Chennai Journal: Bits and Bobs

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Bits and Bobs
This is a bit of a random post this week, with various bits gathered in part from a short trip to Delhi this week and some from the news:

In Delhi some expats live in farmhouses which often have acres of property around them. You can rent an elephant for a day to come to your property to just hang out and entertain you (or to ride around your campus), for less than $100 a day.
Buses here "ply" routes. I have never seen the word used so much in my life as here, but always (and almost exclusively) to describe buses: for example, "buses regularly ply the route between Delhi and Agra."
The caste system is alive and well in some Indian companies, which have a preference for certain groups (e.g. Brahmins). Everyone seems to know which companies these are, but names are not mentioned. It is said that an arm put around the shoulder by a supervisor at such a company may not be a sign of encouragement, but an attempt by the superior to detect the sacred thread worn by Brahmins.
Surrogate mothers are the latest in outsourcing. The Indian Council of Medical Research, which is codifying the legal aspects of egg donation and surrogate mother arrangements, believes it will mushroom into a $6 billion business. A surrogate mother in Delhi gets between 2 and 4 lakhs ($5-10,000) compared to $20-50,000 in the U.S.
Project Tiger, a well publicized attempt to save India's dwindling tiger population from extinction by poachers who kill the animals for the various body parts and medicinal properties in demand from China, is pretty much acknowledged to be a failure. Tigers continue to disappear from most of the national reserves and the estimated numbers by the various parks are widely thought to be overstated. An article in the Jet Airways flight magazine shows a billboard at the entrance of one of these parks, depicting a tiger with a quote bubble coming out of his mouth which states:

"Dear Friends. My sighting in the wild is a matter of chance. Single-minded objective for me during park visit may disappoint you in a great way. I request you to enjoy this park in its total wilderness."

- posted by nred @ 8:30 AM

Comments:

rent an elephant less than $100 a day: do you mean US$ or rupees? $100 US seems rather steep.

# posted by

Anonymous : 8:38 AM

Howz the hand on the shoulder to detect sacred thread different from the old white man church club in our good ole' USA ? Some people refer to it as WASP. There are a lot of companies that do EOE but don't promote anyone who is not a WASP and who don't belong to the church club.

# posted by

Anonymous : 7:09 PM

I found the caste system in India to be very strong and negative. Sad to see. Definately India could not preach human rights to other countries.

# posted by

Anonymous : 7:34 PM

"The caste system is alive and well in some Indian companies, which have a preference for certain groups (e.g. Brahmins). Everyone seems to know which companies these are, but names are not mentioned. It is said that an arm put around the shoulder by a supervisor at such a company may not be a sign of encouragement, but an attempt by the superior to detect the sacred thread worn by Brahmins. "

Nice Try! better luck next time
.Why don't the Non-brahmis wear the fucking sacred thread and become brahmins!

# posted by

Anonymous : 3:34 AM

Some interesting links