I have posted these reflections for Zena who is travelling to India soon... About Soup and Salad from India: these reflections/short stories were written during my seven weeks visit to india: kerala, tamil nadu,delhi, rajestan and agra: jan.-march 2001 dedicated to special people i met during my journey in india , each for a reason : janaki, jaivir, yasmine, maharana, abu, psyche, indu, samer, jerry, mohan, piers, vasantha, vikram, sonu, nasser, kitaki, mariagovani and many others thanks for encouragements and comments: Hossein Shahidi, Aida Haddad, Norbert Hirshhorn, Madeleine Badaro, Annette Cotteril, Munir Fasheh, Nancy Li, May Abboud, and Mishka Mujabber KINDLY RESPECT COPY RIGHTS

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Soup and Salad
from India
Text, images and layout
By May Haddad

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foreword
these reflections/short stories were written
during my seven weeks visit to india: kerala,
tamil nadu,delhi, rajestan and agra: jan.-
march 2001
dedicated to special people i met during
my journey in india , each for a reason :
janaki, jaivir, yasmine, maharana, abu,
psyche, indu, samer, jerry, mohan, piers,
vasantha, vikram, sonu, nasser, kitaki,
mariagovani and many others
thanks for encouragements and comments:
hossein shahidi, aida haddad, norbert
hirshhorn, madeleine badaro, annette
cotteril, munir fasheh, nancy li, may abboud,
mishka Mujabber and Zena zaghloul.

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contents
page/s
foreword 3
travel agent 9
travel wisdom 10
a pattern 10
abu abraham 11-12
flowers 13-14
refreshed 15
geeta's friend 16
me 17
travel 18
monsters 19
red rose 20
contagious 21
march 8 22-23
global password 24
albert and maria 25
a dinner 26
communism 27
indian english 28
vegetarian hotels 29-31
hippy paradise 32
no need 33
kitaki 34-35
gods eyes 36-37

8. 8
never experienced 38
kerala 39
radjani women 40-41
east 42
reflex 43-44
research 45
manu 46
ayurveda 47
two creatures 48
synaqoque 49
feelings 50-52
periyar 53
elecaho 54-55
train 56
two legs 57
quotes 58
ganesh 59
plastic bags 60-61
pain 62
he 63
shit art 64
farewell 65-67

9. 9
searching for
a travel agent
(my second day in India )
I was told that mohan kumar
was the best travel agent in town
to my surprise, i found out
that he works in getting people
out of india!
although mohan could not
advise me about touring in india,
he assured that my strategy
in traveling was right:
it is correct to plan
the next moment
during this passing moment!

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travel wisdom
to get a good hotel,
travel to india
without reserving a place
and without an address!
a pattern
so far
nothing planned for happens,
everything not planned for happens

11. 11
abu abraham
i was referred to abu
by a friend in new delhi
she told me that he would
advise me about being in india
i was enchanted to meet him
a charming cartoonist in his seventies
we spent the two hours
looking at his cartoons
about palestinian refugees
that he had done in the sixties!
abu remembered vividly
how much he enjoyed
“olives and araq”
in the lebanese mountains!

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this was my most interesting
introduction to india!
Abu Abraham, cartoonist
and journalist, born June 11 1924;
died December 1 2002

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flowers
i did not find a flower shop
to buy flowers to psyche
being with psyche in her house
named saranam was quite a refuge
(saranam = refuge in kalamayan language)
leaving her place i picked up
the most extraordinary yasmine flower
i have ever seen in my life
on the way without destination,
i saw an old woman picking up
similar yasmine to offer
to the temple nearby
it was a delight to help
her pick up the flowers

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shortly afterwards i found myself
in an endless flower festival
there was certainly
a flower for every person in india

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refreshed
i have been heavenly
refreshed by:
drinking coconut juice
from the coconut itself
with other women
doing the same
eating flattened rice
on a leaf of banana
offered by a woman
working in a temple

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geeta's friend
i met geeta and her friend
at the corner of a street,
selling bananas
they were interested
to know where i came from
we playfully decided
to exchange places.
i live in trivandum
as a banana vendor
and geeta's friend
replaces me
in my life in Lebanon

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me
lots of
contradictions
in this place
the greatest
is me!

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travel
travelling alone
can be difficult
and fascinating
travelling with another
can be more difficult
and more fascinating

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monsters
monsters are not
the same for all of us
identifying who they are
and why they exist,
can help us be
better people
i am still
finding out

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red rose
he offered me
a red rose
a handsome indian man
he smiled,
i smiled
each one of us went
in his/her way

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contagious
everybody i smile to
smiles back
every smile
makes me smile

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march 8
they embraced me joyfully
at international women's day festival
i danced and sang with
thousands of women in delhi
a magnificent feeling
where you blend with all
and all becomes one

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24. 24
global
password
i am a friend of ...
who is a friend of...
who is your friend
a magical
global
password

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albert and maria
for the past 14 years,
albert and maria ( from italy )
come to rockholm hotel in kovalam
they stay a month and then explore
a new place in india for another month
they have developed a bond
to this place which enriches them
this year , they witnessed
the earthquake in gujarat
with other people...

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a dinner
i first met him
in kovalam beach
we were having dinner
each at a separate table
we did not talk
and we did not
look at each other
the next day,
we looked at each other,
as we met at regency hotel,
where we had adjacent rooms
he was an English doctor
who works in hospice,
searching for peace with himself
we talked over dinner
at the roof garden
before he left to calicut

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communism
the headline of the
local newspaper read today:
communists told to intensify fight
against globalization!
what a place!
have you ever seen
the communist hammer and sickle
in indian colors such as
green, blue or yellow?

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indian english
aida realized immediately
that the man at the reception
did not understand english english
she was calling from washington dc
trying to connect with me
and the man kept on saying
" yes mam" without listening to her
i realized today that many
don't speak english english
the rickshaw driver
was about to kill me
and when i said:
“hey, you could have killed me" ,
he said: “yes mam"...

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vegetarian hotels
not only food
in india is vegetarian
but so are hotels!

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hippy
paradise
i was happy not to
find room in the ashram
all its' inhabitants were
people from the west
who seemed afraid
to go beyond
the boundaries
of the ashram
i felt that i'd rather
visit similar places in
canada or california

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no need
to go far
vasantha explained
why i have not seen
many Indians in temples
in s. india
you see, we have
small temples
in our homes
we light the flame
every morning and pray

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kitaki
did she inherit the insight
of her ancient grandmother?
Kitaki (8 years old)
offered me ganesh
as if she knew that
i had brought
a sandal wood ganesh
a gift for her parents

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gods eyes
gods eyes
are everywhere,
in temples, sculptures,
jesus drawings, film ads
and many other...

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never
experienced before
everyday seems better
than the day before
except for that suffocating moment
when a huge crowd of people
very tightly surrounded me
as i was trying to get into a public bus

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kerala
indeed, it is a literate place
( kerala is the state with the
highest literacy rate in india)
if children beg,
they ask for "school pen"
Hari (8 years) and his friend
stopped me today
asking for school pen
i told hari "ha (yes) , later".
he said: "o.k. one for me
and one for my friend"

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radjani women
what you used to consider
as colors that would never ever match
is contradicted when you see
radjani women's dresses:
bright orange,
pink, red,
green, yellow
beautifully contrasting with the
fantastic dark color of the skin

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east
she said : you,
all western people
look alike, fair hair
and white skin
i said: but,
i am from the east
and not west
she looked at me
with questions in her eyes

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reflex:
creative poster
i passed by a fantastic creative
poster exhibit done by one local artist
among the slogans:
development against humanity
we don't want seminars..
give back our stolen dreams ( street children)
engineer ?.. doctor ?.. useless??
war makers do not die in the war
who represents the indian woman?

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fast drugs end your life faster
consumer is the king but
the decision is taken by others
consume drugs that will consume you
thorns are awaiting you , are you
willing to surrender your creativity?

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conference in
bioethics research
the two experts from
world health organization
and harvard school set up
the agenda of the conference
by stating their own rules
the indian researcher sitting
next to me whispered
in my ear: “yes, but who
will implement the rules?! “
(a note from a conference i accidently
attended in trivandum for three days
on research ethics in the medical field.
almost all participants were from s. asia
with the exception of the two experts)

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manu
he asked me if i came
from the land of jubran khalil jubran
i smiled confirming to this man
who comes from malayali culture
he said he had never traveled
outside kerala, but he wished
to go to s.america, to see maya culture
i liked the ma in maya, malayam,
manu and may.

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ayurveda
how can one meet
traditional ayurvedic healers
who have genetically
inherited their wisdom?

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two creatures
at the junction of the two seas,
a creature from the arabian sea
was attracted to a creature
from the indian ocean
they soon discovered
a reason for the attraction:
both knew about oppression
and were seeking justice
both were aware of
the extension of this sea
to the mediterranean
and to s. africa
the waves turned
strangely wild
they did not stop
and continued swimming

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synaqoque
( cochin)
she told me:
i am jewish and
proud to be an Indian
i want to stay in india
but , i will have
to leave to Israel
you see , only 14 people
of the jewish community
remained in cochin
all are above sixty
i am the only one under 20

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feelings
i feel like staying
in all places that i leave!
i feel comfortable
everywhere i go
am i comfortable in me?
i want to embrace india
and keep it in me
i am overwhelmed
by a very strange
desire to put aside
all my belongings
and look as
indian as possible

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periyar:
tiger sanctuary
why not all the world :
a human-being sanctuary?
(periyar is a beautiful sanctuary
in kerala where both animals
and nature are protected)

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elecaho
elephant, camel and horse:
put them in the order
that you like
in rajestan:
an elephant is for luck,
a camel is for passion,
and a horse is for power

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56. 56
train from
kerala to delhi
2 hours have passed,
still 44 to go
6 hours passed,
still 40 to go
11 hours passed,
still 35 to go

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two legs: a policy
to remember
ghandi had a policy which he called
“walking on two legs”
that is to say, not only
opposing the british government
but at the same time constantly
creating the alternatives

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quotes
i want
to see god
face to face-
ghandi
seeker!
know what
you seek
and then seek
swami sivinanda

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ganesh
a charming god
a travel companion
about the child
within us that needs
to be pleased
funny and sarcastic
pleasant to look at
ganesh, the remover of obstacles,
is also patron of arts and sciences,
and the deva of intellect and wisdom

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plastic bags
in Udaipur, i had a chance
to discuss with school
children “hygiene and plastic bags”
the activity was in support of the
inaugurationof rubbbish bins
in the town by my artist friend
cows were a great entry to the topic
(recently over 52 kg. of plastic was found
in a cow’s intestines)
children said:
plastic bags kill cows ,
don’t use plastic bags
cows are our mother, protect them

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don’t use plastic bags for gods’ sake
it is dangerous for us, cows and earth
i like plastic bags , but when cows
eat them , they become sick
i don’t like plastic anymore

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pain
is the best brought
at the cost of great pain?
you see it demonstrated
in the finger tips of sitar music players
the palms of cloth block printers and other

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he
he offered me the yasmine flower
that i had spotted next to saranam
5 weeks ago
did he know how much i loved it ?
i smiled , took it
and stored it in my book

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shit art
he said:
in this place,
you have to dig
for gold in shit
in two weeks ,
he was seeing gold in shit
in rural india, villagers create
Fantastic sculpture from cow's shit that
they use in fuel and housing etc.

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farewell
i forgot that i was not indian
as i was saying farewell
to yasmine and jaivir
i remembered how i looked
when i saw my image in the taxi mirror
amazing how india touches you

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2015