What is freedom?

 

                                            Children enjoying freedom to play

I think the word Freedom means different things to different people . For some, freedom means that they live in a country that was enslaved for centuries by other countries  that they have left after a long struggle for freedom so their country is free and independent . Now they are free to elect their leaders who then form a government for the people, by the people and of the people.

There are many countries that  take the name of democratic republic of ….. but in reality they are ruled by despots and cruel dictators where people are treated as slaves and punished for demanding their right to be free. Then there are many countries where the rights of their citizens are  decided by their government so individual freedom  is subject to severe scrutiny by the elected officials  who make numerous rules to curb the freedom of the individuals .

You may have heard of the HOA in America. HOA means  Home Owners Association that is often found to be run by a dictatorial person who treats the home owners  like slaves and punishes them if they do not follow numerous rules  set up by the HOA and impose fines and other types punishment.

You cannot paint your house using your own choice of color because it has to be approved by the HOA. You cannot  make  renovations or other changes in your own house without the HOA approval. You cannot keep your lawn tidy because you are too old to mow the lawn so the HOA threatens you with fines. You can not keep a strange animal as pet without their permission. The list is long  and the home owners suffer due to the rules  made arbitralily without your vote or consent.

Here is a story that will  tell you how a homeowner is harrassed by the authorities  just becase an old woman wants to build her own house with her own hands. She was a poor woman who had a small lot  where she started to lay out the foundation  of her modest home. Soon some officials showed up and said that  she could not build her own house.  She has to get it built by the masons and laboreres who belong to a labor union. The lady argued that there are no such laws that she cannot build her own house.  The official knew that she was right and had every right to build her own home but he is paid by the labor union so that no one is allowed to build their home.  By contrast, people in African countries build their own homes often with the help of the community where they live for free.  They have total freedom to live by their own rules .

The old lady was determined and started to build her home. She was meticulous in following the rules and made slow but steady progress but the officials  showed up again and found faults in her construction like the plug point is one inch higher than what the rule says. The next time he found other very minor points just so that the woman stops building her house. This sort of harrassment  had only one purpose that is to prevent the common people to build their houses by themselves. This unlawful  link with the labor Union is widespread throughout the country . They will build your house but at a much higher price with poor quality materials so that they can make enormous profit.  If you cannot afford such expensive house then it is not their problem.

Only the Amish people build their own houses with their own hands where all the Amish people get together to help  build a barn or a house. I have been to the Amish community and have seen how strong and beautiful their homes are but they too are subjected to harrassment by the labor union people . The Amish people are tough people and  just do what they have been doing for centuries. They do not like outsiders to tell them what to do .

There is another story in Oregon state where a  farmer had a small dairy farm where he kept a few cows for milk.  He sold pure milk  and butter  locally at a reasonable price. People loved his pure milk and butter but the local authorities sent the inspector who found  many hygene issues like the barn is dirty, the cows are dirty, the milk may be contaminated, the cows are not healthy etc. They wanted to shut down his dairy farm  so the poor farmer took the matter to the court but the court favored the corrupt inspector who was being paid by the large Milk corporations  that did not like a competitor. The poor farmer had to sell all his cows to pay for the court and lawyer expenses . The poor farmer did not have the freedom to raise a few cows and earn a small living.

So the word Freedom is defined differently in many countries . A Filipino who had lived in America for over 30 years where he earned  a small income doing odd jobs just to survive but one day returned to his country and was  shocked to find how people lived so freely  everywhere and where no one was harrassed by the police or Inspectors like they do in other so called democratic countries.  This is the freedom I am writing about.

In Paris I saw how the policemen chased a poor man off the sidewalk because he had no permit to  play his guitar to earn a few coins. In Philladelphia  our son took us to a lake to catch some fish one day. I was surprised that a woman in uniform showed up promptly to ask if we had a permit while keeping her hand on the holster . Why does a simple inspector keep a gun ? We did not catch any fish that day so the permit fee was a waste of money.  In a country where the large fish are abundant in rivers and streams , people can not catch even one fish without permit. You cannot visit the national parks anywhere without an entry ticket.

I grew up in a truly free country called India where no policeman threatens you or asks for a permit to catch fish. Any one could sit near the river to catch fish anytime.  I did not catch any fish worth writing about but we are still free to do so anywhere in the country. We can swim in the ocean anywhere in the country where all the beaches are open to everybody.  Only they require a hunting permit in some national parks because the wild animals are protected there.

Anyone can make a living  by showing the snakes, monkeys or bears dancing on the side walk. No one bothers them so I call it freedom. An old couple sells some homemade  food  to earn a small living but no policeman disturbs them or ask for permit but do so in America or Europe, you will be fined by the police. That is what I call freedom  but sadly it is not universal.

I have heard that a rich country like Switzerland  has so many rules that everyone must obey or pay hefty fines. It makes its citizen live in a golden cage and expects them to be happy.  The loneliness ,  stressful life and a feeling of no freedom  to live the way they want can  have very negative effect on common people. That is why I was very impressed by the Amish people who live in a community of their own where people care for each other and come to help when help is needed.  They grow their own food without any pressure from the big companies that try to sell their farm equipment , fertilizer or seeds because they do not depend on them. That is freedom.

When animals and birds are caged, then you can see their  agony. We are not very different from the animals or birds because we too  feel the loneliness when we do not have the freedom to live  the way we want. When the corrupt people who have links with the Unions and business  enterprises harass people who want to live freely, it takes away their freedom to decide how they want to live.

It is the birth right of a person to live in total freedom anywhere they choose to live.  The photo shows how happy children are playing  in total freedom .

 

Human migration

 

                                      Tragedy of human migration

The cause of massive human migration is due to manmade disasters like wars that are forcing people to seek safety elsewhere only to find that no one wants them. Some die in the process of finding new homes and yet the migration continues. This seeks answers to the issue of migration and applauds the effort of the UN and NGOs.

Humans have been migrating ever since they stood upright in the Rift Valley in Africa millions of years ago. They have been doing so in order to find food and shelter when their place of origin could not provide them or were scarce, but it was not a serious problem because the population then was very small. 

Small groups detached themselves and moved on to find greener pastures or often to avoid conflict with larger groups over resources. This migration took place over a long period of thousands of years and was mostly voluntary. When they found a new land rich in resources like food and water, they settled down even if the new location was colder and less hospitable. They adapted to the new environment by wearing thick animal skin clothes and made strong weatherproof shelters with stones or found caves to live in. 

Thus, our ancestors moved to Europe and others moved along the coast toward the East and settled into small groups everywhere expertly adapting to the climate, food and developed distinct cultures and even their physical features. 

In very cold and harsh climates of Europe they shed their pigment and became white while those moving eastward retained the dark skin to a large extent. The inter breeding within various subgroups changed them into something similar to the Neanderthals and later to Homo sapiens from whom we all descend. 

This transformation from dark-skinned Africans into what we have become took a very long time but was the result of evolution and migration but we maintain a strong link with our African ancestors through what the scientists term as the marker gene that has been found in people living in different parts of the world today. 

With this background let us move on to the present-day migration that is taking place from Africa to Europe and from the Middle East conflict areas to Europe and even Australia or North America. It seems that people are migrating in all directions due to economic reasons and political reasons as a result of war. 

There was a time when Australia was considered a penal colony where someone in England was transported just for stealing a loaf of bread but mostly people convicted of serious crimes that included men as well as women and some children. It is a vast country that only had its native population who had arrived there tens of thousands of years ago probably as a result of ancient African migration. They had never met the white people before but welcomed them and were curious about them. 

This welcoming attitude and their curiosity diminished when the newcomers decided to treat the native population badly as inferior people and called them aborigines. They ignored their rich culture and long history and called them savages. The white population slowly grew and settled into the Eastern shores where cities like Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane etc. were established and thrive today that are a far cry from those early days. 

Still for such a vast continent such as Australia, the total population remains miniscule at about 20 million people mostly concentrated in the Eastern part. But the government has a very strict immigration policy that restricts who can settle in Australia and accepts very few new immigrants who have to wait for a long period of time to get processed. The average waiting period to get an immigrant visa there is about 8 to 10 years. 

Still hundreds of refugees fleeing their war-torn countries in the Middle East or elsewhere risk their lives to reach Australia in rickety boats that are intercepted in mid-ocean by the coast guards and the hapless people are taken to temporary shelters on some offshore islands where they languish for years just waiting for their fate to be decided by the government of Australia. 

Often, we hear of riots, hunger strikes and deaths in those shelters because people are so desperate to get out to live a normal life on the mainland, but Australia does not want them and does not know what to do with them. They wanted to send only 2000 refugees to the USA that President Obama had agreed upon but the new president turned them down. Still more people are found in unseaworthy boats heading toward Australia hoping for a better life and often drown when such boats capsize in storms. The human traffickers make money out of them and do not care what happens to them. 

We see this tragedy almost every day when boats full of starving and dehydrated Africans are intercepted in the Mediterranean by the Italian or Spanish coast guards who then bring them to Lampedusa for temporary shelters and processing. Thousands have died trying to reach Europe this way but more follow the same route. 

The human traffickers make money, but people still die in the process. Those who survive push on to Italy, France and the UK. Some try to reach Germany, Nordic countries or Greece. You will see large squatter camps in Calais or other places where these poor people live like animals and are desperate to get their basic necessities like food, water and shelter while waiting for some countries to take them. You will see them in the streets of Rome selling cheap trinkets. You will see them in small towns of France where they sell African carvings, masks or the things they make. Their struggle to survive is long and painful. 

Economic migration: 

The economic migrants seeking jobs in richer countries were the most numerous in the last century and still number in millions today. They were brought to the colonies by the British, French, Germans and all those countries that needed cheap labor to run their farms and plantations so these migrants spread out to the British colonies from Fiji to many parts of Africa and even Surinam where they still remain today. It was easy for any Indian to travel to any part of the British Empire without visa or custom regulation in those days as bonded laborers, but many educated people went to England and settled there. There are now millions of Asians in England alone where you see them everywhere and have radically changed the demography of that small country in ways the British never thought possible. 

Some have started to resent them and want a halt to fresh immigration, so laws have been tightened and the waiting period for an immigrant visa is like in Australia still people keep coming illegally in container vans or trucks often suffocating to death in the process. It is a sad situation because small countries in Europe just can't cope with the deluge of immigrants that keep coming with no end in sight. 

They try to cross from Turkey in rickety boats to reach Greece or Italy and drown. Often their bodies as young as 3 years old wash up ashore that highlights the desperation, they face trying to find a new home.

 The war refugees: 

Now due to conflict in many countries like Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan etc. there are hundreds of thousands of very desperate people who have fled their homeland to seek new homes elsewhere where they will feel safe only to find out that no country wants them so what to do? They are not economic migrants because in their country they were people with means to live well but the war changed everything for them. If you ask them why they migrate, they will say that it is to save their lives. They want to return home when the war ends but no one knows when it will end or if new conflicts will flare up again somewhere. Some flee due to persecution and ethnic cleansing by the terrorists like those poor people in Sinjar or the Kurds. 

When India was divided into two countries, Hindus living in Pakistan fled to India and some Muslims in India fled to Pakistan and a million people died in the process. These refugees arrived with nothing and had a terrible time resettling in India because they received little help from anyone. This persecution of minorities in Pakistan and other Moslem countries continues even today resulting in migration of these poor people to safe haven. 

The UNHCR and many NGOs help to some extent these people within their limited resources and always seek more funds from donor countries, but the scale of the problem defies any attempt to help them in a meaningful way. 

There was a tent city just outside Khartoum in Sudan where hundreds of thousands of refugees from South Sudan lived in appalling conditions and dire poverty because a war was going on in the south. They went back to South Sudan when the war ended, and the UN Secretary General Kofi Anan attended the birth of a new country with great fanfare while people danced in the streets until the war broke out again between rivals and restarted the cycle of misery and death. 

I used to see the freight trains loaded with bodies brought to El Obeid during the night, but the Sudanese government did not want anyone to see their losses. 

The asylum seekers: 

Then there are those people who speak out against their illegal governments and their corrupt policies, so they are persecuted relentlessly while they seek to escape and find asylum in other countries that are sympathetic to their problems. I remember how Svetlana Alliluyeva (Stalin) who was visiting Delhi as a part of a Russian delegation escaped in disguise and reached the US embassy asking for asylum and stunned the ambassador. She was given asylum because she was who she was but this does not happen to ordinary people. 

Poor North Koreans try to escape their prison-like country and go to China from where they take trains to the Laotian border, swim across the Mekong to reach safety on the other side and escape to Thailand. From there they reach South Korea where they want to live but South Korea is only a stone throw away from North Korea that they cannot leave. They cannot cross the border strewn with landmines and other perils. Many have died trying to cross over just like in East Germany. 

The South Americans flee to the north in very large numbers escaping the death squads, the drug war, the poverty and misery in their countries and seek a better and safe life in the United States so they too climb aboard freight trains to reach El Paso or other places. They are routinely victimized by the traffickers called the coyotes who for a good sum of money sneak them into the United States and leave them to die of thirst crossing the deserts on their own. 

Now they are talking about building a wall along the border to keep out these poor people who need help and compassion, but compassion is in short supply these days. 

During the last war in Europe so many people tried to escape Germany to reach Switzerland but very few succeeded the treacherous journey risking their lives. Spain remained neutral during the war so many refugees sought asylum there passing through Casablanca that reminds me of the Ingrid Bergman movie Casablanca. Some allied prisoners kept in the Kolditz castle near Dresden tried to escape and reach Switzerland but only a few succeeded. 

Human migration for one reason or another has been going on forever and will not stop anytime soon because people want to escape to a better life somewhere else at the risk of their lives, so desperate they are. Poverty, war, persecution, pestilence and other reasons push these people, but what is the solution? 

The end of war can bring them back to their homes that they can rebuild again. Some people are moving back to Mosul that has been liberated from the terrorists and other cities are being cleared of the jihadists in Homs and Raqqa in Syria. But the jihadists are like cancer that grows somewhere else in the body so as long as the deadly ideology of hard-core jihadists remains, the war will flare up in various parts again starting the migration all over. 

The more developed countries must open their doors and take in more people who seek their help and not build walls to keep them out. The immigrants are assets and not liabilities because they help the economy grow and create jobs for others. Those fleeing persecution and death should be given priority. 

The immigrants in turn should try to assimilate into their new country as fast as they can and not remain in their own enclaves not learning the language of the country or their customs and culture. It is sad to see their self-imposed isolation in Europe and America that leads to the radicalization of their youth who then start making trouble. 

Any person who speaks many languages finds it easier to assimilate into a new society while preserving the essentials of his own. Just watch a Frenchman smile in surprise if you speak fluent French with them. They instantly open up to you and extend a hand of friendship. I know this because I have such experience. 

I believe that this beautiful world of ours has room for everyone somewhere. All we need is compassion and understanding.

                  Human migration is a tragedy

                                        Human migration is a tragedy

A video of Story of Anil

 

This is a short video about me, Anil the bard. It narrates the video in English and describes my life’s journey through many countries. You will read my full story in great details in my Story of Anil in various languages, but this short video shows you in a video format that is easy to follow and listen.

It is a video generated with AI based on my biography.

Link : https://youtu.be/b-1hHruOvIs

                         Link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ349sQ8urM

The second video has a 20 minute narration 

                                    Link : https://youtu.be/jZ349sQ8urM

Hospitality

I felt that something in my stories was missing so I decided to write about hospitality in many countries that I experienced. You may say that I was lucky because not everyone visiting a foreign country gets to experience the hospitality I received so I thought that it must be mentioned for each country. It will then become a part of my story.

Vietnam

   Vietnamese farmers catching fish in their rice paddies

I will take you to the war time Vietnam where there was violence, disruption of normal life, poverty and prostitution but here I found the poor farmers loved me and invited to their social events with food and drinks. They would often ask me to stop my car and prepare most delicious food one can imagine.

During the rice harvest, the farmers and their children caught a lot of fish in the rice paddy which they roasted on charcoal. They put the roasted fish in a paper-thin rice paper, add shredded cucumber, some lettuce, Vietnamese basil and roll it into a burrito that they dipped in a fish sauce they called Nuoc mam. It was heavenly in taste. They were poor but they had a big heart.

Japan:

                       Japanese offer us beer in Kyoto to show their hospitality

Now I will bring you to Kyoto in Japan where I spent some time. One evening I was walking with an American ex Peace Corps volunteer through the narrow lane where we entered a pub to have some beer. The Japanese noticed us immediately and started to ask where we came from etc. and produced two large bottles of Asahi beer right away. Now mind you that the Japanese beer is served in large bottles that you will have a hard time to finish. The Japanese were now competing among themselves to show their hospitality by promptly serving two more bottles. Now we were in big trouble because they would not want us to leave and take no money for the beer. Somehow, we were able to leave after praising their hospitality, but it was just the start because a more interesting hospitality was waiting for us just down the lane.

Old Japanese craftsman offered us dinner with his family in Kyoto

There we saw an old person with Ho Chi Minh beard carving or making beautiful brass objects, so we stopped to watch his craftmanship. The old Japanese craftsman noticed us and invited us inside his house and politely asked us to sit down on the tatami floor. Soon his wife and children all came out to sit with us. Then his wife brought excellent Japanese food to feed us and insisted that we eat more. We were not expecting this level of hospitality, but the old man was not finished with us. He gave both of us a small gift to take home. It was a very nicely made brass object with intricate decoration on it. Can you imagine ?

                                     Japanese fishermen with cormorants

The next surprise was waiting for us further down the lane. We saw a fisherman who was preparing for night sortie to catch fish in the ocean with the help of his cormorants. I had never seen cormorant fishing anywhere although I know that it is how people catch fish in China and now in Japan as well, so I was very interested. The fisherman then invited us to go with him fishing during the night, but the American was hesitant and told me that it could be risky, so I lost my chance to see how cormorants catch fish, but I greatly appreciated the invitation and said so. Three in a row was more than enough to say that the Japanese are very hospitable people

Hong Kong

                  People in Hong Kong invites you to sumptuous meal for free

Now we will go to Hong Kong. I have been to Hong Kong many times but once I decided to see the China border, so I took the train from Kowloon to get to the last station called Sheung Shui which is near the China border. Here a taxi man noticed me and agreed to show me the border, but he wanted to know if I had a place to stay. When I said no, he brought me to a small hotel run by a Chinese woman. She asked no question and gave me a clean room and clean bed right away at a low cost.

The taxi man had a name. He introduced himself as Kam Fat and we then drove to see the sights while Kam Fat talked mile a minute and asked me where I was going next, so I answered briefly that I was going to the USA to start my college education there. He was very surprised and impressed that I was on my own in an expensive country like USA. I had to tell him that I just came from Vietnam where I worked as a volunteer agronomist helping farmers.

He then invited me to his home to have dinner with him and his family in the evening. This surprised me more when I saw where he lived and how he lived. It was a slum full of wastewater logged area where people lived in ramshackle houses built on poles. There you had to walk on planks to get to their house. So, I met his family who were told about me that impressed them and were also excited so offered me excellent Chinese food. When the time came to leave, Kam Fat gave me a gift of a porcelain eagle.

They had a big heart that surprised me. I would meet Kam Fat again during my next visit to Sheung Shui. I wrote a blog called Kam Fats of this world that you can read.

USA:

                      Americans invite foreigners to their Thanksgiving dinner

My next experience was in California where I was enrolled at the University for my graduate studies. One day I started walking through the town in the evening just to get some fresh air. All of a sudden, a gentleman came out of his house and invited me to his home to share a meal with him and his family. I did not know that it was the Thanksgiving Day in the United States that people there take seriously and prepare a lot of food that may include a roasted turkey. I was naturally hesitant, but the gentleman insisted and introduced me as a student from India etc. It was amazing to experience such hospitality. His kids then asked me to tell them some stories which I did.

Algeria;

                         Algerians serve lamb and couscous dinner during Idd

I do not know how many of you have ever heard of Algeria or visited the country, but I was working there as an agronomist in the Mostaganem province. I used to ride my motorbike to go to the villages where I worked with my farmers. One day while I was riding my bike through the mountains, it started to rain cats and dogs getting me very wet. My Algerian gown made of camel wool they called Jellaba was soaked so one Algerian man came out of his house and invited me in saying Please come in. His wife then offered delicious food while my gown was being dried. Hot coffee followed while we chatted. He said that he often saw me riding my bike and wondered who I was and from which country. In Algeria only the gendarmes ride big motorbike, so he wanted to know so I said that I was working as an agronomist for the government and visit my farmers. I was very impressed by their hospitality and thanked them profusely.

The next experience was even more interesting. One day my office mates invited me to their village where they were celebrating Idd which is a great event for the Moslems. So, I took the bus to their village and found them waiting for me at the bus stop. They brought me to their home where their mother and sisters soon brought huge platter of lamb meat and couscous and fed me until I cried uncle. They never asked me if I was a Moslem and treated me like royalty. Then in the evening they brought me to a cinema where we enjoyed a film on Algeria’s struggle for independence. It was a very unique experience for me.

Messina in Sicily ,Italy

                                    Kids in Messina showed me their love and fed me 

Once I was travelling through Italy and arrived in Messina in Sicily . I was looking for a camp site where I could spend the night so I found such a site  where I  set down my back pack  that also had a sleeping bag. However, I did not know that it was a camp site for the Italians only where I found lots of children and old women who had set up their tents .There were no men  so I assumed that they went somewhere else to play  their steel ball games.  The children  ranged from  5 years to may be 13 who were very curious  because they had never seen an Indian so close and asked me who I was and from where I came. I did not speak any Italian so a teen age girl  said that she spoke some English so she could interpret for me. 

I then had an idea. I taught the kids a game that they had never played before but learned very quickly that I explained to the teen age girl. The kids were very excited by playing the new game and made me play with them.  Their mothers and grand mothers  watched us and smiled . One old lady asked me to take off my shirt that surprised me a bit but I gave my shirt to her. She then brought out her sewing kit and stiched a new button on it that she had noticed broken. It was amazing. The kids loved me and asking me to continue to play with them  but I was a bit tired so sat down in an easy chair to rest. 

Now the kids brought all kinds of fruits, cakes and cheese  from their tents and started to feed me  while their mothers and grand mas approved with smiles. When the time came for me to leave , the kids pleaded me to stay but I told them that I had to go. They kissed my cheeks and shed a lot of tears that made me a bit emotional. I have never seen such hospitality in Italy. 

India :

                  I was trying to enter the train while a woman was pushing me out

Now this story  was in my hometown  where I was trying to get into the train while a lady was trying to prevent me.  The train was soon leaving so I was desperate but I managed to put my luggage in and got on the train somehow . Later the woman turned out to have the same surname as I have . She apologized and asked me to sit with  her although I had a confirmed seat somewhere..

She was worried that her husband may not be present at the Delhi station  so I promised that I will bring her to her home if her husband fails to show up.  I will then go to my hotel. It so happened that her husband was waiting for her  so she praised me and told her husband how I brought water for her in some station . She told her husband that I was going to the Philippines on a scholarship etc. Then she said that she will bring me to her home and spend the night there. I was surprised at her hospitality .                                                       

During my travels through many countries, I experienced such hospitality that few can write about. Was I lucky? It shows that there are many nice people in many countries I mentioned above who have a big heart and treat you with hospitality but ask nothing in return.

I will not write about the bad behaviors in some countries that I experienced but perhaps among them too, there may be good people who will receive you with friendly gestures like one time I was in Sofia in Bulgaria where people fed me and did not want to accept money. In fact, all of my expenses of hotel stay and food etc. was paid by the Bulgarian Government which surprised me. If you have some bad experience during your travel to some countries, you will not easily forget. It may be the taxi driver who over charges you because his meter does not work, or vendors of tourist junks sell to you at a high price and laugh at your back. You cannot avoid such incidence unless you learn to avoid them by walking away.

You should not lose your faith in the humanity just because you were cheated somewhere. I assure you that there are Kam Fats in many countries. They will invite you because they see something in you, they appreciate and, they will see your honesty.

Cheaters and looters

I have experienced in India some bad things that left a bitter taste in my mouth. No one likes to be cheated when he goes to a shop to buy something, the shop keeper looks at him and scans him from head to foot like what Indians do. It is an offensive behavior to say the least, but it is I suppose a part of their culture. After the scan the shop keeper makes a judgement about you like you are rich or poor, local or a foreigner etc. and acts accordingly.

If you want 5 meters of cloth, he uses the old yard stick that is short of one meter, so he sells you less cloth at full price. Once an American friend of mine visited my hometown where his wife wanted an Indian saree, but the shop keeper showed only the most expensive sarees that she could not afford. So, someone watching scolded the shop keeper and told him to show what the lady wants and can afford. The shopkeeper said in Hindi that they are rich foreigners so they can afford.

I went to a shop in Agra to buy some sarees for my wife and some silk cloth for myself. The shopkeeper turned out to be worse than a Shylock of Indian version and charged me a lot of money for the fake silk and saree of poor quality while the rikshaw driver waited outside the shop to get his commission from the shop owner. This sort of cheating so openly should not happen to a local person like me let alone a foreigner, but it does.

                    Cheaters always target Tourist buses

You will see buses clearly marked in the front in big letters TOURIST so you can imagine what happens next. This signboard on the bus attracts cheaters and looters like flies to... (I will not mention here). Now a cup of ordinary tea that normally sells for 10 Rupees is now sold for 100 Rupees, so the tourists pay and the tea seller smirks because he just made a lot of money by cheating. They have no shame or self-respect that gives India a bad name. The tourists going back home share their experience with their friends and relatives. This is how people develop stereotypes.

Once my brother was near the river during the Maha Kumbh Mela Festival that happens once every 12th year that attracts millions of pilgrims from all corners of the country and even from other countries. This creates the opportunity for the scammers, cheaters and looters who without an iota of shame take full advantage and charge the boat riders 10 times the normal rate that the poor pilgrims find difficult to accept. My brother could not tolerate it and scolded the boatman to charge only fair rate, but the Shylock here wanted his pound of flesh and said they will pay the exorbitant price because they are from South India, so it is a fair game. No one understands their language, so it is a problem.

Now I am not saying that it happens only in India because it happens in other countries as well where foreign tourists suffer. There is a market in Rome called Thieves market where you have to keep your hands in your pocket all the time because the thieves are breathing down you neck and follow you until the opportunity comes. They stole the camera of an American tourist who was carrying a backpack. The thief just unzipped his backpack and lifted his expensive camera. He complained to me, but what could I do? It is not called Thieves market for nothing. I myself was a victim of thievery in Rome when someone tried to slash the belt of the camera with a sharp blade. I was saved because the thief could not cut it through and got off the bus looking at me.

Once I was waiting for a Taxi in Manila so that he could bring me to the airport. I got one when the taxi driver asked me where I was going so I answered him that I was going to Saudi and I am a Cantero meaning a mason. He was satisfied and charged me the minimum rate. He did not know how I hoodwinked him. Such skills come in very handy in other countries.

So, if you are visiting another country, you have to know how to protect yourself from these looters and cheaters. You should wear simple clothes, carry a cheap Instamatic camera that no thief will steal in his right mind and wear a cheap 2-dollar watch that they sell on the sidewalk. Do not flash your Rolex or Omega to attract thieves. My own Tissot was stolen from my house twice, returned once but never the second time. Needless to say, that my Tissot was expensive, so I learned my lesson and stopped wearing watch now. I used to wear unwashed blue jeans and faded T shirt so I thought that I will be less visible, but the thieves have sharp eyes and have lifelong experience they keep honing at your cost.

Now, let me tell you something about Japan. People automatically think that they have Yakuza and other criminal gangs roaming the streets and bothering the common people. However, I assure you that criminals do not bother the common people because they are always busy bothering their rival gangs who want to take over their territories.

Have you ever heard that the Japanese waiters do not accept tips in restaurants? They will feel happy if you say that the food was better than excellent. They will bow with sweet smiles. Now go to any restaurant in the United States, you will be received by a sour face woman who will give you a table near the toilet or exit door even if the restaurant is nearly empty. Because among the waiters, they attend to certain tables only and get their share of tips. You will be in trouble if you do not give them tips or an amount less than what they expect or you complain about their service. It is a far cry from the gentle Japanese.

If you are waiting for a train and the train arrives a bit late in Japan, you will be very surprised to see the train drivers and other staff will kneel down in front of the passengers and ask for your forgiveness for being 2 minutes late. That is how precise they are about time. They are very polite and very gentle. Read my blog about Hospitality in my previous blog.

It is against the law in Japan to make fake advertisement to fool the buyers of anything. What the picture on a packet shows must match what is inside. If not, then they punish the seller or the company that makes the product. But we see fake advertisement everywhere and specially on TV. A Sikh fellow in India saw the picture of KitKat on Tv and wanted to buy one. He was furious when he was sold a small packet of KitKat that was not what he saw on TV. You will be in trouble if you rile up a Sikh so watch out. The worst culprits are called the people who deliver something to your gate and ask for money when you have not ordered what he delivers. This sort of scam is very common here in the Philippines

I am not a pessimist by nature and usually think that most people are good and will not cheat you or loot you in a foreign country. I learned one thing that people love their native language they speak so they will like you if you speak their language being a foreigner. I will give you one example how my French speaking ability gave me a wonderful experience in Paris one day.

Once I was in Paris waiting for a Taxi to bring me to the Gare de Lyon from where I was to take a train to Marseille but was worried seeing the heavy traffic. So, I asked the driver if he could bring me to the Gare de Lyon quickly so that I could take the train. I promised extra money if he could do it. He smiled and said Monsieur, I know back roads so I will bring you to the station quickly and he did. I was relieved and gladly gave him some extra money. Inside, I had to get my luggage from the left luggage room where I explained to the concierge that my train is about to leave so please give me my luggage, so he brought it to me while many other passengers were waiting. It was because I spoke French. Learn a foreign language. You will find it handy when you travel.

So, learn to walk away from sellers who try to sell you fake Ray-Ban and other junks. They hang around the Termini in Rome and stay away from the Gypsies who will splash ketchup on you and pretending to clean it up with handkerchief, while the kids are busy checking out your pockets. They work as a gang and use the ketchup trick and many others. A 10 year old kid is an expert thief.

It helps if you go with a native who knows all these crooks and will protect you so get to know them in advance. People will become friendly if you tell them that you are a writer or a footballer or have visited many countries. Who Knows? They may ev

Amazing birds and sounds

 

We hear birds chirping everyday, but have you heard them in their natural habitat? Each type of bird has its own sound that will amaze you as well as their beauty.

Just play these videos one by one and enjoy their beauty and sound .

Links to the videos

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rUPHH6O940s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd9Td3wXYnA

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3sXKIkJTs9g

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MugMXyw59ig

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BQf9adM9lFI

40 strange birds and their sound

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CemLxxy62EY