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hold. In India it is a drug that clouds the mind.

"Whenever we are entangled and enmeshed in passionate issues, we are dealing with projections of our own substance." p194 Myths + Symbols

This started out to be a discussion of status symbols and has rambled off without conclusion.

Every Anglicized knowledge Indian I have talked to wants to get out - predicts disaster for his country. This stems from his being caught in his knowledge of western higher standards of living and opportunity, which are not coming fast enough here to suit his desires. When you are unaware of difference choices or ways, life though it is hard is bearable.

May 14, 70

The physical bearing of Indians is uniquely different from that of Westerners. Though almost every physical type is found here, they are for the most part shorter in stature, small boned, with delicate features.

From childhood the average Indian is used to living with a minimum of furniture. Most activities in the home are carried on in near proximity to the floor or ground. Cooking, sitting, eating, studying, sleeping, etc. Indians squat or

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sit in various cross-legged attitudes. They can sit for hours with no apparent discomfort in positions that would cause a westerner to squirm in two minutes. These fundamental positions (pre-civilization) stump the posture and mien of Indian bodies. [Indians tend to have very thin lower legs, this is not only caused by poor diet, but by the way they sit which cuts off proper circulation in the lower legs. It has over years become hereditary.] These basic ways the body has been conditioned by the environment of India and Indian homes has had an overall effect on the general bearing of their physical stature.

They tend to be naturally graceful in stance. Nothing forced, no hard angular feeling, but flowing subtle, delicate balances of form. I have seen men of the crudest, lowest, uneducated class standing in positions of the utmost refinement, rivaling Greek sculpture, without the stiffness of idealized form. These movements fluid, easy aesthetically unaffected balanced. Limbs seem capable of an endless variety of curved relationships. Hands and fingers held in the most intricate expressive gestures. Like all pre-electronic societies, there is an elaborate or underlying verbal conversation. Hand signals are very ancient in India and are described in detail in Sanskrit stories about hidden communication between lovers. They are the most important parts of the Indian dance and figure in religious worship. Indians tend to