Hursts in India

The kaleidoscope which is India turned for us this week to reveal another remarkable aspect of this vibrant and ever diverse country.   Diversity, though, is too bland a word to even begin to adequately describe this place.   From one of the world’s top eye institutes at the very cutting edge of research and development relating to issues of sight to living conditions and agriculture techniques that haven’t changed much in the last 1,000 years.   We saw the two extremes this week. We flew to Hyderabad on Tuesday morning.  Obviously an ancient city itself, it has nearly doubled in the last decade or so due to the proliferation of high-tech companies based or with major offices there, including IBM, Microsoft, Dell and the likes.   So there is the old city and the ultra-new with all the conveniences of modern life.   They appropriately have dubbed the new area “Cyberabad.”   We were met at the airport by a driver from the LV Prasad Eye Institute w...

Malviya Nagar Ward, Thursday Evening English Class, recently baptized husband and wife, Brother & Sister Massey, others are nonmembers; Grant & Elders Mills & Miles Indian National Airline (INA) Market.  Anil (mission president's driver) and Sister Hodges INA Market - Vegetables Eggs couldn't get any fresher! They have never heard of "free range chickens!"  Talk about a head bobble. And . . . they don't pluck but just skin the chicken right in front of you (taking off feathers and skin together) in these obviously FDA approved facilities.  Could it get any fresher? Fabric and sewing shop at INA Market Friday Sisters Peck and Hodges invited me to come along with them to INA (Indian National Airways)    Market where we found all sorts of fruits, vegetables, poultry, clothes, bedding, jewelry, you name it.    I found some bright dishcloths to make up into scripture bags for my Valiant Primary class.   ...

Religious Pluralism, including The Indian  Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints We are beginning to get a glimpse of the magnitude of this country, its diversity and challenges.  It is clear that we are no longer in “Kansas” nor in the simple, laid-back cultures of the islands.  And we are just starting to scratch the surface.  There are likely more people in a half mile radius of our flat than there are in all of Guam and the Federated States of Micronesia combined.  While we are beginning to see some baby steps that we can take in following up with prior public-affair contacts, our vision has yet to focus.  Monday we once again visited Old Delhi.    Fascinating place though this week it is much subdued compared to last due to the beginning of Ramadan.    The young Elders took us under their wings as we visited the spice market.  Its the largest in Asia.   We followed them through a...