India's widows

I can get Netflix and also, when nothing sensible is on the basic channels on T.V. I can get channel 38. It has mostly cow-boys and Indians (the other kind) and one-star movies but tonight I saw three stars, so tuned in. |It was an Indian movie and I caught something about the same person who made "Bollywood" and it was about widows in India.
We had  a clever lady come to Mission from Vancouver and she was keen to help people here understand the Indian culture. I enjoyed her company and her husband Jim would pick me up and we would drive to the Abbotsford University together, gathering in a group and talk about Indian writers and other factors.
I found they have super writers and read some of their books - printed in English of course. One even came to visit the University to answer questions and explain some intricacies of their culture.
In one of the books I saw that from 2,000 years ago, a law by Manu decreed that when a woman's husband died she had a choice to throw herself on his funeral pyre, marry the husband's brother or it was decreed they would spend the rest of their lives in a make-shift building in a group and live from alms and begging. They were cursed and sometimes used for prostitutes.
AT THE TIME OF THE FILM, THERE WERE 34 MILLION WIDOWS LIVING LIKE THAT.
If a man used her for a prostitute, the men said she would have a blessing HA!!!!!!!!!!!!


I think the movie deserved four stars, it was beautifully executed.


Now for brighter things. My two friends picked me up to take me to lunch at "Brambles" at Tanglewood nursery. What a joy to go out in the world after being shackled in the apartment. We had a jolly lunch (each of us sharing a piece of our lunch so we could all have a taste. The waitress said she couldn't give me a half a cup of coffee after my first one, so Barbara poured some of her second cup into mine. Reminded me of Jack Nicholson in the movie when he asked for a BLT sandwich but without the bacon and the waitress said "We don't have that on the menu" and Jack said "Bring me the BLT and take out the bacon" and she still wouldn't relent.
The drive was so nice with balmy, sunny weather and the mountains glowed with their hats of snow.  I even forgot the past three weeks and felt revived.


I'm also liking George Eliot's nine hundred page book (I slice it into manageable pieces because I can't hold a heavy book - and yes I have a Kobo but I have books to read before I get more from there.)


I see where I can improve in my writing if I go into a bit more detail, making a better picture of what I'm talking about. I'm so deadly scared of boring people that I've held back from doing so but I can visualize George Eliot's world in a clearer way because she describes the characters and the locale so well and takes her time about it.


I heard from May's daughter that she's doing well - I'm so glad and was getting concerned.


My son in Chicago has a new job for beginning of February. Usually he works for a year's contract and just before Christmas they save tax or something by letting them go however he usually gets something the next day. He'll be working for University of Chicago and have benefits.
signed Glad I'm not a widow in India Doris