Just a Few More Images From India

So, I admit it, I'm not much of a photographer, and I didn't have time to do any sightseeing, so I only have a few pictures to share here.

First, here is a picture of me with Balvant Parekh on the left.  Balvant is the sponsor of the Centre (see previous post), and this picture was taken when I visited his office in Mumbai, before going to Baroda for the workshop.  His brother, Narendra (aka NK) Parekh is on the right.  I was delighted to learn that Balvant first learned about general semantics when he saw a copy of ETC: A Review of General Semantics, in 1980.  That has special significance for me because that was the year that I began the media ecology doctoral program at NYU with Neil Postman, who was editing ETC at that time (Neil required us all to join the International Society for General Semantics, the organization that published ETC up until it was merged with the Institute of General Semantics in 2004, and most of our assignments for classes were to write an article for ETC, not that he would necessarily publish them).

So, I felt a special connection to Balvant, and a kind of serendipity.  I only regret that we didn't have more time to talk, and that he was not able to make the trip to Baroda for the workshop, which I'm sure he would have enjoyed.  But it was indeed an honor to meet with one of India's leading industrialists, and his brother NK, a chemical engineer, attended the workshop in its entirety.

After our meeting, NK and I went to lunch at one of the hotels that has been bombed a year earlier, and it was right by the Gateway of India, a monument built by the British in the early 20th century.  Here are a few shots of it from the hotel entrance.

And now, just a few shots from Baroda.  Here's the entrance to my hotel, Hotel Harmony, which was part of something like a strip mall, connected to the building in which the Balvant Parekh Centre for General Semantics and Other Human Sciences was housed:







And walking down to the Centre, here is one of the participants:

And a couple more, from Nepal:

And one more look at the participants at the workshop:

And that's all for now!  Namaste, as they say!