On a Palshicruise

The unconquerable fortified city of Janjeera, still standing from the golden age of sail. Built over a 20 year time period in the late 1500s, this city protected the harbor from attacks from other groups within India, as well as the Portuguese and British.  For as imposing as it is, I kind of expected it to be a little larger. With thick armed stone walls fully encircling the island, a land attack was literally impossible. Even when we are invited, coming ashore nowadays is a bit of a trick! Cameras were banned for that portion, and I understand why. It's not the average museum door. There is no dock at the island, so the boats back up to stone steps, and visitors have to time entering and exiting the boat with the roll of the waves. Even with museum staff assistance, more likely than not, at least one foot will end up in the water. It is not for the feint of heart, and one family on our boat with a little child said they were not getting off. I suspect the only way to capture this...

Today's goal is to visit the World Peace Dome, featuring statues recognizing thinkers, scientists and religious leaders of the world in an effort to promote peace and dialogue. I'm dressing up for the occasion, but might regret wearing all black! Even with the various little setbacks of travel we made it to the Maharashtra Institute of Technology campus and were directed to the guard shack / ticket booth where we were informed that all tickets needed to be bought online, and that foreigner tickets were 500 rupees a piece! The guard finally got permission from his supervisor to take cash and we were allowed inside.  Now, I fully admit that there was one statue in particular that I came to see. Last year's press related to the unveiling of a statue recognizing the contributions of the American religious leader Joseph Smith was the only reason I had heard of the World Peace Dome.  I was surprised at how much more is in the World Peace Dome: the importance of scienc...

As I visit friends and family in India, I cannot help but consider the public health and public policy implications of what I am seeing: multi-generational households, aging in place, meals cooked from scratch, as well as the physical benefit of involvement in religion and worship. These things allow the people I visit to live a high quality of life well into their ninth decade.  Only now are Western style nursing homes beginning to appear, but most individuals and families feel the cost is too high. It can be difficult to provide home care or hire caregivers, but most families I have spoken to feel aging in place is a better choice.  I am beginning to feel that qualitative research comparing prospectives on aging could yield valuable insights.

I have said it before, that a festival is not what I expected when discussing a trip to Palshi. Even though I had been told that there would be a festival, I kind of thought it would be a few extra decorative flowers and extra decorations by doors or something. Those were there, but my dad started describing what he remembered: humor "for men only" in the morning, transitioning to family entertainment of singing and dancing, with bullock cart races, and wrestling for prize money. In all these decades since my father was able to attend, I guess there was no reason to change a good thing!  Arriving in Palshi, we did learn of one unfortunate change: bullock cart races were cancelled this year. Last year several carts had crashed and racers were injured. I am not sure if they were referring to human or bullock racers, probably both. This was something that I was really looking forward to, but I understand protecting and promoting lives, both human and bovine. It also looked like ...

It has been more than thirty years since I have visited our ancestral village of Palshi. I was young then, and did not understand what I was seeing, but remember the ancestral home built with sturdy teak timbers I remember the dirt streets and a deep well that my father and his siblings would dive into as children. Even though I was a child, I was struck with my longing to connect with the people, left with a determined feeling that I must return. As years have passed, I have heard stories about returning to the ancestral village presented in different ways. It may have happened that our family was forced to sell the land and the villagers feel shame or even mild concern that we may desire to reclaim our ancestral land. My brother said he went back and got a polite reception, with locals understanding who he was. I am told the local Brahmin is friendly with my cousin and the family that live in the ancestral house are friendly as well. My cousin said there is even a contested hectre of...

I have to admit the first time it was suggested that I would sleep on the roof, I wasn't sure what to think. That first night there was still the music and firework noises from the street party and mosquitoes. The party calmed down eventually and my oldest and I liberally applied bug spray. Bugs like to bite Josh everywhere he goes and sadly India has been no exception. Bug spray generally  helps for a few hours, though. Sleeping with a rug as my mattress is not soft, but has turned out to be pleasant. The cement house holds the heat, so the rooftop cools more than the inside, and I really enjoy listening to the birds chatter. They do calm down at night and then start talking to each other in the pre-dawn light, with chirps, chitters and caw-cawing. The crescendo peaks at sunrises and then settles down as birds leave their roots and disburse for the day. We have also seen bats, silently winging through the night. There are large fruit bats (it's mango se...

My kids have given me a lot grief about dysentery. Kind of ironic because our travels will lead us to Oregon in a matter of days. Thankfully we had plenty of concerned family, air conditioning, and access to the needed medicines. It was so wonderful to see my aunt and cousins again. We were starting to feel under the weather before arriving at my aunty's, so even though she was worried about how sick we got, there is no way she caused it. She did ensure we were in good health before we left, otherwise she would have had the doctor come to the house and give us IV fluids.