lived because of their cultural status. I'm very sure none of my other hosts would have allowed such a thing. I readily agreed. I guess to V.K being from the U.S I had no class distinction so it was OK or he simply had a relaxed attitude of Class Seperation. I went to the workers village for a meal. They spoke little English, only a word or two of greeting. I hadn't learned any of their local dialect but they would talk and laugh & I would laugh with them & I smiled a lot. I suspected some times the stories were about me as they would talk & glance at me & laugh, sometimes very heartily. I laughed with them figuring it was good for international relations. There may still be stories being told in the village today, how an American once ate in their village. Stories seemed to be a big part of the simple peoples lives.
I was often ask when I returned home and was giving talks if I saw a lot of starving people and I said, ''NO'', It became an emphatic one because of the tone of voice in which it was always ask. Maybe I was in India too long but I think the farm laborers justified that response. The meal was a type of bread made of what we would call Maize or Milo. There was a soup that was made of 3 grams, grains similar to soybeans. The bread was baked so there was a open center area and soup was poured in. You broke off a piece of bread and dipped it in the soup. With the idea of running out of soup before you ran out of bread or else you ended up with a hand full of soup! They ate several helpings but I learned from V.K. that their lifetime diet would be of those 4 grains. Did I see a lot of under nourished people in India, 'Yes'. As many of the diets of many people of India were limited to a few types of foods & grains available locally, sometimes very local.
The fellow sitting on my left in the picture seemed to be the leader of the village as he took me around the village showing me things and indicating things for me to do concerning the meal, all by gestures of course since we had no common language.
This is a little off the topic but people wanted anything from America for a souvenir. An empty film canister, a used flashbulb, a ballpoint out of ink. I say that with the thought that I might have left something with the farm laborers. Things I considered trash were requested & received with enthusiasm and put on display in their home. Letters from home often arrived with no stamps. People of India are great stamp collectors, some people may have taken them to sell to people who were collectors.
This is a little off the topic but people wanted anything from America for a souvenir. An empty film canister, a used flashbulb, a ballpoint out of ink. I say that with the thought that I might have left something with the farm laborers. Things I considered trash were requested & received with enthusiasm and put on display in their home. Letters from home often arrived with no stamps. People of India are great stamp collectors, some people may have taken them to sell to people who were collectors.
MR. LARRY---I said I became friends more with Vishnu than any members of my other host families. So I started trying to get him to call me by my first name. I ask and he had no problem with me calling him Vishnu. But he had a problem getting rid of Mr. Paxson. There was always the Mister part. We had a long discussion. His reasons were their government had sent me, I was a guest from another country & that dictated formality, respect & honor. I kept saying your more than a host of a government program, I consider you a friend. He said he was ok with the Larry part, but was I ok with ‘Mr. Larry’ So that was the agreement, I called him Vishnu & he called me Mr. Larry. I used that name as I went on to other parts of India where they wanted to use Mr. Paxson all the time. College age young men & women were more informal & they would use first names quite readily. The once a friend always a friend thing.
DRIVING A TRACTOR-- V.K. had a small tractor, much like a 2 bottom Ford tractor but Russian made. All my hosts paid workers to work their fields, most was manual labor. I begged and pleaded for days for him to let drive the tractor. Patiently explaining that in the U.S. we farmers drove the machinery and worked our own land because labor was high. Finally one day he let me work one small plot, no more than an acre I'm sure. I was all fired up & ready to go to the next one but V.K. would hear of no such thing. He INSISTED that I stop and,” TAKE REST.” I relented.
 |
My 3rd Tamil family |
MY 3rd TAMIL FAMILY --[ can't remember the name] was a real Challenge, there was only one college age son that spoke English. They lived in a huge two story house and it was an extended family. I know the oldest son, who was involved in the operation of the family farm, had a wife and small children lived there. But I was never sure about the rest of those living in the house. Whether they were unmarried daughters or daughter-in-laws. One son was in College & the other we'd call High School. India had a different name for it, ???? Standard. I've forgotten the different Standards now. The two young women were involved with cooking, keeping house and caring for the children which was very normal. The College age son was away for several days at a time and it was almost impossible to communicate with the rest of the family. I suppose the daughters could have had husbands working in a city but that had not been the case in all my other families. The dowry system was still very much in use in rural India and marrying off two daughters would have been quite a costly undertaking.
The big highlight of staying with this family was that they took me to the Shore Temple at Mehabalipuram [Muh-hobbly-pur-um] which was a 7th century port city of the Pallava dynasty. The Temple was also built during the 7th century. There were 6 different sections. It was my favorite Temple to visit although it was well worn by the Sea and the Wind which gave it a unique look. It was also simple inside, not as luxurious looking as most others. The stone is granite rock face which is unusual in nature. It was on a rough and rugged coast line that was beautiful in in own way. We didn't spend much time in the Ocean the day we were there as the water was rough and waves strong.
 |
| The Temple at Mehabalipuram. The ocean was just behind a few trees seen at the rear of the picture. |
CREMATION GROUNDS-- A host brother took me to a Cremation Ground in Tamil. Åt first I didn’t realize what it was, there was a big, beautiful tree by a nice big stream of water with beautiful grassy banks. He was trying to explain something to me, finally he got me to understand it was the local cremation grounds, and then ask me what we did when people “are no more” in America. At first I didn't understand that. He repeated it several times and then I understand he wanted to know what we did in America when people died. So I began to explain about funerals. He wanted to know every aspect and what each cost. So I told about the grave plots, headstone, caskets, flowers, funeral services, etc. I tried to be conservative in guesses on cost out of a kind of embarrassment. After a short silences, he ask in a puzzled kind of way, “American are Christian aren’t they?” This kind of caught me by surprise or off guard.
I always had trouble answering that question. Because their religion so regulates their daily lives they think everything they see in the movies or on TV, if they has seen one, or things that happens in the U.S they hear or read about on news is exceptable by the Christian Religion. So I was always trying to explain, “Yes some Americans are Christian but others are not. As I tried to figure out just how to phrase an answer to the first question, he began to ask other questions like "Christian believe in life after death, yes? “The souls lives on after the body quits working, right?” “Christian believe the soul goes to Heaven?" and several other questions of Christian beliefs, that I confirmed. He stopped for awhile and with a kind of inner sigh I thought I had cleared all his questions, when this puzzled look came over his face and then he ask. "If Christians believe all that why don't they give some of that money to the American Indians or the Negroes in the Ghettos?'' At that time Life & other magazines had done lots of articles on the plight of American Indians and Negroes. I had to confess I didn't have a good answer to that question.
[Personal note] I had not been big on going to cemeteries before going to India and even less after. I never felt I gained anything going to a cemetery. If I wanted to feel close to Moms parents I went to the old Milton Methodist Church where we had often attended church with them. Going somewhere there was lots of flowers would bring back memories of Grandpa & Grandma Paxson. Also after the vision with Grandpa Stitt I never felt I knew any dead people, they might be in Heaven or Hell but they weren't dead. So I don’t do cemeteries.
FOOTSIES---- This happened in my last Tamil family, [don't remember their name either], involving the cultural tradition of a person of any age touching, or being touched by a person of the other gender other than immediate family. A husband & wife touching in public was never seen.
The host father was an Ag. Agent at an Agriculture Extension Compound. I had a one room building next to their home with a bed. I'd take breakfast with the family, go through daily activities, eat lunch & evening meals with them, spend time visiting & then go to my little building to sleep.
The host father was an Ag. Agent at an Agriculture Extension Compound. I had a one room building next to their home with a bed. I'd take breakfast with the family, go through daily activities, eat lunch & evening meals with them, spend time visiting & then go to my little building to sleep.
A family lived next door; Father, Mother, older Son , two younger sons & Daughter [oldest sibling]. The older son was Krishna [Krish-nuh], 12-13 yrs. old. The daughter was Bhadma. [Baud-ma], 17-18. The father was a driver at the Ag. Compound [vehicles-tractors]. Krishna often come over, sat on the steps of my room & we'd talk. I'd go for school talks in the morning, home for lunch, speak at a farmers Group in afternoon or early evening or taken on what might be called a field trip to visit something. The wife spoke no English so some times I'd spend a couple hours at my little building when my host father was busy at the Station.
Krishna & his sister would come over at these times. Krishna spoke very good English & ask lots of question. [Usually children in families like his would not get the education he had although they could go for free]. His sister usually sat a few feet away listening, Krishna would often translate what I had said into Tamil for her. [Krishna hoped to join the Army, lifting him out of his traditional cultural status].
Krishna & his sister would come over at these times. Krishna spoke very good English & ask lots of question. [Usually children in families like his would not get the education he had although they could go for free]. His sister usually sat a few feet away listening, Krishna would often translate what I had said into Tamil for her. [Krishna hoped to join the Army, lifting him out of his traditional cultural status].
The Footsie part involves Bhadma. My host was taking me to give a talk one evening, we were using a vehicle like a 3/4 ton army truck. There was the driver, my host & another Ag. agent. I knew all men were going to crowd into the cab, I didn't want to make 4, I insisted on sitting in the back with the wife and their small son, about a year old, who were going. Bhadma was going to babysit. I sat on a bench on one side, they on the other. We were on our way back, it was kinda dark, we might get a little light if we passed through a village with a street lamp & we would get brief glimpses of each other. Bhadma had been caring for the child all evening, at least 3 hours already, it was getting really fussy, she was obviously extremely tired. The mother made no effort to take the child during the evening or ride. I tried to indicate I'd take the little boy & hold it several times, but the offer was rejected. Finally I just took the little boy, I'd been holding him, singing, rocking, talking, when something brushed my foot. Something laying on the floor had moved , I assumed, so I moved my foot. I felt the object again, I moved my foot again. The 3rd time, the object came down on the top of my sandal. They had enough open space to realize the object was a bare foot, Bhadma's foot. I thought this extremely unusual because of the cultural thing of no touching. I didn't move my foot to see how long the contact would remain, it remained till we got back to the city of my hosts home.
One afternoon not long after Krishan & Bhadma were at my little place & we were sitting around the doorway. I started asking Krishna how to say things in Tamil. There were flowering trees & blooming flowers near by. So I started pointing & asking, How do you say ''Tree is pretty'' , ''Flower is beautiful'', ''Clouds are pretty'' The first question took a couple tries but then he quickly translated. Then I got where I'd been heading. I ask, ''How do you say ''you are pretty''. I must have looked at his sister as he caught on instantly. He didn't translate but said. ''It is not proper to say such things in India''. I said, '' OK, I'm sorry'' & dropped it. I was often curious if he later told her or if what had been translated and the look clued her in to what I had tried to do.
As I was leaving the host family I gave gifts to the family as usual. Krishna & Bhadma were in my room when I was packing and getting out gifts so they saw the things in my suitcase. I'd not given gifts to people other than my families previously. I had become come close to Krishna & his family. I would speak a word of greeting in Tamil to his mother & Bhadma if I saw them outside. I'd see his father around the Ag. Center & speak a greeting to him. One evening I'd ask Krishna if I could take my slide projector and slides to his house and show his family. He had seen both & ask what they were. He said yes, I showed my slides of family and farm with brief explanations & he translated to his family. Apparently my host father got wind of it & ask a couple days later if I would show my slides to his wife. I agreed. That night there were several husband and wives there, friends or co-workers.
I would only show slides of my family and the farm to my host families as there was not always someone to translate well. The slides I showed in Public presentations usually had some of Argonia & Kansas, someone with a college education and good command of English would translate.
Back to the gifts. Ball points pens with a U.S. business name & city were a popular gift so I gave Krishna 4, saying two for father, two for you. I had some small bottles of perfume I'd given to host mothers & sisters. I would put perfume on the tip of my finger, rub the back of my wrists, as an indication of how to use it, sniff the perfume, then hand them the bottle. The India Women always seemed to have a nice coconuty smell or something. Don't know if the bathed in it or applied it.
Since only Krishna & Bhadma were there & after the Footies incident I tried something very brave, I took a perfume bottle, put some on my right index finger & reached for her hand, she let me take hold of it without hesitation, I turned it & rubbed some on the back of her wrist. I sniffed at my wrist, she followed suit sniffing the perfume. I put some on the other wrist. Then I really got bold, I took another finger tip of perfume, moving slowly I lightly rubbing some behind each ear lobe. That was allowed with no sign if objection. I handed her one bottle and said 'gift-Mother' in Tamil. I handed Bhadma another bottle of perfume and said ''gift-you'' in Tamil. She took both & smiled graciously. [Don't think I ever learned more that 2-3 words sentences in any language.] [I'd present gifts & say to one of the family that did speak English, " A gift for..........".]
A PARASITE---Oh Yes, this was the host family were I picked up an intestinal parasite. We had been warned, DO NOT eat anything that has not been, boiled, cooked or baked. My family got vegetables from a garden, don't know if it was theirs or a plot at the Ag. Station. There were workers that cared for the garden so I wasn't sure who it belonged too. I had noticed some nice, big, delicious looking tomatoes in the garden. We sat down to one meal, there were cooked vegetables, & wedges of those tomatoes, obviously fresh & raw from the garden. Having everything cooked was to kill any bacteria the vegetables might pick up from the irrigation water or soil. I knew better but it was to much of a temptation. I ate the raw tomatoes. I love fresh tomatoes!
One afternoon not long after Krishan & Bhadma were at my little place & we were sitting around the doorway. I started asking Krishna how to say things in Tamil. There were flowering trees & blooming flowers near by. So I started pointing & asking, How do you say ''Tree is pretty'' , ''Flower is beautiful'', ''Clouds are pretty'' The first question took a couple tries but then he quickly translated. Then I got where I'd been heading. I ask, ''How do you say ''you are pretty''. I must have looked at his sister as he caught on instantly. He didn't translate but said. ''It is not proper to say such things in India''. I said, '' OK, I'm sorry'' & dropped it. I was often curious if he later told her or if what had been translated and the look clued her in to what I had tried to do.
As I was leaving the host family I gave gifts to the family as usual. Krishna & Bhadma were in my room when I was packing and getting out gifts so they saw the things in my suitcase. I'd not given gifts to people other than my families previously. I had become come close to Krishna & his family. I would speak a word of greeting in Tamil to his mother & Bhadma if I saw them outside. I'd see his father around the Ag. Center & speak a greeting to him. One evening I'd ask Krishna if I could take my slide projector and slides to his house and show his family. He had seen both & ask what they were. He said yes, I showed my slides of family and farm with brief explanations & he translated to his family. Apparently my host father got wind of it & ask a couple days later if I would show my slides to his wife. I agreed. That night there were several husband and wives there, friends or co-workers.
I would only show slides of my family and the farm to my host families as there was not always someone to translate well. The slides I showed in Public presentations usually had some of Argonia & Kansas, someone with a college education and good command of English would translate.
Back to the gifts. Ball points pens with a U.S. business name & city were a popular gift so I gave Krishna 4, saying two for father, two for you. I had some small bottles of perfume I'd given to host mothers & sisters. I would put perfume on the tip of my finger, rub the back of my wrists, as an indication of how to use it, sniff the perfume, then hand them the bottle. The India Women always seemed to have a nice coconuty smell or something. Don't know if the bathed in it or applied it.
Since only Krishna & Bhadma were there & after the Footies incident I tried something very brave, I took a perfume bottle, put some on my right index finger & reached for her hand, she let me take hold of it without hesitation, I turned it & rubbed some on the back of her wrist. I sniffed at my wrist, she followed suit sniffing the perfume. I put some on the other wrist. Then I really got bold, I took another finger tip of perfume, moving slowly I lightly rubbing some behind each ear lobe. That was allowed with no sign if objection. I handed her one bottle and said 'gift-Mother' in Tamil. I handed Bhadma another bottle of perfume and said ''gift-you'' in Tamil. She took both & smiled graciously. [Don't think I ever learned more that 2-3 words sentences in any language.] [I'd present gifts & say to one of the family that did speak English, " A gift for..........".]
A PARASITE---Oh Yes, this was the host family were I picked up an intestinal parasite. We had been warned, DO NOT eat anything that has not been, boiled, cooked or baked. My family got vegetables from a garden, don't know if it was theirs or a plot at the Ag. Station. There were workers that cared for the garden so I wasn't sure who it belonged too. I had noticed some nice, big, delicious looking tomatoes in the garden. We sat down to one meal, there were cooked vegetables, & wedges of those tomatoes, obviously fresh & raw from the garden. Having everything cooked was to kill any bacteria the vegetables might pick up from the irrigation water or soil. I knew better but it was to much of a temptation. I ate the raw tomatoes. I love fresh tomatoes!
When I got home to the U.S., I found I'd picked up the parasite & I knew exactly where I had got it. It took almost a year of medication to kill it.
NAME THAT BABY--Somewhere in Tamil a College Ag. Student had taken me to visit a place instead of my family. We were waiting at a bus stop. There was a woman with a young son waiting for the bus. The child was fussy, I could see the mother was about at her wits end, so I started talking to it, playing peek-a-boo, trying to entertain it so it would stop fussing. After a few minutes the student said to me, '' Name the boy'', we'd been carrying on as two young fellows would so I didn’t take the request seriously. He said it again, ‘’Name the boy.” Eventually I ask, ''Must it be an Indian name or can it be an English name''. ''It don't matter’’, was his response. I was thinking about it somewhat but not really seriously when the bus arrived & we got on. After we got off & walked a ways he said, ''You didn't name the little boy''. I now realized something had been up. He then told me the mother had requested that I name the child. At this point I learned that because of the mortality rate of children in India that for the first year or more a child is just called 'Bina' [bee-nuh] meaning 'baby'. When they think there is a good chance it will live they give the child a name. So that is one little incident of 'International Diplomacy' that I knew I blew.
SIGNING AUTOGRAPHS---- Another thing just popped into my mind. I was often ask to sign autographs. The first time I wrote my name Larry Paxson & gave it back, they handed it back & said, ''Sign autograph'', I said, '' I did.'' After a little communication struggle I figured out they wanted it underlined. Written it was just a name, underlined it was an autograph. Didn't really make much sense to me, anyone could write a name & underline it. But to people of India it was an autograph. So after that I signed my name, underlined it & everything was official.
No comments:
Post a Comment