Rex, Ama, Chicago and the burning man; Yes, we have bananas, we have lots of bananas today
Sunday, January 23, 2011 at 2:07PM 
We had not seen Rex and Ama since Christmas. Late yesterday afternoon, they dropped in for a visit. Chicago could not believe her happy eyes. She stepped onto Rex's lap and looked him in the eye. "Where the hell you been, bro?" she asked.
"I've been to Tennessee, cat," Rex answered. This was a lie. Rex had not been to Tennessee. He hadn't even been to Texas.
Margie and Ama cooked up a stir-fry vegetarian meal in the wok that Jacob and Lavina gave Margie for her birthday last September. I went out to take a look.
"What would you add, Bill?" Margie asked.
I took a whiff of the scent and it suddenly seemed that orange would be just the thing.
"An orange," I said.
But we were out of oranges.
"I've got one in my pack," Rex said.
So he got it. It was a very red "blood" orange.
Margie put it into the stir fry.
The zing of the orange proved to be quite tasty in there.
Then I went and sat back on the living room couch. Chicago left Rex and came back to me.
Late each August in northern Nevada, a very strange community of about 50,000 people comes together on a hot stretch of absolutely barren, alkaline, desert - a place where not even cactus, snakes, or spiders live. They call it "Burning Man" in honor of the huge, log, effigy of a man that is put up there every year and then burned to the ground at the end.
Except for water, coffee and tea, no concessions are allowed. Community members must bring in all their own food and supplies - and for many, that includes their own alcohol and drugs. People pedal about on the bare earth on bicycles and ride about in tiny vehicles that look like cupcakes. A hot wind blows, and dries out and dehydrates everything in sight. There is a big car that looks like a cat.
All kinds of sculptures go up. When it is over, everything must be removed so that all that is left behind is desert, looking like it did before the event.
Ama has been going to Burning Man year for years and last summer introduced Rex to it.
Now he is applying to Burning Man for a grant that would fund what he needs to build his own, large, sprawling, sculpture there, one that includes a life-size concrete replica of the largest salmon ever caught - nearly six feet in length.
I hope he gets the grant.
And now I want to go to Burning Man, too.
See what is says at the top of this blog?
One photographer's search for community, home and family...?
I think this very strange event would qualify.
And Margie, who usually shies away from adventure these days, says she would like to go, too.
I kind of doubt that we will be able to pull it off - but watch this space and find out. If not this year, then maybe next.
All I've got to do is get this blog and electronic magazine up, running and cooking along the way I want, generating income, funding itself, funding my work, being my work and then, if I want to run off to someplace strange like Burning Man just to take some pictures and blog about it, well, by hell, I can do it!
Rex and Ama are both doing Burning Man things in this picture, BTW. He is refining his ideas and she is pulling up Burning Man pictures to show Margie and I.
From India: Vijay feeds us bananas
Here we are, in the Chennai fruit store where Vijay has brought us so that he can buy bananas and feed us - as I have noted before.
Look at all that fruit! There is probably more fruit in this one store than in all of Alaska!
Well, maybe not than "all of Alaska," but there is a lot of fruit.
Many varieties of bananas were available and Vijay wanted to give us as wide an experience as possible. He picked his bananas very carefully.
The fruit store includes a little juice bar, where you can buy fruit drinks of many types, so Vijay bought fruit drinks for Melanie and I.
And now I must say that I am very surprised and a little disappointed in myself. In my mind, I remember taking many pictures, like of Melanie getting served, the juice baristo handing my drink to me, of Vijay and such, little kids passing by on motorcycles and observing us as we drank. I intended to include a few of these in this post - but this is the only image from the fruit store juice bar that I have!
How could this be?
I am wondering if I was using two cameras and somehow forgot to download the images from one camera, because it just doesn't make any sense that I would photograph just this static scene and then quit shooting.
I also wonder if they really had Washington apples there. India grows many apples in the north and they are very good. And all of the fruit at this store, apples included, were very cheap in price compared to what the same items would cost here - just pennies on the dollar or maybe in some cases a nickel or dime.
I don't think Washington State apples would be all that cheap after having been shipped all the way to India.
I wish that I could remember the names of all these banana varieties, but I can't. In the upper right hand corner is the banana most like the ones we usually find in the store here. Those little tiny ones - they were my favorite! So sweet and tender and good and after you eat them for awhile and then come back to the states the bananas here taste kind of bland.
The green bananas are supposed to be green. They are ripe when they are green like this.
Anyway, we ate them all. Every banana. Afterward, both Melanie and I were stuffed, but Vijay wanted to feed us more food.
I toast Vijay with a banana. The situation here is the same as the juice bar. I could swear that I took many more pictures, including ones of Melanie and Vijay eating bananas, but what you see here is all the banana photos that I have.
And that just isn't like me.
It's okay, though. Just the other week, Vijay told me that when next I, and anyone who might travel with me, come back, he is going to treat me to another banana feast, with even more varieties. Remembering how I came up short here, I will be certain to take more pictures and to tell the story right.
So just consider this to be a preview.
And this is little miss Vaidehi, daughter of Vijay and wife Vidya. In the background is Vasanthi, Vivek and Vijay's mom, who brought Melanie and I to Chennai by bus. She paid for our tickets, our lodging and all of our food except for what Vijay bought us. She would not let us pay for anything.
That's what hosts in India do - they assume complete responsibility for your survival. It is a different kind of concept for an American to grasp but that is the kind of generosity that is built into the culture and you must put aside your pride and accept, respect, and be grateful for it.
And don't argue about whose going to pay, because you will use that argument. And if by chance you see an opportunity to sneak in and pay for a lunch before your host can do so - don't do it. Because afterward you will look into their eyes and see that they feel badly. So be gracious, and accept the hospitality.
And, of course, that is Melanie who Vaidehi is so fascinated to meet.
This will do it for today, but tomorrow I will include a range of studies of little Miss Vaidehi. Her mom will be included in these studies.
Reader Comments (6)
I keep finding myself thinking that Rex is you, Bill. Is he your mini-me? (grin)
You might find this story interesting - I spotted it on Twitter the other day and it sounds like your kind of story.
New Yorker searches 4 owner of remarkable blizzard photos-pssibly tourists. Do U know ppl in photos?(story/video) http://tinyurl.com/5twx5be
There is a 3 minute video on the link above which explains what happened, etc. Enjoy!
Miss Vaidehi is adorable, can't wait to see more
Nice to c u here :) wid Chicago cuddled with you! I love those bananas.. Vaidehi is grown up now and talks non stop about God Knows What!! Shes adorable..
Oooh. So how did that stir fry taste? You never got to that part. Seems kind of important. Just like jail in Juarez, but you left that out too...
Just saying...
Mirage - If you were to see Rex and I side by side, you might wonder if I was his "mini-me." He's way bigger than I am.
Twain - The post with the studies of her is done and scheduled to appear in about 20 minutes.
Suji - I guess I must come back asap and do a new study on Vaidehi - and eat some more bananas, too.
Debby - Sorry, when I included the line about the orange adding zing I guess I thought covered it. Anyway, it was pretty damn good. As for Juarez, as I noted in response to your last request that I tell the story, I definitely plan to - when I can do it right.
I can't do it right, right now. Not until I can dig into my archives and perhaps take a trip back to Juarez. In fact, I feel it essential to telling the story that I go back.
I will be a little nervous, though, because if Juarez was dangerous then and law enforcement and the judiciary thoroughly corrupt - and it was and they were - it is probably 100 fold so now.
Mirage, I almost forgot to mention - I do check the New Yorker photo booth regularly and I had seen that image and story.
You might compare it the lead image on one of my early blog posts:
http://wasillaalaskaby300.squarespace.com/journal/2008/11/6/new-york-city-hot-afternoon-in-coney-island-part-1-wasilla-c.html