Winter break has brought a number of treats and guests. Jesse’s girlfriend Alexis has come here, along with Adam’s dear friend and a “fifth Basson boy,” Eero. I have sorely missed having a houseful chock-a-block with the boys’ friends every night of the week, so this is a treat for me as well as for the kids. The boys have mapped out a tourist agenda for New Delhi and the environs. Eero appears to be similar to me in his touring tastes…he would rather see the innards of how people live here, where they shop, where they play, instead of the standard tourist attractions. I trust that they will have time to do both.
Today is Christmas day. Surprisingly, India has a lot of Christmas-related celebrations, and malls are decked out with Christmas decorations. IBM Research India has a tree in the lobby. I think that only 2% of the country is Christian, and I don’t know if anyone at IBM Research is. But I think that this is a culture that likes holidays, and Christmas has a lot of pomp that appeals to the populace. I figure that with the large number of gods already worshipped, there is not a lot of resistance to adding yet one more. Also, this is a culture which is unusually tolerant of other religions and other religious practices. I have read that a small number of Jews have lived in southern India for a couple of thousand years, and have never experienced anti-Semitism. (That is for me the litmus test of religious tolerance….the Jews have never been anywhere but Israel for prolonged amounts of time without some religious persecution.)
The boys are planning the standard Jewish Christmas activities for tonight….a movie, and Chinese food. This year, though, the movie will be Bollywood.
Since Christmas was on Shabbat, a lot of synagogues had Chinese food for Kiddish!
ReplyDeleteWe (northern NJ) were one of the lucky ones to have a Kosher Chinese restaurant in our neighborhood. It was fun, as well as funny.
When telling our congregation about the Kiddish, our Rabbi read something that has been widely circulated:
"The Chinese Restaurateurs' Association of the United States would like to extend our thanks to the Jewish people. We do not completely understand your dietary customs, but we are proud and grateful that your God insistes that you eat our food on Christmas."
(Attributed to David Mamet.)
Thank you for sharing this, Murray -- Most amusing!
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