rhyll | yesterday I didn't do anything much (Reply)

Yesterday:
* I was angry that the best thing that Chavez can think of to sponsor is a samba school. and then conflicted, because of the criticising-another-culture thing. and then angry again, because it is lots of money on shiny and glitter and almost-naked ladies (and men), where there are so many constructive and wonderful projects out there that don't involve almost-naked ladies dancing in highheels.
* Another Indian oddness. When I was at the protest-with-bicycles I was talking to some highschool girls, insofar as talking is possible when I know so little Kannada. They asked for my number, so I gave it to them (a little perplexed), thinking that they wouldn't call me because we can't really talk to each other. Now, about once a day, I get a call in which a whole heap of girls say "hello-how-are-you" to me and then giggle some. I think they also asked me to com visit their houses (and I tried to explain that I have too much work to do in Bangalore), and I think they also told me that they (or I?) had a photo in the paper from the protest. I am somewhat confused about the whole thing.
* I should have mentioned in my previous post that all the Raithya Sangha members wear a green towel over their shoulder. (They are handy for many things, including filtering dust as you try to breathe on dirt roads.)

Today:
* I am sad that Octavio Butler died. I keep meaning to read more of her books.
* I had a dosa and some tea for breakfast. And then I realised that it was perfectly acceptable to have some butterscotch icecream, too, so I did.
* I went to the post office. There is a woman there who always smiles at me, and doesn't mind that I don't know how post works here.
* Later I will buy a book, since I finally finished "In Search of Schrodinger's Cat". (Now I am up-to-date, in a confused kind of way, on the fundamental nature of reality as it was understood in the late 1980s. I think I should find something more recent now.) Lately I've read Amartya Sen's "The Argumentative Indian", which was interesting but not worldshaking (and didn't really stick to his declared argument), and also re-read "The Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. I've not been doing as much reading as I would ideally like, for a variety of reasons, and definitely not was much writing as I would like.

India:
* I see autos go by with bunches of schoolbags hanging off the sides, piled with layers and layers of children.
* There are posters warning children not to travel with more than six in an auto, not to bicycle without a helmet, and so on. I suspect that part of the reason that they are so obviously ineffective is that on ach poster there is a picture of children doing the described offence, and looking incredibly gleeful about it.
* On a huge, orange billboard: "Hey guys! Do you wear saris?" (There was nothing else on it.)
* Posters at the youth activist centre: "If war steals the sky, where will the sun rise?" and "We will rise like the sun, we will rise like the ocean" (on a women's day poster).