Last but not least

This weekend has been a time of lasts. Last speaking time. Last wander around  my favouritism market.

Last naan at my favouritist restaurant. Oh last naan nearly turned into a disaster. The restaurant was very busy. But kind dada directed me to a table and brought a menu. I decided just to eat naan bread and a thumbs up.

After a while I could not remember if I had ordered a butter naan or plain naan. So as dada went past I said, "Butter naan dada?". From his reaction I realised he thought I was saying,"Where on earth is my butter naan."

He shook his head but reappeared shortly with a butter naan. It was a little bit cold which was unusual. Then as I ate it I  thought it was a little bit burnt. When I turned it over it definitely was burnt. Maybe it was a reject and he had given it to me to shut me up.

I could not allow my last naan to be a bad experience so when he went past again I said," Dada naan khub kharap." (Big brother this naan is very bad.)
"Kharap?" he replied.
I nodded.

Soon he came back with a naan was so hot I had to eat it with my knife and fork. It was up to the usual high standard of naan par excellence.


 

Please do not mind I had the air conditioning going in my room.

I was sitting in my room in the cool fridge like conditions feeling a little bit embarressed because I was using electicity to cool my room.
What would William Carey think?

The cool was certainly delicious. I went outside the room to the hallway  and it was like an oven.
I quickly came back in and turned the air conditioning off. After being out in the hall my room seemed very cool.

Later  I found a button on the remote control which read Room temp. When  I pushed it nothing happened until I turned the air con back on. There it was - the staggering truth. It was 30 flaming degrees.

I instantly stopped feeling bad about using the air con.

Again I checked the room temperature and it was 31 degrees.
It was bed time so I turned the air con back on. After an hour I was still awake so I looked to see what the room temperature was. It was 26 degrees. Crazy. The room temperature had only dropped five degrees in an hour.

At some point in the night it started to rain so I turned off the air con. In the morning when I opened my window there was a lovely breeze coming in.

As I breakfasted, showered and dressed I realised another advantage of using the air con. The marble floor was very cold.

Now it is nearly 4pm and it is 28 degrees in the room. I have had to close the windows because my blood sucking friends were coming in.

I can feel my face glowing with perspiration.

I wonder how my visitors would like a burst of cold air?

Thinketh maketh the woman

Hephzibah is the perfect place to take ones thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ.

Why?

 

Because several million times a day in response to a look, a word, an action, a thought will enter the stage of one’s mind and stop midway. The thought usually of the lying variety, will take a deep breath and begin a soliloquy that could bring tears to the eyes of the most hard hearted person.

“Oh that is not fair,” it wails.

Within a very short time hearing the distress call another thought enters the stage and then there are two whinging and moaning and complaining.

Before one knows it there are hundreds of thoughts giving the performance of their lives all over the stage of my mind. They are such drama queens. Each trying to outdo the other. Naughty un Christlike thoughts vying for attention and approval.

And the clamour! One surely cannot hear oneself think for the cacophony.

The solution is found in being alert and diligent. The second the thought starts moving towards the stage lasso it and drag it away. In its place start sending thoughts that are true, noble, right, pure lovely admirable excellent and praiseworthy.

It is especially important to take thoughts captive because what we think affects the way we feel and the way we feel affects the way we speak and act. Nipping thoughts in the bud that are likely to make me feel  grumpy offended disappointed or resentful is very important. If I entertain them next minute I could easily say something or do something that I will have to ask forgiveness for.

I do not mind having to ask forgiveness but I would prefer it if I did not need to.

To Uber or not to Uber pt2

Government health warning: this post may have heaps of spelling mistakes cause i wrote it on my phone. Mistakes could interfer with your mentsl hesloth if you have obsessive compulsive correct spelling disorder.

Today's Uber journey also provided an unexpected surprise. I am on such an Uber learning curve at the moment.  I think it may be because I foolishly thought I had mastered the art of ubering. I know. I know. What was I thinking.
So... I had the address of where I wanted to go. I entered it in the correct place, selected the order button and confirmed. 

Unbeknown to me the Uber GPS decided it didn't know where my destination was znd decided i should go somewhere else. I did not think to check it could have changed my instructions.
Once again I ended up in the wrong place.  Today's driver understood English and so we added in a new destination but it wouldn't change for me. So he had several tries znd gknally we headed off in the tight direction.

I ended up just where I  should have been.

But this Ubering is not as idiot  proof as I  would hope. And to be fair some of that has to do with the GPS information the app uses.

To Uber or not to Uber

I confess to my deep shame that I am taking Uber taxis whenever I need to go out anywhere. What would William Carey think?

I'm not sure but I know what Sandy would have said in 1992, 1995, 1998, 2008 and 2015.When in Rome do as the Romans do. Catch buses, take the Metro, train, walk, rickshaw, auto  and tram. On special occasions take a taxi. By 2016 and 2018 she was starting to mellow markedly.

Well unfortunately it is not 1992 and I no longer am 30 years old. I am actually 56 and its a darn sight easier and less stressful in many ways to Uber. It is also cooler as Uber travel is a.c. (air conditioned). In 30 degree plus heat and humidity one cannot sneezle at a.c. travel. Population growth means public forms of transport are even more under pressure than 30 years ago.

Another reason to take an Uber now is because the old Ambassador car taxi drivers are feeling the pinch because they have competition from companies like Uber who are  taking their business. So they are even more unuser friendly than they were in the past. In the past they could be a little unco-operative and be reluctant to use the meter. Nowadays they can be plain difficult. They will refuse to take you if the distance is not long enough, they will refuse to use the meter and  will suggest a ridiculous price because you are a little unusual and have lots of money. So in some ways they are reaping what they have sown.

The downside of Uber is it is more expensive than the other forms of transport. Although it is probably cheaper than traditional taxi. It is also an elite form of travel. I think if I were here long term I would use less Uber but for now I can justify travelling in Uber style.

An Ambassador car which is slowly being superseded by a.c. Japanese imports taking over the taxi market.

To Uber one simply puts in ones starting point into an app on ones cell phone.  The app usually works that out for you and you type in your destination or choose the destination from the choices that pop up as you start adding letters. When you request a car the registration number of the driver assigned comes up on your phone and you can even see him approaching on the map provided.

Ubering is usually idiot proof but this morning my ubering experience nearly became a failed mission. Here is why. I put in where I wanted to go with the name of the church and the address which popped up: Lower Circular Baptist Church 43 AJC Bose Rd.

The address was correct according to the church website.  However, when we were about half way the driver stopped and told me we had arrived.

No way I said. Where is the church? No this is not the place Dada.
Oh yes it is he replied in Bangla and showed me his phone. Well I think that is what he said.
Sure enough his phone said we were at the right address.

I'm not getting out. This is not the right place I said. You have to go straight.
By my calculations there was still about  two kilometres to go.
He showed me his phone again.
He would not budge even though I told him my destination was further up the road. Thank God I knew where I was.
He wound down the window and turned off the car.
The temperature inside the car and me started to go up.

Thankfully I realised it was a problem with the GPS and not the driver. I did not know what to do but as I looked at my phone I  discovered I could add in a destination so I chose a place beyond where I wanted to go. Thank God I knew that also.

I sent the new instructions and he did not receive it.
I sent it I said.
I have not received it he said in Bangla.
I sent it three more times for good measure.
He still did not receive it.
At this point I decided to pay get out and order another Uber.
I started walking down the road wondering what to do. It was too far to walk.

Then I hear a toot toot as the Uber driver pulled up alongside me and wound down his window.
I received the change in destination he said in Bangla.
I climbed aboard and off we went merrily.

He was heading for the new destination but as we drew near to the church I told him to pull over.
This is the church I said. He knew we were headed for a church because it was part of the original destination instructions.

I gave him extra money for the additional distance and as I departed I said GPS kharap. The GPS is crap. He smiled.

When it was time to come home I ordered another Uber and noticed that number 41 AJC Bose Rd came up automatically instead of 43. Even so there is no way one number could make that much difference.
 

Fruit and custard part 2

Government Health Warning - there is very little grammar used in todays blog because I can not be bothered putting it in.

Being an epistemologically minded young lady or just plain nosey, I thought I should do some research on the custard apple. This adventure into Google land was partially motivated by the fact I had just eaten three custard apples and swallowed a couple of pips by accident.

However, I should probably start at the beginning...

I went to the fruit market where a pleasant young man lay in wait for me behind a tall display of fruit. He asked me if I wanted apples.
No.
Mango?
No. Custard apples I said.
Oh please don't mind he said with a sly look on his face but they are 200 rupees a kilogram.
Dada I said that is too much. 130.
170 was his response.
He was carefully feeling the fruit and choosing which one to sell me. That was my first mistake. I should have made the selection. I usually do even though I really don't know what I am doing.

The minute he started bargaining I knew I was in big trouble. 130 was far too high for my opening bid. That was my second mistake. I knew I was going to come off second best in this encounter.
By this time the custard apples were in the bag and it was belong proffered to me.
135 I said.
150 he said.
OK I said wishing I could remember what I had paid last time.

I would also like some guava.
100 rupees a kilo he said.
No Dada I said. 40 rupees for half a kilo.
He agreed.
I also bought some sweet limes which are like lime flavoured oranges.

When I arrived home I inspected my custard apples. Three were very ripe, one ripe and one firm. They need to give way when squeezed if they are ready to eat and four were.
Oh I thought to myself I think I need to start eating these. So I did. Plus a few pips.

When I did some research I found out the ca are very good for you. Filled with antioxidants and minerals. The pips are not so good and are poisonous. I wondered how many are too many. To be fair I was not exactly sure how many I had ingested.

The pips are ground up and used to make a paste to kill head lice but some people experience a reaction to this medicine which is toxic because of the cyanide in the kernels. 

I was wondering how I would know if I had cyanide poisoning and then I found a site that told me the hard skins on the seeds mean you don't get poisoned if you swallow them whole.
Phew I thought...

Disaster averted...

Cancel the body bag.
 

Them bones arent dry bones

In a soggy corner of a little cemetery lies the remains of a man who was a history maker but little is known about him even in Christian circles - William Carey.

I visited his grave with my good friend Leo who lives in the town where Carey is buried.

I know a little about Carey so I will attempt to give a few details which will hopefully be accurate.

Carey trained as a cobbler in England but being an intelligent inquisitive sort of chap taught himself several languages including Hebrew and Latin. He was also very interested in natural science especially botany and because of his level of education which was mostly self-directed, was offered the job of a school teacher. He also became a Baptist pastor.

 He wrote a book in 1792 explaining why Christians should be involved in mission because apart from a few groups in Europe, the Protestant church was not that mission oriented. The work " An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use means for the Conversion of the Heathen" was not well received. One poor chap is recorded as saying "When God pleases to convert the heathen he'll do it without consulting you or me."

Anyway Carey and his family left for India in 1793 and eventually after a stint of managing an indigo factory, ended up in the Danish colony of Serampore across the river from Kolkata. The Carey's joined  the Wards, Marshmanns and John Fountain who had also arrived from England.

Carey busied himself with many jobs including translating the Bible into 44 languages, lobbying for the abolition of sati which was the practise of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands. Semaphore College was started to train clergy and provide arts and science education.

It was no Sunday School picnic in India in the early 1800s when Carey and his family arrived. Carey buried two wives, was outlived by the third and of his seven children three died. There was also opposition from both the local people and the English who were involved in trade. Then there were diseases like malaria that took their toll. Oh and man-eating tigers apparently lurked close by.

Carey's catch phrase  was "Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God." When one studies the numerous achievements of the man which I have barely touched on here, one can certainly see this theme running through his life.

Carey described himself as a "plodder". To be sure that plodder achieved far more in his life than most of us can dream of. His example also was the catalyst for the modern mission movement.