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Club Business

**Christmas bulb sales** finished last week: net profits for club were $325.

**Samaritan Center family**: individually purchased gifts and contributions due today - remainder of gift requests will be purchased by the club this week.

**Club Nominating Committee report**:

* President: Harry Richter

* Vice-President: Jim Libey

* Secretary: Mulima Walusiku

* Treasurer: Bryan Pope

* Board Members: Dan Vandersteen and Linton Bartlett

* elections are next week

**Club Member Jenny** is home from the hospital now, her new baby, **Alexa Lucille**, will come home in two weeks.

**Board meeting tonight** following regular meeting.

**Dec 15**: club annual meeting and officer elections.

**Dec 22**: Holiday music program, Beth Eccles, organist.

Program

**Andrew Nash** (son of Evening Club member DJ Nash, and Downtown Club member Wade Nash) has spent the last two years as a reporter for a magazine about South Asians affairs magazine in Kathmandu, Nepal. He recently moved to New Dehli, India, and is now a graduate student in modern India History at Nehru University (JNU).

Andrew spoke about the country of Nepal, and its diversity of geography and culture. The country was closed to outsiders until 1950. The political situation since then has been tulmutous - ranging from absolute monarchy to parliamentary democracy - with maoist rebels controlling parts of the country.

The population of India will surpass that of China in the next few decades. It also is very diverse, especially in culture. It is the world's largest democracy. The main political development/challenge in recent years has been the rise of Hindu fundamentalism.

His university, named after India's first prime minister, is known for its leftist politics. Student politics is taken very seriously - anyone desiring a career in politics must start in student politics. Andrew described the splits in the left-wing politics: the factions of the communist party in India hate each other more than other parties - and that's probably why the Hindu nationalists are in power.

Housing in Nepal was affordable for Andrew. The university housing, while less expensive, is very spartan. India has historically under-funded primary education, but has put most of its resources into higher education. This indirectly subsidizes the middle and upper classes, because only those who can afford expensive primary education will have the qualifications to enter University. Some of his classmates have chauffer-driven mercedes.

He liked the food in Nepal, but was often sick from water-borne illness. The water is much better in Dehli, but the university food is primarily rice and lentils. McDonalds is considered something of a "high-brow" restaurant in India (it is exotic and expensive by Indian Standards.) KFC is hated by some because it uses American recipes, while McDonalds uses Indian spices. Coca-Cola is ubiquitous, even in the Maoist-controlled portion of Nepal.

There are 20 languages in India with 1 million or more speakers. These include three completely different language groups (Dravidian, Sanskrit-based, and Tibeto-Burman). There are hundreds of languages within these groups. Nepal itself has 200 languages.

Andrew answered a number of questions about hygiene and discomforts of living. He says that is what people here usually ask about, though he just takes the challenges as they come. The hardest part of his life there is missing his friends and family in the US.

He described how many aspire to a job with the Indian civil service. People will spend up to a decade studying trivia you need to know to pass the civil service exam. Those who fail (the majority) often have to "settle" for getting a PhD. A popular job these days is with "call centers" for American corporations: such a job provides a good midle-class living.