Shuf ya

So Today's Deccan Herald. It's on the front page but the headline. A minor age given as 14 but probably younger was bought four weeks ago by Mr Salam a billionaire hotel chain owner in Mumbhai. He didn't realise there was anything wrong in this most people have young gels to do for them about the house. She was locked in the appartment when the owners left. Yesterday she fell from the fourth floor balcony while attempting a daring escape. While she is lying on the pavement bleeding with multiple injuries including dislocated pelvis (those kids are tough) and responding to a tip off, the local child protection officer Geo De Souza (George the Goan I guess) takes her to Hospital for treatment and files a report with the police. A colleague of Mr Salam said to reporters everybody does it why is my friend being brought to book. I think I can answer that one. Because the young gel in this instance fell from a fourth story balcony and now has multiple internal injuries and it's in the middle of a busy pavement in Mumbhai. If the man can't lock up his own slaves properly then a little embarrassment might encourage him to introduce stronger security measures. Any money you like nothing else will happen to him. So Fr Jose and he is coming to AP with me on 4 October to see the Prema Seva Ashram and check out possibilities for a school. He has invited me to their many projects in the area but I am passing. It's like going to a tea dance for singles when you have just gotten married. Not in itself a sin against charity but why do you still want to go to tea dances to see singles now you is married hmm. As I was saying Fr Jose says these things are not about caste really they are about poverty, India doesn't have a caste problem so much as a poverty problem. An cake is a cake no matter which way you slice it.

Which brings me I did attend a delightful Onam pre-party. The women of Kerala are the most beautiful in the world (in Indian philosophy an affirmation does not automatically produce a negation, the women of Andhra are also the most beautiful women in the world, Lambadi are also etc). They like gold, one newly wed showed me her Talli cross, for hindus it's a pendant on a string for Kerala Xtians it's a gold ingot with an etched cross on a gold chain. So while chatting over breakfast about whether I should consider shaving dressing better to attract wimin. In the course of discussing superficialities powerful though these things are, the real problem would be whether she would take to the proposition, whaddya say we sell all the gold and any presents we might have taken be spent on Lambadi child scholarships, let the children be our gold. Treasures in the kindom of heaven hmm. There is always one slightly bewildered woman for whom this sounds utterly utterly.

But then gold is an odd element. No one makes money investing in it but when you are in dire straits it's always just enough to bail you out if you have any to sell. That or trusting in God and Providence. Reminds me of the difference between a placement or a partnership. In a partnership the local boys say so what resources is your company bringing can we access it's agencies and funds and you say oh no in response to the dire straits my agency have sent me one highly twained professional. But surely if you tell them. Nope they already know and they sent me. God's like that. You ask him for help. You explain we are surrounded by the foe, supplies minimal, out of ammo for God's sake send help. And some idjit turns up with the same response. My grace is sufficient.

Ah well Uncle John returns from Lisieux today tomorrow he will bring news, probably along the lines of God's grace is sufficient mind. And don't start me on what that elderly prof Fr Cyriac said about our most beloved Contessa St Teresa of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. I shan't repeat it it was about her sexuality. As you can imagine. In another age the class would have broken up in duelling and seconds, chaos. Today I figured she can defend herself and sometimes we suffer not because we love but because we can't resist the urge to be a smartarse smartypants nahneenahneenahnah.