Chris and Kris in India 42

Well hello again from us in India.

This Month: The last blog this year!

Comment

The wedding Season
Update on Bleu'

This Year

Our Garden
Comments from Kris

Christmas

Comment.

Terrorism, 

The classic definition.

The systematic use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political objective.

Terrorism has been practiced by political organizations with both rightist and leftist objectives, by nationalistic groups, by revolutionaries. The expression “Todays terrorist, tomorrows’ freedom fighter’ has some justification. In many places throughout the world this has been the only recourse left to the general population, or a significant number of it to topple a government (Just or unjust).

Definitions of terrorism are usually complex and controversial because of the inherent ferocity and violence of terrorism against the civilian population.

Since the beginning of the 20th century the term has been applied most frequently to violence aimed, either directly or indirectly, at governments in an effort to influence policy or topple an existing regime or:

Religious domination by acts of terrorism.

This is not a new idea, the crusades of the 10th century (1096–1099) probably led the way on a grand scale when the Pope at the time gave instant forgiveness and a place in heaven for all who killed the opposition, or to put it another way, the infidel. That same message is being used today by more religious fanatics to further their aims.

In order to attract and maintain the publicity necessary to generate widespread fear, terrorists must engage in increasingly dramatic, violent, and high-profile attacks.

Man has attacked each other over religious differences since the beginning of time, and I fear will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Conversion to another faith is not the issue here.
It is the forced conversion by fear that is morally wrong and in the end bound to fail. A person may say ‘I have converted’ to save the lives of their family but how many truly have in their hearts nobody can say.
There are examples from history and even now of regimes imposing laws governing a person’s right to worship as they feel. In these countries ‘underground’ worship continues and in most cases grows. Eventually perhaps leading to religious freedom for all through political change. (Yes I know this is a simplistic view but I haven’t got the space or time to argue this point here).

Since 9/11 the attack on the world trade centre, the attacks in London, the Mumbai attack and many others and now Paris it is clear that the state cannot guarantee a citizen’s safety.

By attacking civilians, innocent people, the terrorist hopes to grab headlines in the ever willing and cooperative world press. A press that must accept its contribution to the continuance of these groups, in my opinion most news media owners are not concerned with the result of their headlines, the harm, right or wrong, just how many copies can be sold, how much money they can make. Am I being cynical? I don’t think so, it’s been a long time since these profit orientated ‘news services’ actually reported the news in a calm and balanced way without distortion or sensationalism. The more dramatic the headline the better. Their object being profit, not truth.

In the same way the internet is used for propaganda and even recruitment to these organisations, giving the religious terrorist a worldwide audience to propagate their message of hate and intolerance.

During the Second World War Hitler spent months bombing London in an attempt to demoralise the population, the allies did the same to Germany, both had the same result. It strengthened the will of the people to resist and bear whatever came, quite the opposite of the intended effect.

Terrorism used against the general population or a peoples beliefs will not work, it cannot. To succeed terror needs to overcome the will of a population or belief system to resist in order to achieve its aim. 

Governments ‘react’ to terror attacks, obscuring the real problem ‘The war on terror’ being a classic knee jerk response. Violence begets violence, when will we learn that?

Hundreds of French citizens are now being arrested because the government of France must be seen to be doing something. This is just what the terrorist wants, to alienate more people and spread discrimination and social unrest. Picking on a particular group and using them as a scapegoat is not a new idea either, the Jews in Europe under Hitler’s regime were a classic example of racial and religious persecution. Effective in the short term to unite a country behind a cause however unjust but bound to fail in the long term, smashed upon the rocks of morality and truth.

In this world today there are radical groups of religious zealots of all faiths, scattered among the billions of decent ordinary people, they believe that their atrocities against the general population and headlines in the world press will demoralise another society’s beliefs. History has shown us, it will not.

But yet unlearning of the obvious, they continue.

Millions of people are being persecuted for their beliefs in this world, some even by governments who support terrorism in the name of religious beliefs. But also by people like us, you and me, we are also to blame for the current world situation.

There is not a lot we can do about the first other than voice our concerns and publicise the injustice of such a regime, some may be driven to go to war to protect their right to freedom of worship. So the cycle of hate and violence continues from one generation to the next, sons avenging fathers in the name of their faith. I believe that we of faith, any faith, in whose name these horrors are being perpetrated, who believe in God however we address him, you and I can do something that will make a difference by changing our attitudes to other faiths.

If you treat someone wrongly or judge them by their faith and discriminate against them, then you are in fact helping the terrorist do there evil work, fuelling the fire with your discrimination.  Only by showing tolerance to all faiths, and all peoples can we hope to live in freedom to practice our faith in the way we choose to.

So, the next time you meet someone who is clearly not of your faith, greet him as a friend, because like you and me he probably hates what is being done by a few evil men in his name, the name of his faith or of his God.

Only by the world coming together with tolerance for each other’s beliefs can we defeat this form of terrorism forever.

We have been killing each other in the name of God for long enough, We, as a world society must put this behind us. We must evolve beyond our differences to survive or as a race we will be destroyed by our inability to coexist with our neighbours and fellow humans.
In a time when nuclear weapons are becoming more available to the terrorist it is not beyond reason to consider the effects of such an attack on a city or cities and the consequences that would follow for all mankind. 
If you believe as I do that we, that is all mankind needs to come together please forward this message to your friends. Perhaps I am nieve, but if we don't try then what of our children in this world? Maybe, just maybe it will help even one of them to reconsider their treatment of others of differing faiths, and that's a beginning.
May God bless you all.

The Wedding Season.

We come from a society where marriages take place practically every day, so it is strange to us that in India there is a 'marriage season'.

Marriages in India are filled with ritual and celebration that continue for several days. Usually around 100 to 10,000 people attend. Attendees are frequently not known directly by the bride and groom. Though most Indian marriages are arranged it must be understood that arranged does not mean forced. Families work to achieve the best most suitable match for their son or daughter, it is not just about money but also caste and their personality. To achieve a good match astrology plays an important role in selecting a partner and the date of the proposed marriage. Some couples consummate "Love marriages", in which the partners decide to marry each other either with or without (This is rare) family involvement or assistance.

The traditional Indian wedding is about two families being brought together socially, with as much emphasis placed on the families coming closer as the married couple. Astrology greatly influences Indian society and culture. Whether it is birth, marriage, death astrologers are in great demand to help find auspicious dates for all manner of things from buying a new car to marriage. When we purchased our jeep a very close friend advised us that the day we were going to see it was not a good day and arranged for us to go with him on that Friday as it was considered an auspicious day to make a purchase.

India's wedding season peaks from late October to early December each year as couples choose to wed in these auspicious months. The Indian wedding traditionally starts with a procession which sees the groom riding or drawn by a carriage with a white horse, escorted by close family and friends, a brass band and a mobile lighting crew powered by a diesel generator. Guests in attendance dance and celebrate through the streets, showering the groom with rupee notes, there is often firecrackers going off with fireworks until they arrive to the final destination of the wedding.

The Mehndi is a morning for the ladies, close family and friends only; it is very special to be invited to a Brides Mehndi Celebration. The invited guests have complex designs painted onto the hands feet and arms with henna dye; it looks very beautiful if done well and great pride is taken in a skilled design. Kris had her hands done for a friend’s wedding; it takes a week or so to wear off. The Bride takes centre stage and has her Bridal Mehndi applied. There is dancing singing and it is one great party. Guests receive a small gift, mine was a beautiful bangle box and ornate ring box, something I will use and treasure. (One point here, every time I see Kris in a Sari and traditional Indian dress she looks great, the ‘look’ really suits her. Chris)

Then comes the evening.

This is the Sangeet, it is party time with a cocktail dinner, many people are invited and the atmosphere is very happy and upbeat. A friend of ours did the DJ and Video screens it was very good, we have seen his work before and it is always outstanding. The guests perform dance and singing and the bride and groom get a centre stage to watch everyone having fun. This is a major part of the ceremony’s the bride and groom have to take part in, so it is very tiring and an emotional time for them. Again it is formal dress so Sari for Kris and Kurta Pyjamas for Chris, who looked very dashing if I might say.

The following day is the Haldi, this is a traditional ceremony where the bride has Turmeric applied, and the groom undergoes the same ceremony with his friends and family in a different location. There are other Hindi rituals that take place but again the emphasis is on preparing the bride and groom for marriage. The Turmeric is said to be good for the skin, once the Turmeric is applied then later washed off, the bride and groom cannot leave home until the wedding. In some regions all the guests get to apply and play with the Turmeric a little like the Holi celebration. Luckily the wedding we went to was only for the bride and we were spared being covered in yellow powder which stains the clothes. The bride looked radiant and again it is party mode with some dancing and drummers providing the music. Then of course there is food, which was very good, but needed to leave room for the dinner in the evening celebration.

Anyone for Chai?

Gia being carried in seated in a sedan type chair
by close family to lots of cheers 

Bride and groom with close family being prepared for
the ceremony

Evening the same day is the Wedding Ceremony, guests arrive drink, eat, mingle and socialise awaiting the arrival of the groom on his horse or carriage, and then he awaits the arrival of the bride. At the last wedding the bride was carried in on a Sedan chair by her brothers and close male family to cheers and taken up onto the stage where the groom was waiting patiently. The bride and groom always keep the guests waiting but their arrival in all their splendour is worth it. The bride and groom sit on a special settee and again watch all their guests having fun. It is about midnight that the actual wedding ceremony takes place, and by then many guest have left. It is an honour to be invited to a close friend’s wedding and to be asked to attend all of the ceremonies as we were this month. The best wedding we have been to this year, wonderful to see friends and family blessing the couple and helping them start their new life together. We were treated like family, a rare honour given us.

Chris and I with Aarti and Vinay parents of the bride

Vinays mamma in green 

Aksha (cousin) and Aditya (brides brother)
 dancing for the bride

Gia the beautiful bride

Gia and Siddarth the happy couple

 We have known the family since we came here and are very close to all of them. A good match and a loving life ahead. God bless them both.

Winter

Well it’s here, winter. When we first arrived in India we spent the winter in ‘T’ shirts, not so now. We have acclimatised to the Indian weather, so highs of 22degC and a low of 5degC makes it real. I know for most of you this will sound warm but as I sit writing this my nose is definitely chilly! Shame though, no snow for Christmas! Mid-winter is around the 27^th so after then temperatures will start to rise again. Non too soon as far as we are concerned!

Bleu' 
Growing all the time. Now 14 weeks
so it will be a visit to the vets in late Jan or Feb 
to be sterilised and chipped. She has one more inoculation to 
have then she is completely immunised against 
most that the doggy world can throw at her.

No matter how much she eats she never looks like she has any spare fat on her! All that growing uses energy!
She now walks on a lead, knows NO, Get down, sit, come, eat, stay and heel, she's doing well. She is and always will be a street dog with all the instincts that go with that, she is stubborn, mischievous, curious of everything, eats ants but she is also intelligent and has a really loving character when she is not digging another hole in our flower beds. very territorial as a local cat found out! Zoom, gone never to return, Bleu' strutting is a sight to see.

Well, it’s been an interesting year. 

Highs and lows but well worth the effort and trials of being here is the good we try to do, the help we try to give. It isn’t often we talk about ‘how’ we help because we both believe in doing so without notice. 
This is probably the only time we will do this (at least this year) it isn’t meant to be trumpet blowing because we both wish we could do so much more.

HDS has been formed and although slowly it is growing and has helped hundreds of women learn self-breast examination techniques, those women tell others…the pond ripple effect. Lives have been saved using this technique and the potential to help is huge in India where breast cancer is the number one killer of women.

Other projects are ‘in the pipeline’ and we are hopeful of the future for HDS.

English teaching is going well, it is now taught by me at the college we work at as part of the first year curriculum.

We now have our jeep and the bill for it! 
With this we can do so much more, the rural community being our main aim. Touring clinic, who knows. We are still working hard to restore it and are hopeful that the end of January will see it on the road, budget permitting.
Work has proved to be as good as we had hoped, better in fact. We now have a three year contract that gives us piece of mind and means that the annual renewal process should be hassle free. On that point; the foreign office here has always been totally supportive of us and we have never had a problem renewing our visa's. From day one we have been 100% honest with them. sadley this cant be said for all here, the FRO are constantly trying to reduce the fraudulent behaviour of some visitors, I don't envy them either their job or the abuse they sometimes  get from foreigners when they are caught. Why cant people just tell the truth? India welcomes anyone who genuinely wants to help, lies are not only against the commandments given by God but totally unnecessary.
Each month we give 10% of our income to help others, this has been to Panavar and other causes we quietly support. Sometimes we are led just to give, a woman at a museum we visited, working outside picking up bits of wood for a fire.we were both drawn to her God knows why (literally), she looked so poor but still proud, about grandmother age, not begging, just working hard to survive she was the recipient of a gift that day, given in His name to ease her burden and bring a little sunshine into her life.

We have done this more often than we care to say here. 
This amount we give monthly is based on what we can afford month by month and would give to the church in the UK, we both feel that is why we came here, to help in practical ways, by doing as we do we give help as we see it is needed, or as we are led to give.
We haven't found a church that feels 'right' for us here but we attend Filadelfia as often as we can, usually monthly for communion but being in hindi makes it difficult, especially when there is no translation of the hymns. 
We have visited several local churches and may visit more. Most weekends we seem to spend testifying to someone! We ride with a group (IBRMC) some weekends, They are a multi faith group who accept each other as brothers regardless of faith. 
To live as a Christian seems to us more important than how often we go to a church, our daily life is in praise of God and our immovable faith in our saviour keeps us honest!
In a country where Sunday is often the only day of the week the vast majority have off to rest we have found that to go and visit different places it not only very enjoyable but also gives us the opportunity to show that we are us: Chris and Kris and that we are who we say we are, we are a long way from perfect (as are we all) but what you see is what you get. We are not false or have a hidden agenda, many have become great friends over the past years.
Above all we are honest, and that is seen as a rare thing among Christians, the reason for this reputation is the belief that if you come from the UK, Europe, USA or other 'christian' countries you must be Christian, they are Christian countries, therefore all the rogues and people who behave badly while visiting this country, drinking, drugs, rowdy behaviour, looking too closely at women or speaking to them uninvited (very No No) and those who come on fraudulent visa's to work whist pretending to be on holiday, all of us who come here for one reason or another are judged to be Christians. Hence the reputation. We try very hard to explain but it is difficult.

We also came to semi retire and enjoy our lives. Yes we definitely do, the warm weather eases the old bones and being able to ride practically all year is amazing. We have our chickens and the garden, English veggies in the winter, Indian in the summer so most of the year we produce fresh food. What we don’t eat we store, either by preserving or by freezing. We also have honey from local wild bees about two and a half Kg stored, the taste is s much nicer than the bought variety. (One day we may try bees again now that we understand the Indian bee a little better).
We also shop for fruit and veg ‘in season’ store it and eat when it is not normally available. And of course we have eggs and manure!

Bleu’, our latest edition is doing well. We both have our health, few colds, fever, dehydration, but since my brush with bad malaria we have on the whole been good. Oh, and a couple of broken bones when we fell off the bike!

Looking over the above we are struck by one fact: how much our Lord has done for us by bringing us here, we are so grateful that words here cannot explain the joy of knowing we are serving Him as well as we are able, and will continue to for as long as we are able.

The garden

Leeks, can't wait for them to grow Yummy

Coffee.
A friend on the colony gave us a supply of green coffee beans, Southern India Arabica that his son had kept. First job: how to roast coffee beans, and its not as simple as you may think! If you really want all the details google it but for now we will skip the technicalities of 'cracking and roast flavour'. We settled on using the Wok as this seems to give the most even roast as long as I keep it moving. One interesting bit of information we have learnt: Most of the early USA cattle drives carried coffee as green beans and roasted as they traveled. This kept the coffee fresh. A pan on the fire seems to have been the most common roasting method so we are not so far from that with gas and a Wok. The coffee tastes wonderful, full and rich, really good.

Beginnings of real coffee 

In full swing, Chris has to keep stirring or they will burn

Nearly ready

Can't capture the smoke on camera, but the smell is fab

All done now just the cooling and waiting to taste

Comments from Kris

Well it’s that time of the month again, it does come around quickly just seems like yesterday I was writing for last month’s blog. I was just saying to Chris today, Christmas Day that is that I really can’t believe it was a year ago we were in the UK. Time seems to be flying at the moment.

As we are coming to the end of another year I can’t help but feel a little excited and apprehensive as to what God has in store for us over the coming months. 

I am not worried as my trust is completely in him as he continues to guide us on our journey. I do feel very thankful for all God has given Chris and I, even though at times we struggle financially, but I think how lucky we are in comparison to many.

I am sitting here in our home its 2.30am but although it is cold out I am one of the fortunate people as I have clothes, food and a roof over my head. I do not know how the poor cope, living in shacks if they are lucky, some have little or no shelter which is a hard life even when the weather is good, but much harder to bear in the winter. Many have no heating and rely on open fires outdoors to cook, you see people huddled outside their homes around a small fire, you see women and children foraging for anything they can take home to burn, and many walk miles every day to do so. 

Whilst I do not give money to the professional beggars here and yes there are some, I do wish there was more I could do to help make the lives of those less fortunate than me a little better or at least less difficult.

I will pray to see if God places anything specific on my heart that I could do. This is not a cop out as I have found in my Christian life that he often gives us opportunities to help others if we are willing to seek his guidance and then act upon it. Yes there have been times when I have failed to do something I felt prompted to do but that happens much less now than when I first became a Christian.

I would just like us all to remember those less fortunate than ourselves at this time and think is there something I could do personally for either an individual or a group of people. If we all made a genuine effort we could make a difference however small.

I made a traditional English Christmas dinner using one of our own chickens, cooked our home grown carrots (English variety), Broccoli and Cauliflower, the peas and potatoes I bought at market and we drank our own homemade mango cordial, what a lovely meal and yes we did have Yorkshire Puddings, made with our own eggs. One word to describe it YUMMY! At least I didn’t poison Chris. 

Spotted in one of our trees.

The local bird population were NOT impressed. At one point there were three owls, we have never seen them before. 

Images of Christmas.

cute

Lovely traditional Christmas and yes Yorkshire Pudding

Couldn't leave her out, she loves Yorkshire Pud

cornflake cakes homemade

Ughh the washing up 

Later!!

We had a really lovely Christmas, quiet but that is how we wanted it. Had a nice long lay in bed until we wanted to get up, then prayer to say thankyou to our Lord for this day and for changing our lives to be servants in joy and contentment in His word.

Then we spent the traditional christmas, movies, dinner......relax. A very good day! I even had a Christmas cigar..............ah the decadence, whatever next! 
Yes Chris I will get you for taking this picture!

Its been a wonderful if exhausting month.
New Year well to party or not to party that was the dilemma. Personally for a brief moment I could have happily said 'lets stay in watch a movie and have a quiet meal and a drink to see the New Year in'. But I am pleased to say we decided to spend it with friends.
We went to Flames restaurant with Vinay, Aarti and Mamma, Chris and I had not been before, but Vinay and Aarti knew it well.
Lovely restaurant great service and superb food. I had to have the Lasagna which was very nice, I did have a few Indian tastes but Chris, Vinay, Aarti and mamma had Indian Cuisine which was also very good. I would recommend trying this restaurant and would certainly go again.
On the way home we decided to visit Fateh Sagar Lake.
Fateh Sagar Lake was beautiful as ever lit up but mega busy as people gathered to see in the New Year. We came back to Vinays and had rum cake which was very good.
Well its hard to believe but we are now into our fourth year here in India and it still blows my mind how lucky we are to live in such a friendly and beautiful city, Udaipur the City of the Lakes.
Who knows what 2016 will bring but one thing is for sure I don't expect life to be boring.
The weather has changed again, a couple of days ago it started to get hot so is a lot warmer in the evenings again, such a short winter this year, global warming has a lot to answer too. Friends say the weather could change again any day now, lets wait and see.


Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and May you have a fabulous 2016
God Bless
Chris and Kris