odzer's blog

Every place has a person or two that seem to have done everything or invented everything. Kukai known during his lifetime as Kobo Daishi is one such person. I first heard of him from an American friend of mine around a decade ago. This most remarkable man is credited as having done several things during his life time. He was a poet, a calligrapher, a linguist, an inventor, a self taught engineer, a diplomat, a buddhist monk and a great influencer of the world around him. Kukai was born in the year 774 in the Sanuki province of the Shikoku Island of Japan. Disenchanted by his formal education that was set around turning out bureaucrats for the government he turned his attention towards Buddhism. At the age of 31 he had a chance to go to China on a diplomatic mission and there he encountered Sanskrit and improved on his knowledge of Buddhism. This had a profound impact on him both in terms of starting the esoteric branch of Buddhism known as Shingon and also he is credited for inventing the Japanese writing system known as Kana. I must confess i find the order of the characters of Kana very similar to North Indian languages.

Kukai returned back to Japan where he not only created the Japanese characters that we still use today but also is also credited for having started the Zen tradition, inventing the Udon noodles which are famous all over the world. Contributing to the Samurai system and also having repaired a reservoir in Manno town. It is said that he completed the difficult repair work in just 3 months.

I had a chance to vist Zentsuji the birthplace of Kukai this March. I was excited and happy to see the place from where such a man originated. Kagawa prefecture is a really beautiful and peaceful place with beautiful mountains, a really cold sea and beautiful temples. Every year people make an annual pilgrimage to Shikoku from all over Japan and Zentsuji is the biggest of the 88 temple circuit that they follow. I noticed many similarities between temples in Tibet which also has an an esoteric form of Mahayana Buddhism and Japanese temples. They even had Dharmapalas on the enterances! I am posing some pictures of my visit with some descriptions for you to get a visual sense of the place.

Photo courtesy : Alex Bunjes

The Potala Palace is the residence of the Dalai Lama in Lhasa Tibet. I visited Tibet way back in 2001 when I was a very young boy of just 21 years. All the photos that I had of Tibet were paper based and although I could scan them I never did because of the sheer volume and my laziness. However luckily I have received digitalized version of these pictures from a friend who could get it done abroad. So I intend now to write a few articles about my previous travels. The Potala Palace is the iconic landmark that sits right in the  middle of old Lhasa. Tibet was ruled for hundreds of years from this very place. This site is identified with the great King of Tibet Songsten Gompo who had greatly extended the territory of Tibet. The fifth great one Lobsang Gyatso, Dalai Lama of Tibet started the construction work of the Potala palace in in 1645.

The Potala Palace has two distinctive colours, Red and White. Red is known as Marpo in Tibetan and White as Karpo that is why both the sections of the building are known as Potrang Marpo and Potrang Karpo respectively. The white part of the building was used primarily as a winter residence of the Dalai Lama whereas the red part was used as monastic and government building.

There is a beautiful garden and a lake just behind the Palace and within the lake there is an island, there is a very special temple situated on this island and I intend to write a blog about that later. The day I visited the Potala Palace the Chinese had just increased the price of the entry ticket. Overall the atmosphere in Tibet is very oppressive and its not an easy country to visit for Indians. I noticed that within the Potala there were a lot of Chinese domestic tourists who were very noisy and loud.

On the roof of the Palace there is a small café and a gift shop. Although the building seems to have suffered no major damage under the Chinese occupation it has lost its significance as a centre of government and administration and become more of a museum. With the Palace there are some very beautiful gold mandalas in 3 dimensions. I have never seen such beautiful mandalas ever before.

A nice and quick fix for lunch today

I made Chicken Shougayaki for lunch. I had the opportunity to buy really nice juicy ginger a few days ago. Mostly the ginger that we get here is a bit dry so it does not make great shougayaki. I used chicken because beef is not available for sale in my state. I would not dare to eat unprocessed pork meat in India because of the conditions that pigs are raised here. Shougayaki is one of the few Japanese dishes that is easily recreated here. The only real concern is to use good quality soy sauce.

Nice for a relaxed afternoon or a casual anytime snack.

Today I baked a Walnut and Almond Tea Cake. We had a sort of a power problem while it was baking and I was fearful that it will not come out nicely but it did! I really liked the way the cake came out and tasted. We had it around tea time and it was a huge success. What I am really looking forward to is to buy a loaf tin for making sliced cakes so that I can experiment with some new things. It has been a long time since I have baked anything mostly because of the sick weather that we have been having here. It is so humid and hot that I never really want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I hope to do some more experiments as the season turns cooler.

After a long and sustained correspondence with HDFC Bank I have finally been able to get “Temporary Credit” on the transaction I mentioned in “How Safe is Your Card” Blog. However I have been getting a lot of comments about how people have been ripped off by “Trenitalia – Vendita Oroma” and I have decided therefore to publish the correspondence I made with VIsa International that helped me get prompt response from HDFC Bank. My suggestion to everyone who has been ripped off by this terrible merchant and has not been getting any relief from their bank or financial organization is to write directly to Visa or Mastercard. At the same time if the bank is being completely negligent you should file a dispute with a consumer or civil court. Some countries may also have a provision for a banking ombudsman. So here is the correspondence that finally helped me get some resolution.

Email sent to Visa International through their website :

https://corporate.visa.com/ut/contactus.jsp

“I have a Visa card from HDFC Bank in India. Recently I was a victim of a fraud by a company called Trenitalia Vendita Oroma based in Italy. I reported this matter to my Bank and the action and the information they have provided me with is grossly insufficient. Even though they contacted me through a letter telling me that credit would be reposted in my account, they have not even done THAT YET! Is this a routine for customers of VISA to be first cheated on and then having to follow up on so many fronts? If so I must say you have a terrible product. I have been following up on this on my blog which you can find at http://odzer.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/how-safe-is-your-card/
I am happy to provide you with all the details in this matter if you will contact me. Further through the postings at this blog and from other websites I have established that I am not alone and many other people have been ripped off by the same Italian company. Since it has been more than 2 months since I am pursuing this matter I would expect expediency from Visa and not just referring me to HDFC Bank which has proven grossly inefficient as a card issuer. Please get back to me through email or call me at +91XXXXXXXXXX. Regards. XXXXXXXXX. Chandigarh, India.

Response from HDFC Bank within One day!

Dear Mr.XXXXXXX,

Some time ago I had the opportunity to visit Kasauli. A sleepy little hill town in the state of Himachal Pradesh. It is quite near where I live. This is a town that seems to have an air about it. In the past it was a place for the British to escape the heat of the plains in the summer. The architecture there is very colonial and the buildings seem to  be alive. It is quite unlike any other place that I have been to in the hills. Some very famous people have lived and still do maintain residences there including the noted Indian write in English Khushwant Singh. I had the chance to take some pictures while I was there and I am sharing these with you all here. Since my last visit to Kasauli that was in February of 2007 there seem to be many changes especially in the area below the town. The road leading up to Kasauli from Chandigarh is certainly way more polluted than ever and you can breathe in the diesel while you drive up there. It also seems that there is more construction activity there now. I think that in the next decade or so this town will probably be lost because when I compare it with the last decade the air quality is noticibaly worse. So enjoy the photos and if you like them you can always click on this link to see more.

National Flag of India

When I was young my mother often told me the story about a Pigeon that closes its eyes whenever a Cat is on the prowl. The Pigeon would imagine that the Cat disappears if it closes its eyes. Alas the Pigeon would get eaten up. Sometimes I find that Indian nationalism takes the form of a Pigeon. As Indians we often will ignore the mess we are in and harp on a few achievements that the country makes. The sad fact is that 60 years from independence we remain in a very grim situation. Poverty in India whether Urban or Rural is the one factor that defines the country and hits you in the face as soon as you leave any airport. What also strikes you is the disparity among the Rich and the Poor. As a writer I often focus on writing on personal finance, economy and other aspects for some customers. What confounds me is how the progress has not yet translated in to basic infrastructure in the country.

Most of us have become quite oblivious to the state of the nation. We are just used to things not working. If the roads are broken we do not care. If our neighbour decides to throw garbage on the street it is just fine. However what surprises me is if someone does mention something wrong with the country or a state all hell breaks lose and people tend to attack you. Enough is published about the growing economy and the miracle growth. However we can not keep harping about how many Indian doctors have left the country and migrated to the United States or how many FOREIGN CITIZENS OF INDIAN ORIGIN have made it once they have left the country. I live in India, I am only concerned about the quality of life issues in India.

So here are some FACTS about India that you won’t read in all is well and good print media of India :-

1. India contributes to 25% of all Child deaths in the world alone!

(http://www.unicef.org/india/health_491.htm)

2. India has the largest amount of hungry people in the world, over 200 Million people.

(http://www.undp.org.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=73&Itemid=157)

3. 70 million people in 20 Indian States do not have access to safe drinking water.

(http://www.who.int/entity/mediacentre/multimedia/2002/ind_sanitation/en/index.html)

4. India still fares pretty low on the HDI Index, at 128 according to the UNDP. China weighs in around 81, Pakistan at 136, Nepal at 141, Bangladesh at 142, Maldives at 100, Myanmar at 132 and Sri Lanka at 99.

(http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/)

5. India ranks No. 70 in Corruption Perceptions Index, China ranks 70, Tiny Bhutan ranks 32, Nepal ranks 121, Sri Lanka ranks 84, Myanmar ranks 160, Pakistan ranks 142, Bangladesh ranks No. 156, No figures are available for Maldives.

(http://www.transparency.org/news_room/in_focus/2006/cpi_2006__1/cpi_table)

6. 270 people die everyday in road deaths in India. An increase of 5% per year is predicted for this figure.

(http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2006/04/01/spike_in_road_deaths_stirs_alarm_in_india/)

(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6661757.stm)

7. 160 Million people in India are threatened by caste based violence and discrimination. This includes violence against low caste women, discrimination especially in rural areas and systematic human rights abuses.

(http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/india/)

8. According to the UNFPA, based on a report that they published 70% of Indian women have suffered domestic violence. This includes rapes, beatings and forced sex.

(http://www.domesticviolence.in/domestic-violence-in-india.htm)

I expect a lot of comments now on how I have just focussed on the negatives etc etc. Truth being told, yes there are positives certainly. However they are far outweighed by what is fundamentally wrong with India and Indians. We need dramatic, drastic and fast change. We can not wait another 60 years and in the meanwhile keep waiting for things to work themselves out. In the meanwhile for all measures India remains a third world country with third world living conditions. I do indeed wish a turnaround in the next 10 years not in the next 40. This can only happen when we realise what is wrong with the country, compare ourselves with the best and most importantly do not stop  people from publishing what is fundamentally the condition of our country. The world already knows the truth about India, most of the countries have embassies here and they can observe what the conditions are and most of the world’s media has enough representation as well. So the only people we are fooling is ourselves.