India, December 2001
Kerala
Participating in Sculpture symposium in Ernakulam, near Cochin
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
I am in Edapally,
India. It is hot, maybe 30¾ C. outside, and sunny. Usually, I AM BURNED TO
a crisp when I walk around in the sun, and I would have thought that at 10¾
North of the equator, my scalp would be history. But no, I have been walking
around for hours in this sun, but thanks to the two stroke and diesel haze,
there is a solid white blanket protecting my white skin. I am so white here.
White white white. Like lard. People say that Montreal women are beautiful,
but that’s bee farts compared to people here. One day we did get out
of town and drove up into the mountains, to Munnar, where they grow tea on
the hillsides. Up above the two stroke and diesel haze, I DID GET SUNBURNED.
Go figure.
I meet many many people in India. I particularly enjoyed meeting Prabhu, who told me about the Dosa place that serves 31 flavours of Dosa. That saved my life. The food was soooo good there. It was a kind of sidewalk food joint, with a seating area inside. Everything was soo fresh and tasty. Next door we find a place that sells laminated photos and prints, mostly of Hindu gods. There is a sparkly gold framed relief of Ganesh, Christ and a mosque. Good to have all your bases covered. Prabhu also helped out for the hanging of the sculptures I made at the symposium, and came up with the title for the work : LISTENER. He read a lot, and pointed me to a book that described many of the stories behind the Hindu gods. Of course I can’t seem to find where I wrote that down now, but I hope it turns up one day. Bobby and Aji also took care of me. They worked at a CD-ROM design studio. Among other acts of kindness, Bobby took me on a motorcycle tour of India while I videoed the scenery from the passenger seat.
While in Kerala, I read Schumacher’s book "Small is Beautiful" a proposal for an economics that treats finite resources as capital, that shouldn’t be spent as though it was renewable. He also writes about creating companies that aren’t bigger than a few hundred people, and that don’t require a lot of capital to create a workplace. The way things work in India seems to reflect this policy, seeing as capital seems to be hard to come by. Tools were scarce, but the energy of many people is available, and when it’s focussed, a lot can get done. People there work well with what they have, unlike some of us who spend too much time complaining about all the things we don’t have.
I meet many many people in India. I particularly enjoyed meeting Prabhu, who told me about the Dosa place that serves 31 flavours of Dosa. That saved my life. The food was soooo good there. It was a kind of sidewalk food joint, with a seating area inside. Everything was soo fresh and tasty. Next door we find a place that sells laminated photos and prints, mostly of Hindu gods. There is a sparkly gold framed relief of Ganesh, Christ and a mosque. Good to have all your bases covered. Prabhu also helped out for the hanging of the sculptures I made at the symposium, and came up with the title for the work : LISTENER. He read a lot, and pointed me to a book that described many of the stories behind the Hindu gods. Of course I can’t seem to find where I wrote that down now, but I hope it turns up one day. Bobby and Aji also took care of me. They worked at a CD-ROM design studio. Among other acts of kindness, Bobby took me on a motorcycle tour of India while I videoed the scenery from the passenger seat.
While in Kerala, I read Schumacher’s book "Small is Beautiful" a proposal for an economics that treats finite resources as capital, that shouldn’t be spent as though it was renewable. He also writes about creating companies that aren’t bigger than a few hundred people, and that don’t require a lot of capital to create a workplace. The way things work in India seems to reflect this policy, seeing as capital seems to be hard to come by. Tools were scarce, but the energy of many people is available, and when it’s focussed, a lot can get done. People there work well with what they have, unlike some of us who spend too much time complaining about all the things we don’t have.