Count Your Blessings

There is an old hymn that goes "count your blessings, name them one by one, then you'll realise what the lord has done" Being in India has really helped me a great deal to see just how blessed I (and we as a family... ...and for that matter most of those living in the West) am (are!)

I received this in an email today, and I don't normally forward these things (although I do like receiving them), I've cut out some of the text, but I thought some of the statistics in the following paragraphs were quite eye-opening;

'How does one acknowledge God's blessings?' I asked.

'Simple,' the angel answered. Just say, 'Thank you, Lord.'

'What blessings should they acknowledge?' I asked.

'If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy .'

'And if you are reading this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity.'

'If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ... you are ahead of 700 million people in the world.'

'If you can attend a place of worship without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world .'

'If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.'

Stress Indicator

A friend sent me this picture on Facebook recently, along with the following text "I've attached a picture you can use in your medical practice. It's a stress indicator and is a pic of two dolphins. If the patient can see the two dolphins, then his stress level is acceptable and there's no problem. However, if he sees anything other than two dolphins, he is severely overstressed and requires treatment. Try it yourself. I think there's an Indian version using two elephants."

After I had examined the picture for a moment in some confusion, I sent him a return message asking "what does it mean if you can see two cows?"

A virtual tour of our neighbourhood

Alistair recently got a new bike (an early Christmas present as his trike had 'died' from so much use). On one of the dry afternoons in monsoon I took him for a ride, with Freya in the buggy. This was quite a novelty as usually it is far to hot to do anything resembling outdoor physical exercise.
These shots give you an idea of the streets around where we live. This first one is right outside our gate and features the ever-present rubbish dump. This is it looking pretty minimal actually and without the usual array of 'wildlife' namely pigs, dogs and crows, that feed off whatever they can find.
In the mornings the rubbish is collected from outside our flat, loaded into big buckets then taken across the road and dumped here. Ladies then spend several hours picking through the rubbish looking for anything salvageable. This is one of the many sights in India that makes my heart cry out. Why are they destined to this life, purely because of the caste they were born into? This has to be one of the most degrading occupations. Imagine the stench, in 35 degree heat...

This picture of Alistair is not just a nice one of him but also, I think, quite poignant. The contrast between all that he has available to him by virtue of his birth versus the simple, difficult life of these children in the slum behind. I felt really quite uncomfortable taking this picture although, as always, I was greeted with smiles.

Round the corner. . . and here you can see one of many luxury high rises going up all over Thane and Mumbai. Another stark contrast between the homes of the middle classes who are increasingly purchasing these kinds of properties, and those of the construction workers who build them.
This is just one of 8 or so similar towers under construction right outside our window. The families of the construction workers (like those in the 2nd picture) live on site in slum dwellings. When the building is finished, their homes are pulled down and they move on. We have posted pictures before of the slum outside our window.

The tour continues

For all the grandeur of the finished piece, the way in which these buildings are constructed is, in many ways quite archaic. Check out the bamboo scaffolding, used for buildings of almost 30 stories - usually with nothing in the way of safety precautions. The towers are painted by men suspended on a platform held by rope, using a paint pot and brush! Quite scary to watch.

Urban India is fast becoming inundated by western-style supermarkets. 'Tru Mart' is one such example, just 5 minutes from our home. I do shop in these places, lured mainly by the air-conditioning and the imported goods that you can't get elsewhere. However, I prefer to use the small traders as much as possible. Their fresh produce is by far superior and I prefer my money to go to them than into the pot of some chain.
Interestingly, yesterday, many of the small local traders shut up shop and gathered in central Mumbai to oppose these corporate giants. The 'Times of India' called it 'perhaps the largest protest against organised retail in the country'. I hope it had some impact, although I know that to make a real difference people like me could start by boycotting the 'Tru Marts' altogether. When does conscience overtake convenience....?

Ashamed to say it but here is another popular chain that we frequent, also just 5 minutes from our home. Our local coffee shop, which actualy sells a reasonable cup of coffee. This was Alistair's final destination. He likes it here (often in the middle of church he announces "Can we go to Cafe Coffee Day now?' as we often do go after church) and as you can see, was glad to have arrived for some air conditioning and a cool drink.
Yet again, the contrast between this kind of existence - which can, if wished, be lived blinkered with no thought of the 'other' India -
and that of the folk that, for example, Adam works with everyday is marked.

Homeward bound. We live on the eleventh floor of this tower block in a very comfortable flat. We have our complaints, a clean garden of our own would be nice and a constant clean water supply and no power cuts . . . but really we count our blessings to have the provision of such a nice place to live.

Who needs a truck?!

Ever wonder what happened to those gas Cylinders!?

For those of you who have been following this series, here is another one for the collection. I think this guy has 12 gas cylinders on his reinforced bike. I wouldn't fancy going up even a slight incline with those. Not only that, he doesn't have any gears either. Hey, I hope his brakes work for going down hill as well!!

Shadow Puppets

Having recently discovered how to add video and youtubes to my blog, I'm tempted to innundate you with daft and interesting videos I've received. My sister Penni sent me this really cool shadow puppets video.
If you have any cool videos you're keeping to yourself, please do email them to me, and maybe if they pass the strict censors and the even stricter selection committee, they'll find their way into the heady heights of the clanblack blog (life just couldn't get any better, right?). I have tried to upload another couple of videos, but their file format wouldn't convert.

here's a cool youtube called "cigarette"

I was a smoker for a few years at university - during the 'bad boy years'. smoking is bad for you, and causes lung cancer (and lots of other types)! Everyone knows it, but so many people still do it! For years! And they don't even enjoy it! There are a few other cigarette related youtube links at the bottom of the video window once you have viewed the initial video. Some of these are also worth looking at. these are added automatically by the "youtube guys" YEA! THOSE GUYS!

Depressed man diagnosed as Scottish

I thought this was quite amusing, but not true of course! Scotland is a beautiful place!!!! Also, most Scottish people are quite lovely, although you do get some dour characters like the Alistair described below!

Alistair McGregor, an expatriate Scottish man living in America, was recently diagnosed as clinically depressed, tanked up on anti-depressants and scheduled for controversial Shock Therapy when doctors realized he wasn't depressed at all... ...only Scottish.

Mr. McGregor, a Scottish man whose characteristic pessimism and gloomy perspective were interpreted as serious clinical depression, was led on a nightmare journey through the American psychiatric system. Doctors described McGregor as suffering from Pervasive Negative Anticipation – a belief that everything will turn out for the worst, whether it's trains arriving late, Scotland's chances at winning any international sports event or even his own prospects to get ahead in life and achieve his dreams.

"The satisfaction Mr. McGregor seemed to get from his pessimism seemed particularly pathological," reported the doctors. "They put me on everything– Lithium, Prozac, St John's Wort, Ginseng", said Mr. McGregor."They even told me to sit in front of a big light for an hour a day or I'd become suicidal. I kept telling them this was all pointless and they said that it was exactly that sort of attitude that got me here in the first place."

Running out of ideas, his doctors finally resorted to a course of "weaponsgrade MDMA", the only noticeable effect of which was six hours of speedy repetitions of the phrases "mustn't grumble" and "not too bad, really". It was then that Mr. McGregor was referred to a psychotherapist. "Suicidal?" DrIsaac Horney explored Mr. McGregor's family history and couldn't believe his ears. "His story of a childhood growing up in the drab back streets of a windswept grey town with treeless streets of identical run-down houses where it rained every day, passionately backing a football team who never won, seemed to be an idealized depressive memory – I thought all that was a myth…"

Mr. McGregor had six months of therapy but seemed to mainly want to talk about the weather – how miserable and cold it was in winter and later how difficult and wet it was in summer. I felt he wasn't responding to therapy at all and so I recommended drastic action – namely ECT or shock treatment".

"I was all strapped down on the table and they were about to put the rubber bit in my mouth when the psychiatric nurse picked up on my accent," said Mr. McGregor. "I remember her saying 'Oh my, I think we're making a terrible mistake'." Nurse Alice Sheen was a big fan of Scottish comedy giving her an understanding of the Scottish psyche. "Classic comedy characters like Chick Murray, Will Fife and The Crankies, all hopeless cases with no chance of ever doing well or escaping their circumstances," she explained to the baffled US medics. "In Scotland, being depressed to the point of suicidal is considered the norm and is not seen as pathological at all." Identifying Mr.McGregor as Scottish changed his diagnosis from 'clinical depression' to 'rather quaint and charming' and he was immediately discharged from hospital, with a selection of brightly colored leaflets and an "I love NewYork" T-shirt.

Summer Days Drifting Away.....

Although the Summer feels like a long time ago now, here I (Jo) am with some more photographic memories of our time in the UK in June and July. Very delayed and out of synch but still worth posting I think.

We spent a great week in Leeds at the end of June with my eldest brother Steve, wife Naomi and their 4 kids Sam, Asher, Minnie and Laurie. At the end of the week my Mum and Dad, brother Chris and his wife Ruth (whose wedding was at the beginning of June) spent a night in Leeds too. As the families on both sides (Black and Simkins) expand it is increasingly difficult to all get together so times like this are always precious.



Here is Alistair with his cousin Laurie (Steve and Naomi's youngest). There is only 8 days between them so it is always nice to see them together. There was slight anxiety expressed by both sets of parents over who may have the upper hand in this relationship, but this was clearly unfounded as they got on really well with only a few territorial moments! This photo proves it!



Picking raspberries in the garden.

Pennywell Farm, Devon

After Leeds, I went down to Exeter with the kids to stay with my parents. Adam went to a Developing Health course in London and joined us a week later.
Among other things we enjoyed a fantastic day at Pennywell Farm. Alistair and Freya loved all the hands on stuff with the animals.

The expression says it all!

Superheroes and Ladies

Alistair was pretty chuffed to be wearing cousin Rory's Spiderman outfit, as you can see by his face! He is quite taken with all things Spiderman at present. His understanding of Spiderman is of someone who helps people and stops people doing bad things (he's a bit too young to grapple with the finer complexities of the plot and has obviously never seen Spiderman). Quite where this ranks with his current understanding of God (who also helps people) I'm not sure but we do our best to keep his theology right!

Freya and Maisie exploring Gran and Pop's garden. Rory and Maisie are my brother Paul and his wife Karen's kids. They were also staying in Exeter.

Ahh, this is the life. . .

Enjoying an afternoon at the beach with Gran and Pop (Jo's Mum and Dad), Uncle Paul (Jo's brother), and cousins Rory and Maisie.

Pop bonding with his 2 youngest grandoughters.

I just liked this one of Adam and my brother relaxing at the beach!

And afterwards . . . who can beat it, sausage supper in the back garden. Meals outside on summer evenings are just the best.
Here you can see Alistair at the front with Rory and his sister Maisie. They are also very close in age and had a really nice week together.

Our Country Retreat

Our final 2 weeks were spent in Crawfordjohn, 40minutes south of Glasgow where Adam's folks have a house. There is very little to do there other than enjoy the garden and surrounding countryside, and we all benefitted from some time as a family and some rest. Alistair and Freya loved the garden. They could see cows and sheep over the wall, and horses from their bedroom window.

Adam's sister penni and her family came and joined us for a day and his parents and sister Inga also spent the last week with us.

ASBO's or cousins enjoying a walk in the country?!

Hours to go

Enjoying a final lunch with their Scottish cousins before taking off back to India that evening.