I am going to share some information about India! Something that I found out about the tuktuk drivers is that if they bring a new customer to a store, they get a free liter of gas. This is why ours continued to take us shopping after I asked not to go. As long as it is a fresh face, they will get free gas, which is why they take us to as many stores as they can.
The population of people in India is about 1.2 billion, of these 300 million are below the poverty line, which is equivalent to the US total population. 400 million people are without power, and power is considered having one light bulb that works. That is a poor standard for electricity, but many people only have one light bulb.
The Buddhist faith believes in five elements that are represented on our fingers. The thumb is fire, and fire needs air, so the pointer finger is air. The air is part of the sky, so the middle finger represents the sky. The sky touches the earth, so the ring finger is the earth. Because the earth is covered in water, the pinky is water. They put their thumb and pointer finger together, to help relax themselves and focus on their own being.
A sad thing that I learned about in India is the mafia. The mafia will take people from their homes and make them their slaves. Their job is to go on the streets and beg for money. They mostly take women and children who are more likely to get money. When these people are no longer able to get them money, they are thrown out on the streets with nothing. They are provided with just enough to live until they can no longer bring back any money. It is also common for the mafia to take people in and cut off their limbs making them amputees. The amputees are required to go on the street and beg as well. I saw someone with half of his leg missing, and he was younger than I was. This might also explain all the begging amputees I saw in Burma.
The last thing I want to explain is their god of Luck. I cannot remember his name, but he is represented by an elephant head. The ears are supposed to symbolize knowledge. By listening to things, you learn things, so they believe that you should keep your ears open to absorb everything you can. The eyes are small and beady to represent being observant. If you are not aware of things in life, there is no point to living. The elephant’s trunk is supposed to symbolize being skillful in what you do. An elephant trunk can do hundreds of things, so that is why they use that for the representation. The elephant they showed us had a full body, and in one of its hands it held a piece of fruit. This is supposed to represent being sweet with others. Do not be mean, but only be nice to people. Be sweet like the fruit. Lastly, at his feet there was a mouse. The mouse is used to represent not stepping on other things. Sometimes the things that are smaller than you are better able to do things than you are.
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