by Barbara Oliver

Today (October 2) is a holiday in India. It is Gandhi's birthday. The streets, normally crowded with people going to work, are nearly deserted. Bicycle rickshaw drivers sit idly along the side of the road. Busses zip by, not stopping, because there is no one to pick up. Autos (motor rickshaws) and taxis are nowhere to be found.

This is also the festival of Durga. Hindus fast during the nine days leading up to October 5 (the festivals are based on the position of the moon, so the dates vary from year to year). On October 5, they will take terra cotta images of the idols and immerse them in rivers throughout India.

The Hindu philosophers believe in God as one entity. God is personified in a triune of deities, but also exists in everything. The triune consists of Brahma, the creator, Vishnu, the preserver, and Shiva, the destroyer.

Durga, the goddess of destruction, is Shiva's wife. There are those who still sacrifice children to Durga, although it is illegal to do so.

Ganesh, the god of prosperity, is Shiva's son. When Ganesh was born, Shiva was so excited that he accidently looked at his son with his third eye (his eye of destruction), which burned off Ganesh's head. So Shiva sent his servant out to get the head of the first thing he found, which was an elephant. Therefore, Ganesh has an elephant's head.

Most Hindus have little shrines in their homes where they put an image of one of the Hindu gods or sub-gods, or a picture of their guru or one of their relatives. They decorate these little shrines with flowers and burn incense to them and pray to them. Many of the taxis or rickshaws have little shrines on their dashboards. Most shops have one, also. In India, representations and reminders of their gods are ever-present.

Ordinary people practice idolatry, going to the temples, making sacrifices, and observing the festivals and other rituals without paying much attention to the philosophy behind their religion. That is relegated to the holy men and gurus. In a simplified version, God is in everything, and everything is god. Rocks, trees, rats, cows, humans - god can take any form. Therefore, all things can be worshiped as god, and all things ultimately will return to the one entity of god.

According to Hinduism, during your lifetime, you forget that you are part of god, so you have to be reborn. If you are bad during your lifetime, you may be reborn as a rat. If you are good, you may be reborn as a holy man. Through millions of rebirths, you are finally born as a man, as a holy man. Only then can you escape the cycle of being reborn, to become again a part of the entity of god. Many people think of Nirvana as heaven, but the two concepts are not the same. Nirvana really means that you have escaped rebirth, and have been re-absorbed into the entity of god, ceasing to be a separate individual.

On October 5, about eight hundred million people in India will be celebrating the festival of Durga, the goddess of destruction, who demands appeasement with the blood of children. They will immerse their gods in water. But they will not raise them up out of the water.

On October 5, children of God will be worshipping the risen Lord, who gave His blood for all mankind, who redeems us once for all, as we are. He demands our immersion in the waters of baptism, but unlike the Hindu gods, He raises us up, fills us with the Holy Spirit and makes us children of the Living God.

Who will you be worshipping on October 5?

by Barbara Oliver

As I explained last time, the traffic here is horrendous. The larger streets have a median. The street, by the way, has no lane lines. Since no one even pretends to stay in a lane anyway, it makes perfect sense.

In the midst of this chaos, three or four cows will be lying out in the median. Pedestrians just walk around them. How they (the cows) got across those lanes of traffic, I cannot imagine. They just lie there, in bovine contentment as the rest of the world zips past.

Technically, the owner of the cows can be fined, since they do present a very real traffic hazard. But like the no-honking rule, it is apparently not being obeyed.

We went to Nehru Place to get a computer cable. In the middle of this big complex of shops and offices, there was a cow eating out of a trash bin.

Francis and I took our excursion to Nehru Place by bus. No one but me is crazy enough to take the bus - but even then, only with Francis. Although, he is threatening to give me four rupees and make me get on the bus and get home by myself. I think Betty will put her foot down about that. At least, I hope she will!

Sunday, after morning worship, some of the young people took us to the Dilli Haat. It is a market with booths from which they sell items that represent each state in India (there are about 30 states now). Each state is noted for some craft or cloth material.

We ate at one of the outdoor cafes. After lunch, the waiter placed a little tray of green anise seeds with a few grains of sugar, which were about the size of a half-caret. They are used as a breath-freshener and digestive aid. Most of the Indians I was sitting with said they didn't eat it out like this because it had dust, etc. But then, some of them reached in and got a small spoonful. I tried it, and they were right. It was a little gritty, and there were a few kernels that were something besides anise seeds. But it was really quite refreshing.

We went to the Red Fort for a little site seeing, but, unfortunately, it was closed on Mondays. The Red Fort is in Old Delhi. It was crowded and dirty, and hawkers and beggars swarmed us. It reminded me of what I don't like about India. The Indians don't give anything to the beggars because they say it perpetuates the abuse of young women and children, and many of the beggars are drug-pushers. They stand around and beg until someone comes up and gives them the signal that they want drugs. Like everywhere, it is big business and controlled by powerful people.

After yesterday's trip to Old Delhi, I have to admit that I was feeling depressed and culture-shocked. Like most Americans, I like my personal space and feel very uncomfortable when it is violated. But today we went to Defence Colony market to the internet cafe and then I invited Betty to stop in at a little espresso bar for a cappuccino for her and an espresso for me. I perked right up after that. I told Betty that that was all it took to cheer me back up. We both agreed that I am by nature very shallow :)

With renewed vigor, or maybe just a caffeine buzz, I step out into the world of India once more. Just have to remember to watch out for the cowpats.

by Barbara Oliver

I found a new internet cafe. The last one I was in was up some rickety steps in a little room that did not even have a ceiling fan. With temps in the 90's, it was hot! On the way home, Francis, who went with me so I wouldn't get lost, found this cafe, which has air conditioning and is much cheaper than the other one.

Today, I want to tell you a little about India. It is a city of 11-12 million people. They have a constant influx of people from villages throughout India. Needless to say, this has stretched their already limited resources.

There is a MacDonald's close by, a Baskin Robins, a Domino's Pizza and a Pizza Hut. More Indians have more disposable income to buy the kinds of things we buy in America. But abject poverty is always close by. With such a large population, there is no way that there can be enough jobs and housing for everyone. The government has tried, without success, to stop migration into the city. Families will find a spot along a wall, and that becomes their home. I saw one lady on the sidewalk with an umbrella and a few little household articles. Her house was the umbrella. She just moved it around throughout the day to ward off the hot sun.

Water is in critical supply. There is no longer freely running water. The city turns the water on at intervals, and you have to be ready to turn on your pumps and pump water into your storage tanks. If you don't turn on your pumps at that time, you don't get water for that day. This is for the people who have homes and storage tanks. I don't know what the people living on the street do.

In spite of this and other problems, India has grown significantly. Thirty years ago, most of the traffic was buses, taxis, scooters, rickshaw scooters, and bicycles. Today, it is mostly buses (using natural gas - much less pollution), cars, and motorcycles. Yet, in a step backwards, they also have bicycle rickshaws, a concession which was made in an effort to supply jobs for incoming village people.

More people are living in nice homes and driving nice cars. The government has granted loans, which they had not done in the past. They have built large complexes further out of the city, and people buy their apartment within that building complex. Sort of like condos. We went to Sunny David's place on Sunday, and it was really nice.

Clothing has also changed. In the cities, men gave up wearing traditional Indian garb in the middle part of the 20th century. Though the majority of women still wear traditional clothing, a lot of the younger women are wearing Western ware. Sari shops, which used to be everywhere, have converted to ready-made clothing. Thirty years ago, you could not find ready-made. The other day, Betty took some cotton sheet material to a seamstress to make some pants for me and some pajamas for her. Later, we went to Defence market (a big shopping area) and found ready-made pants for $1.00 and pjs for not much more! Now we are regretting the money we will have to pay the seamstress for stitching us some sheet-clothes!

The one thing that has not changed is the noise! Indians love to honk their horns. With the proliferation of cars and outrageous traffic conditions, they are honking fools! I wish I had a soundbite to share with you. They actually have no-honk zones. Technically, you are not supposed to honk within a 100 meters of a traffic light. If you do, a policeman can write your license number down and send you a ticket. Apparently, no one worries about that much, unless they see a policeman standing around!

Well, I am off to pick up my sheet-pants. More later.

Finally, an internet cafe!

Well, the last time we talked, I was worried because J.C. took the back seat out of the van so he could get more luggage in. Betty rode to the airport in the back of the van on the suitcases, and I rode up front with J.C., because I get car sick (grin). The trip to India took a total of 48 hours!

We hopped on a plane to Atlanta, then back to Los Angeles. We were scanned and patted and passed through all the barriers without a problem. What they thought three old people weighed down with luggage would do is beyond me. If I were going to blow up a plane, I certainly wouldn't bother taking a bunch of luggage! But in a world that insists on asking me if I get the senior citizen discount, it was refreshing to be addressed as "young lady" by the security people. So that more than made up for the inconveniences!

There was a four-hour layover in Los Angeles before we boarded Singapore Airlines (the best airline!) for a 14-hour trip across the ocean. Being the old pros that they are, Betty and J.C. fell asleep everytime they sat down, while I watched movies and read. We reached Taipei, where we had another hour layover, then another four hours to Singapore for a 6-hour layover. We went into town to get a video camera for one of the men for his TV work, and J.C. asked me if I wanted to eat at Popeye's. I was scandalized! After finishing our errands, we decided to get back to the airport, where we ate at Burger King. It is a small world. Then it was back on the plane for another four hours to New Delhi.

The brethren picked us up at the airport, drove us to the church building and lugged all our heavy stuff upstairs. After visiting for a few minutes, they left us to ourselves.

The good news was, it was shower time. The bad news was, there was very little water. I will try to attach a picture to show you the shower. It is actually a bucket and a cup. You collect the water in the bucket, wash down and then rinse with the cup. The problem: only a half-gallon of water came out before the spigot dried up! We are still working on this problem. But you would be surprised how far you can stretch a half-gallon of water!

Saturday was a rest day. We went out to buy me some Indian garb. Sunday was wonderful! I met folks I had not seen in 30 years. Some of them had been tiny children when I left India in 1974; others, like me, had grown old and gray and fatter! I also met my internet buddy in person, my friend, Ajit, who is married to one of Sunny David's girls, Pretty. Sunny's mama, who is 82, just hugged and hugged me. I honestly had never expected to see her again.

India is unimaginable to most people. But the brethren are the same everywhere: wonderful to be with. And no matter the differences in dress, customs or language, God is worshipped in spirit and in truth.

Oliver's Twist

I have to warn you - I am a reader, not a writer. When I write, I get bored! So I usually have pity on fellow-readers by not inflicting them with my writing.

Now that you are sufficiently warned:

First stop: Jackson, Mississippi. I dumped the dog (not as easy as it sounds...sob!), tied up all my loose ends and packed my duds. We leave for Jackson after lunch.

I am a little worried because we removed the back seat in the van, where I usually sit. Hummm. Naw! They wouldn't leave me! I have a ticket!