Thursday 30 October 2014

Photos correction!!

The last photo we said was our room at Villa Shanti Pondicherry is in fact part of the apartment we had overnight at a golf resort near Bangkok International Airport

Photos

1) Pondicherry street scene
2 & 3) Chaotic scenes in shopping mall Pondicherry just before Diwali
4) Pondi again
5) Jean getting out of a Tuktuk in Pondi
6) Understated entrance to La Villa Shanti, Pondicherry
7 - 12) Examples of French architecture Pondicherry
13) Jean outside our room La Villa Shanti
14 & 15) Restaurant courtyard La Villa Shanti
16) Our room La Villa Shanti
 

Photos

1) Our hospital beds - 2nd. op.
2) Kitchen in our sitting room
3) On the mend
4) The new Deltamotion hips - bionic woman!
5) Our room at Quality Inn Chennai
6) Jean with Boomi - our waiter at Quality Inn
7 & 8) Colonial era buildings Georgetown, Chennai
9) Us outside a museum we didn't have time to visit 

Photos

1) Nurses with Jean after 1st. op.
2) Street scene beside our hotel with Jean and convenience store and pharmacy/stationery shop to right downstairs. This was between ops. walking with crutches!
3 & 4) Street scenes in Chennai where we were able to walk due to a little less traffic. But only about 1km there and back!
5) MRT construction site from our hospital window. Workers washed in open concrete tanks with filthy brown water!
6) Jean with night nurses just after 2nd. op.

Photos

1) Depiction of Allied POW's working on Death Railway Thailand/Burma WWII - note the emaciated bodies.
2) The infamous Bridge over the River Kwai
3) Jean and Bailey ("Galatea") in Bangkok just before we left for India
4) Jean in our room at The Asian Joint Reconstruction Institute, Vadapalani, Chennai, India just before the 1st. op. on her left hip. 

Thursday 23 October 2014

1st. op. day 59 2nd. op. day 38

Hi to all,
We hope this finds you well.
We are now back at Krabi Boat Lagoon, having arrived a week ago.
On the 14th. October we left Pondicherry by car at 6pm. for the 3 hour drive north to Chennai International Airport where we caught Thai Airways TG338 which left Chennai at 0055 on the 15th. So unsociable!! We arrived at Bangkok at 0555 absolutely knackered although we had 4 empty seats each so were able to lie down and get about an hour's sleep on the flight.
But to regress - Jean continues to make good progress, although stating that one hip seems longer than the other! However, that's just a waiting game as the 2nd one settles down. Jim did say to the surgeon when we had our final appointment that we thought he'd got it wrong and made one longer than the other - we all had a good laugh! Dr. Bose said he was delighted with Jean's progress and was sure that when all had properly settled down everything would be fine. There is still some discomfort when she is tired (which is often as she's always overdoing things) and some numbness but when you consider the scale of the operations and the necessity for severed muscles, tendons and nerves to knit back together, it's not surprising that it takes a little time for everything to get back to where it was. And the swelling which was expected and which she experienced has now all but gone, except when she overdoes things.
Towards the end of our stay in Chennai we took a taxi to Georgetown which is what is left of "old" Madras and is near the port. Still quite a few attractive old buildings dating from the height of the British Raj in the late 1800's and which are now showing signs of restoration. But the usual chaotic scenes which we westerners find so incomprehensible. We saw the port which is the usual container port one sees all over the world. But its origins are all artificial and certainly no place for yachts! In the old days the port was regularly destroyed whenever a Bay of Bengal cyclone came through but now it is much more substantial with big seawalls and all they do is order all ships to sea. Just as happened in the last few days when a very large cyclone hit the coast a few hundred miles north of here and the local port up there was cleared. Must have been a rough ride for those vessels!
We spent our days eating too much at the Quality Inn and having walks for a bit of exercise. Although Chennai is not walker friendly, especially on one or two crutches!! Footpaths are patchy at best which necessitates walking on the road - a hazardous exercise anywhere in India. Quite often we would both walk up 3 flights to our room for at least some exercise. There was a small supermarket opposite and we could buy snack items and there was also a pharmacy down quite a flight of stairs which Jean negotiated quite successfully. Boomi, the head waiter looked after us very well - probably too well in fact (!) - and indeed all the staff got to know us and were all wonderful. We showed the Head Housekeeper the gory photos of the ops. and the x-rays showing the new joints and she was very impressed!!
Then there is still the fallout from the scandal surrounding the former Chief Minister who stole over Rs.66 core during the time of her office. She applied for bail and it seemed that most people thought (and inexplicably hoped) that she would be released but the judge said NO and she remained in jail - for the moment. When you think what that amount of money (over 13 million NZD) would have done for the poor people and even just basic infrastructure the attitude is incomprehensible, but this is India!!!
We eventually left Chennai on the 8th. amid much valedictory excitement. Jean even shed a tear or two! We had a very comfortable trip down to Pondy with the same driver who took us around Georgetown a few days before. He was very good and, although his English was limited, he made valiant efforts to show us things of interest and mostly we could understand him. We duly arrived at La Villa Shanti after asking directions once we were in Pondy. It's hilarious asking directions in India. It reminds us forcibly of the Irish direction jokes. Often they don't actually know, although living here you'd think they should. But they'll tell you what they think you want to hear so you take it all with a grain of salt - if indeed they can speak English and one can penetrate the accent. If you ask how far, they'll usually state something far less than it actually is!
The hotel (La Villa Shanti) is an 18th. century house in French style which has been restored and converted into the hotel. There is a new matching wing at the rear and a courtyard where the restaurant is in the centre which was no doubt part of the original garden. When it rains the restaurant also has a substantial undercover area. The whole effect was delightful and it was always very pleasant having a meal in the garden. We had a ground floor room as there are no lifts and the hips aren't quite yet up to constant stairs. The food was excellent and not too spicy as they cater to foreigners predominantly and our room was very comfortable. We were very sorry to say goodbye to everyone at La Villa Shanti.
During our stay we walked and travelled around the old quarter in Pondi and were favourably impressed with the architecture, the shopping and the the ambience generally. Given its French history it's unique in India and in our opinion a highly desirable place to incorporate in any Indian itinerary. We also walked on the beachfront promenade where there is a giant staue of Mahatma Ghandi (Ghandiji). This was generally disappointing as the colour of the waves breaking on the coast was a dark grey/black! All caused by massive pollution and very sad to see. And no harbour of any description so definitely not yacht friendly.
One day we visited Auroville ("City of Dawn") which is on the outskirts of Pondi. It is a small town/village which was established in 1968 by Sri Aurobindo in collaboration with a French lady called Mirra Alfassa. The philosophy behind it is "that it would contribute significantly in the progress of humanity towards its splendid future by bringing together people of goodwill and aspiration for a better world". It has been endorsed by UNESCO 4 times in the past 40 years. There is an Ashram there as well as many community buildings and separate individually owned dwellings all set in a rural atmosphere and surrounded by much lush bush. You cannot simply decide to go and live there; you have to be invited after a trial period over months of living with the community.
We had previously met an Italian lady (an ex boatie many years ago) who lives there with her Japanese husband who makes Japanese style furniture. We went to her house and had a very interesting conversation. It is fascinating to see how other people live and while initially appealing, we don't really think we could eventually retire there. We are always thinking about where we might one day finish up living when our sailing days are over!
India is like this - it always conjours up very diverse feelings. On the one hand you can't wait to leave the pollution and the noise and overcrowding and on the other one always remembers the people one meets and the kindness and friendliness that they show.
Our feelings after this visit were no different although the primary purpose of the visit was of course Jean's surgery and subsequent rehabilitation.
A final example of the irritations that can be experienced in India came at Chennai Airport when we arrived there from Pondicherry. We arrived 4 hours before our flight because we didn't know how much congestion there would be on the road. Some people said it would take only 2 hours; in the event it took us 3. But because we were early they wouldn't let us into the terminal building due to "terrorist concerns". Jean urgently needed to get to a toilet and only after we had threatened that she would "go" right there on the airport forecourt and amid much shouting and yelling that they finally produced a passenger manifest with our names on it and let us in! Then sometime later Jim was a bit hungry and all that was available was a chicken burger. Not his usual fare at all. However, when this gastronomic delight was requested they said "sorry we are on a half hour dinner break"!! Can you believe it - at an international airport. Again after much shouting it was eventually produced but definitely wasn't worth the effort. Such a pity that our final hours in India were blighted in this way.
We were completely exhausted when we finally arrived at Bangkok at 6 the next morning local time. We had booked on the internet into the Summit Windmill Golf Residence which is a golf oriented resort. For us the attraction was a very good discounted price although we had to pay an extra 2000 THB for early check-in. We had breakfast and then crashed. Woke around early afternoon feeling not so wonderful but then had a walk on the golf course before dinner. we had an enormous one bedroom apartment with full kitchen, sitting room, terrace, bedroom and very large bathroom. It was absolute luxury but somewhat wasted on us and our fatigue which was at least partially caused by "coming down" after all the pressures and worries surrounding our time in India. Notwithstanding that the result has been absolutely wonderful as far as Jean's ongoing prognosis is concerned.
We left the next morning for the one hour taxi ride to the domestic airport and then a one hour uneventful flight to Krabi with Air Asia where we picked up a car at the airport. It took us about 4 days to finally come right and Jim had a persistent stomach bug which had been acquired in Pondi. Thought he'd avoided the Delhi Belly, but it was not to be. The boat was wonderful and Des and Popeye have done another fabulous job in raising our cockpit sole and other work while we were gone. Still a few minor loose ends to sort out but whenever is a boat completely finished?!!! Jean stayed with Garn who owns the Galley Restaurant at the marina for about 5 days so that she could be confident of getting on and off and around the boat before finally living on board. It's all gone according to plan and she is now on board and climbing the companionway ladder with aplomb, albeit slowly!
Anyway, it's good to be back and Jim is threatening to show Des and anyone else who's interested the gory holiday snaps of Jean's op.!! We obtained an extension of the boat's import licence until early December but we feel reasonably confident that we should be able to sail down to Langkawi in Malaysia before then. It's only 100 miles and should be an easy sail as there are many good anchorages between here and there.
So, now just reprovisioning and finishing off minor boat jobs and then we'll be away. It will be good to be sailing again. However, we will certainly be back up here early next year to further our Thai experiences and to see all our friends at Krabi Boat Lagoon. In between all that we will be visiting our far flung families, probably in Feb./Mar. 2015. Jean is due to become a grandmother for the second time in March so she will be in Miami, Florida for that happy event, particularly as she missed Carter's arrival last year due to the fact that at the time we were in the South China Sea heading to Singapore! Jim will no doubt be in Christchurch and Auckland visiting his children and grandchildren.
That's about it for now from us - there will be some photos of India on our website very soon now.
Lotsaluv from us...........
Jean and Jim

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Thursday 2 October 2014

Continuation........... 1st. op. day 39 2nd. op. day 18.

Hi again,
This will be short. The earlier blog was inadvertantly sent before it was finished!
This seems to be full of political comment but we can't finish without mentioning the Indian PM's visit to Washington. Narendra Modi is determined to rapidly increase the pace of India's modernisation and has been wooing US big business as well as establishing the most cordial relations India has ever had with the US. This is no doubt a good thing because the main threats to all of us in the world these days is firstly China with its expansionist policies and secondly militant Islam or Jihadism.
India is beset on both sides - in the north east by China and in the west by Pakistan. The latter has a long history of nurturing extreme Islamist factions like Al Qaeda and indeed was complicit in the terrorist attacks on Mumbai in 2008 when 164 people were killed and over 300 wounded, some seriously. There was a long period when Pakistan obstructed any information concerning the attacks from coming out of Pakistan, but in the end they were forced to reveal some very damaging and startling facts. Amongst those were the admission that Pakistani Army officers were involved in training the terrorists. All of this was referred to again by PM Modi in his address to the UN and the Pakistanis have taken umbrage in a big way. We saw a TV "debate" between Indian and Pakistani politicians and it was a shouting match trading insults from start to finish. And of course there's also the issue of Kashmir where there are conflicting claims for territory and indeed sovereignty. It's hard to see any accommodation between India and Pakistan in the foreseeable future.
Then there's the China issue which we've referred to before. During the recent visit to India by the Chinese President, he was assuring the Indian PM that China was pulling its troops back from disputed border positions and yet all the while the Chinese were advancing into NON DISPUTED Indian territory in Sikkim and building access roads into the bargain. The Indians have since demolished these roads. NZ might consider itself remote from these matters but in reality they could translate into something far more serious and closer to home. And in any case we are apparently considering sending troops to Iraq to fight ISIS and Iraq is even further away than India!
Just had a knock on the door from the housekeeping staff to announce "cleaning after coming". The language is a bit of an issue and one has to listen very carefully to elicit the correct meaning. Then one has to speak very slowly and simply to get one's meaning across. For instance one does not say "hot" when referring to food spiciness. One needs to say "not spicy" or "NO spices!". "Cleaning after coming" means that the room will be cleaned soon! But then we do not speak Tamil so cannot criticise too much.
The weather here is invariably warm but temperatures not as hot as Thailand before we left - mostly in the high 20's. There has been a shift in wind direction from constant SW to SE so possibly that means the change in the monsoon from SW to NE is imminent. Hope so because it will make our sail down to Langkawi much more pleasant - as long as we get any wind at all!
Well, that's it from us for now. The next blog will be from Pondicherry.
Cheers and lotsaluv......
Jim and Jean
Quality Inn Sabari,
Chennai
Tamil Nadu
INDIA

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1st. op. day 38 2nd. op. day 17

Hi again to all,
We hope that life is treating you kindly and that you enjoy this blog. It's all of 7 days since the last one - so high time!!
To begin - another Irish joke (hope no-one accuses us of being racist!):
There was a knock on the door and there was a collector for the Home for Alcoholics. He asked whether the lady of the house had anything she could give him and she said "No, not at the moment. I'm sorry, but if you come back at 5 me husband will be home then and you can have him!".
Life goes on apace here in Chennai. It's really just a waiting game for us now with Jean's recovery paramount. She continues to make good progress (sounds like a school report!!) and is now walking about a kilometre up and down the road next to the hotel. So, it's all good but we are getting thoroughly bored and can't wait to get back to the boat in Thailand. In the meantime we are going down to the ex French settlement of Pondicherry next Wednesday and will stay there in the Villa Shanti until we fly out on the 14th.
Pondicherry should be a welcome change from the mundaneness of Chennai as the historic old French quarter where we are staying is compact and can be walked around easily apparently. And some people there still speak French! A brief history -
The earliest known mention of Pondicherry was in the 1st. century AD when it was a Roman trading destination. Then over the next 500 years or so various dynasties held sway as their fortunes in southern India ebbed and flowed until the French arrived in 1674. They then ruled Pondicherry along with other possessions of French India until 1956 when all the former French possessions became Union Territories of India. The Union Territories are special areas with tax concessions - among them duty free booze!!!
The French occupation was marked by various skirmishes with the British and the Dutch who occasionally kicked the French out but somehow they always came back! The major incident was the Seige of Pondicherry by the British in 1761 which culminated in British victory during which they raised Pondicherry to the ground. The French then came back in 1765 and rebuilt Pondicherry. There were a number of peace treaties with Britain after that and of course the Napoleonic Wars but in 1816 the French were back for good - or at least until 1956 just after they suffered their biggest defeat in Indo China at Dien Bien Phu in what became Vietnam and the anti colonial thing was in full swing. The Indians no doubt gave them an ultimatum!
The biggest news here in recent days is the shock conviction of the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on charges of corruption involving Rs.66.6 core (just over 13.5 million NZD!). They establish this figure by comparing known assets with known levels of income. Any disparity is known as a "disproportionate asset case". Simple but compelling no doubt. The case had been going on for 18 years and reached its culmination last Saturday in Bangalore when she was sentenced to 4 years jail and fined Rs.100 core. There is now some doubt whether the sentence is legal because apparently it is illegal for a court to convict and sentence in the same hearing. Not surprisingly an appeal has been filed.
Unbelievably there is a huge groundswell of support for the former CM from the very impoverished people she stole from. This support manifested itself in an ugly way on Monday night. It is worthwhile reproducing verbatim the newspaper report in this morning's Times of India -
Headline: "MOB TRIES TO BURN ALIVE BIHAR MINISTER". "An angry mob tried to set ablaze Bihar art and culture Minister Vinay Bihari at a cultural programme in Sasaram in Rohtas District on Monday night. The attack took place at Tarachandi Temple in the presence of district officials, including the district magistrate and the Rohtas SP. The cultural programme was organised by the administration as part of Navaratra celebrations. Bihari, also a folk singer, inaugurated the programme and sang religious songs. A couple of other well known folk singers were also scheduled to perform at the function. But angry at the poor sound and seating arrangements, some people in the gathering started hurling chairs towards the dais. After a chair hit SP Chandan Kumar Kushwaha, the police started caning people. This further infuriated the mob, which then threw bricks and stones at the police and the dais. At least 100 people were injured in the brick batting. The Minister and other officials scurried for cover.
'Had I not hidden myself under the dais for over two hours, I would have been roasted alive' said Bihari, his head and chin swathed in bandages. The mob torched the Minister's official vehicle. Bihari said he overheard a few people who were carrying petrol cans and looking for him. 'I applied my mind and preferred braving stones to being burnt by coming out of hiding and running away', Bihari said. He later saw the dais go up in flames.
Bihari demanded an inquiry and held the local administration responsible for the attack. Kushwaha said the police had lodged an FIR against 500 people and arrested 6. A bottle of petrol was recovered from one of them." Only in India!!!
Emotions seem to be running close to the surface here and we have been warned not to go out at night - not that we were about to! However, we haven't seen anything untoward at all. The Indians are very fiery ( a bit like the Thais) and while all very polite, if you seriously upset them it all changes in a flash. But then Europeans are a bit like that as well! It's all fascinating to be here and watching the events play out - much more exciting than the NZ elections - tame by comparison.
Having said all that, the staff in the restaurant are very solicitous of Jean's dietary needs and are always rushing to assist. Jean is very appreciative. The waiters are all dressed in dark suits and ties and Boumi, the head waiter knows now that Jean likes Watermelon and Papaya for breakfast. So, she gets that delivered while Jim has to fend for himself at the fruit salad bar! We have finally educated the chef at the grill to produce eggs the way we like - for Jean scrambled with Coriander or Chives and for Jim fried and turned over and done to a crisp!
We have noticed the Indian women who, when here to dine or attending conferences, wear the most gorgeous saris. Beautiful colours edged in gold and all sparkly with glass beads. Very striking. However, the other thing we've noticed is that almost all are obese with a few notable exceptions. The notion of exercise doesn't seem to exist and the men are also overweight in the main. Sugarcane originated in India thousands of years ago long before sugar was brought to Europe and so the use of excessive amounts of sugar is endemic. There are constant articles in the paper about Diabetes.
We shouldn't talk as we've both put on weight but at least we exercise and are conscious of the issue, whereas the majority of Indians appear oblivious. And with the inefficiency we see constantly, we wonder how they'd fare against a Chinese invasion across the Tibet/Indo border which will certainly take place some day - unless demographics catch up with China as they inevitably will. The danger is that China undoubtedly knows this too, and might launch a pre-emptive strike before it's too late. China has a rapidly aging population whereas India has a huge proportion under 25.
China is quite frankly a worry and for NZ and Australia too. They have a growing and sophisticated naval presence in the Indian Ocean with submarine launched ballistic missile capability and they are stealing vast swathes of the South China Sea from Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines. They are establishing military bases on hitherto uninhabited islands and conducting oil drilling exploration. Their motives are expansionist, whether by military aggression or economic means and they have an intergenerational time frame.

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Wednesday 1 October 2014

Continuation........... 1st. op. day 39 2nd. op. day 18.

Hi again,
This will be short. The earlier blog was inadvertantly sent before it was finished!
This seems to be full of political comment but we can't finish without mentioning the Indian PM's visit to Washington. Narendra Modi is determined to rapidly increase the pace of India's modernisation and has been wooing US big business as well as establishing the most cordial relations India has ever had with the US. This is no doubt a good thing because the main threats to all of us in the world these days is firstly China with its expansionist policies and secondly militant Islam or Jihadism.
India is beset on both sides - in the north east by China and in the west by Pakistan. The latter has a long history of nurturing extreme Islamist factions like Al Qaeda and indeed was complicit in the terrorist attacks on Mumbai in 2008 when 164 people were killed and over 300 wounded, some seriously. There was a long period when Pakistan obstructed any information concerning the attacks from coming out of Pakistan, but in the end they were forced to reveal some very damaging and startling facts. Amongst those were the admission that Pakistani Army officers were involved in training the terrorists. All of this was referred to again by PM Modi in his address to the UN and the Pakistanis have taken umbrage in a big way. We saw a TV "debate" between Indian and Pakistani politicians and it was a shouting match trading insults from start to finish. And of course there's also the issue of Kashmir where there are conflicting claims for territory and indeed sovereignty. It's hard to see any accommodation between India and Pakistan in the foreseeable future.
Then there's the China issue which we've referred to before. During the recent visit to India by the Chinese President, he was assuring the Indian PM that China was pulling its troops back from disputed border positions and yet all the while the Chinese were advancing into NON DISPUTED Indian territory in Sikkim and building access roads into the bargain. The Indians have since demolished these roads. NZ might consider itself remote from these matters but in reality they could translate into something far more serious and closer to home. And in any case we are apparently considering sending troops to Iraq to fight ISIS and Iraq is even further away than India!
Just had a knock on the door from the housekeeping staff to announce "cleaning after coming". The language is a bit of an issue and one has to listen very carefully to elicit the correct meaning. Then one has to speak very slowly and simply to get one's meaning across. For instance one does not say "hot" when referring to food spiciness. One needs to say "not spicy" or "NO spices!". "Cleaning after coming" means that the room will be cleaned soon! But then we do not speak Tamil so cannot criticise too much.
The weather here is invariably warm but temperatures not as hot as Thailand before we left - mostly in the high 20's. There has been a shift in wind direction from constant SW to SE so possibly that means the change in the monsoon from SW to NE is imminent. Hope so because it will make our sail down to Langkawi much more pleasant - as long as we get any wind at all!
Well, that's it from us for now. The next blog will be from Pondicherry.
Cheers and lotsaluv......
Jim and Jean
Quality Inn Sabari,
Chennai
Tamil Nadu
INDIA

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
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1st. op. day 38 2nd. op. day 17

Hi again to all,
We hope that life is treating you kindly and that you enjoy this blog. It's all of 7 days since the last one - so high time!!
To begin - another Irish joke (hope no-one accuses us of being racist!):
There was a knock on the door and there was a collector for the Home for Alcoholics. He asked whether the lady of the house had anything she could give him and she said "No, not at the moment. I'm sorry, but if you come back at 5 me husband will be home then and you can have him!".
Life goes on apace here in Chennai. It's really just a waiting game for us now with Jean's recovery paramount. She continues to make good progress (sounds like a school report!!) and is now walking about a kilometre up and down the road next to the hotel. So, it's all good but we are getting thoroughly bored and can't wait to get back to the boat in Thailand. In the meantime we are going down to the ex French settlement of Pondicherry next Wednesday and will stay there in the Villa Shanti until we fly out on the 14th.
Pondicherry should be a welcome change from the mundaneness of Chennai as the historic old French quarter where we are staying is compact and can be walked around easily apparently. And some people there still speak French! A brief history -
The earliest known mention of Pondicherry was in the 1st. century AD when it was a Roman trading destination. Then over the next 500 years or so various dynasties held sway as their fortunes in southern India ebbed and flowed until the French arrived in 1674. They then ruled Pondicherry along with other possessions of French India until 1956 when all the former French possessions became Union Territories of India. The Union Territories are special areas with tax concessions - among them duty free booze!!!
The French occupation was marked by various skirmishes with the British and the Dutch who occasionally kicked the French out but somehow they always came back! The major incident was the Seige of Pondicherry by the British in 1761 which culminated in British victory during which they raised Pondicherry to the ground. The French then came back in 1765 and rebuilt Pondicherry. There were a number of peace treaties with Britain after that and of course the Napoleonic Wars but in 1816 the French were back for good - or at least until 1956 just after they suffered their biggest defeat in Indo China at Dien Bien Phu in what became Vietnam and the anti colonial thing was in full swing. The Indians no doubt gave them an ultimatum!
The biggest news here in recent days is the shock conviction of the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on charges of corruption involving Rs.66.6 core (just over 13.5 million NZD!). They establish this figure by comparing known assets with known levels of income. Any disparity is known as a "disproportionate asset case". Simple but compelling no doubt. The case had been going on for 18 years and reached its culmination last Saturday in Bangalore when she was sentenced to 4 years jail and fined Rs.100 core. There is now some doubt whether the sentence is legal because apparently it is illegal for a court to convict and sentence in the same hearing. Not surprisingly an appeal has been filed.
Unbelievably there is a huge groundswell of support for the former CM from the very impoverished people she stole from. This support manifested itself in an ugly way on Monday night. It is worthwhile reproducing verbatim the newspaper report in this morning's Times of India -
Headline: "MOB TRIES TO BURN ALIVE BIHAR MINISTER". "An angry mob tried to set ablaze Bihar art and culture Minister Vinay Bihari at a cultural programme in Sasaram in Rohtas District on Monday night. The attack took place at Tarachandi Temple in the presence of district officials, including the district magistrate and the Rohtas SP. The cultural programme was organised by the administration as part of Navaratra celebrations. Bihari, also a folk singer, inaugurated the programme and sang religious songs. A couple of other well known folk singers were also scheduled to perform at the function. But angry at the poor sound and seating arrangements, some people in the gathering started hurling chairs towards the dais. After a chair hit SP Chandan Kumar Kushwaha, the police started caning people. This further infuriated the mob, which then threw bricks and stones at the police and the dais. At least 100 people were injured in the brick batting. The Minister and other officials scurried for cover.
'Had I not hidden myself under the dais for over two hours, I would have been roasted alive' said Bihari, his head and chin swathed in bandages. The mob torched the Minister's official vehicle. Bihari said he overheard a few people who were carrying petrol cans and looking for him. 'I applied my mind and preferred braving stones to being burnt by coming out of hiding and running away', Bihari said. He later saw the dais go up in flames.
Bihari demanded an inquiry and held the local administration responsible for the attack. Kushwaha said the police had lodged an FIR against 500 people and arrested 6. A bottle of petrol was recovered from one of them." Only in India!!!
Emotions seem to be running close to the surface here and we have been warned not to go out at night - not that we were about to! However, we haven't seen anything untoward at all. The Indians are very fiery ( a bit like the Thais) and while all very polite, if you seriously upset them it all changes in a flash. But then Europeans are a bit like that as well! It's all fascinating to be here and watching the events play out - much more exciting than the NZ elections - tame by comparison.
Having said all that, the staff in the restaurant are very solicitous of Jean's dietary needs and are always rushing to assist. Jean is very appreciative. The waiters are all dressed in dark suits and ties and Boumi, the head waiter knows now that Jean likes Watermelon and Papaya for breakfast. So, she gets that delivered while Jim has to fend for himself at the fruit salad bar! We have finally educated the chef at the grill to produce eggs the way we like - for Jean scrambled with Coriander or Chives and for Jim fried and turned over and done to a crisp!
We have noticed the Indian women who, when here to dine or attending conferences, wear the most gorgeous saris. Beautiful colours edged in gold and all sparkly with glass beads. Very striking. However, the other thing we've noticed is that almost all are obese with a few notable exceptions. The notion of exercise doesn't seem to exist and the men are also overweight in the main. Sugarcane originated in India thousands of years ago long before sugar was brought to Europe and so the use of excessive amounts of sugar is endemic. There are constant articles in the paper about Diabetes.
We shouldn't talk as we've both put on weight but at least we exercise and are conscious of the issue, whereas the majority of Indians appear oblivious. And with the inefficiency we see constantly, we wonder how they'd fare against a Chinese invasion across the Tibet/Indo border which will certainly take place some day - unless demographics catch up with China as they inevitably will. The danger is that China undoubtedly knows this too, and might launch a pre-emptive strike before it's too late. China has a rapidly aging population whereas India has a huge proportion under 25.
China is quite frankly a worry and for NZ and Australia too. They have a growing and sophisticated naval presence in the Indian Ocean with submarine launched ballistic missile capability and they are stealing vast swathes of the South China Sea from Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines. They are establishing military bases on hitherto uninhabited islands and conducting oil drilling exploration. Their motives are expansionist, whether by military aggression or economic means and they have an intergenerational time frame.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
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