All Quiet on the Eastern Front

In the event my reader(s) wonder why I haven’t posted lately, let me offer the following apologia. Since my last entry we’ve continued to enjoy the cultural life offered in Jodhpur and environs. We’ve taken advantage of opportunities to see several Indian classical dance performances. Then, on Saturday we traveled to the village of Chandlai to visit the family of our cook Sravan. (For the geographically curious, the only Chandlai on any map we’ve found is near Jaipur, which is not the one we visited. Apparently our Chandlai (pop. 700) is too small to make the maps.) It was a wonderful day of experiencing, if only briefly, a life far different than ours in America. The food and fellowship were both great. And it’s certainly true, as we’ve been told, that the best bhatia is baked in hot coals.

Then Sunday afternoon we were off to Kolkata (Calcutta) for a three-day Fulbright Conference. So far I’ve heard presentations on the astronomical observatories of the Mughal Emperor Sawai Jai Singh and the Parai drummers of Tamil Nadu. I will inflict myself on the assembled scholars tomorrow morning when I talk about aspects of Indian legal education that might be imported into the American legal curriculum. So don’t expect much from me for the balance of the week.