On my blogroll you will find a link to S. Krishna’s Books. This is a blog that I love. Her blog is dedicated to book reviews. She is a mad reader. I really don’t know how she reads so many books each week. I love reading and I love books so I love visiting her site.
S. Krishna has put out a book challenge for 2010. She is challenging people to, 1. read books by south Asian authors and 2. the book has to in someway be related to south Asia. You can challenge yourself to read 3, 5, 7, or 10 south Asian books throughout the year. I am joining and so should you. You can visit the South Asian Author Challenge-Intro & FAQ post to get more information.
Here is the list of books that I have chosen to read for the challenge:
1. The Sari Shop Widow-Shobhan Bantwal (fiction)
2. The Girl from Foreign- Sadie Shepard (Memoir non-fiction)
3. In the Convent of Little Flowers: Stories- Indu Sundaresan (fiction)
4. The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cell Phone: Reflections on India in the 21st Century- Shashi Tharoor (non-fiction)
5. Trash!: On Ragpicker Children and Recycling- Gita Wolf and Anushka Ravishankar (fact and fiction children’s)
I read The White Tiger (fiction) by Aravind Adiga this year. I highly recommend that book to anyone who is looking for a great read for the challenge.
I would love to add more books to this list. I prefer non-fiction if you have any great recommendations please leave a comment.
Everyday for the past three months I have been trying to figure out what it is about India that my husband loves so much and everyday I hate it more and more. Today I have decided to write a little bit about my hate for India since my experience today has been especially negative.
Today we went to the Indian Naval Base in Fort Kochi to see the ships. On a regular day you are not allowed onto to base, but this weekend they are having Navy Fest and inviting the public in to view the ships. We thought this would be a great opportunity to see some of these amazing ships. As we pulled into the gate, one of the navy personnel came up to our car and said “Foreigners not allowed.” My husband tried to explain to him that I have a government issued PIO (Person of Indian Origin) card. He said to us that there was no chance of me getting in since it is a foreign defense area. I thought this was a great reason, however, they were not checking any ID. They looked at my skin and assumed I was a foreigner. There assumption was correct, I am not a citizen of India, but why didn’t they ask to see my ID before assuming. Even more important why are they letting everyone in that LOOKS Indian. What if someone looks Indian, but is a citizen of another country.
This is not the first time I have been shown some sort of racism. It happens all the time. One other such time that comes to mind was during a visit to HSBC. We were waiting in the waiting room for our number to be called and the chai wallah came around to offer people chai. She offered me chai, but totally snubbed my husband. Why are these sort of things happening in 2009?
Society is either really really nice to me because of my white skin or really really rude to me because of my white skin. The issue that I have with this country stands with the massive amounts of racism that happen everyday whether it be towards me or towards an Indian. It seems that this country is so obsessed with what shade of skin you have or what caste you come from or what job you hold. There are statues of Sri Narayana Guru Swami all through Kerala. He was an amazing social reformer who changed this place a bit, but if he saw it today he would again be appalled at what there is to see. He has many famous teachings, but the one that I think says it best is, “Devoid of dividing walls Of caste or race Or hatred of rival faith We all live here in Brotherhood”.
I love Chennai! It is a larger city than Kochi and the population is much higher. The roads are pothole free with clearly painted lines. There is trash on the ground, like Kochi, but not nearly as much.
It poured two of the days that we were there, but we didn’t let that stop us. We grabbed some umbrellas, hiked up our pant legs, and went to explore.
The first night it was too late to do much so we went to the mall, iStore, and then to Sandy’s Chocolate Laboratory. You must go to Sandy’s if you are ever in Chennai. It is not on a main road and it is fairly new so your driver may not know the place, but we got there with a bit of help from Google maps. Sandy’s is just what it says a chocolate laboratory plus a deli with freshly imported meats and cheeses. We just had dessert. I had the Happy Jack which is chocolate ice cream with peanut butter. It was served in a beaker and it came with another chocolate liquid served in a test tube. The whole place was very unique.
The second day we went to Mahabalipuram located 60km outside of Chennai. Wow! This place was amazing. There are tons of huge hand carved rock sculptures that date back to 1200 years ago. Some of the sculptures had a little bit of damage from the tsunami on December 26, 2004. The tsunami went inland and on it’s way back out to sea the water took a lot of sand with it. Because of this there was another ancient sculpture uncovered. Archeologists are now working on uncovering it.
The next day we went to see the oldest temple in Chennai, Kapaleeshwarar temple. This was the largest Hindu temple I have seen so far. It was so beautiful. The paint and colors were so vibrant. After the temple we went to see the St. Thomas Cathedral.
So I got something. I have a fever, body aches, no appetite, nausea, etc. I have no idea what I have, but I hope my body fights it off on it’s own. I am too scared to get help in the hospitals here. We had to go into a hospital a few weeks ago and it was filthy. I mean it, everything had a layer of dirt on it and there were mosquitoes flying around in the hundreds. So I refuse to go get treated in India. I have no idea how I became sick, but here are a list of things that may have caused my illness:
1. The smell open sewers everyday throughout the entire city.
2. Huge piles of garbage getting a gust of wind and blowing up against my legs.
3. No hot water to wash my hands, body, clothes, or dishes.
4. Taking a bite out of a street samosa before I looked down and saw a huge black ant, fried inside.
5. Jogging outside and inhaling the exhaust from each vehicle that stops to stare at me before moving on.
6. Shaking hands with someone who may or may not have just pulled over on the side of the road to pee in front of thousand of people around him.
Not really sure how I acquired whatever I have, but these things could have easily been the culprits.
