Turban He sat next to me in the densely crowded Delhi airport terminal. I was reading with some irritation a typically over-ornamented Thomas Mann long short story. I smelled him before I saw him–a curious odor–stale, dry, camphor- like. As though he just retrieved his garments from a lenghty seclusion in the closet. He sat […]
Harold Jaffe’s Dispatches from India – December 1, 2015
Hindus & Jews After the Warsaw uprising, reporters attempted to interview two of the Jewish insurgents who survived and were moving to Israel. The two fighters were so enraged—with a furious cold rage—that they looked through the reporters without uttering a word. After the Holocaust, surviving European Jews moving to Israel underwent what can be […]
Harold Jaffe’s Dispatches from India – November 29, 2015
Burn Manikarnika* the primary burning ghat in Varanasi Tourist responses Words can’t begin to describe experiencing this ghat from a boat on the Ganges at sunset. I left knowing I had seen a gateway, primal and haunting. See sole of people and there touch in hindu. this is place you forget your identity and become […]
Harold Jaffe’s Dispatches from India – November 29, 2015
Ayurveda (MRI) Back and upper legs aching after a month in sacred Kashi. Memo: Do the American thing: some kind of exercise every day. The small gym, called Bob’s, is two stories above a mobile phone shop and a mysterious venue called Aryan Academy. A dozen helter-skelter machines, scattered dumbbells, two tread- mills, one with […]
Harold Jaffe’s Dispatches from India – November 26, 2015
Elephants After spending decades in the circus, elephants Mia and Sita were rescued by an animal welfare group on Sunday, and are now en route to a conservation center on board India’s first customized elephant ambulance. The two elephants were rescued by Wildlife SOS on Sunday from the Great Circus at Thiruvanamalai, Tamil Nadu. Mia […]
Harold Jaffe’s Dispatches from India – November 25, 2015
Ganges Dusk Wake up to drums and loud chanting. 6:20 AM. Is it a dream? Here one wakes from dream into dream. Every other day is a holy day in Kashi. Another devotional festival. Today is Dev Diwali. But didn’t we celebrate Diwali, Festival of Lights, just a few days ago? That Diwali was devoted […]
Harold Jaffe’s Dispatches from India – November 23, 2015
Cow Cow protection is the gift of Hinduism to the world. Hinduism will endure only so long as there are Hindus to protect the cow. –Mahatma Gandhi The white Mercedes taxi nudges the soiled, underfed, spotted white calf out of the way en route to the 5-star Hotel in the cantonment sector erected by the […]
Harold Jaffe’s Dispatches from India – November 22, 2015
Untouchable Barefoot, she enters my room and lies in bed next to me on my left side. I hear the soft jingle of the cheap bracelets about her wrists and ankles. Predawn dark, I am just awake from a dream or sequence of dreams: Donkeys–they seem to have been abused–a mother and foal edging ahead […]
Harold Jaffe’s Dispatches from India – November 20, 2015
Buddha Earth Sitting straightbacked and composed, eyes partially closed, under the imposing fig tree in Bodhgaya, Siddhartha Gautama is menaced by Mara, lord of strife and covetousness, who attempts through deceptions to unseat Siddhartha. That Siddhartha is sitting steadfastly on Mother Earth rather than gazing heavenward poses a special threat to Mara. After attempting without […]
Harold Jaffe’s Dispatches from India – November 19, 2015
Terror Mama donkey and her foal, both beat-up looking, move deliberately through the impossible traffic. Sacred underfed cows and starving dogs one sees everywhere in India, but donkeys, like horses and sheep, are seen much less often. Inquiring Hindus wonder why the capitalist globe responds with collective outrage when Paris is assaulted by alleged Muslim […]