Friday, May 21, 2010

Friday, May 21, 2010 Day 9

The blog I did yesterday didn't save or post so...

Items of interest:
The ladies love my blue toenails.
They now have speed bumps in triplicate. Didn't have any before. Don't know if that
points to the increase in traffic or the recklessness of the drivers. It does, however,
slow everyone down.
Houses have mortgages, cars have loans, and there are now educational loans. On the
educational loans, the parents must sign. If the parents don't want you to study what you
want to study, they don't sign. You don't get the loan. And there will be no help from
home. Students here do not work and go to school. So without the loan and/or the
parents' help, you get no education. Most of the colleges appear to be government run,
but there are private ones. Where there used to be only one engineering school in all
of Kerala, there are now too many to count. Some of these, like the one where Col. Baby
is, have been started by a group of successful engineers who want to give back.
*****Engineers in this country make more than medical doctors.
I saw a brand new rich house for sale this morning. Had I had a pen and paper, I would have
written down the number and asked Col. Babu to call for a price.
My first wild animals were two days ago. Had a body with shape and coloring like a
chipmunk but a tail like a squirrel. Scarrrrrrrrrrrrrrry! This morning I saw a chipmunk
so I think there must be some hanky-panky going on.
Wild dogs. There are some. There are also dogs connected with houses which might as well
be wild dogs. So far, either starring them down or picking up a rock seems to do the
trick. I really don't want to mess with them especially if there is more than one.
I tried some of my Malayalum on folks this morning. Apparently I am saying the words
correctly, but my accent throws them. Good for a laugh on both sides.
Mortgages. The reason for mortgages and car loans as I understand it is 1) Say you earn
$10,000 and put it in the bank and use it. 2) If you only spend $8000, you get taxed
40% on the $2000 left in the bank. (I don't know if it has to just be the bank or
whether that means under the mattress as well.) At any rate, there is no incentive to
save.
Dr. Baji said that Indians who go to the US never send money home because they will never
return here to live. Men in the Gulf send all their money back because they can't
stay in the Gulf--not allowed to stay. All I can say is that there must be a heck of a
lot of Kerala men in the Gulf. I don't have the impression that the same can be said for
other parts of India. Seems to be Kerala-specific.
I asked if Dr. Baji and Col. Babu were using their laptops. Dr. Baji said yes, and Col. Babu
changed the subject. Don't know what that means. Haven't followed up.
Hindu temples are family temples specific to a particular extended family only. Many
homes like this one have a small temple indoors or I have see small temples next door
to a house.

Something I wouldn't know had I not asked: My water at the table is pink as is that of
Francis and imam. Why? It has medicine in it. I will have to ask what kind of ]
we all are getting.

What is high humidity? High humidity is when the toilet seat feels like someone has peed on
it right before you got there. The women will understand this analogy if the women don't.

Time to get ready for massage. I know. But someone's got to do it.

Much love to all of mine.

Love,
Mom/Peggy/Granny/NiNi