‘Animal’s People’ by Indra Sinha

'I used to be human once. So I'm told. I don't remember it myself, but people who knew me when I was small say I walked on two feet just like a human being.'
These are the opening lines of an extraordinary novel that I read a couple of years ago. Shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize, it is narrated by the central character, Animal. He recounts his story in shocking detail, the difficulties and obstacles of his existence set out without sentiment and often with robust humour. His language is, by turns, lewd, obscene and scatological; his two major preoccupations revolve around walking upright again and sex! He tells how life changed after 'that night' when an explosion in an American chemical factory in his slum changed life forever. There is a vibrancy about this story as Animal demonstrates his resilience as a severely disabled youth living at the lowest level of poverty in the fictional city of Khaufpur, the City of Fear.
Rather disingenuously the author, Indra Sinha, who now lives in France, claims, 'Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.' In fact, the city bears a striking resemblance to Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh, where on 3^rd December 1984 the American company Union Carbide, manufacturing pesticides, released 40 tonnes of lethal gas into the atmosphere. It remains the world's worst industrial disaster. More than 500,000 people were exposed and 15,000 people died, 8,000 within the first weeks, others in the ensuing decades.
Survivors of that nightmare are subject to spontaneous abortions and stillbirths and the babies that survive to be born suffer from a range of disabilities – some are blind or deaf or brain-damaged, others have missing or distorted limbs or facial disfigurements. Water is essential for life, yet the source for the people of Bhopal is toxic, abandoned chemicals still leaking into it, nearly 25 years after the initial disaster.
In June, 2010, seven former employees of Union Carbide, now a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Company, were found guilty of 'death by negligence' and fined around $2,000 each and sentenced to two years in prison. How can it be classified simply as negligence when in 1982 thirty major hazards were identified at the Bhopal plant but were not rectified while the same thirty major hazards were fixed at the company's identical plant in the USA? It shows, at the very least, a cynical disregard for life in Bhopal. Dow Chemical Company absolves itself of any liability for the tragedy in Bhopal because it did not merge with Union Carbide until 2001. However, it has undertaken all responsibility for more than 75,000 asbestos related law suits in the USA. These claims date from the 1940s and 1950s to the present.
India's cabinet has approved a decision to attempt to extradite Warren Anderson, the former CEO of Union Carbide. BP has spent $1.6 bn on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, in which 12 people died. It is expected to spend much more. Union Carbide has paid $0.6bn in compensation.
I have not included any photographs other than the one alongside this article – they are pitiful and horrific and immensely distressing. I, with thousands of others in the west, have the luxury of being almost certain that children and grandchildren will be born whole and straight and healthy. The women of Bhopal can have no such optimism.

Retirement

This item was in our local community magazine. I don't know who wrote it so can't credit it.
'Working people frequently ask retired people how they make their days interesting.
Well, the other day my wife and I went into town. We went into a shop for about five minutes. When we came out there was a traffic warden writing out a parking ticket. I said, 'Hey, come on, give us senior citizens a break, can't you?' He ignored me so I called him a moron. He glared at me and started to write another ticket for having worn tyres.
My wife then told him he was unintelligent. He finished the second ticket and put it on the windscreen with the first then started writing a third ticket for some other small infringement. This went on for about twenty minutes because the more we abused him the more tickets he wrote.
We didn't care at all. We came into town by bus. Now that we're retired we try to have a little fun each day – it's important at our age.'

SkyWatch Friday Season 4 Episode 52

Early July sky over Berkshire, UK - 6:46 pm

The SkyWatch Friday team organise and host this weekly meme, for which we thank them. To see more skies around this beautiful world please click here

Midweek Blues

Rebecca from 'The Dusty Cellar' organises and hosts this meme. To join in or to see other offerings please click on the logo.

Pansy Blue, one of our blue Burmese kittens. Genetically, blue is a dilution of black. Her mother was brown, her siblings chocolate or brown. No lilacs in this particular litter.

In different lights Pansy looked more silver than blue.

A blue background complemented her colour.

Here she is curled up with a chocolate friend. To us she was, quite correctly, 'blue' - but to the uninitiated she was grey!

ABC Wednesday Y is for Ying Tong

It's ABC Wednesday again - time to scratch the brain cells for something new. Thank you to Denise Nesbitt and her fine team for organising and hosting this weekly meme. To see more Ys and perhaps join in please click here.
The Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme that was broadcast from 1951 to 1960. The Ying Tong Song was a typical sample of the idiocy that prevailed throughout the series. It was performed by Spike Milligan, who wrote it, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe. All three were musical, Milligan and Sellers performing in jazz bands on various instruments, Milligan particularly, and Secombe possessing a fine tenor voice. 
I thought this might only resonate with an audience familiar with the Goons but found that the Muppets had also performed this song.Thus we have a clip from the Goons followed by one from the Muppets. Enjoy! . . .but don't try to make sense of it!

haiku my heart friday holly berries

Thank you to Rebecca from 'recuerda mi corazon' who organises and hosts this haiku meme. Click here to see more - and perhaps be tempted to join in.

Ilex 'Golden King'

Pale now, they'll  ripen

To scarlet winter glory,

Brightening dull days.

Weekend Reflections #41

Thank you to James from 'Newtown Area Photo' who organises and hosts this lovely meme. To see more reflections and perhaps participate please click here.

6:30 on a misty late June morning with the promise of heat to follow. The channel markers guide yachts through the narrow channels of the Beaulieu River in Hampshire (UK) a birdwatcher's paradise.

Friday Flash 55 The bride

It's time for Friday Flash 55. To join in write a story in 55 words (no more, no less) then tell Mr. Knowitall by leaving a comment on his own Flash 55 post today.

 She stepped gracefully from the carriage and posed for photos, one hand on the horse's harness. Moving forwards she was abruptly halted. The horse had stood on her train and ripped off her headdress. As she stooped to retrieve it he snatched a mouthful from her bouquet then nudged her over.

Were these bad omens?

ABC Wednesday X is for Xanthosoma

It's ABC Wednesday again and our thanks go to Denise Nesbitt and her eXcellent team who organise and host this weekly meme.
X is for Xanthosoma, a class of about fifty perennials which have either underground tubers or thick stems above ground. They are all native to tropical America and are mainly grown for their attractive foliage. Many species, like Xanthosoma sagittifolium, are cultivated for their starchy edible tubers, which can be used in stews and soups or boiled and eaten much like potatoes.

Xanthosoma sagittifolium
photo courtesy of Tau'olunga and Wikimedia Commons

Update on our Scottish visitor

It has been slightly cooler today after a few days of high heat and humidity and I suspect our visitor has flown, beginning her long journey back to her home loft. I guess she has at least 400 miles to fly, possibly more.
I contacted the Scottish Homing Union to seek advice as I was concerned that the local woodpigeons were beginning to bully her though she continued to feed, sharing the station with them and with the collared doves. She, and they, gave way to the harrying starlings and I can understand why. They're not fussy who or what they land on and the shrieking and bickering is enough to give any self-respecting creature a headache.
The SHU advised that stray pigeons can take about a week to regain body weight and muscle before they attempt to continue their journey. That we could not catch her was a good sign as it meant she was strong. Then they said that she would probably start to fly off in the early evenings and attempt to get home, which is a classic sign of an experienced bird.
This has confused me a little (not a difficult achievement!) because I asked Janie of 'Janie and Steve's Utah Trails' for some information. (Thank you Janie!) Steve used to raise racing pigeons when he was a teenager. He said that birds were released for racing in the early morning so that they had all day to fly and stragglers might arrive days or even weeks later but that as far as he knew they would not fly at night.Our visitor certainly flew in the evenings – from our roof to roofs two or three houses away (not a great distance) and then she would return to our house. It's now evening here and there has been no sign of her so I'm sure she has departed. I hope she makes it home – we'll never know. I gave the SHU her details and a couple of photographs so I suppose there's a slim chance that we might hear – I'd like to think so.

Face of the Week #18

Sistertex of 'Spacial Peepol' organises and hosts this enjoyable weekly meme. Thank you, Sistertex! Click here to see more 'faces'.

Callum and Kiri in wetsuits -  the sun was hot but the water is deep and takes more than a couple of days to warm up! The lifejackets are essential, even with safety ropes.

Barry took our eldest daughter and her two younger children sailing at the weekend. The weather was perfect and everyone enjoyed themselves. Gillian and the children wanted to swim so Barry attached them to ropes and in they plunged. They are all excellent swimmers but a lifetime of sailing has made Barry very aware of how quickly conditions can change. They awoke the next morning to thick fog!

Brought to mind . . .

I have just been reading Denise's post (An English Girl Rambles) about the first gift her husband, at that time her fairly recent boyfriend, gave her. It was so romantic and I sighed happily and smiled and thought, 'What was the first thing Barry ever gave me?'
I asked him a few moments ago if he remembered and he replied instantly and, what is more, correctly! I was most impressed. It was, after all, a very long time ago! He was then an officer cadet at RMA Sandhurst, frantically fit, a boxer (excellent), runner (life-long) and enthusiastic participant in many another sweat-inducing sport and pastime. He was straight-backed, square-shouldered, blue-eyed and blond. To be more precise his hair was sandy rather than golden. It was this that made me compare him to a child's toy, a bear, and to his credit he was touched rather than irritated! The next time he came to see me he gave me a cuddly, growly teddy bear, which kept me company all the times we were apart and who later growled for our small children to make them smile.

My bear still has his growl, but he lost his original ribbon many years ago – I think it was red. His fur is worn and thin in places and his stuffing is forcing its way out. He really should spend time in the dolls' hospital but I don't want to send him away so he lives quietly in a drawer now, only occasionally emerging for a quick cuddle or, as today, a photo call!

Thank you, Denise, for jogging my memory. My bear was the first of many thoughtful gifts from my husband. Barry's hair is still sandy, touched with grey, his eyes still blue, but the military bearing disappeared long ago, the result, he swears, of all the cross-country running he's done through the decades.

A growly bear and flowers whose heads fell off remain memories that always make me smile – and the fact that he used to shave in the train on his way to see me.

Microfiction Monday #37

Susan from 'Stony River' organises and hosts this weekly meme. She provides a picture and the challenge is to create a story in 140 characters or less. Click here to read more marvels of microfiction – and perhaps be tempted to join in.
Here is this week's picture and my offerings follow.

 'I've got grit in my eye.'
'Can't see it.'
'Hurry – I'm on watch.'
'Did you see rocks before you foundered?'
'I told you – grit in my eye.'
(135 characters)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

'What's the matter? Lost your tongue?'
'Yes, actually. Gain legs, lose voice – that's the contract.'
But of course, no one could hear her.
    (137 characters)