At five a.m this morning we put a lock on the cabin door.  A half moon directly overhead illuminated the stones in the trail leading away from my house.  After a couple weeks of dust and sweat, a 8 by 10ft. Shepherd’s tent now sits attached to the rear of our habitation.  The insides have be mildly refurbished to accommodate the new additions to our village family.  In the flat blue lunar light every thing looked ready for the sun to rise on another year as a family (now slightly enlarged with the addition of Cameron and Elizabeth) living in uncertain India.The sun looked ready to rise on a year full of possibility.

     Darjeeling is ten days into a ‘bandh’, a general strike.  All shops are closed (no cement for the new school or rice for the workers), no vegetables in the bazaar, the green, white and yellow flags of the political party du jour are flying and all vehicles are all parked.  The Nepalese in India are agitating for their own state… “Gorkhaland”.  If the Government of West Bengal doesn’t grant them their request, the leader du jour, Bimal Gurung, is threatening to extend the general strike up until March 28. Continue reading Striking

A tree fell in the middle of the jungle after a high wind storm.  Tilak found it and we decided not to let it go to waste.  As we sunk our axes into its trunk we noticed leafy sets of dormant orchids clinging to the branches.  With slow and steady pressure the roots released their grip from the bark of the dead chestnut.  The orchids would have died amongst the rubble of the fallen tree, so we decided to take them home and plant them around my house (which was at that time still newly constructed).

    Amanda and I found a small village in the middle of the Himalayas.  We saw a great need there and chose not to let a good opportunity go to waste.  As we sunk our lives into this new home, we noticed wonderful potential in those around us.  Unfortunately, a fallen society was keeping their beauty dormant.  We decided to invite them into a new way of thinking, a new way of living and into our home.
Continue reading Jungle Orchids

Hello all,

An advertisement on American TV:
A man sits, staring at an extremely large plasma TV. He is in awe and uses his mobile phone to check the balance of his bank account. The purchase is made. The commercial cuts to a scene of the purchaser sitting on a sofa in his house in front of the big screen in awe. The year’s new slogan flashes on the screen urging customers to “Chase (tm) what matters.”

Cameron (Ian’s younger brother) and I flew into Mumbai (formerly Bombay) on Friday. Mumbai’s wealth and decadence stand out in stark contrast to the rest of India. It was 1 a.m. and the taxiwala was driving his vehicle towards the domestic terminal for us. Our nocturnal chauffeur took us through the heart of the city’s glitz and glitter. A large billboard advertising a new model of compact sedan showed two bejeweled Indian maidens offering puja (a type of worship) to the shiny new vehicle. The embedded slogan was telling on-lookers to “Find what moves you.”
Continue reading Slogans