Indiana Country: 01/01/2011

Friday, January 28, 2011

Hotel "secure" safe in our room :)

The National Geographic Society Awards Sarah Fairbairn "Best Picture Of The Year"...OK, not really....

Goat Herding Woman in the back yard...Phaltan. Video...hit the arrow to play it.

It's easy to be Enlightened when you look at flowers....

This one is for Brian…”There goes Junior off to Camp.”

Finally found...Lee and Sam on the Backwaters of Kerala...

Guitar Man on The Backwaters of Kerala

Stork Billed Kingfisher of Southern India...hard to get a real picture of him...guess which one is my picture!

The Kerala backwaters are a chain of brackish lagoons and lakes lying parallel to the Arabian Sea coast of Kerala State in Southern India. The network includes five large lakes linked by canals, both man made and natural, fed by 38 rivers, and extending virtually half the length of Kerala state. The backwaters were formed by the action of waves and shore currents creating low barrier islands across the mouths of the many rivers flowing down from the Western Ghats range.

It is a labyrinthine system formed by more than 900 km of waterways, and sometimes compared to the American Bayou.

The backwaters have a unique ecosystem - freshwater from the rivers meets the seawater from the Arabian Sea. In certain areas, such as the Vembanad Kayal, where a barrage has been built near Kumarakom, salt water from the sea is prevented from entering the deep inside, keeping the fresh water intact. Such fresh water is extensively used for irrigation purposes.
(WIKI altered...)

Vembanad Kayal is the largest of the lakes, covering an area of 200 km², and bordered by Alappuzha (Alleppey), Kottayam, and Ernakulam districts. The port of Kochi (Cochin) is located at the lake's outlet to the Arabian Sea. Alleppey, "Venice of the East", has a large network of canals that meander through the town. Vembanad is India’s longest lake.

Chapatti in the Market

Poverty In India

The poverty that fills the alleys, streets, waterways and sidewalks of India is at the top of my Culture Shock list.

Begging…At any stoplight you will often have the sudden appearance of a very young, bedraggled child or a woman carrying a baby. Often the baby is quite silent, peering through the glass, piercing into your eyes and heart as only the very innocent can. No requests from them…they are just a mirror for you.
The most painful experience I have had in India has been to deny this direct request for help.
Now, most of us have seen “Slum Dog Millionaire”…or seen enough of it to understand that the money given to beggars doesn’t always work in a way that you would ever want to support. I can’t know that that is always the case…I don’t think there is any one “case” or “answer”. I can only say that I have decided to give money when a beggar approaches my car.

Necklaces of flowers for the temples...

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Chinese Fishing Nets Cochin India

These fishing nets are mostly found in the Indian state of Kerala. Huge mechanical contrivances hold out horizontal nets of 20 m or more across. Each structure is at least 10 m high and comprises a cantilever with an outstretched net suspended over the sea and large stones suspended from ropes as counterweights at the other end. Each installation is operated by a team of up to six fishermen.

The system is sufficiently balanced that the weight of a man walking along the main beam is sufficient to cause the net to descend into the sea. The net is left for a short time, possibly just a few minutes, before it is raised by pulling on ropes. The catch is usually modest: a few fish and crustaceans — these may be sold to passers by within minutes.
The system of counterweights is most ingenious. Rocks, each 30 cm or so in diameter are suspended from ropes of different lengths. As the net is raised, some of the rocks one-by-one come to rest on a platform thereby keeping everything in balance.
(WIKI)