To England for a Wedding

We fly from Kolkata to Delhi to London and finally to Manchester, all in the same day, as we keep gaining time. Rent a car in Manchester and are met by two young friends, Maryanne and John Summerton and spend the night at their place. The next day we motor up to the Ribble Valley an extraordinary picturesque part of North Lancashire where our son Julian is to be married to Julie a Scottish girl living in England. Both are in the TV business, she as a sports event manager and he as a cameraman and editor. The met at Beijing and have done many sporting events together - Vancouver, South Africa and even the Delhi Commonwealth games.

The next few days are a whirl, with us meeting our Julie's parents and family. Spend every evening in some local pub, sampling the ales and lagers and eating pub grub. The wedding is on the 23rd Saturday in a small historic church, followed by a reception tea a local manor house, then dinner in three large modern tents and dancing in a glass house to a soul band. Every part of the wedding is choreographed carefully and exquisitely (mostly by Julie) and moves along without a flaw, with over 150 friends drinking, dancing and having a wonderful time. I leave when the party shuts down at 1.00am. I am quite pensive at the wedding, despite having a terrific time. Am reminded of the tradition of the Tu Ja Chinese community, that wedding are preceded by 15 days or crying. Ah well, I guess I am just getting old. The couple suggest that instead of presents, the guests give a donation to CTR our charity helping the less fortunate in India. - a lovely gesture.

We motor down to London the next day and leave for the USA on Monday. It is so good to be back home after being around the world in 60 days (beat Jules Verne by 20). Till our next excursion, stay well and take care.

Oh Calcutta !

We arrive in Kolkata, via Mumbai, and find the airports much improved and clean (phenol odor) The formalities are minimal and sensible (nowhere as paranoid as in the US or UK). An example is carrying water through security - they asked me to take a sip the allowed the bottle through.

I leave the Kolata airport and am shocked - the contrast with the countries we have just visited cannot be greater. A cacophony of auto horns being blasted; unbelievable dirt; stark poverty; garbage everywhere; every sense - ears, eyes, nose, throat, and touch is assaulted - and it is continuous.

We stay with a very old friend Phyllis Jones and visit with many friends and renew old acquaintances. This is the compensation to the external squalor; genuine caring personal relationships (something we miss in North America). I am embarrassed to have to make the sort of observations above, but if I shied away from writing unpleasant observations, then I should not blog! I also visit our charity's administrators and Loreto Entally convent, where we support the education of about 60 girls

India is one of the fastest growing countries and has created huge wealth for many of its citizens. It has however failed to alleviate the poverty of common man (estimated to r. ange from 60% to 70% of the population). The middle class seem to be indifferent to the plight of the less fortunate, living either in self contained communities (with internal supply of water, electricity etc) or in comfortable apartments (far from the starving masses). I have said this before and I repeat - one of the ways in which poverty can be reduced is if the middle class Indian gets more involved in helping the poor - even if each of them help a few. Indians are great intellects, excel in conceptual thinking and are articulate and argumentative to a fault, but they seem to fall short of doing for others. It is possible that the religion of Hinduism encourages individualism over community - there being no plus for helping others? I check this last thought with a learned friend Nagarajan and he assures me this is not so. How then do we explain the relative indifference of the middle class (and upper class) to their very poor brethren (estimated at 60% of the 1.2 billion!). Can someone give me an answer!

In Singapore, just hanging aroound

Having a lovely relaxed time. Singapore is a hot and humid island, like Hong Kong, with a lot more greenery and more natives (80% Singaporeans, 14% Malays and 6%Indians) speaking English. I blogged it last year so will not say too much about Singapore itself

I have noticed that in the last month our travels, we have not seen the dominant white skin. The Chinese have skin colors from a pale yellow to a dark tan; Hong Kong is very multi-racial with brown skin predominant; Western Australia is also quite multi-racial, and, with us attending Anglo-Indian functions, the predominant skin color was again brown; and in Singapore we are again in a tan colored world. All four countries have smart, hard working people; all the countries are very prosperous and getting more so, and all are very clean and efficient. When I compare them with USA, I have to feel we are not at their level of cleanliness or efficiency. We in the USA have a better quality of life because we have more facilities and have had a head start of at least 40 to 50 years. Our size is another advantage as we are a huge market and the world fights get our trade (as is happening in China). Having said this, I cannot see how these countries will not develop and overtake us. The chief advantage of the USA, others than those mentioned, may be its innovation, its lack of limiting traditions (we continuously destroy and recreate) and having a meritocracy. It appears that these countries are ruled by a government plutocracy (selected and nurtured from a very young age), who do all the thinking for its people (who are told what to do and are these rules are rigidly enforced). Considering their success, this is not necessarily a bad approach (not withstanding the one vote per person democracy of Western countries, only a very few make all the decisions). What is more important is that there is equal opportunity for all, and I am assured that this exists in all these countries (as it does in the USA). So the question remains, will these Asian tigers overtake and subjugate the Western countries?
My view is they will because for the most part, we in the USA do not provide a good secondary education for our children (our education is a 'feel good' system, not a ' must learn' system) and we do not provide societal safeguards to teach our citizens to live within their means. This leaves us unable to compete and in debt! Ripe, low hanging fruit, ready to be plucked and eaten

As before, I indulge in a feast of eating - Singapore has some of most exotic and delicious foods anywhere. I eat Luksa a spicy, coconut based soup with cockles, cuttlefish, seafood and tofu; Hor Fun - large flat noodles in a brown sauce and seafood; Lor Mee - a heavy brown, garlic based duck stew and finally barbecued sting ray with sambal sauce. Most food is eaten in casual hawker type food courts - street food really - inexpensive filled with locals, who it seems never cook at home (why should they?) What a treat

Tomorrow we are off to India and Kolkata

Perth, West Australia

After resting for a few days in Hong Kong (very hot and humid), during which I meet Peter Moss, a well known Anglo-Indian writer, we come to Perth for the 8th International Anglo-Indian (AI) reunion (a gathering held every 3 years in different parts of the world). What a difference in environment - after 3 weeks in China we spend 11 days in Western Australia. The cultures of these two countries cannot be further apart. In contrast to intense, hustling Chinese; we have relaxed, informal, laid back Aussies. Of course language helps. In 'Austraylia' they speak a sort of English - full of strange words and sounds - but in the main English. Figure out what 'dunnie' or 'pokie' or 'eye candy' means -answers at the end of this blog.

We have a whole week of activities planned by the local Anglo-Indian association and there are about 200 of visitors from India, the UK and North America to join about a thousand of Perth Anglo-Indians (of the 22,000 resident there). This is the seventh (of eight) such conference we have attended - so you know we (I) are AI junkies. We start with a 'Meet and Greet' held in a large park, where over 1000 of us find school friends and relatives after 5 to 25 or more years. Full of 'Is it you' and 'My God you have changed' - a trip down memory lane. The next significant event is a concert, featuring local AI talent - homespun and quaint. We have two events to discuss AI culture and AI poverty in India, which I am involved in. I present our CTR Publishing record of having six books published over the last 10 years, thereby creating another perspective (along with the English and Indian views) on the character and culture of Anglo-Indians, at a workshop attended by about 20 kindred souls. I also present the efforts of CTR ( our international charity helping Anglo-Indians in India ( http://www.blairrw.org/ctr/index.php) , to help the less fortunate AI's in India - in 2009 we have over 300 seniors in 6 cities on monthly pensions and over 250 children that are being educated by CTR - at a symposium attended by about 300 persons. It is decided to form an organization to establish projects for AI's in India to learn skills and be self employed. Great idea. It is also the first time we were willing to talk about poverty and the need to help our less fortunate brethren at our reunions! I also get to spend time with CTR's Australian coordinators - Marilyn Goss of Melbourne, Cheryl Chater of Sydney and Jennifer Busby of Perth - dynamic and self motivated leaders.

We have a fund raiser dinner- dance of AI schools the proceeds of which go to CTR, and we have 700+ dancing the night away and having fun. Our Perth coordinator Jen Busby her team have to be commended. On the last day we have the Grand Ball at the Perth Convention center at which 800 odd AI's dance and enjoy themselves - an amazing sight to see so many dancing on and off the dance floor. When we plan dances in North America we set the size of the dance floor to cover about 20% of the attendees. For AI shows this figure is 80%! I am struck with the realization that one of the defining traits of the AI community was their ability to dance and their enjoyment of dancing.

The reunion was one of the best, well organized, with the volunteers always helpful and service oriented. We meet many, many friends and I take down emails with the intention of keeping in touch

I have another wonderful series of experiences - meeting my family. My uncle (deceased) and Aunt Pearl ( 93 - see insert) came out to Australia in the 1950's and we have many cousins and grand cousins. In addition my brother went out to Australia in the 1960's and we have two nephews and their families. I also meet a girl cousin from my mothers side ( a first). We spend magical time with them, trying to cram years into a few hours, always suspecting that this may be our last such meeting. They were all so loving and we are all so proud of each other. Too bad we all live far apart and meet infrequently, BUT, we did meet, and we did enjoy each other, and that is what we take home.

Finally there is Australia. Very different - but very warm, climatically and socially. We are fortunate as we stay in the home of Jean and Bernie Andersen, two very erudite and affectionate AI's and the best hosts anyone can have. When not attending activities and meeting with relatives, they show us Perth, its surrounding and Freemantel. In between we discuss Aussie culture, Myers Briggs, Johari's window, philology and almost everything else. They have added immeasurably to our enjoyment of Perth

Another highlight is a visit to the Caversham Wild Life Park, where we see some unique birds and animals. I have so many pictures but will just post three (right to left) - Ellen and Jean posing with very indifferent Kangaroos, a wild and free Cookaburra over the Swan river and a cuddly Koala

It is late 1.00 am in Singapore and we arrived this morning after not much sleep, but I am compelled to complete this blog. So much happened and I have just touched the fringe, We have had such a wondrous 12 days - life is so rich and enjoyable.

Finally the Austraylian words. 'Dunnie' is going to the toilet; 'Pokie' is playing the slot machines and 'Eye Candy' is pretty and sweet girls ('eye' for seeing and 'candy' for sweet!). Just a few of thousands of created Aussie words. Now you know why I said the these folks speak English in the 'main'!

In Singapore and resting, after which to Kolkata