Soup & Salad from India

Soup and Salad from India

Text, images and layout

By May Haddad

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“Soup

and

Salad

from

India�

is

a

travel journal that I wrote during my seven

weeks

visit

to

india:

kerala,

tamil nadu, delhi, rajestan and agra: jan.-march 2001

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thanks for the encouragements and the

comments

from

the

following

friends and writers: Hossein Shahidi, Aida

Haddad,

Madeleine

Norbert

Badaro,

Hirschhorn,

Annette

Cotteril,

Munir Fasheh, Nancy Li, May Abboud, and Mishka Mujabber Mourani

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Contents travel agent travel wisdom a pattern abu Abraham Flowers Refreshed geeta's friend Me Travel Monsters red rose Contagious march 8 Global Password albert and maria a dinner Communism indian English vegetarian hotels hippy paradise no need Kitaki

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gods eyes never experienced kerala radjani women east reflex research manu ayurveda two creatures synaqoque feelings periyar elecaho train two legs quotes ganesh plastic bags pain he shit art farewell

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dedicated

to

special

people

i

met

during my journey in india , each for a

reason:

janaki,

jaivir,

yasmine,

maharana, abu, psyche, indu, samer, jerry, mohan, piers, vasantha, vikram, sonu, nasser, kitaki, mariagovani and others

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searching for a travel agent (my second day in India ) I was told that mohan kumar was the best travel agent in town to my surprise, i found out that he works in getting people out of india! although mohan could not advise me about touring in india, he assured me that my strategy in traveling was right: it is correct to plan the next moment during this passing moment!

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travel wisdom to get a good hotel, travel to india without reserving a place and without an address!

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a pattern so far nothing planned for happens everything not planned for happens

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abu abraham i was referred to abu by a friend in new delhi she told me that he would advise me about being in india i was enchanted to meet him a charming cartoonist in his seventies we spent the two hours looking at his cartoons about palestinian refugees that he had done in the sixties! abu remembered vividly how much he enjoyed “olives and arak� in the lebanese mountains! this was my most interesting introduction to india!

Abu Abraham, cartoonist and journalist, born June 11 1924; died December 1 2002 12

flowers i did not find a flower shop to buy flowers to psyche being with psyche in her house named saranam was quite a refuge (saranam = refuge in kalamayan language)

leaving her place i picked up the most extraordinary yasmine flower i have ever seen in my life on the way without destination, i saw an old woman picking up similar yasmine flower to offer to the temple nearby it was a great delight to help her pick up the flowers shortly afterwards i found myself in an endless flower festival there was certainly a flower for every person in india

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refreshed i have been heavenly refreshed by: drinking coconut juice from the coconut itself with other women doing the same eating flattened rice on a leaf of banana offered by a woman working in a temple

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geeta's friend i met geeta and her friend at the corner of a street, selling bananas they were interested to know where i came from we playfully decided to exchange places i live in trivandum as a banana vendor and geeta's friend replaces me in my life in Lebanon

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me lots of contradictions in this place the greatest is me!

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travel travelling alone can be difficult and fascinating travelling with another can be more difficult and more fascinating

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monsters monsters are not the same for all of us identifying who they are and why they exist can help us be better people

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red rose he offered me a red rose, a handsome indian man he smiled, i smiled each one of us went in his/her way

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contagious everybody i smile to smiles back every smile makes me smile

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march 8 they embraced me joyfully at international women's day festival i danced and sang with thousands of women in delhi a magnificent feeling where you blend with all and all becomes one

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global password i am a friend of ... who is a friend of... who is your friend a magical global password

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albert and maria for the past 14 years, albert and maria ( from italy ) come to rockholm hotel in kovalam they stay a month and then explore a new place in india for another month they have developed a bond to this place which enriches them this year , they witnessed the disastrous earthquake in gujarat when 13,805 people were killed‌

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a dinner i first met him in kovalam beach we were having dinner each at a separate table we did not talk and we did not look at each other the next day, we looked at each other, as we met at regency hotel, where we had adjacent rooms he was an english doctor who works in hospice care, searching for peace with himself we talked over dinner at the roof garden before he left to calicut

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communism the headline of the local newspaper read today: communists told to intensify fight against globalization!

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what a place! have you ever seen the communist hammer and sickle in indian colors such as green, blue or yellow?

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indian english aida realized immediately that the man at the reception did not understand english english she was calling from washington dc trying to connect with me and the man kept on saying " yes mam" without listening to her

i realized today that many don't speak english english the rickshaw driver was about to kill me and when i said: “hey, you could have killed me" he said: “yes mam"...

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vegetarian hotels not only food in india is vegetarian but so are hotels!

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hippy paradise i was happy not to find room in the ashram all its' inhabitants were people from the west who seemed afraid to go beyond the boundaries of the ashram i felt that i'd rather visit similar places in canada or california

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no need to go far vasantha explained why i have not seen many Indians in temples in s. india you see, we have small temples in our homes we light the flame every morning and pray

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kitaki did she inherit the insight of her ancient grandmother?

Kitaki (8 years old) offered me ganesh as if she knew that i had brought a sandal wood ganesh a gift for her parents

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gods eyes gods eyes are everywhere, in temples, sculptures, jesus drawings, film ads and many other...

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never experienced before everyday seems better than the day before except for that suffocating moment when a huge crowd of people very tightly surrounded me as i was trying to get into a public bus

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kerala indeed, it is a literate place (kerala is the state with the highest literacy rate in india) if children beg, they ask for "school pen" Hari (8 years) and his friend stopped me today asking for school pen i told hari "ha (yes) , later". he said: "o.k. one for me and one for my friend"

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radjani women what you used to consider as colors that would never ever match is contradicted when you see radjani women's dresses: bright orange, pink, red, green, yellow beautifully contrasting with the fantastic dark color of the skin

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east she said : you, all western people look alike, fair hair and white skin i said: but, i am from the east and not west she looked at me with questions in her eyes

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reflex: creative poster i passed by a fantastic creative poster exhibit done by one local artist among the slogans: development against humanity we don't want seminars.. give back our stolen dreams ( street children) engineer ?.. doctor ?..

useless??

war makers do not die in the war who represents the indian woman? fast drugs end your life faster consumer is the king but the decision is taken by others

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consume drugs that will consume you thorns are awaiting you , are you willing to surrender your creativity?

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conference in bioethics research the two experts from world health organization and harvard school set up the agenda of the conference by stating their own rules the indian researcher sitting next to me whispered in my ear: “yes, but who will implement the rules?! “ (i accidently attended this conference in trivandum. It was about research ethics in the medical field. almost all participants were from s. asia with the exception of the two experts)

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manu he asked me if i came from the land of jubran khalil jubran i smiled confirming to this man who comes from the malayali culture he said he had never traveled outside kerala but he wished to go to s.america to see maya culture i liked the ma in maya, malayam manu and may

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ayurveda how can one meet traditional ayurvedic healers who have genetically inherited their wisdom?

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two creatures at the junction of the two seas, a creature from the arabian sea was attracted to a creature from the indian ocean they soon discovered a reason for the attraction: both knew about oppression and were seeking justice both were aware of the extension of this sea to the mediterranean and to s. africa the waves turned strangely wild they did not stop and continued swimming

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synaqoque (cochin) she told me: i am jewish and proud to be an Indian i want to stay in india but , i will have to leave to Israel you see , only 14 people of the jewish community remained in cochin all are above sixty i am the only one under 20

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feelings i feel like staying in all places that i leave! i feel comfortable everywhere i go am i comfortable in me? i want to embrace india and keep it in me i am overwhelmed by a very strange desire to put aside all my belongings and look as indian as possible

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periyar: tiger sanctuary why not all the world : a human-being sanctuary? (periyar is a beautiful sanctuary in kerala where both animals and nature are protected)

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elecaho elephant, camel and horse: put them in the order that you like in rajestan: an elephant is for luck, a camel is for passion, and a horse is for power

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train from kerala to delhi 2 hours have passed, still 44 to go 6 hours passed, still 40 to go 11 hours passed, still 35 to go

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two legs: a policy to remember ghandi had a policy which he called “walking on two legs� that is to say, not only opposing the british government but at the same time constantly creating the alternatives

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quotes i want to see god face to face-

ghandi

seeker! know what you seek and then seek

swami sivinanda

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ganesh a charming god a travel companion about the child within us that needs to be pleased funny and sarcastic pleasant to look at ganesh, the remover of obstacles, is also patron of arts and sciences, and the deva of intellect and wisdom

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plastic bags in Udaipur, i had a chance to discuss with school children “hygiene and plastic bags� the activity was in support of the inaugurationof rubbbish bins in the town by my artist friend cows were a great entry to the topic 60

(recently over 52 kg. of plastic was found in a cow’s intestines) children said: plastic bags kill cows , don’t use plastic bags cows are our mother, protect them don’t use plastic bags for gods’ sake it is dangerous for us, cows and earth i like plastic bags , but when cows eat them , they become sick i don’t like plastic anymore

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pain is the best brought at the cost of great pain? you see it demonstrated in the finger tips of sitar music players the palms of cloth block printers and other

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he he offered me the yasmine flower that i had spotted next to saranam 5 weeks ago did he know how much i loved it? i smiled , took it and stored it in my book

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shit art he said: in this place, you have to dig for gold in shit in two weeks , he was seeing gold in shit in rural india, villagers create Fantastic sculpture from cow's shit that they use in fuel and housing etc.

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farewell i forgot that i was not indian as i was saying farewell to yasmine and jaivir i remembered how i looked when i saw my image in the taxi mirror amazing how india touches you

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2016