So it really is just all about the beads.

Going to my first Mardi Gras celebration in Louisiana, I was hoping to learn more about the celebration’s cultural significance than just talking to drunk people on the road side as they waited for the parade to start. Just as I wouldn’t want someone to jump to conclusions about my own culture’s traditions, I thought, let’s not walk away from this experience thinking it’s just about beads, drinking, eating and partying. I know there’s history and religious significance to it.

And surely, for a few, there is, and Monroe’s Mardi Gras celebrations are a lot tamer than what I imagine New Orleans’ would be (all the girls kept their shirts on … but maybe that had something to do with the 37-degree weather).

But hardly anyone I talked to brought up the festivities’ religious origins. Then again, I guess even within religious contexts, the purpose of Mardi Gras is to give people an opportunity to let their hair down.

Mardi Gras is the celebration that prefaces Catholics’ observance of Lent. Because many people give up a particular food, beverage or habit during Lent and it’s a period of stringency, Mardi Gras is everyone’s way to let out some steam before they buckle down with their fasting.

Essentially, it’s a big party.

The first Mardi Gras celebration in America took place in 1703 in Mobile, Ala. However, the tradition spread to New Orleans in the 1730s and 1740, with then-Gov. Marquis de Vaudreuil marking the event with elegant galas, according to New Orleans’ Mardi Gras website.

“For our region, for Louisiana, Mardi Gras has been part of our tradition. ‘Fat Tuesday.’ We celebrate from the 12th night til the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. It’s just a time when people can get together and have a good time … before the fasting of Lent,” explained the 29th Queen Janus, Nannette White.

And there are always some in the crowd who have more fun than others.

Through the day in Monroe, The News-Star sent me and other staff out to capture the sights and sounds of Mardi Gras events, from children at the “Jungle Gym” parade in Pecanland Mall, to pets promenading through West Monroe’s Antique Alley in the afternoon, and revelers lining Louisiville Avenue to catch beads along the parade route. By nightfall, temperatures were well into the mid-thirties, and still, people were willing to wait on curb sides just to catch handfuls of these coveted beads.

If beads are the main attraction here, I thought, those babies better be made of gold for me to have to bear that.

Thankfully for me, two adorable little girls whom I’d interviewed earlier in the day were so excited to be asked questions for the newspaper, they spontaneously took their beads off and placed them around my neck while I was talking to them. Absolutely touched by the gesture, I wore those beads throughout the day as a memento of my first Mardi Gras.

Interviewing Paula Deen (Photo courtesy of Ben Corda)

Hundreds of people were lined up along the bookshelves of the Books-A-Million, and as I interviewed patrons for two stories, one about Deen’s new book and the other about Muammar Gaddafi’s death, it seemed people had more to say about the latest Ooey Gooey Cake recipe than the death of the Libyan dictator.

And why wouldn’t they?

A mixture of eggs, sugar, vanilla, cream cheese and of course, butter, it was no light matter.

Paula Deen and her husband, Michael.

]]> http://amritha-alladi.com/2011/11/02/hey-yall/feed/ 0 Amritha 313151_10101402994993601_2029554_82794683_284523632_n IMG_0411 http://amritha-alladi.com/2011/10/25/got-swamp-water-runnin-through-my-veins/ http://amritha-alladi.com/2011/10/25/got-swamp-water-runnin-through-my-veins/#comments Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:15:15 +0000 amrithaa http://amritha-alladi.com/?p=1922 ]]>

Monroe-bound.

After two and half months of living at home with my parents while job hunting and freelancing for The Gainesville Sun, I finally got some good news. A Gannett paper in Monroe, Louisiana was interested in hiring me as a reporter to cover their city beat.

I didn’t really know what to expect. I’d never even been to Monroe or heard of it before I’d applied for the job. In fact, I’d never been to Louisiana or driven more than three hours anywhere, so the thought of driving more than 11 hours to get to the city I’d soon call my “home” sounded daunting. But Louisiana couldn’t be too much different than Florida in terms of climate, right? Maybe slightly colder in the winter. And from what I’d read of Monroe, it seemed like it might be somewhat like Gainesville too: large medical centers, a university, and a tight-knit community about the size of Gainesville, if you include the nearby towns that are grouped into the Monroe Statistical Area. Gainesville might have a much larger university— an enrollment of 50,000 compared to the University of Louisiana-Monroe’s 8,000— but it would suffice. (Before you ask) It’s about four hours from New Orleans.

What did I know about Louisiana? That perhaps the French I learned since fourth grade could finally come into use after living 21 years in Florida (Parfait!), and that Cajun food probably wouldn’t do me much good. Thankfully, I learned after getting to Monroe that being in Northeast Louisiana, they weren’t huge on Cajun cuisine (phew). To my dismay, no French was spoken either (quel dommage).

I decided to split the trip up, driving north to Atlanta first to visit some friends and to stop at the Hindu Temple to seek blessings before starting the new job. From there, I took I-20 West for…. well, hours, but that initial drive was far from boring. It was exhilarating because I’d never seen Alabama, Mississippi, or Louisiana. Something about driving that far on your own on the freeway is absolutely liberating.

Driving from Atlanta, I passed by Atlanta’s Six Flags theme park and Stone Mountain, past the Talladega Superspeedway, through downtown Birmingham, past Jackson University and Jackson Zoo and across the Mississippi River.

Finally seeing the first sign for Monroe, I got really excited.

It was in that moment that I didn’t care anymore that a few people back in Gainesville raised eyebrows when they learned I’d be moving to Louisiana. Why wasn’t I moving some place more hip like New York City, they asked. Or Boston or Philly? A couple even warned me not to come back with a southern accent (not kidding, though I wish I were).

But moving to what they considered the “deep south” turned out to have its benefits– southern hospitality. Since the moment I got here people have been nothing but welcoming and helpful. My bosses, coworkers, sources and absolute strangers have been so accommodating. All this time I thought Gainesville had been a really warm and friendly community, but I’m glad to learn that Monroe is just the same. I don’t think that’s something I’d get from living in a big, bustling city, but I’ll wait until I move to one to find out for sure.

For now, all I can say is that compared to the swamps of Florida, the bayous of Louisiana aren’t so far off. Some might call this job offer fate.

Crossing the Mississippi River into Louisiana. Vicksburg on one side. Village of Delta on the other.

Every fall, the University of Florida hosts a homecoming event at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, “Gator Growl,” considered one of the largest pep rallies. Thousands of students, alumni, faculty and fans fill the bleachers to enjoy music, comic talent and fireworks. It’s an opportunity for the students to get pumped up just before the big homecoming game the next day.

I thought the term “gator growl” was all part of the hype of the event.  I’d never actually heard a gator growl until I went to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm for a freelance assignment for The Gainesville Sun. They wanted to run a package about the various zip lines that had opened across Florida, and the one at the alligator farm’s “Crocodile Crossing” was one of the newest. The gators at the alligator farm were massive, and around 2 p.m. after I’d walked around the whole park, all of them spontaneously started growling at once, each responding to one another and emerging from the waters where they’d been soaking earlier in the afternoon.

Guess it must have been around feeding time or something, but I’d never seen anything like it.

UPDATE: The Gainesville Sun published the story in The Gainesville Sun and Ocala Star-Banner in November.

Flickr photo courtesy of Shashi Kant Sharma

Last week, I was pleasantly surprised to read that India has started enrolling its residents into Aadhaar, a biometric database of fingerprints and eye scans that assigns an identification number to each of India’s citizens. It issues a unique number to everyone, including rural farmers out in India’s most isolated villages. This way, the poorest of India’s population can sign up for a cell phone, open bank accounts and can still be eligible to collect welfare benefits when they relocate. The magnitude of the project is such that it’s 12 times the size of the U.S Visit database, which contains data of about 100 million visitors to the U.S., according to a New York Times report.

Sure, the registration process poses a logistical nightmare, and U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in the past has expressed concern that it may provide a prime opportunity for terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Taiba group to infiltrate the system or manage to get fake ID numbers issued the them.

At the most basic level, it’s the sheer task of enrolling billions into the system by which I’m impressed. If done successfully, it will give India unparallelled bragging rights in global IT spheres. Already, it’s obvious that the project is generating industry interest, as the country’s top IT companies have signed up for a piece of the pie. Once completed in the next 10 years or so, Indian IT firms will have compiled a new set of knowledge with which to tackle the most complicated computing hurdles, if they hadn’t already.

So Secretary Clinton’s concerns (WHICH COMPANY IS PROVIDING THE BIOMETRIC COLLECTION DEVICES, STORAGE, AND MATCHING DATABASE EQUIPMENT?) can be quelled by the fact that some of the brightest minds from India’s Silicon Valley are working on the project.

But it’s not just U.S. officials who are worried by Aadhaar’s scope. In fact, within India, Aadhaar has received much criticism in recent months, with which I disagree. I think this is an overdue undertaking to finally help thwart corruption and bridge certain gaps across some of the nation’s socioeconomic strata, putting India a step closer to becoming that world superpower that it’s fated to be.

First, critics argue that Aadhaar will actually undermine India’s welfare system, saying that because citizens’ bank accounts will be linked to the database, the government will simply provide direct cash transfers for those who are eligible for benefits, while abandoning in-kind services like handing out grain.

Perhaps. But the current system is obviously not working anyway. Lydia Polgreen has reported for the New York Times that the system is already so inefficient that “warehouses overflow with rotting grain despite malnutrition rates that rival those of sub-Saharan Africa, and much of it is siphoned off to the private market long before it reaches hungry mouths.”

At least with Aadhaar, there won’t be any middle men hindering the poor’s access to these benefits altogether or mismanaging its distribution. There’s less cumbersome paperwork to get caught in, no one to payoff. It’s swift, direct, and hassle-free.

And what I like most is that this system could even lay the foundation for efficiency for issuing other kinds of government documents and services, which currently take months to procure:

“Programmers worked out how Aadhaar’s open software architecture could be used to build an ecosystem like the ones Google and Apple created, embedding the number in every aspect of life. That could eliminate trillions of pages of bureaucratic paperwork, remnants of the License Raj, the old system that governed India’s closed economy. Indians face obstacles almost every time they ask anything of their government — a driver’s license, subsidized grain, a birth certificate. Digitizing these systems would eliminate countless opportunities for graft.”

I’ve seen first-hand how red tape strangles operations at government offices in India. I’ve heard horror stories from my dad and grandmother about how hard it’s been for them to get basic documents like a birth certificate for my grandmother, who was born in an era when no such documents existed, or a property deed, from officials who made them go in circles.

It’s one of the reasons my dad has said he never expects me or my sister to live in India— there’s too much bribery and bureaucracy to get anything done promptly.

Second, some argue that Aadhaar’s comprehensive identification system could threaten citizens’ privacy in a country where privacy protections are already weak. Personally, I would rather have a system that’s overly watchful than one that’s overly wasteful— and I believe a lot of people in India would agree at this point. Just the support anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare drew for the LokPal bill in recent weeks is proof that this generation of Indians seeks accountability in its government, and Aadhaar is going to help India achieve that.

Overall, I think Aadhaar’s benefits outweigh its potential hazards. Perhaps those who raise “concerns,” that it could backfire are likely worried they’ll no longer be able to collect bribes or steal citizens’ benefits the way they have for decades.

Walking to Lan Kwai Fong

Lan Kwai Fong is a street filled with bars, clubs and restaurants, essentially Hong Kong’s party central, located near the main part of the city where business executives and prominent financial players go to work each day.

Again, since I was traveling alone, I wasn’t about to go clubbing or bar hopping by myself, so I went to the Hard Rock Cafe. I needed to buy my sister a Hard Rock Cafe souvenir pin anyway. She has a collection of pins from cities around the world, so anytime anyone in my family goes somewhere, we try to stop by to add to her collection.

With all the exotic venues along the street within reach, some might say I went with too safe a choice, deciding to go to an all-American restaurant, but I figured this was a place that I could at least get decent vegetarian food while also meeting new people if I sat at the bar.

Sure enough, I did.

As I scarfed down a plate of nachos, I met two gentlemen who said they were in town visiting Hong Kong from Guangzhou. They’d made a day trip and would be taking the train back at the end of the night, they said. One of them worked for FedEx, and the other, for some kind of wine packaging and distribution business, if I remember correctly. The younger of the two was one of those people who can strike up a conversation with absolute strangers and talk to them as if he’d known them for years. The other man, Vin, was Indian, so as I told him about how I’d just been working in Guam for two years and would be on the job hunt once again, he asked me I’d ever work in India. We talked about modernization in India, and discussed the job market there and growth the country has enjoyed compared to other places.

“Even now, with its economy feeling the pressure from global inflation and higher interest rates, some economists predict that India will become the world’s third largest economy within 15 years and could much sooner supplant China as the fastest-growing major economy.” – NDTV, June 9, 2011

However, the debate over India’s rate of growth and when it will outpace China continues because India’s GDP estimates can’t be taken at face value.

We all decided to check out some of the other establishments along the street after finishing our food, but I told them I had to stop by the restaurant’s gift shop first to get the souvenir. To that, the younger of the two (his name has slipped me at the moment) turned to our waiter and squarely asked if he could spare some of his flair to give to me, since he was wearing so many buttons already.

With some reluctance, the bartender obliged. Boom. Just like that.

Me wearing my newly acquired Hard Rock pin courtesy of the restaurant's bartenders. Why pay for souvenirs when you can get them for free?

Strolling along Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong's entertainment and nightlife hotspot.

From Hard Rock we stopped at two places. The first was an 80′s/90′s bar that played music videos that didn’t match the music that the DJ was actually playing. It reminded me of the karaoke joints back in Guam, where a shoddily produced music video of some sappy love song would accompany the heavy metal rendition of what your friends would be singing. This bar didn’t even have new songs available when I requested it. No Ke$ha? Seriously? Bummer.

Next, we hopped over to what seemed like an English pub. It was one of those places that has a gazillion different types of expensive and unique beers and hundreds of boiled peanut shells scattered all over the floor. Repulsed —and tired— I decided it was time to head back to Kowloon since I had an early flight to catch anyway. I grabbed one of many taxis parked at the corner of Lan Kwai Fong and D’Aguilar Street, and nodded off the moment driver started his meter.

From the Po Lin Monastery, our tour bus took us to Tai O, which, for more than a century has remained a fishing village built on stilts by the Tanka people, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

The floating village reminded me of similar villages I’ve seen in Phang Nga Bay, Phuket in Thailand, where entire families live in structures hovering in the middle of the Andaman Sea. It never ceases to amaze me how these people feel secure living in houses that stand up only on wooden sticks, especially when China is prone to cyclones.

Those with weak stomachs may want to pass on visiting this site. But seafood aficionados, you’re in luck! One can find all sorts of freshly-caught or dried fare here, including fish bladders, which my tour guide said is a Chinese delicacy. You see, the Chinese don’t like to waste any part of the fish, he said. As a vegetarian, I had a valid excuse not to indulge.

Our tour guide holds up a fish bladder among the many items for sale at the Tai O Fishing Village. YUM!

At the heart of the fishing village is a Taoist temple. Taoism is the ancient religion of China, before even Buddhism was introduced, and it’s based on the idea of oneness, that is, opposite manifestations of the same concept are not separate from each other. For example, the yin-yang charm I once wore around my neck in fifth grade because I thought it looked cool actually had Taoist roots. As I learned in 9th grade world history, it was a Taoist symbol depicting the duality of everything around us, like the seasons or life and death. Of course, this is an entirely simplistic articulation of this religion, but it’s because the Taoist path or way, the tao, isn’t something you can define in words.

“Those who know don’t say, those who say don’t know.”

It seemed to me the Chinese practice a little bit of all of these ancient Eastern religions — Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. According to an account by Confucius after he met Lao Tzu, the father of Taoism was a complete puzzle to him:

“Creatures that run can be caught in nets; those that swim can be caught in wicker traps; those that fly can be hit by arrows. But the dragon is beyond my knowledge; it ascends into heaven on the clouds and the wind. Today I have seen Lao Tzu and he is like the dragon!” – Confucius’ impression of Lao Tzu, as taken from The World’s Religions, by Houston Smith

Taoism was founded by Lao Tzu

Our tour guide said people usually come to this temple seeking answers to specific questions. Like throwing dice in the game of life, faithful visitors cup two rock-like objects in their hands, throw them into the air and see how they fall on the ground. The orientation of the incongruous rocks provide an affirmative or negative answer to their question, the guide explained. In some sense, it’s like a Magic 8 ball too, because if the two rocks fall in a certain way, you have to roll again.

Ask away!

Just as the sun started to hint at its own departure, our tour wrapped up, bringing us to Lantau’s Silvermine Bay from where we took a ferry back to Hong Kong’s Central Pier just in time for the city to light up.

Tai O Fishing Village, Lantau

Just below the Tian Tan Buddha sits the Po Lin Monastery, originally established by three monks in 1924. Po Lin refers to “precious lotus.” The lotus is significant in both Hinduism and Buddhism, as it represents “spontaneous generation” such as in divine birth or spiritual development, according to the Buddha Dharma Education Association.

My tour guide said at one time, the monastery was thriving with activity, but now it is seeking more Buddhists to join, as its membership has dwindled in recent years to about 20 to 25 monks.

One Buddhist monk, Shravasti Dhammika of Singapore, attributes the decline of interest in Buddhism  to “commercialized spirituality,” a dissolution in the actual Dhamma teachings of the Buddha as opposed to temple rituals being carried out instead, and a fragmented network of Buddhist groups around the world.

“Buddhism is failing to speak to young, well-educated, modern people…. Trying to find out about Dhamma from the average Buddhist rarely works because they rarely know any. Temples and societies emphasize ritual activities rather than solid Dhamma education.” – Shravasti Dhammika, spiritual adviser to the Buddha Dhamma Mandala Society in Singapore

Dhammika suggests today’s young people in Singapore, Taiwan, Korea and Hong Kong are gravitating more toward Christianity because of its dynamic, socially engaging, and well-organized structure, but I don’t think that’s the case.

Even while on Guam, I remember hearing that the Guam archdiocese— quite organized and structured—  was also seeking young recruits to join its ranks, as its seminarian enrollment had dropped. And the Catholic News Agency recently reported the Washington Theological Union would cease to operate after 2013, due in part to low enrollment.

Therefore, I don’t think it’s so much a disinterest in Buddhism than it is an overall lack of enthusiasm for investing time into higher religious education or leading an ascetic life in a world where Asia’s economies are poised for growth thanks to the productivity and drive of its young people.

After all, I’ve heard several young people in the U.S., often turned off by the structure of some Western religions, say that if they had to choose a religion, they would prefer to choose something more spiritual like Buddhism. But that doesn’t mean they’re willing to don the saffron robes either.

Since the guided tour on Day 2 proved to be so informative and productive, I opted for a tour on Day 3 as well, this time to Lantau island, the largest of the islands that comprise Hong Kong.

I was keen on visiting Lantau because it plays home to the Tian Tan Buddha and Po Lin Monastery, and normally, when I visit a place and I know there’s a Hindu temple there, I like to go visit. Hindus anyway believe you can pray and worship anywhere since god is omnipresent, but there’s a nice feeling I get when I make a special visit to a temple that’s not in Chennai or near Gainesville, more so when I make the trip on my own. Because Buddhism stemmed from Hinduism and some Hindus consider Buddha an incarnation of Vishnu, I thought as both a tourist and a Hindu, this was worth seeing.

Driving from Kowloon to Lantau, we passed numerous container vessels strewn across Hong Kong’s port. My tour guide said it’s the third busiest port in terms of container traffic, with Singapore and Shanghai being the first two.

Once in Lantau, to get to the Tian Tan Buddha, very devout followers or nature enthusiasts can hike a long, paved trail over several rolling hills and up 268 steps to the statue. But for those of us looking for a less arduous and more picturesque experience the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car is worth standing in line for (Although, if you book a tour in advance, you can avoid the long line).

Looks like many people weren't up for trekking by foot to the Buddha!

The cable car ride spans more then 5 kilometers and takes about 20 minutes or so. You get a great view of some of Lantau’s hillsides and the South China Sea.

You can see the Buddha in the distance, to the left the cable.

The Tian Tan Buddha, at 34 meters, is currently the largest seated bronze Buddha in the world. However, my tour guide said an even larger seated Buddha is expected to be built in Kushinagar, India, and it will be Buddha in the Maitreya form, or Buddha of the future. The Buddha displayed in Lantau is the Gautama version, said to be of this lifetime.

I was intrigued by the idea of a “future” Buddha, because it’s similar to the Kalki avatar in Hinduism, the tenth major avatar of Vishnu. It’s believed that this avatar has yet to take shape but will descend on earth when there’s just too much evil in the world.  The name “Maitreya” sounded familiar to me, too, because I’ve heard the Sanskrit word “maitrim” in a patriotic Indian song about world peace. As I found out later, just as the Sanskit word hints, the Maitreya form of Buddha then is the embodiment of loving kindness, according to the Maitreya Project, which aims to provide a social service to the impoverished communities around the world by providing them education, health-care and employment opportunities.

“The Maitreya Buddha statue will provide the world with a much-needed and enduring 21st century monument to universal spiritual and humanitarian values. According to Buddhist tradition, sacred objects such as statues provide a uniquely powerful means by which we can bring to mind the positive attitudes that are essential to the development of loving-kindness.” – The Maitreya Project

I made a mental note to one day visit the Maitreya Buddha when it’s finally completed, hopefully with my family. But for the time being, I focused on the Buddha displayed in front of me, the Gautama version.

The statue is made up of 202 bronze pieces. The Buddha’s raised right hands showers blessings of fearlessness, while his downward-facing left hand spreads virtue. Inside the Buddha is a gallery of artwork by Sri Lankan monks, depicting the different phases of the Gautama Buddha’s life. The statue also contains a relic fragment of bone, allegedly from the Buddha’s neck. The relic, about the size of a grain of rice, is encased in multiple glass cases, several feet away from where visitors can stand, so those who can actually make out the shape of the relic are said to be quite lucky.

I’m not such a firm believer in luck than I am in karma, and I had a feeling the Buddha would agree.

The market wasn’t too far from my hotel on Nathan’s Road, so I took a less-than-five-minute metro ride from the Tsim Sha Tsui station to Jordan and walked about ten minutes to find the market on Temple Street. There’s no official sign or anything, so you just kind of…arrive there and realize that’s it.

The Temple Night Market is a popular tourist attraction on the Kowloon peninsula and is open until midnight.

This buzzing open-air market runs for blocks, and you can find everything here, from wallets and handbags to jewelry, and from clothing to electronics. Kids toys, gadgets, local wear and leather goods are all available here at reasonable prices, and of course, you can always bargain. The exchange rate is about HK $7.70 for every U.S. dollar. Interestingly, because the market offers a lot of inexpensive men’s items, it’s sometimes considered a “Men’s Street,” according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

The market reminded me of the bazaars we have lining the streets in India, like Pondi Bazaar or Luz back in Chennai. This nostalgia brought me to a hole-in-the-wall Indian restaurant where I had dinner before heading back to my hotel. I saved the real nightlife, Lan Kwai Fong, for the next day.

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