Pigeon at the window: The trip diary has something important missing. And that’s the Hyderabad pigeon population. I get it. We are considered pests. We are chased and subjected to all kinds of humiliation with brooms, water, pebbles thrown at us. But we persist. And we thrive! Hyderabad is so tired of us that people have installed nets on their balconies and have covered entire sections of their buildings. Guess what this means! The humans are in the cages while we rule the city (hee hee hee). So, how do we claim a spot in the India Trip blog, you may ask. Let me tell you the reason why we occupy the top spot in animal musings. It goes by the name of Leena!

Leena, the little girl, came from far off lands. She underwent some winter migration and landed in the heart of Hyderabad. And from day 1, she insisted on feeding our population! Wow, finally someone who understands our worth. We made full use of Leena’s kindness and proceeded to occupy one window sill of the apartment that usually shuns us. We would wait for our breakfast, and should Leena forget, we weren’t too shy to enter the apartment to give her a polite reminder that she is forgetting something. In fact, whenever we arrived, all the people in the apartment would call out “Leena”. And no matter what she was doing, Leena stopped her work and would dig in the fridge to find some old rice, idli or pigeon feed for us.

Sadly Leena has migrated back to her homeland. We think its a bit early for her to return, since its peak winter where she lives, but she is gone. We have been once again chased off the windowsill with brooms and now continue to inhabit every hole that we can find.

White Paws the dog: If there is one thing that you must know about me, it is this. I am a friendly dog! When I see a nice human, I do the following. I run over flattening my ears and wagging my tail. Once I have ascertained that the human is indeed worth the hype, I stretch my body to show my happiness to the human. After this, I curl my entire body into a ball, so that my snout is almost in my butt. The combination of body curl and waggy tail is irresistible for most humans. They proceed to let out wails that sound like awww or oooh. They pet me and often leave treats for me. Psst, I politely accept what they give, but I don’t always like the offering. I am not a derelict who will go for just anything edible. I have my standards. I occupy one of the best spots in Hyderabad and my confidence shows!

Last month was the nicest. Little Leena quickly became my favorite from the first moment we met. Leena (and Tanya and their mom) were quite sweet to me and would talk to me in the nicest tones. But the funniest part was when they would pretend to not have seen me (even though I was right there), and would try to get by to see what I would do. I knew what they wanted. They wanted me to wag my tail. I obliged. As soon as they went by, I would do my wag, jump up, run over, stretch and curl routine. In return I would get pets and treats. I do like Parle G, thank you very much. Sadly Leena is gone, but I am sure we will meet again. In the meantime, let me enjoy the morning sun.

Madhur the dog: I have a collar! That’s right folks. I am not an actual stray. Someone put a collar on me. It’s the vendor who sells tea at the park. So I belong to a human. That said, I loved the Zwart girls from the first minute. The first time I saw them, they were giving a roti to White Paws. I looked a bit sadly at them and they got the message. A piece came flying to me. The next day, I went to them. They gave me cookies, and I was snatching it off their hands. I am not that polite as White Paws. In my defense, I am a big boy and need nourishment. In exchange for the cookies, I cuddled up to the kids. I was even interested in jumping inside their car, but their grandfather gave me such a stern look that my heart shivered. Sadly I didn’t see the girls again, and White Paws tells me that the pigeon told her that they have migrated back home. But the same pigeon also said that I have been named Madhur, which, of course means sweet. Sweet!

Dumpling the puppy: I am the only dog who didn’t get clicked by the Zwart girls. But its not their fault. I move fast. I came, got my cookies, and then bounded off. I am social, you see. I am also a growing pup. I don’t really mind that they didn’t click my picture because I will look completely different in a few months when I am all grown up. They can click my photos then! Off I go.

Yoga Peacock: Kindly refrain from laughing at my name. I am called the Yoga Peacock because I hang about the place in the peacock park where humans are usually doing Yoga. I look at their feeble efforts at flexibility before proceeding to clean out and oil my entire tail. Can you imagine the flexibility required for that task? Humans would be twisted in a knot and collapsed in a heap if they did that. So why am I featuring in this blog, you may ask. There are hundreds of Peacocks in the Peacock park, but I am the one that matters. This is because I ate out of Leena’s hand. She had pigeon feed, and she put some in her hand and called me. I boldly went and pecked it right out of her hand!! It was a terribly exciting experience. Since that day, I have been surrounded by girlfriends. All the peahens are vying for my attention and admiring my beautiful feathers. Unfortunately my girlfriends would not let me free, and I could not repeat my performance with Leena. But hey, I did it once!

Kylo Ren the dog: Grr. Enough with all these Indian animals. Guess what?! I am back in business. I had gone for a walk with Papa one afternoon. When I was entering the house, I heard noise. My hair stood at its ends. Do we have an intruder? Am I as lucky as that? But it turned out, I was even luckier! Impossible as it seemed, the girls were back. They were sitting and waiting for me to come in. What an excitement it was. I broke free from Papa and jumped over all the girls, whining, licking, biting, jumping, crying, whimpering, you name it!! If anyone had any misgivings on what my reaction would be, I wiped them off immediately. It was a most joyful reunion. Oh, I am still reeling with excitement. My head’s spinning (falls over).

Rosie the dog: (pushes Kylo aside to take the keyboard). Well, my friends. I must tell you this. I was the first to see the girls enter. And I also want to proudly let you know that I had not forgotten that the girls had been gone for quite a while. Not only did I remember them, I also remembered that we hadn’t met for awhile. So I proceeded to yowl and bark happily at each of them. I got warm hugs and kisses and so I am quite happy. My achievements from the last month include not dying, laying in the sun as much as possible, pooping to my heart’s content and generally tiring my Papa out. Oh, here comes a chicken.

Daisy the chicken: My comb is cold! I hope I don’t get another frost bite, because if I do, we will have to go to California again. Coming back to the topic of the day, yes! The girls are back. Now before I say anything else, let me tell you, I agree with Crazy Cookie. We all loved the handsome rooster who came to feed us every morning. We tried to woo him in every possible way. The problem was that he was not woo-able. He would give us food and water and would let us free for the day. At night he would come back to lock us up. As a result, there was no time for romance. We felt dejected. Its so nice to have Leena back. She gives us hot water every day and good food. Plus, we don’t have to face Kylo Ren the dog each morning. Goodbye for now, handsome rooster (sob)!

Moving on to the next day (Dec 13), in the morning we went for a walk, and tried our hand at photography using our Nikon D90. It was nice to try out, although I am not sure about the success of our efforts. Later that day sis and the kids showed up to hang out with us. It was a fun time for the cousins to bond and do their thing.

December 14 marked the entrance of someone spectacular in our lives. She now goes by the name of White Paws. White Paws is a stray that lives by a peacock park we frequent on our visits to India.

Before going further into White Paws, here’s Stray dog 101 for you. Every dog is different, and the same goes for strays. To figure out if a stray can be your adopted dog, you check its size, its tail angle and its facial expression. These three things will tell you which dog to call. Once you have determined the right dog, you click your tongue, and then magic happens.

White Paws was a little thin for a friendly stray, but we clicked our tongue, and she came bounding as if she had known us all her life. White Paws is not over friendly, she has dignity and won’t go all out for you. However, she will recognize you from afar and will come happily over. She is not greedy and won’t accept lesser treats such as the Indian Marie biscuit, or a ball of rapadura (gud). But she is into Parle G cookies! Even with Parle G, she doesn’t go all out. She accepts it with a polite flattening of ears and a delicate pull. She makes it plenty clear that she is not here for the treats. Rather, she comes over for company and to show she loves you.

White Paws was our primary adopted dog while in India. She made it attractive for us to visit the peacock park and get our morning exercise. She would follow us until her section of the walkway ended. She would turn back then and go about her daily routine.

After our great encounter with White Paws, later that day Bunnu drove us to a nearby mall where the kids tried out an indoor gym. This was probably a big highlight for them. We also had lunch and got henna designs done on our hands.

The following day we went over to sis’ place for dinner and general hanging out. Again, another lovely day with fun and good food. We got to meet Tubby, their bird. Tubby is lots of character packed in a small frame!

Dec 17th was mom’s birthday. We went back to the peacock park and then out for breakfast at Nani’s, a South Indian restaurant with sis and family.

On Dec 21st we went to the Hyderabad zoo. It is quite a spectacular place and we make it a point to visit it every time. The three of us, sis, Priyanka and dad went. We had our usual lovely time. We tried photographing the animals and checking the place out.

The next day we visited Kamat, an old favorite restaurant of mine. It was as it had always been. We enjoyed a big, typical meal (thaali) there! The following day we hung out with sis and family at her apartment. We all met up for lunch, and then we checked out a bookstore called crossword. Then we relaxed at home and watched some standup comedy.

The rest of the trip was full of little things that make memories. I will get into my India musings in part 4 of India blog. However, I want to bring up two additional strays we met. These were Dumpling and Madhur. Both were adorable, and we were sad at the idea that we would have to leave them. Thankfully we have our own dogs to go home to.

We visited dad’s friend Sinha Uncle while there. My nephew Priyanshu also came over another time the day before we left. And my hotelier friend Gautam showed up for a good ol’ chit chat. We discovered common interests and also our differences. It made for an interesting conversation. One other interesting thing that we did was to visit Bunnu’s campus of IIIT in Hyderabad. That was very fun, since it reminded me of my own engineering campus. After having a fun new year’s eve with sis’ family and Priyanshu, where we played dumb charades into the night, we left India to come back home.

Here we were greeted joyfully by Johan and our dogs. We are now back in the thick of things and looking forward to an interesting 2024.

The animals have a lot to say, so I am going to create a separate blog with their musings. Watch this space for India trip – Part 3.

As December rolled in, our world turned busy and complicated. I was preparing to leave for a month-long trip to India with the girls. After much planning and packing, we left for our journey on December 4. We had taken a one-way rental car to Washington Dulles, where we planned to sleep overnight at an airport hotel, before flying out the next day.

Our departure was a bit emotional, especially with Rosie getting so old that we were worried that she wouldn’t be around when we returned. However, we pushed negative thoughts out of our minds and focused on the exciting times ahead. The hotel stay and flight were uneventful except for the usual poor quality airline food and the long 6 hour wait in Dubai. We finally reached Hyderabad on 6th December around 8 pm.

It was a joyful reunion with my parents and sister who had come to the airport. We took a cab back and enjoyed the warmth and fun atmosphere of Hyderabad. Once home, Ramkumar, Priyanka and Bunnu came over to say hello and we hung out for a bit. After a while, sis and family left and we turned in for the night to sleep a disturbed, jetlagged sleep.

The next day was spent resting and recharging after the long haul across the globe. On Friday, Priyanka and sis came over. The kids put up a ridiculous but funny fashion show for our benefit and we had a lot of laughs.

Saturday turned out to be a memorable day. We started it off with a walk. Following this, we decided to go out for breakfast. This turned out to be the best decision. While going to Chutney’s we saw a sign at Mufakkham Jah College of Engineering and Technology announcing an ongoing ham radio convention. We thought that it was a great opportunity for us to do something hammy! So we went over after breakfast. There were talks to attend and a flea market to enjoy. It felt like our kind of place. The local ham radio crowd got interested in us foreigners and generously lent us equipment to participate in their fox hunt. Armed with a handheld radio and a homebrewed yagi antenna, we tried our luck at finding the fox. But a combination of the fox transmitting infrequently and us getting quite fatigued from the jet lag, we gave up after about an hour. In our defense, the fox was foxy and I doubt if any other participants found it! Before leaving, we were invited onstage to share our experiences. Tanya spoke about the activities of Nittany Amateur Radio Club, while I talked about how we found their convention and hoped to stay in touch with their activities. It was altogether a lovely day.

Sunday was interesting as well. My cousin’s son (so, my nephew) came over. He had just moved from Bihar to Hyderabad to join Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL). I got to meet him for the first time. He turned out to be a most adorable youngster. He stayed overnight and left the next morning to get to his work.

Monday was truly memorable. From the past year and a half, I have been friends with two awesome ladies, Vandy and Sreeja on the singing platform, Smule. Since I was visiting, Vandy, who lives in Delhi, flew in town. Sreeja conveniently lives in Hyderabad. Vandy was staying at a hotel near my parents’ house. So that morning my dad and the kids dropped me off at the hotel Green Park, where Vandy and I met for the first time. It was beyond exciting to meet her in flesh and blood! Sreeja’s husband had generously arranged for a cab for us. We got in the cab and it took us to Sreeja’s lovely apartment. There we got to see Sreeja for the first time. We have been sharing our lives with each other daily for the past year and a half, and we also sing together. This made for a strong connection and we were beyond thrilled to see each other and to be in each other’s company. We met Ravi and Tarun, Sreeja’s husband and son. The whole family was adorable, but Sreeja with her constant chatter definitely stole the show! Ravi and Tarun just sat back and took in the scene of three super excited ladies and their constant exclamations!

We ate Biryani and had some red wine and chai at Sreeja’s place. We just chatted, exchanged gifts and marveled at the strange circumstances that not only brought us together, but also made us sure that we would like each other. Around 5 pm, we took Sreeja and the cab back to Green Park. It was quite a long ride through parts of Hyderabad that I haven’t seen for a long time. We reached the hotel. The plan was for us three to stay in the room for the night. We opened Smule invites for our friends to join and then just chit chatted the evening away. Late at night we went downstairs to get some food. Interestingly, we ran into my old college mate and the hotel’s owner, Gautam, there.

We finally slept around 1:30 am. The next morning my parents and the kids joined us for breakfast. We all enjoyed conversation and the buffet at Green Park. Following this, Ravi came by and picked up Sreeja. Vandy checked out of the hotel and we went to my parents’ apartment. We enjoyed more time together before Vandy left around 4 pm to catch her flight home. It was a beautiful time together, one that we will always cherish.

Kylo Ren the dog: Now hold it! While mom is going on about how great things were, let me reveal the dark side of this story. It was certainly not all hunky dory. They left me! (Boo Hoo Hoo). What I had feared all of my young life finally happened! The girls were busy all day and I knew something was up. I also knew this was bad news (although they cleverly kept the bags hidden). Rosie wouldn’t listen to me (probably because she can barely hear these days). But just like that, they got into a strange, unknown car, said bye to Rosie and me, and took off. They didn’t even spare a thought for the chickens. Who will feed them everyday? Bwah wah. My life is over.

Crazy Cookie the chicken: Enough with the din, Kylo Ren. The ladies and I are actually super excited. There’s a new rooster in town and he has been feeding us. He is tall and handsome. The ladies have been vying for his attention. We have been working extra hard on our feathers. Sadly, we are partially molted and not looking our best. But we are trying as much as we can. Ooh, here he comes. Step aside, ladies.

kylo Ren the dog: Turkey!!

Mom (that’s me): Hey Kylo. Do you want to hear my version of the princess and the frog story?

Kylo Ren: Yawn. Ok, shoot.

Mom: The Young princess meets the frog, kissed the frog. The frog turns into a prince while the princess turns into a she frog! Hahahaha!!

Kylo Ren: Ok?! But then, if it’s that bad, why did you marry? (Disclaimer, I love my Papa!).

Mom: (Stops laughing ). Hmm, for companionship?!

Kylo Ren: (Licking his paws) Ok yes. But you and I are companions. You don’t need to marry for that! You could be friends and live in your own homes. You would stay a princess.

Mom: Hmm. Umm, for having children? It’s a very noble thing, you know, having kids.

Kylo Ren: (Scratching his ears) Keeping aside the fact that I love the kids for a second, mom!! Having kids, noble? Have you seen the world’s human population numbers? They are through the roof. All other animals are getting pushed around. Forests cut, pollution! Plus, it makes you even more of a she frog. All that work. Besides, you don’t need to marry or live together to have kids. Look at my junkyard girlfriend and me!

Mom: Now wait a minute. Kylo, that’s not how it goes. We humans have some standards. We don’t just randomly have kids with strangers. That would make us no better than regular animals!

Kylo Ren: Excuse me? No better than regular animals? Hey, I am a “regular” (alpha) animal. And with all due respect, mommy, we aren’t the ones destroying the planet, killing people and animals enmass, changing climate, introducing micro plastics in the rain, GMO in rain, mega toxins in the soil in France that makes backyard chicken eggs unhealthy… Should I go on?!

Mom: (Subdued) Why… Um.. how do you know all this?

Kylo Ren: I read the news, you know. I steal the newspaper from the chickens when they are distracted from the news trying to peck each other to death.

Mom: (Musing) Hmm, why did I marry?! (Getting depressed, looking downcast).

Kylo Ren: (Patting mom on head). Let’s retract to the most intelligent comment of this conversation. Turkey!!!

Things have been moving at their usual brisk pace around here. Life went a bit crazy because we had to deal with tenant move in and other responsibilities that go with it. On the fun end, we had Johan’s and Tanya’s birthdays in August. Both were nice celebrations.

School began in August. Tanya and Leena are going to the Delta program this year. Tanya is now a senior at high school! We are bracing for the changes to come. Leena just began sixth grade and is very happy in her new school.

I have been busy with lots of the usual stuff. House, gardening, my work with rentals and staying on top of kids’ schoolwork.

Johan bought a new old Mercedes! He and I decided to go by ourselves to get it. Of course, along the way he had to stop to look at another car, a Land Rover. As expected, he liked it and we bought it, adding to our ever growing car collection.

Tanya has been involved with the Bus-Mog, for the lack of a better name. This is Johan’s pet project where he is using a Unimog frame and a school bus body to create a camper!

My animals are telling me that they have many interesting observations to report, so over to them.

Kylo Ren the dog: Did I ever tell you that humans are strange? Well, they are. The thought occurred to me the other day when I was browsing the news. Let me prove it to you.

Ever since I joined this family, I have been undergoing rigorous behavior training. Why, you may ask? You may also look at me suspiciously, thinking something is wrong with me. But if you do, I may look back, snarl a bit (oops!) and say, I disagree. I strongly believe it is the humans that are wrong. My training is to control my so called aggressive behavior. Truth be told, I am an alpha. I bark at passerby to prevent attacks. I bark or even lunge and dogs and suspicious humans. Does this make me wrong? No! I will tell you humans are a lot more wrong and exhibit alpha behavior in strange and often horrific ways.

While I try to resolve the situation by a direct one-on-one confrontation, that may result in some blood spill, a few bites and angry exchanges with a dog (or even with a human), the conflict is resolved right then and there. We may actually even reach an understanding bordering on a cautious friendship.

Compare this with what humans do. They have a conflict. Not over something relevant such as a bone, but over something that doesn’t even exist. They fight over an idea that some believe and some don’t. It’s called religion. Now that’s already strange. But what’s stranger is that they don’t resolve it with some fist fighting and simple form of conflict. No! They take out massive weapons that are a lot bigger and scarier than my modest jaw and claw! With these weapons they proceed to wipe out large groups of people who had nothing to do with the conflict! And I am not talking about a pack of dogs (or a group). We are talking thousands! So now you tell me. Who needs training? Me or humans? Kindly mull over before you respond, while I chase that rabbit.

Rosie the dog: (Wakes up). Huh? Yeah, war, no good. Look at me. I scold, and then when the human extends his or her hand, I immediately become friends. Actually, all I really want to do is to nap in the sun. I think humans can learn a thing or two about life from me. A little spot in the sun, eat, rest, save your energy. Play in water, leaves, snow, anything you find. Life will be good. (Nods off).

Daisy the chicken: (cuddles with Rosie and falls asleep using Rosie’s paw as a roost).

Crazy Cookie the chicken: Kylo Ren the dog speaks the truth. We don’t often agree, but we do agree on this point. Let me tell you how conflicts go in the chicken world. If you have read my earlier blogs, you may know that the pecking order is everything. Now, in this respect, we and humans are similar. They care about pecking order too, a lot. But the way we solve it is by bullying each other and figuring out who goes where in the order. The order also keeps changing. We chicks get along well together. If there is a rooster, he can occasionally stir things up and be aggressive trying to protect his girls. But, in general, everyone lives.

Humans, on the other hand, go on this killing spree with no thought in their heads. They kill by the thousands. They threaten to use weapons that would destroy their own selves alongside their enemies. That would be akin to me pecking Daisy and myself during the pecking order war. Or using the help of a rooster who indiscriminately hurts all chickens including myself. Why would I do that? I am no fool. So are the humans fools? Hmm. Let’s roost over that.

You have heard this phrase used in the context of raising kids. The other day I saw an article from a young mother who was lamenting that there is no such village. It saddened me and hence this blog.

So what is this village we are talking about? The mom, of course. The dad would be the next. The siblings, extended family, schools and daycares, neighborhoods, our work places, the larger world and the government, in the stated order, form the village. Of course, the kids that have no moms are the worst off. Let’s start by assuming that there is a caring mom. If she is an only parent, its a hostile world out there. Let’s also include a caring dad. This makes for a more stable and secure home. Oftentimes, the mom does a majority of child care, along with her job and household duties. This is a lot more than what a human can handle. However, even with a caring dad who shares the household burden, the society fails our kids.

Siblings are not expected to help with child care. To some extent that is valid. A child must not have to forego their childhood and babysit their sibling. But, on the other hand, by helping parents out with some childcare, not only can siblings unburden their burnt out parents, they also make a positive contribution to the attitude of the younger sibling. The younger one is always watching and emulating the older child, and helping with the young one creates a positive, happy environment for the family. Moreover, the older child gains maturity and learns responsibility. Again, as long as the older one is not overly burdened, this can be a win win for all parties.

Getting to the extended family, assuming they live close by. Yes, everyone should pitch in to create a happy and positive environment for the child. No one should be burdened with routine childcare, but family should be open to occasional babysitting. Actually babysitting is not the right word. It has a negative connotation. The right word would be socializing with a younger one so that the little one becomes part of the extended family.

Daycares and schools take a major part of a child’s day. They definitely form a most important part of the village. Parents often consider a day care and school as a place to park their kids while they can get stuff done. Teachers often don’t feel appreciated or compensated enough to think about the overall implication of having kids under their responsibility. Kids are with them for many hours with them. A teacher can shape the future of the world not only by imparting knowledge, but also by ensuring general happiness and wellbeing of the children under their care. I have read articles about how kids are falling back in their education goals due to the pandemic or for whatever reason. Teachers say that parents should ensure that they study. Of course, that’s true. But parents are already overburdened.

Getting to the neighborhood aspect, there’s a hostile world out there. You can often not ask your neighbors to watch your kid for a little bit. If you left them for a short time, or did something that looks less than perfect, suddenly you can have a “good” Samaritan call child services on you and face a barrage of questions that leave you defending all your decision making for the child. If you go to a restaurant with a baby who starts crying, hostile looks are thrown your way. People will say, stay home with your baby. We are entitled to a peaceful dinner. Yes, you are, but so is the new mom. Breastfeeding in public is looked down upon. Go feed your baby in the bathroom! How, may I ask? By sitting on a toilet and trying to work the baby on the breast in a cramped, dirty stall? How gross and mean. Try eating your food in the restaurant’s toilet.

Work places have no sympathy for a parent. There’s hardly any maternity leave. Lots of insurances don’t cover pregnancies. Many work places don’t want to hire a pregnant lady. Most people get annoyed with parents if their kids fall sick. Coworkers can’t do one extra job to help out a parent of a sick child. They resent a mom or dad taking off for urgent reasons, or to go home on time. What’s a parent to do?

Getting to the larger world, there is often controversy with people complaining about a crying baby on the airplane, public place, next to you, wherever. Do you expect a baby to magically disappear or stop making noises? If there was a disabled or a special needs person making some noise, you would try to accommodate them. A child or a baby is just someone with different or special needs. Why not accommodate them rather than loudly and angrily stating your entitlement to peace because you paid for the service? The mom did too!

Getting to the Government, where to start? They have made it a most hostile environment for parents. The economy that heavily favors the corporations, executives and worships the rich makes no room or allowance for parents. Both parents must work for the family to stay afloat. There’s no provisions for adequate maternity leave. Daycare costs are through the roof and almost unaffordable. Insurance is tied through your jobs for some unlogical reason so if you don’t work, you don’t have insurance and get covered for whatever miniscule amount you will get covered for. There is absolutely no effort made on the part of the government to help out parents.

So you may ask, why should I care? I didn’t choose to have kids. I don’t have kids who will help me out in my old age. These arguments are short sighted and rubbish. For one, there is no guarantee that kids will take care of their parents in old age. Talk to the elderly, many are lonely with rare visits from their children. And of course, you must care. These children are the future. Their wellbeing today will ensure that they are productive and happy members of the society tomorrow. A well adjusted, happy, cared for child is a productive member of the society and will contribute toward your social security. An ignored, unhappy child will be a member who at best won’t care about the society that failed them. At worst, they may have psychological issues or be withdrawn from society and have potential to cause harm.

The effort that parents make to birth and nurture a child to adulthood must be commended and supported. They should be not left feeling alone and isolated without any help and resources. This is essential for our society’s future.

The village is absolutely necessary and every child deserves it.

Oh, my animals are not going to let me type anymore so over to them.

Rosie the dog: Huh? What’s this village we are talking about? I once went to a village far out in…. Hmm, I forget. Anyway, moving on. Tanya and Leena can’t complain about the absence of support growing up. Ok, maybe Tanya can, since I was insanely jealous of her from the beginning. And then when she adopted Kylo I never looked at her again (hmph). But Leena! I have carefully brought her up to be a most productive member of the society. All my efforts at raising this little one paid off. She makes the most excellent dinners for us. So yeah. I have done my part. Ok, time for a nap. My husband would like to contribute anyway, so I will hand it over to him.

Kylo Ren the dog: Village, you say? When I hear the word village, I think of homesteads, chickens, pigs. Hey! That sounds like our home (minus the pig). So yes. I am very much a part of our village here. I am the littlest one here so they brought me up. But I grew fast and have been a nurturing member of this society here ever since. I am the great protector, caregiver, teacher (they learn by training me) and their doctor (they say laughter is the best medicine and I dole out that medicine by the pound!). So yes. I am taking good care of this village of ours. Oh, here comes Crazy Cookie. My word, she is behaving crazier than usual. Over to her!

Crazy Cookie the chicken: Thanks Kylo (See, I can be civil to him!)! Yes, well, laugh if you like. But my crazy behavior is due to these mites that have been bothering me lately. They crawl around my butt and my solution is to suffocate them in dust. So yes, if you see my butt falling as I walk, you know why.

Coming to the topic of the day. We chickens are very much into villages. We have a very sociable way of living. If one of us had chicks, we would all take care of them. We clean each other, talk to each other, bully each other and if one of us fell sick, the rest of us would even peck the sick one to death, and then perhaps eat them, all together! So yeah, one big happy family. With regards to the human girls, we are sweet. We follow them around as long as they don’t try to pounce on us. We hang close, we are ok with occasional hugs, and we provide plenty of entertainment. Not to forget, we lay eggs!! I would go as far as to say that we chickens are keeping this ship afloat, or this village thriving. Thanks for the appreciation! Later my friends. Gotta go suffocate some mites.

That’s what Disney is telling us. Don’t believe me? Allow me to give you some examples.

Let’s start with Snow White. Snow White works super hard and is a good girl. The queen is a bad girl. So guess what happens. After Snow White goes to the dwarfs, the bad queen goes to her chemistry lab! She concocts the ultimate chemistry marvel in the form of a beautiful apple. The apple put Snow White into sleep but she could be woken up with a kiss. Let’s see if you can top that! Don’t you tell me that the queen is worthless. She puts even the top chemists to shame. Not only that, she has a gala time while conducting her experiments and laughs a big, evil laugh throughout her exertions. I was mighty impressed. Snow White, on the other hand, immediately discarded her virtues which involved perfect housekeeping to become a princess, Disney’s ultimate heaven for women.

Not convinced, are you? Let’s bring in Rapunzel. Rapunzel’s biggest virtue was that she had long hair. Hmm! Pretty, maybe. Unhandy, definitely. Virtuous? I don’t think so. Now her kidnapper/mom discovered the flower of youth by herself and also figured out how to use Rapunzel’s hair in lieu of the flower to keep herself young. She also was a self sufficient single mom/kidnapper. So, plenty of grit and knowledge there.

Don’t you shake your head with disbelief. Let’s move on to the little mermaid. The bad gal was so knowledgeable in Chemistry that not only did she pull out Ariel’s voice, she was also able to transform mermaids such as Ariel and herself into humans. That’s some serious chemistry skills, you all.

You aren’t buying it, are you? Have you seen the modern day Emperor’s new groove? There’s some variation in the story there, in the sense the good girl was replaced by a spoilt prince. However, the bad girl, Yzma, was a super wizard in chemistry with all her pink vials changing humans to llamas, cats and many other forms of animals.

Lastly, another bit of a variation. This bad girl is not a whiz in chemistry, but she was a miraculous seamstress. Yes, we are talking about none other than Miss Cruella DeVille. The good girl, Anita, was fine. However, this bad girl, Cruella DeVille, was on top of her game in the fashion world. Also, her planning to defeat her rival designer by staging her own death was poetry in motion. Ms. Cruella even designed a gown that doubled as a parachute to save her life, thereby proving herself to be a most effective physicist.

Ladies and gentlemen, I rest my case.

It was my favorite week of the year again. The State College arts fest! Once again we laid our chores and cares aside and indulged in art.

This year’s festival was special. The kids decided to sell art at the children’s sidewalk sale. After some thought, we came up with a novel idea. We made necklace pendants out of oven baked clay encased in resin. To further explore resin art, we used alcohol ink in resin and tried various color combinations.

Resin is quite a difficult medium for beginners. There are many issues that you encounter. On our first try, I mixed the resin with the hardener too fast. This resulted in many air bubbles getting trapped in the mixture. You can pop surface bubbles with a heat gun but the ones trapped inside are impossible to reach. Slow mixing was key to reducing bubble formation.

Slow mixing has its own problems. The resin hardens in about half hour so it’s a slow but mad scramble to get the pieces done before it starts hardening.

Our process was as follows. We mixed the resin and hardener in disposable cups. We would also preheat the mold in the oven for 3 to 4 minutes. This helped in getting rid of bubbles. Once ready, we would pour the resin half way into the mold, then place either pre-made oven baked clay pieces or alcohol ink. We would then fill up the molds with the remaining resins.

The necklace sale was quite a success. The girls sold 55 pieces! Not bad work for a day. It was exciting, but also exhausting.

The next day was my day at the fest. We started on the street painting. We had an exciting theme this year. On our road trip, we had visited the Manzanar national historic site close to Death Valley in California. There I found this lovely gallery of Native Americans painted by Steve Cavallo. We decided to paint an image from this collection. The artist, Steve, was kind enough to give us permission to reproduce the painting.

With much apprehension we began the difficult art piece. It turned out quite good and Steve was excited to see our final work. It was the most satisfying experience for me, in terms of positive interaction with the artist and the outcome.

Other than the painting, we walked around and enjoyed discussing various art ideas with each other. We ate festival food and at the Indian restaurant. It was a lovely festival for us.

Kylo Ren the dog: I didn’t like the fest. It was noisy and I wasn’t allowed to make the same amount of noise. Hmph. My noise is so much nicer than the festival noise. Besides, they had meaty smells everywhere but I got none of it. Tanya was gone all the time and Leena also left. The only positive thing that happened to me was that I got to hang out with my girl friend. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have a girlfriend now along with a wife. I have not told my wife Rosie about it or she will bite my head off. But my girlfriend lives under a truck in the junkyard and she is a German Shepherd like me. She is so beautiful. Oh, I am in love. Leena has promised me a divorce party soon, so I am all set.

Crazy cookie the chicken: Is the arts fest nice?

Lazy Laurie the chicken: Oh yes. There’s art to eat.

Crazy cookie the chicken: Umm, but, Lazy Laurie, we don’t eat art, do we?

Lazy Laurie the chicken: When will you little ones learn? We chickens eat everything!

Crazy cookie the chicken: Oh ya right. We chickens eat everything. I saw felt art and paintings of birds and frogs. So we can eat that?

Lazy Laurie the chicken: Sigh. Yes. Everything.

Crazy cookie the chicken: Oh cool. I also saw my sisters, on a stick. They called it, chicken on a stick. The humans were lining up to eat it. What about that?

Lazy Laurie the chicken: Ulp. Bed time.

I discovered the farmer’s market a few years after moving to the US. State College lays nestled in primarily agricultural land. It’s farmers market galore here!

My first experience with the market may sound familiar to you. The baked goods attracted attention. However, I quickly came to the conclusion that the chocolate chip cookie is three times the price of that at the grocery store. The market seemed like an overpriced waste of money.

We overhauled our diet in 2014. I read big, fat books on diet. It was life changing, except for a caveat. Where would I find the things mentioned? Bones for broth? Spring butter? Grade B maple syrup, raw milk and honey to name a few seemed unachievable.

Not knowing where to begin, I walked over to the farmer’s market with very little hope. I still remember how the market came alive in front of my eyes that day. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Here was a vendor selling bones for broth. Raw milk, raw butter and cream were at the next booth. Maple syrup, raw honey, Alaskan salmon, you name it! What changed? Not the market, but how I perceived it. The things that were previously invisible to me grabbed my attention.

My diet plan follows the recommendations made by Dr. Weston Price, a dentist in early 1900s whose son died at 14 following a root canal. He then travelled around the world visiting remote indigenous cultures to establish a correlation between indigenous diets and beautiful jaw structure. Following his research, he made diet recommendations.

To my biggest surprise, some Amish farmers that I spoke to knew about Dr. Price and even carried his books with them.

So how do you navigate the market? It helps to have a list. If you have a plan depending on what you are trying to accomplish from the market, you are going to love it and benefit tremendously from it.

The Weston Price diet avoids sugar and white flour. Occasionally you can find a baker who uses whole wheat and maple syrup for baking. I buy from them, but stay away from the others. If you are into sugary baked goods, you can consider buying it at the market. Pricing aside for the moment, the ingredients at least does not have strange chemicals listed in them. The baked goods from the market are more wholesome.

An important part of shopping at the market is to try to gauge the farmers. I go and ask new vendors if they are organic. Some are certified organic. Others use organic practices. Some are non organic. You will have good results from asking the farmers. Most people don’t lie to your face. I do try to shop with vendors that I like and who feel like good people to me. Over time relationships and friendships develop. At the market, vendors have told me that if they made a mistake and charge less for their product, customers will correct them and pay the difference rather than walking off and cheating them. The vendors that you know will give you a freebie like an onion or extra lettuce. Unlike a grocery store, a farmers market is an honest place that thrives on human kindness and friendships. People share recipes with each other and the vendors.

This brings me to the next point. The market is a social hub. Sometimes if I am short on time, I find it annoying to stop and chit chat. But in general, beautiful friendships form at this hub of like minded people. You run into a lot of the same people every week. They become your friends.

It is important, though, to gauge your vendors. Some are very business-like and don’t gel. On one hand, it is understandable. They are, after all, here to make a sale and not chit chat. But without the personal interaction, you don’t know what you are buying. It may be something that they just bought wholesale from somewhere and are selling to you. This question often plays in my mind, and I am frequently suspicious even about people I have known for a long time. Ultimately, you are never going to know for sure, so all you can do is to trust your instincts and rely on long term relationships. I don’t let down my farmer friends, and they don’t let me down.

People who don’t shop at the market will often bring the trust issue. How can you trust them? My question is, how can you trust Walmart or a large chain to do the right thing? They often have dubious labels that are sometimes even a blatant lie. Remember, the managers of large grocery stores don’t know you, don’t care about you. Their interest is only to make money off you. You are a number, a statistic to them. They don’t come face to face with you. There is zero accountability. I would rather tie my faith to people I see, talk to, ask. People who shake their heads and laugh at the hard work they are putting in. It shows. And if it doesn’t show, I don’t buy from them.

A word about the pricing. People say that farmers market is expensive. I will say that it is untrue. If you look a little deeper, you will agree with me. The cookie you bought at the market was made, transported and sold by the same person or family. Time was spent on transportation and at the market and it needs to be accounted for in the cost. Inefficient, you say? I disagree. The grocery store uses poor, strange ingredients to come up with a cookie that does unknown damage to your body. It was made in some polluting factory exploiting some poorly paid, overworked people who probably hate you for their miserable life. It was transported across the country or even the world thereby causing pollution. The ingredients meet no agricultural standards. So your cheap cookie comes at the cost of pollution, exploitation of people, resources and the environment, and your health. You will pay it down the road when you have to make trips to the doctor. Nothing in life is free. Additionally, paying farmers keeps the money local and benefits your community rather than lining the pockets of some rich, private plane-flying manager somewhere far off. So please consider all the costs, not what just leaves your pocket at that moment.

Another quick example: The other day I bought a salmon fillet from the market. It was small and costed the same as a large pizza. But compare the health benefits of the salmon to the lack of it in a pizza and the salmon works out to be way cheaper.

Again outlining, to get the most out of a farmers market, have a plan. Make a list. Know your vendor. Take some time to establish a personal connection.

Buy vegetables at the market. The simplest recipe tastes better than a king’s meal. Buy meat from good, caring people. Buy your milk raw from a good, upstanding farmer. I get milk at $7 a gallon, raw and from pasture fed cows. Compare with the $6 half gallon ultra pasteurized organic milk stored at the grocery store. I get $3-$4 a dozen eggs from free ranging hens. The animals have a happier lifestyle and I think most of us want to support that.

One drawback of shopping at the market is that, initially at least, you will have to spend time and effort to get to the right people. Overall it is a bit more time consuming. I am happy to spend my time on it. But I realize others may not have that luxury.

Another drawback: you will only find local, in season products. So if you are planning that elaborate Thai dinner, you will still need to make a stop at the grocery store. The winter market only has root and some leafy green vegetables.

Oops, my animals are looking mad. I guess they have something to say.

Kylo Ren the dog: Hmph. Mom took a lot of time. Well, the main thing that I wanted to say about the topic of the day is this. My mommy is a hypocrite. She is recommending that everyone goes to the market. But guess what?! She never takes me! I would go to all the meat vendors and beg for a piece. But sigh. My dearest mom leaves me in the car or at home. Oh, to get my jaws on that juicy piece of chicken! Yumm!!

Lazy Laurie the chicken: (eyes popping out). What?! I knew it. Kylo Ren the monster wants to put his jaws around a piece of chicken. That’s why I always steer my friends away from this terrible monster dog. If one of them is so foolish as to interact with him, I have used countless deflection tactics to keep them safe. I deserve my top spot in the pecking order and the largest piece of moldy pancake.

As far as the market is concerned, my chicken friends and I will stay far away from it. One day I had hidden in the car that mom drove to the market, just out of curiosity. I saw her buy chicken drumsticks. I was so scared. The car had 6 frozen drumsticks that day, 4 frozen in the farmers freezer, and two frozen but shivering with fear under me. Never again!

A year ago, the pie was reasonably well sliced. Although the slices were unequal, men, women, non white men and women, LGBTQ people got a share.

Economy started deteriorating and we had to get careful with our money. We couldn’t afford to squander it to show a politically correct, well-sliced pie.

Roe and Wade was overturned. Women’s slice of the pie was made smaller. The rest of the population, the men, white and non white, shook their head. For a moment they felt sorry for the women. Under the guise of pro-life, they managed to shrink women’s rights and opportunities in one blow. The men felt bad, but shrugged. Hey, our rights are still intact. Our piece of the pie is still intact. It may even have grown some since we get a bit of the women’s piece. All good.

The LGBTQ rights were curtailed. Uh oh. We the privileged are politically correct, and love the LGBTQ folks. Let’s go for a rally, show our support. Oh well. Time to move on. Sorry you lovely LGBTQ people. We did get a bit of your pie though. We are going to accept it and move on.

Affirmative action was struck down. Oh no. Women, people of color, diversity, sorry. You have been pushed further down. Your piece of pie gets still smaller. We feel bad, really we do. But hey, our piece is getting bigger. White men shrug, accept their new and improved piece of the pie and move on.

But, what’s this? Legacy admissions, expensive, out of reach health care, rising cost of living, high interest rates on loans and guess whose piece of the pie gets smaller? Everyone’s including the middle class to poor white men. As their rights diminished, their piece of the pie got smaller.

So now we are left with the pie in the hands of a few wealthy white men with some slivers handed down to the rest of us. Does this sound like a democratic world? I am not so sure. To me it seems like we are back to where we started, where might was right. Slavery was a way of life.

Economic inequity is a marker of unsustainability. We are in an unsustainable world, now scrambling to take whatever we can from whoever we can. Guess what? With this dog-eat-dog attitude, sooner or later you and I will fall off the bandwagon and miss out on our piece of the pie as well.

Remember, if you turn a blind eye when someone loses their piece of pie, that person could be you. It will be you and it also should be you. Instead of trying to get into the 1% that will always have the biggest slice of the pie, consider supporting a well distributed pie.