Diabetie balls

So Natalie wasn’t feeling too well today. There was a lot of whining going on and sad “what should I do” looks. I told her that she could probably use some rest so maybe she should head home. “Can we stop at AND (her favorite mall shop) for a few minutes?” Twenty minutes later from the dressing room I hear, “I’m feeling a lot better, Mark!” I’ll have to remember the prescription for fashion therapy.Perhaps, the reason for her minor bout of Delhi-belly was the gluttonous binge last night at a new restaurant, Sheesha. We were stuffed after the starter course, so following the third dessert we were borderline comatose. We had an Indian dessert called gulab jamun. It consists of slightly smaller than golf ball size dumplings in sugary-rose petal syrup. Natalie and I simply call them “diabetie balls.” They taste like semi-solid baklava.Switching subjects from dessert to leprosy: While in Panvel we stayed near-by in a small village that was also home to a 150+ person leprosy community. The community “officials” established a program that allowed the outcast lepers to live there, work, and even establish savings accounts. Monday evening we were invited to attend prayer with a few of the community members. Outside on a blue tarp I and 8 others sat under the full moon—the only source of light. Without any other illumination the hallmark remnants of their long-ago cured affliction blended in with the moon lit surroundings—no longer were they available for scrutiny and judgment. What arose from the men was a beautiful, harmonious chant. It began with the words ‘om shanti,’ which could quite possibly be the Indian equivalent of Tolkien’s ‘cellar door.’ It was easy to loose one’s self in the prayer. One particular elderly man sang with such rustic tenor I could feel the undulations of gravel-like sound waves. He was Johnny Cash, Tom Waits, and Pavarotti rolled into one. After a few other song-prayers a younger gentleman began to read scripture. I certainly could not understand what was being said but his tone followed the same sentence to sentence decrescendo pattern so common in the Western religions; each sentence starting out with great emphasis and trailing off in dramatic fashion. --Posted By Mark Stephany to Mumbai, India at 10/16/2008 04:41:00 AM