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Boaz RoyChowdhury We became Grand Parents on the 9th August 2015. Meet Boaz RoyChowdhury who is two months 5 days old, 57 weeks old, ...

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Tatting and Thoughts












Today 2/02/08 I saw a book on Pro Life that had a picture on the back cover of a 24 weeks foetus whose arm was reaching out of her mothers womb through an incision grasping the surgeon thumb. They were operating on the foetus to correct spina bifida.
It was incredible, I could see all of her five fingers with tiny nails and her hand was smaller than the surgeons thumb nail!

This reminded me of the reason Elisha has come to India - his Aunt has a little Indian child whom she rescued from an Indian family who were going to drown her in the bath tub when she was an infant. An acquaintance who was recommended but her Gynaecologist (a woman) to have an abortion because the child had a curved spine. The young lady was not a happy person, I stopped to speak to her because she seemed sad. I did not say anything, I did not have anything to say, but offered to pray for her. However, it was visible to me that God has put upon all of our hearts the knowledge of right and wrong, and no matter how we may rationalise things we are accountable to Him.

Update: 20/2/08 Spoke to a colleague in UK who talked about Lakshmi the little girl who was operated to remove her twin conjoined to her. So here we are rushing into the 21st century with all of our baggage on our backs. We Indians are capable of great surgery, so why do we still abort our babies?
We have had a woman Prime Minister and now a woman President, but still marginalise women and their rights.

Grown Indians still live at Home:

In a conversation with an Australian missionary, the Indian stress on education and the pressure that parents put on their children was spoken of. It was also commented that parents pay for our childrens education and keep them living with us way past their teens.

The Indian youth lives at home because the state has not taken over this area of our lives like in the West. It is the parents who are in charge of the education of their children, wherever the state has taken over that area, you see a drop in the number of youth going beyond a secondary education, a break down of family values.

With our socialist back ground, education is a must for the masses. As we the people are independent of the state, we stress the need for a good education ensuring a better future.
We promote a respect for all religions and believe in God and have faith. May we Christian Indians never come to the point when we would avoid refering to Jesus and acknowledging Him for fear of encroaching on the sensitivty of another of a different faith. Let us not mock another faith but love them, for we are the salt and light of the world.
After all Abraham was an Iraqi and Jesus an Arab, if you take a good look at the map of the world Israel is in Arabia or the Middle East.

When the world was aplauding the US and Camp David became known to every corner of the earth, because of the great day when PLO President Arafat met with the US president and Israels Menachem ..... get details right. what I saw was 2 Arabs with the US president. I was not impressed at all, I had lost everything in the Gulf War and never got any compensation either. And I knew these men we only fooling the world, they had no intention of doing the right thing. I rest my case as time has proved me right.

From the corner store or Duka to the Super Market::

More supermarket has opened at the end of the street where I live, much to the disgust of the corner stores and delight of the housewives and senior citizens. The produce is fresh, clean and plentiful and packaged, and cheaper!
Those of us who know, have warned everybody to make hay now as they will soon raise their prices and once the custom goes back to the corner store, they will close up and move on down to another street.
In India and Tanzania we dont hold to the concept of the Supermarket - prices should be lower than the corner store because of the supermarkets ability to buy in bulk, ensuring bulk purchase profits. Here buying from a supermarket is a status symbol. Give me the corner store anytime for the service I receive.
We need to understand that the supermarket concept is foreign, we dont store produce, we buy what we need each day from the vegetable seller who passes our street every morning. We eat fresh produce, not stored or canned goods.

Because we are a divided people the supermarkets may linger on, unlike the story of Wallmart in Korea. They are a single people and they decided they did not like the idea of undercutting and imposing a foreign consumerism. They did not trust Walmart and so did not buy and within 6 months Walmart closed down shop and moved out!

It would be wise if we looked again at the concepts of consumerism we buy into. Already our real estate rest on unrealistic prices, that the upright are hard pressed to afford. Let us hold onto our children a little longer, it does not matter whether the West laughs, we may hold our values a few decades longer.

What will happen with the Call Centers?

It is time to wake up from the BPO (Business Proces Outsourcing ) .... get the correct word ...... dream, wake up and face reality.
Already an soft ware company has let go 500 people or less, lets leave a margin for exaggeration. Those who are non performers are now dead weight and are being pruned. The rupee has strengthened against the dollar, it is no longer lucrative to do business in India.
So what is the prediction? The industry will strengthen itself, salaries with become constant, allowing other businesses to come up the the BPO levels, and will the price of property go down? Will rents get lower now that we cannot afford the inflated rates? Or will they remain as they are and not go higher? This remains to be seen.

***In India we women have a topsy turvey kind of life. We are governed by our families and in laws, by society, and the need to be and individual.
The rich dont care whether they have a girl or a boy, but would prefer to have one of each and may succumb to an abortion to keep the status quo. The middle class and lower middle class are governed by the need for a son. The poor could not care less, they seem to have many girl children.
A woman in India is not worth her salt to her mother in law if she does not have a boy child, and commits the ultimate sin if she has 2 daughters! Here I speak of an educated professional family.
We go to work in up to date environments, but go home to an archaic system. We train our children similarly and propagate the confusion.
Even more confusing is that awareness is amongst us, I recently spoke to a man who was disappointed that his first child was a son, he said it put pressure on them to now try for a girl ... I did not understand, do you?. On the other hand another colleague said to me she wants a boy, because life is just too difficult for a girl and she would not like her daughter to suffer. Remember that most of the time it is us women who stress the need for a boy child.


Tatting


Here are my photos. The my Christmas tree is a dried sisal stalk, doesnt it look beautiful with the decorations? I include a closer look at some of my work. I have been inspired by all the wonderful tatters out on the internet. I have then developed my own style and have used only local thread. As I progress I will add more of my work for all to see.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Beautiful tatting you have there. Wow that quite a range of subjects you have there all in one post. I used to work in a NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) and it is amazing what they can do to help such wee ones survive. They were so adorable. I really enjoyed caring for them.

Tattycat said...

Welcome to our ring. I don't think I have seen you here before. I also applaud you for posting the picture of the unborn baby. I was never able to have child of my own and it breaks my heart to see babies being killed every second of every day in every corner of the world. Thank you for making your stand and your Christian beliefs so apparent.
Your tatting is lovely and I look forward to seeing more of it. I will also read more of your blog posts as I have time.