Mumbai meal
We came back to our hotel just before midnight, from an enjoyable evening with Maria and her husband Azeez, who hosted our ASPBAE group at their new flat.
Azeez was the chef for the night. He served us a delicious meal – chicken cooked with herbs, eggs with spices, and aubergine with yogurt. I remember the aubergine dish from my last visit, because it is the fancy name for eggplant. And the conversation around the table was equally delicious.
I still have to adjust to the tradition in India, that dinner starts at the earliest after 9 pm. In fact, in more formal receptions, dinner is served only at 11 pm. But we had wine and nuts and great conversation, while waiting for Azeez to finish his cooking in the kitchen.
Maria told us that we are their first guests in their new place, which is in the same building as their former flat. When Azeez joined us, he reminded me that Girlie owes him one: “She almost prevented Maria from becoming my partner!” He told us a long and funny story about it, but it is not for telling in a blog. I promised him that I will tell Girlie the story as soon as I get back home.
Religious tales
I don’t know at what point the talk got around to religion. Azeez who is Muslim observed that the differences between Christian churches are visible even in their architecture. “We do not have such visible differences between Sunni and Shiite mosques,” he said. I asked if what I read is true, that one difference is the position of their hands when praying. He confirmed it..
Sandy, who is Maori, told the story of her village, which was visited at the same time by Anglican and Catholic missionaries. The Maori chief, to avoid conflict, decidde to divide the community equally between Anglicans and Catholics. One brother was told, “You are a Catholic,” while his brother was told “You are an Anglican.” But later, the Anglican fell in love with a Catholic girl, so he asked his Catholic brother to change places, so he could marry her and still preserve the ratio of Catholic to Anglican.
I told them the half-joke I repeated in Manchester: “I have the impression that the UN and most governments are Protestant, not Catholic.” Hows that? “Because for the Protestants, the word publicly proclaimed is the key sacrament,” I explained. Many UN agencies and member governments would have us believe that once they have made a public declaration and commitment, things are bound to happen.
But it is only God’s word (dabar in Hebrew) that when spoken, immediately effects what it says. In the bible, God says: “Let there be light! And there was light.”
However, when a president or head of government says, “Let there be light,” that will be qualified by “depending on the availability of funds, enabling legislation, and implementing agency!”
That is why many social activists and grassroots leaders are not overly excited about advocacy work that produces only policy pronouncements. They want “sacramental actions,” in the spirit of Catholics. One way to insure a balance is to adopt David Archer’s formulation of the goal of advocacy as not only changes in policy but also in practice.
Electric power and milk
In the middle of our meal, I took a wild shot and asked Azeez, who is a ranking state official, what he knew about the electric power industry in India. I told him about my work with the electric coops in the Philippines, and the planned launch of an electric power consumers movement, initiated by the Freedom from Debt Coalition.
Maria reacted in mock horror: “Oh no! Don’t get him going on about power. My ears are full of his talk about power generation, transmission, and distribution.” It turned out that Azeez used to be a member of the equivalent of the Energy Regulatory Commission or ERC in the Philippines.
Despite her ritual objection, we went on for half an hour about electric power. India has only a limited national grid; the system is mainly at the state level. I was surprised to know that the city of Mumbai has four parallel distribution systems. Maria added: “Did you know that for rural electrification, the electric coop system in the Philippines is considered as a model?”
I told them a bit about EPIRA and its impact on rates and on the coops. Unlike the Philippines, the systems of generation, transmission, and distribution systems in India are still mainly public, but Azeez expects changes to come also.
Bernie from Australia shifted the topic to milk, asking Azeez if there is a trend in India similar to Australia toward “lite” milk. That provoked another reaction from Maria: “Not milk! Don’t you know that Azeez has not stopped tutoring me about milk and electric power?”
It’s not so much “lite” low-fat milk that is gaining popularity, but simply cows milk. That was a surprize to us who thought that cow’s milk is what’s usually drunk in India. “No, the main milk supply in India is from buffalos, and it is much thicker, with higher fat content than cow’s milk,” Azeez explained.
“What buffalos?” I asked. “The same carabaos as you have in the Philippines,” replied Azeez, “though we have varieties that give more milk.” That was really news to us.
We shared many more interesting topics than dishes around the table. The evening was enjoyable proof that the first form of learning is a conversation.
