Cornermagz Global Academy Commercial

私のこのブログ「Downtown Global Academy」ですが，ストリートマガジンの Corner Magazine に「Cornermagz Global Academy」として連載させて頂いています．そちらのコマーシャルが出来ましたので，是非チェックお願いします．

This blog, Downtown Global Academy, has been published serially as "Cornermagz Global Academy" in Corner Magazine. And a commercial of the magazine has just came out. Have a look.

Introduction South Asia 101B: Bangalore, India

courtesy of Ashleigh M. Curry



Aug. 2004 - Dec. 2004
Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Introduction South Asia 101B: Bangalore, India

contd.


004. Toilet manner

Aright, here we have this famous "untouchable left hand". Now you can try at your home.

First you need to know is that Indian style, same as China style and Japanese style, you don't sit on a toilet seat. There is no toilet seat. You just squat down and do your thing. Then, after you took a schaitze, grab a fixed pail and ladle out water with right hand. While you are squatted down, pour slowly from your back and gently wash off your asshole by using tip of left hands' fingers. And wait a lico bit to get it dry. That's it.

It really makes so much sense tho. At the mean time, you can palpate a condition of anal too. And when you become used to it, you would think using toilet paper makes no sense anymore.

It's like no waste of resource, skin friendly, and totally clean. However, if this gets popularity among develop nations like Japan or become world wide, it wouldn't be so all good especially for those involved with toilet paper industry. Plus, Japanese toilet cultures got use of heated washlet too. So we already have industrial concessions and it has become our custom. hmm.


005. Vegetarians

I've been asked by so many saying "Indians only eat curry, right?" Ok, then Japanese only eat Sushi, just like North Americans only eat hamburgers. it's like this mush of mislead information and is totally prejudice.

India is known for vegetarians' paradise since the majority of population doesn't eat animal meat for their religious, cultural and custom reasons. I don't even remember where at a market animal meat was sold. If you wanna eat meat in India, you gotta go to an appropriate restaurant and find "Non-Vegetarians" section on a menu. Usually those meat were Mutton and Chicken as far as I remember.

South Indians actually use so many herbs and spices to cook all sort of dishes like grill, stew, boil, stir fry, deep fry, all sort. When you eat, simply use three fingers, thumb, index finger and middle finger. However, I wasn't experienced so I used four fingers, three plus my third finger.

Using your fingers on a plate, you mix rice and dishes into a mouthful size. You never worry about getting burn coz you touch food before eating. And it actually emphasize the taste of food since "touch" stimulate your appetite. You smell, see, touch, and taste. It just enjoy the food. Our five senses functions amazing. Even now, when I go to an Indian restaurant in Tokyo, I eat with my right hand.

As for me, I was so Indianized that I went by vegetarian style for almost all the way. Maybe I had mutton curry a few times, that's it.

By the way, big activist man of Indian independence from British colonization, famous non-violence style Mahatma Gandhi was a vegetarian too.


006. Summary

India, where you can feel the dynamics of humanity and Asian energy, is very much appealing. We Japanese have so much in common, culture, religion and philosophy. I felt like any culture aspects there were deep and unique. I really want anybody, specially we the Far East Asians, to go visit India.

Today's Indian influence and appearance are way strong in international scene, market, network, whatever you name those relations. They got over 1.1billions of population. Laboring back up is way far out. So, get to know India, you loose nothing. This is a good opportunity, so why don't you start by eating food with right hand.

Introduction South Asia 101A: Bangalore, India

courtesy of Annie Myers

Aug. 2004 - Dec. 2004
Bangalore, Karantaka, India

Happy New Year 2k9, Feliz Año Nuevo!

Caring yuh passion and volition for yuh contry, region and the world, everybody we grow up together. Aright, today's topic is about South Asia, India.

Known as the original country of curry and Buddhism, India is one of the rising nations today. Bangalore is where I lived, and it is one of the important cities fo South Asia.

Introduction South Asia 101A: Bangalore, India

001. General Information

Over 1.1bilions of population. Size ranked in 7th biggest country in the world, that is about 9 times bigger than Japan. There are Himalaya and glaciers up north, and it's so tropical down south. As original place of the Indus civilization, India's rich history and culture are well known. Even tho they have more than 20 official languages, English and Hindi are the common ones. So the key word to India is "multi national, language and religious society". All kinds of people live so close.

Interesting ting is that a concept of number zero (0) is said to be originated in India, and mathematics was developed there from lontime ago. Maybe because of this background, many Indian people play important roles in IT industry like Intel.

002. Religion

Unique local majors are Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. Other famous religions in India like Islam, Christianism and Zoroastrianism are basically outsiders. Every religions got different rules but basically everyday is religious. Seems like life itself is religion.

By seeing those who believe in one God, or many symbolic Gods and Goddesses, or trying to become living-god by religious practice, even praying totally naked, and avoiding eating animal meat, there are so many religious values and ways of expressing faith. As I am one who doesn't follow any published-religoius format, question by a monotheism man "you don't believe in god?" was kinda irritating. Respect others faith, no?

003. People

Oh oh ohhhh, every Indian cities you go, you hit people, and people crowded people, packed, jamed... you name whatever words describe way sooo many people inna di place. It was like NYC Time Square wkend evening or Tokyo Shibuya's scramble crossing wkend evening. Those crowd were all Indians rooted various background of so-called Middle East, South East Asia, Himalaya mountains, East Europe/West Asia, Nomads... seriously it was like all kinds of Asians and people around Asia co-live together. Of course many East Asian a.k.a. Chino were there too.

Staffs at my neighboring cafe/restaurant, where I had Masala Dosa or Puri for breakfast almost everyday, assumed that I was a buddhist from mountain areas like Manipur, Tibet or somewhere in Himalaya.

One thing I remember something awkward through communicting those locals is their way of treating me. When I was alone, they were really friendly (coz they assumed I was an Indian). But when I was with my US college friends who are pretty much all white, they kind of looked nervous and were talking to us so formal like " yes sir" style. Why so different?

My British friend told me that British colonization system is still in their mentality... hmm, history.

Anyway, those locals' dressing style may be reflected by their religion and/or class, yet I saw many young generation and neo-middle class wear jeans and sneakers.

Many Bagalore locals speak more than two languages coz the city is on the border line of two states, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. So sometime you can see signs with 4 languages, Hindi, English, Kannada and Tamil.

南アジア入門 101B: バンガロール，インド

courtesy of Ashleigh M. Curry


Aug. 2004 - end of Dec. 2004
Bangalore, Karnataka, India

南アジア入門 101B: バンガロール，インド

続き


004. 便所作法

これです、皆さんご存知「不浄の左手」。あなたもご家庭で試してみましょう．

手順ですが、排泄後は右手を使い備え付けの小さな桶で水を汲み、しゃがんだ状態で後ろからゆっくり流します、そし て左手指先で後ろから優しくウォッシング。同時に肛門の状態も触診チェックアップできるし、慣れればトイレットペーパーがノンセンスに思えるぐらい．

それはもう，無駄無し・ 肌に優しく・とても清潔。実際これがもし日本で世界で普及してしまうと，トイレットペーパー屋さんは商売上がったりだからね．特に日本トイレ文化では，紙に加えて電気も消費してるから利権と習慣がドーンとあるね．

005. 菜食主義者たち

「インド人ってカレーしか食べないんでしょ？」ってよく聞かれます．んー，じゃあ，日本人は寿司しか食べないの？アメリカ人はハンバーガーしか食べないの？はい，それぐらい偏った情報です．思い込みです．

多種多様なハーブやスパイスを使って，各種の煮込み・焼き・揚げ・炒め・和え料理が楽しめる南インド食事は右手指先のみで頂くスタイル。親指，人差し指，そして中指の 3本でいただくのが理想ですが，私はエキスパートじゃないので，プラス薬指の 4本指使って食べてました．

コネコネと一口サイズをプレートの上で自分で作れる上，料理の温度を口に入れる前に分かるので火傷知らず．なんとその上，「触る」とゆうのは「触感」でしょ，これが料理の美味しさをさらに引き立たせてくれるからコレ不思議，人間の五感は．匂って，見て，触って，味わう．うー，もう日本でもインドレストラン行ったときには，是非とも手で食べてしまいますね．

そして文化・宗教・慣習上の理由で食肉しない人達がほとんどのインドではベジタリアンパラダイス。食事はほとんどじゃないかな？市場のどこで動物の肉を売ってたかも記憶に無い．なので肉を食べる人は，レストラン入ってメニューの隅っこにある「Non-Vegetarian Menu」を探す必要がある。マトンだったりチキンだったりが多かった気がする．

私は，インド式にかぶれてましたので基本的にベジタリアンスタイルでいました．ちなみに，「非暴力・不服従」スタイルでイギリス植民地からの独立運動のリーダー、あのマハトマ・ガンディーも菜食主義者。


006. 要約

インド、それは想像以上の「人間力」と「エイジアンエナジー」を感じさせてくれる魅力的な国。文化・人々・思想など共通項はかなり多いし、どれをとっても掘り下げられてる感が高かった．機会があれば是非あなたも体感してみませんか？

さあこれからは，教育も充実して各種産業が半端なく世界中でハバを利かせてくるであろう大国インド．人口 11億人以上ですよ．労働力のバックアップが桁違い．日本にとってもインドにとっても相互交流は重要事項。これを機会に，まずは右手指先で食事を頂くトコロから始めませんか？

南アジア入門 101A: バンガロール，インド

courtesy of Annie Myers


Aug. 2004 - Dec. 2004
Bangalore, Karantaka, India

謹賀新年2K9、Happy New Year, Feliz Año Nuevo! ゆるぎないモノを大事に日本でアジアで世界で、今年も皆お互いに成長していきましょう。アーライ、それで今日はアジアの南側、インドの話。

一般的に「仏教とカレーのオリジナル」として知られ、最近ではメディアにより「新興国」などと伝えられる大国インド。私が住んだのは南インドの重要都市バンガロール。

南アジア入門 101A: バンガロール，インド

001. 一般情報

まず国土は日本の約9倍。人口11億人以上。南はトロピカルで北にはヒマラヤの氷河。古代インダス文明の地であり、インドカルチャーの歴史はリッチ。公用語が20以上あるなか英語とヒンディー語が共通語。キーワードは「複合的多民族多言語多宗教社会」。ありとあらゆるタイプの人間が密集している．

そしてなるほど、数字の0（ゼロ）という観点はインドが発祥の地と言われるほど古くから数学が発達しているので、現在はインテルをはじめとするの世界的なIT産業で活躍するインド人が非常に多い．


002. 宗教たち

現地発祥のメジャーどころはヒンドゥー教、仏教、ジャイナ教、シーク教。そして，長い時を越えと多く離れた地域から渡ってきたのはイスラム教、クリスト教、ゾロアスター教など．それぞれルールが違うが，基本的にインドでは，毎日が宗教的な感じ．人生そのもの宗教．

一 つの神様を信仰する者、多数のシンボル的神様を信仰する者、修行を重ねることで自分が生き神様へと到達しようとする者、全裸でお祈りする者や食肉しない者 など、多様な信仰のあり方や宗教観がある印象を持ちましたね．「あなたは神様を信じないのですか？」なんてのを出会ってすぐにぶつけてくる人間もいたりし た．


003. 人々

どこへ行っても人だらけ。夕方の渋谷ぐらい混んでる。それは中東アラビア系、東南アジア系、アーリア人・ヨーロッパ系、ヒマラヤ山岳民、遊牧民、もうアジア全域のあらゆる人種が共存している感じ。なので、私の様な東アジア人も結構いる。

近所で美味しいマサラ・ドサやプーリなどを食わしてくれてた店の従業員たちは、私のことを日本人ではなくインド東北部のマニプール人かチベット人系の仏教徒と思っていた。

そ んなローカル達とのコミュニケーションで印象に残ってるのは、私が一人だと特に冷たくもなくフレンドリーでもないが、白人と一緒のときは必要以上に格式 ばっていた。「イエッサー、かしこまりました」みたいな感じ。「イギリス統治時代の主従システムが今も染み付いている」らしい。

そんな人々の服装は所属する宗教や階級が反映されてるようですが、最近はグローバル世代やネオ中産階級を中心にジーンズとスニーカーもかなり普及している。

ちなみにバンガロールのパブリックにある標識や案内板には、英語とヒンディー語の表記に加えてカンナダ語やタミル語で書かれている。これはそれぞれ独自の言語と文字を持つ2つの州に挟まれている為。さらに私が住んでた近所のイスラム教徒が多い地区ではウルドゥ語も使用されていた。

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