Anyone Hungary?

Even before arriving in Bangalore I joined the Bangalore Expats Club (BEC). The BEC is a large organization of expats from all over the world. I've met people from China, Malaysia, Finland, Norway, Germany, France, England, Hungary and a dozen other countries. During the winter months I constantly entertained myself by asking people from "cold" places like Norway and Russia the average temperature back home. 100% of the time Minnesota/Minneapolis was colder. If you are reading this in Minneapolis congratulations, you are surviving in one of coldest cities on earth. I had it rough in India too though. Delhi had to cancel school several days because of the unbearable cold. It got down to 37F! Before anyone asks how I possibly survived such hardship remember Bangalore is far south of Delhi. We dipped down into the 50's a couple times causing parents to bundle kids from head to toe but to my knowledge no fatalities resulted and school went on as planned.

Back to the BEC. In addition to a weekly happy hour on Friday night the BEC also holds many charity events. The most recent was a Black & White Ball - everyone had to wear only black and white. Maybe this is a challenge for parts of the world less chromatically challenged than America but given that everyone in corporate America (myself included) owns at least 3 black suits and 7 white shirts, it wasn't too difficult. I upped the difficulty level by wearing a black jacket from here and a white shirt from Egypt.

There was a silent auction with all proceeds going to charity at which I won an authentic home-cooked Hungarian dinner. I had no idea at the time what Hungarian cooking meant, Hungarian goulash jokes notwithstanding. As far as I knew Hungarians ate Turkey deep fried in Greece (ba dum bump - even I have to admit that is a horrible joke).

The president of the BEC, Barbara, is a friend of mine. Barbara is originally from Hungary. She and her husband Robert had just returned from a trip there. She brought back a good supply of Hungarian spices and ingredients. Since she was going to do the cooking I had absolute confidence the meal would be good. I attended a charity Christmas cookie baking party which she organized so I was well aware of the kind of kitchen Barbara runs. Let's just say when she assigns you to put sugar on cookies you damn well better start sprinkling sugar NOW!

After a 2 month delay we finally found a day on which we were both free. Along a couple other epicurian Targeteers I went to Barbara's house for my first taste of Hungarian cooking. The meal was fantastic! We all enjoyed an eggplant appetizer, drunken chicken (chicken marinated in white wine), the most delicious potato dish I've had in a long, long, time, and apple strudel for desert. Along the way we also took care of a bottle of Hungarian wine. In addition to being great cooks, the Hungarians know how to make wine!

So THANK-YOU Barbara for a great meal and introducing me to Hungarian cooking. This was the best 2700 rupees I've spent yet!

Politicians, can't live with 'em; pass the beer nuts

It is election time in the state of Karnataka.

In almost every aspect of Indian society it is easy to point out the differences between India and the US. Politics is no different. There are more parties, multi-day elections, different election rules and much higher voter turnout.


My personal opinion however is the similarities outnumber the differences in virtually every situation. It is eminently more fun to look for similarities, the parallels, the underlying patterns that, at the end of the day, lead to that most philosophical, metaphysical, perpetual conclusion; people are people. If nothing else, it keeps me humble since it requires me to sit back and realize how strange are my customs and those of America.

Just as American politicians "promise" to fix everything they consider broken when there is no way for them to know if their policies will be successful (think gas prices, national debt, Iraq, poverty, education, etc. etc. etc.) so to do Indian politicians make unrealisitc promises; world-class infrastructure, free power to farmers, no power outages, ending government corruption, etc. etc. etc.

Politicians everywhere also seem willing to try anything, no matter how ridiculous or gimmicky, to get elected. In the US we get classics like "baby-kissing; anyone who can kiss a helpless infant incabable of objecting is obviously qualified to hold a political post and bus & train tours to connect with the "average" American. Setting aside the fact there is no "average American", if bus and train tours are such an effective way to find out what the people are thinking why are they only done during campaigns? And my personal favorite, contemporary political ads that say with absolute certainty and sincerity you should cast your vote based up the fact that "My opponent is worse than me."

Again, Indian politicians are just as savvy regarding gimmicky campaign tactics from giving away TVs to anyone who will promise to vote for them to providing free booze at campaign rallies (Karnataka actually had to impose a ban on importation of liquor from neighboring states to prevent mass political inebriation. If only it was as easy to prevent politicians from sounding like they spend too much time in meetings with their good Buddies Weiser and Jimmy Beam). They also widely subscribe to the "My opponent is worse than me" strategy.

This election season however, has given me a new favorite political gimmick (as well as finally bringing me to the point of this posting). The headline of an article from The Times of India says it all:

I don't know if the article is legible, clicking the picture should open a larger version but just in case, here is the executive summary:

Some time in the past a shepherd named Balomama who was later declared a saint, gave 1100 sheep to his followers. The descendants of these sheep are now free-range, weed-eating, fertilizer generators for which farmers pay their current shepherds nominal amounts. The sheep also have the ability to guarantee an election victory to any politician who dresses up like a shepherd and performs a pooja (religious offering) to them. The caption of the picture reads: "Basaravaj Bommai (center), dressed as a shepherd, performs a pooja to seek the blessings of sheep at the Balomama jatre." Another political hopeful is quoted in the article as saying, "I am confident I will win this time to serve the people."

There was no analysis of which political parties the sheep seem to prefer based upon prior election results.

Back to People are People... on the surface this may seem ridiculous (it certainly does to me and based on the sheep's expression I'm pretty sure it does to him too) but as I thought about it more it occurred to me that American politicians are doing the same thing when they seek endorsments from religious groups. To really take the analogy to the extreme, religious leaders often call their followers "flocks". When a politician makes a point of being seen in a church or seeks the support of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, or the current politico-religious leader du jour, as they very often do, they are really seeking to gain the votes of "the flock", in other words, seeking the approval of the sheep. The difference is these sheep actually have the right to vote and would be equally at home shepherded by Roger Waters as by their given pastor.


Closing note: Roger Waters was the main lyricyst for Pink Floyd. On their classic 1977 album Animals, he used various animals, dogs, pigs, and sheep, as metaphors for types of people and human behavior. In the song "Sheep", about those who blindly follow their leaders and live by the motto "Ignorance is Bliss", he wrote:

Harmlessly passing your time in the grassland away
Only dimly aware of a certain unease in the air
You better watch out
There may be dogs about


I've looked over Jordan and I have seen
Things are not what they seem.


What do you get for pretending the danger's not real
Meek and obedient you follow the leader
Down well trodden corridors into the valley of steel
What a surprise!
A look of terminal shock in your eyes
Now things are really what they seem
No, this is no bad dream.