India Summary

Local people wanted to take selfies with us.

The friendlier face of Christianity.

Man power.

Motorbike power.

Jo is not a tall woman, but is taller than this group. Selfie again.

Grey haired men dye their hair with henna.

The Galapagos?

Indigenous woman talking to her westernized son.

A pan chewer.

Some messages of change, focus and direction.

Indian Summary

As I have been writing about India it occurred to me that I have focused on the strange, different and bizarre in India (which is what interests me), but there are obvious signs of growth and future. The airport in Delhi, for one. It is just as modern as anything in North America, with numerous shops and eateries. There is lots of construction in the country, new shopping malls and shops, new roads and carriageways, etc. From the air flying into Delhi I could see both planned, organized areas of high rises with green spaces, as well as neighbourhoods of obvious shanty towns and chaotic, rundown, poor, neighbourhoods all interspersed together. The city is enormous and houses about 20 million people.

But for a country that has a space program and sends satellites into space and has nuclear weaponry technology, there is still an awful lot of abject poverty. The wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few and the masses are still very poor, especially in the rural areas. Prerna told us that there are a million billionaires (in rupees) in Delhi. A large part of the Indian budget gets spent on defence, to protect their borders with Pakistan and China. Niranjan, said that the country has huge issues with population size, poverty, the environment, education, equality, health care, infrastructure and corruption. It seems that all bureaucrats embezzle money to make their lives more comfortable and no one questions how a low-level official can afford such opulent things such as cars, houses, etc. They spend a portion of the allotted money on what it is supposed to be spent on and then keep the rest. Leon who has lived here for 17 years, says the country will never be more than a ‘banana republic’ until it eradicates the corruption and makes sure the money gets where it is supposed to get to. 

Western tourists are of great fascination to many Indians and they want to take ‘selfies’ with us. Mark, who is 6 foot 8 inches tall, was a constant target, as was Liz, young attractive and blonde. So we were stared at a lot, but if we smiled at them they seemed happy to be recognized and smiled back. Attractive women are ogled a lot. This is a situation that is a big problem in Indian culture. Women in general are not treated equally and are often seen as sex objects. This is partly because young people are not allowed to flirt or be alone together, especially where arranged marriages are still prevalent. In the western media we sometimes hear about women being molested or raped on the trains or buses in India and in fact we heard about a brutal case here where the woman was killed. We were told that sometimes the police and the courts are too slow or too lenient, so local vigilantes will sometimes raid the police station and capture the perpetrators and deliver their own justice, especially in remote or rural areas.

The Indian people are by enlarge very friendly and welcoming. They are quick to smile and greet visitors, but the one trait that bothers me is the spitting. Both men and women will clear their throat noisily and spit. Some of the men are chewing natal or pan, a local chewing plant that stains their teeth and causes cancer. Their spit is red. I saw signs in Shimla pronouncing that spitting is unhealthy and dangerous, but it goes on everywhere.

There are a large number of very short people here. Less than five feet tall. I asked a few times about that, but our guides didn’t really have an answer. It is either genetic, or from malnutrition early in life.

Indian people seem laid back and go-with-the-flow sort of people. They don’t seem to get too stressed by all that goes on around then, but, put them in a car and they become daredevils. They drive with abandon, using their horn constantly to tell others that they are coming and to get out of the way. They have little fear as they push their way into traffic and cut each other off with a beep. The white line on the road is only a guideline and cars frequently ride the middle or the wrong lane entirely. When passing they are seemingly very aggressive and will pass on blind corners or when you can see another car coming. They will re-enter their lane at the last possible moment and the oncoming car frequently has to slow down to let them in. As Will said, they obviously believe in reincarnation.

Motorcyclists are supposed to wear helmets, but very few do. However, they do sometimes carry them on their lap, handlebars or hanging off the bike somewhere. Passengers don’t have to at all, which is crazy because I know that they are the ones who get hurt the most in an accident because they are not hanging on to anything solid. The driver generally goes down with the bike, but the passenger gets thrown off. Women wearing sarees sit side saddle, which boggles the mind, and often have a child on their lap. Pedestrians never have the right of way.

Sharing the road with all the vehicles are human powered carts and bicycles that are carrying as much as possible in order to maximize profits. These people are very hard working and take their lives into their hands every time they enter the traffic.

I mentioned before that I think one of the main sports in this country is tuk tuk cramming. It is amazing how many people they can jam in them. Depending on the region, some tuk tuks are supposed to carry three people behind the driver, or six people on two benches behind the driver. Most are gasoline powered, but there is a move in a few areas to have electric ones to cut down on the pollution. But, they come with a drawback in that they are silent and can catch people unawares, but of course they still have their omnipresent horn, which they use with gay abandon.

There is a very large rail system in India, set up originally by the British. It services most of the areas of India and provides reasonable transport for the locals. The trains however, are old, dirty and in need of a face lift. They are slow and have to cross countless level crossings blaring their horns the whole way. There are no bullet trains or high speed lines. Most of the cars are not air conditioned. Many have no glass in their windows, just bars, which make them look even more ominous. The toilets in particular are disgraceful. There is usually one squatter toilet and one western style per car, and they are usually smelly and dirty, not necessarily with excrement, just years of grudge and dirt. And there in never any toilet paper, you have to provide your own.

The people litter everywhere. They thinking nothing of discarding whatever wherever. This is in part because there are few receptacles and very little garbage collection. I was amused at how many times I saw people sweeping the leaves off the dirt in front of their place or shop when there was filth all around. Or dumping all their garbage over a fence onto the property beside them. The garbage cans I did see all said ‘Use Me’. Then there are the people who sift through the garbage looking for anything they can use or sell. 

There are still vast numbers of poor people, many of whom live on the streets. It is really sad how many people live this way and it is upsetting to see the condition of their bodies and clothing. But, unfortunately, there is nothing that one can do. It is a systemic problem that needs to be addressed as a national policy.

Forty percent of farmers do not own their land, they are working other people’s land. Isn’t that the same as the feudal system? Most farms as such are small and farmed by hand. There are some larger farms that use modern machinery. Sometimes a community will hire a machine for all the local farms to use.

The government needs to get priorities straight and decide what is important. One small example: they are spending millions of rupees to build a marble walkway around the Konark temple (that people will probably not use as it is quite far from the temple) when the actual temple is in much need of repair. They need to focus on recycling, public sanitation and health care for all. Pulak said that the government needs to guarantee the right to life, and take care of safe drinking water, food, health care and shelter for the masses. Once this is established then he thinks the country can move forward.

The lands of the sub-continent have a large variety of climate zones and different types of landforms. There are tropical forests, palm trees, wetlands where they grow rice, deserts and mountain regions. The country gets incredibly hot ( high 30’s to 50 degrees) and very dry in the spring and summer. Everything becomes parched. It is not until the monsoon comes in June and July that the country becomes replenished and has a much-needed natural bath. The monsoon is the lifeblood of the country. If I come back, I would like to come after the monsoon to see the difference. 

Dogs and cows are like Galapagos animals, they don’t move, you have to go around them. The Indian people and their religions are very respectful of other creatures. I heard in Jaisalmer where cows wander the narrow streets with no obvious food for them, that the first chipati that the family makes is for a cow. I saw people feeding scraps to stray dogs, picking poo off the back of a cow, feeding pigeons. The dogs are all strays and are not aggressive to people at all. Both cows and a few pigs I saw, eat the waste off the streets. They are the recyclers. I would not want to eat them after what I saw them eating. Dogs are everywhere, they don’t bother anyone and seem really lazy and relaxed. However, sometimes at night we could hear them barking and fighting over territories. Because of all the inbreeding them all look very similar and dingo-like. In my opinion they must do something about the cow problem. Having them wander around everywhere is both a health issue and a huge traffic issue. 

Unfortunately, food, water and hygiene are the enemy. Our bodies are not able to deal with the microbes here. So, eating street food, fruit that cannot be peeled and raw vegetables are not options. Of course, this is not a problem in India alone, it is everywhere that is different from back home. Fortunately, with a little luck and careful choices, and help from our guides who took us to safe eating places, I never got a case of ‘Delhi belly’. Thankfully, but others did.

Some older women and men dye their hair with henna to hide the grey, but that turns it orange which makes them stand out even more in my opinion.

Although India is a democratic country, a couple of areas have communist governments: Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Kerala, in Tamil Nadu had the first elected communist leader in the world. Kerala is one of the most prosperous parts of the nation. The Maharajahs of Travancore promoted education among people thus there were a large number of educated people in the state unlike rest of the country, who fueled the communist revolution in Kerala. Even though the state was prosperous, the dominance of the upper cast people was predominant and there was also a disproportionate distribution of wealth which acted as fuel for unrest. Communism in Kerala is much more moderate than in Bengal making it more popular among people. Because of high literacy rate in Kerala people actively participate in government's policies.

In their number system, they do not use the word millions. They use lakh which is 100 000; 10 lakh is 1 000 000 Whereas we put commas in the number million: 1,000,000 they write is as 10,00,000 and read it as 10 lakh.

India is wrestling with some of the same issues as the western world:

Drinking and driving; cellphone use while driving; smoking; drinking; littering and I saw lots of signs trying to address these issues to the people. Shimla is a smokeless city with a 200 rupee fine if caught. There are lots of signs by the side of the road telling people not to use cellphones or drink and drive. Pulak says that the country has all the laws, ordinances and fines that the country needs, but there is no enforcement, therefore no one obeys. They don’t even stop for stop signs, and only stop for traffic lights if they have to.

India is pressured by the Western world to improve human rights, women’s rights, sanitation, pollution, education and health care. They put all the rules and guidelines in place to prove to the west that they are progressing and taking care of their people and country responsibly, but there is little or no follow through.

There has been incidents of terrorism on the Pakistan border. The two countries have been basically at war since the days of partition, when the British divided the country. India is Hindu and Pakistan is Muslim. This makes the flag raising ceremony on the border all the more vaudevillian and comedic. It was truly bizarre.

Rubbish is still a huge problem in India, particularly plastic. There are piles of it in lots of places. And because there is little garbage collection if the locals are concerned about it, they rake it up and burn it, which releases all of the toxins in the smoke. They need a plastics recycling program or to ban the use of plastics entirely. I wonder about the number of plastic water bottles I drank, multiplied by the thousands of tourists and what would happen if there were a ban. Using your own reusable water bottle is a good idea, but they eventually go foul and need to be washed, but with what water??

There are lots of signs of emerging women, especially in the cities where there are more and more young Indian women wearing western clothes. Prerna told me that everyone wants to be western. However, she dresses conservatively in semi-traditional clothes. She is very proud of her culture. There are women holding jobs that were traditionally jobs for men. Prerna is an example of that. When she gathered us to tell us something, she was an object of curiosity because she was a beautiful young woman talking to westerners who were listening to her.

The Hindu religion and the temples are bright and colourful places and their gods are depicted as almost cartoon caricatures. The Christian churches around the world are very different and are often dark, bleak and depressing depicting Christ on the cross. Here in Sri Lanka and India the Christian churches are often much brighter, white or yellow outside and I’ve seen large colourful statues of Christ with hands held wide welcoming people. It seems to me they are trying to make Christianity more palatable and friendly to attract local people, instead of trying to scare them with the concepts of sin and eternal damnation. Interesting.

The one thing I am going to miss, is the hose beside the toilet that was in every hotel we stayed in, which allows you to clean yourself with water rather than toilet paper. I have always thought that was a weird idea, but it makes so much sense. It is more hygienic and doesn’t clog up the toilets, which sometimes have trouble flushing paper. 

India has a large number of seemingly insurmountable challenges, not the least of which is the number of people. They are predicted to be the largest country on earth, superseding the Chinese on the next world census. It remains to be seen if and when they can drag the country into the world of super powers. It is amazing that the country works as well as it does, and that there are not revolts by the people over the conditions they endure.

I enjoyed my time in India and saw many amazing places and people, but after six weeks or so, I have had enough, and am happy to be leaving. Would I come back? Maybe as it is an incredibly interesting country where you will see things that you will not see anywhere else in the world. As I have said many times before, India is an assault on your senses and endlessly fascinating.