India - travels and volunteering

[Phait]

With Ken's suggestion,

"If we start a thread, perhaps other people from India or people who have been there can also jump in. As you can tell, I adore India and I'm glad that it showed. Thanks!"

 

As I'd said in his thread, I had checked out his photos from his '08 trip and was even more fascinated. It's a country I hope to visit sometime, hopefully for at least a few weeks or a month. If I were to stay that long I'd rather be of help, perhaps teaching English.

 

I've always found Indian culture and the people interesting and friendly. There's an Indian grocer in town I've frequented for tea and other foods I can't quite get in a supermarket. And I just like supporting the owner in this era of chains, franchises and industries - to see someone from another country have something to share with us and his fellow people is something admirable.

[UstadKhanAli]

I'm gonna quote from what I wrote at the beginning of my photos from this last year:

 

http://www.elevenshadows.com/travels/india2008/

 

"Why do you like India so much?"

 

It was a valid question; I had told the Sikh man sitting next to me on the plane that this was my fifth trip to India.

 

I thought for a bit. "It's a land of extremes and diversity," I replied. "The diversity is fascinating. And I love how everything in India seems brighter, more colorful, more flavorful, more potent, more vivid."

 

The man nodded knowingly and smiled. He felt the same way, and glowed with thoughts of love of his Mother Country. And him and the passenger near us spoke about American reality TV shows and how they created unlikely combinations of people and let the hilarity ensue. But thinking about this some more, it occurred to me that India was more fantastic than any reality TV show could ever be. What reality TV show, after all, could ever compare to a country that would:

 

- grind to a complete halt to watch a TV show about Prince Rama?

 

- turn the act of worshipping into the most heady, potent sensory experience?

 

- attempt the grand experiment of democracy despite 200 languages and over one billion people within its borders?

 

- have gatherings of devotees equaling the population of Australia descending upon Allahabad to wash their sins away in the Ganges, a spectacle of such massive proportions that it can be seen from outer space?

 

- have a total stranger sharing a bench on a train turn to you and suddenly exclaim after two hours of silence, "I am so happy! I am so very happy! My wife, my wife has attained Perfection! She has been meditating for years, and she has attained Perfection! I am telling you, I am so very happy!"?

 

- have throngs of people descend upon you, put a baby in your lap, gather around to take photos with you, thank you, and promptly vanish?

 

- share their highways with camels and cows?

 

- provide refuge to 100,000 hungry Tibetans escaping across the Himalayas while much of its own population faced crushing poverty?

 

- allow Parsis, in the interest of religious freedom, to hang their rotting dead outside in the middle of a bustling metropolis for weeks, waiting to be eaten by vultures as is their custom - and then offer tourist taxi tours to the site?

 

Over one billion Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians, Zoroastrians, Jews, and 200 languages: India was easily more diverse, more strange, more fantastic than the wildest dreams of any reality TV producer. And best of all, you could go there and experience it for yourself.

[UstadKhanAli]

I should mention that the food in India is Technicolor. Well, everything in the country is Technicolor, sure. But the food is so wonderful. I'm not just talking about the cuisine, either. The papayas, mangos, tomatoes, everything has sooooo much flavor. When I come back from India, the food here tastes black and white compared to the Technicolor vibrancy of India's food.

[UstadKhanAli]

Here's something that I wrote at the beginning of a 2005 trip to India about their impressive progress, this one going from the top to the bottom of India:

 

http://www.elevenshadows.com/travels/india2005/

 

"So where are you going this summer?"

 

"India."

 

"Really? Why?" That's the most common reply. That and "Oh, how do you deal with all that poverty?" Replies such as these are are more a reflection on many Americans' perceptions of India and less on my decision to travel there.

 

A shame, really, since India is one of the greatest, most beautiful countries in the world.

 

Lisa, my girlfriend who accompanied me on the first half of this trip, and I have been enamored with India's beauty, spirituality, and culture. But during this last visit, I was wildly impressed by their progress as well. The first clue of this progress was while purchasing tickets at a train station. I saw a wheelchair ramp, something that I never saw in India just five years ago. And walking out to the train, I noticed that one of the cars of the train was reserved for the disabled. And now many of the toilets in the train stations and airports and other public facilities have wheelchair-accessible toilets. Surely one of the best indicators of how great a country is how it treats its citizens that are in need of help.

 

And of course, there were many other signs of progress: the near-absence of power shortages in many parts of the country (euphemistically called "load shedding"), improved roads (the tollroad between Jaipur and Ajmer, for example), the mushrooming of its middle class, many tourists from overseas traveling with small children, a greatly improved phone system, a reliable postal system, garbage cans everywhere for people to use, anti-dowry posters from the government, the clean and efficient Metro in New Delhi, the subway in Calcutta (Kolkata), their Army providing aid to tsunami victims in other countries, sending aid to people in Afghanistan, its impressive software and computer industry...

 

One barometer of progress in India has been ice cream. That's right, ice cream. When I first traveled to New Delhi, one could get ice cream at Nirula's in Connaught Place, maybe one other place. Elsewhere in the city, it was difficult if not impossible to get. And in most other cities - forget even thinking about towns or villages - ice cream could not be had. Now, of course, you can get ice cream literally anywhere, even in villages and small towns. But why is this so important? Because it indicates several things. You need a reliable, constant power source to store ice cream. And you need people with enough money to buy ice cream in the first place.

 

Or how about the cleaner air in Delhi? The first time I stayed in Delhi, the city was choked in black exhaust. I'd have black residue on my forearm if I walked around for several hours. When I returned home, I coughed up black phlegm for several weeks. But now, one can visibly see the difference. Sure, the exhaust is still pretty bad, but it's considerably better than before. Air quality in Delhi has improved significantly since a Supreme Court order mandating its bus fleets to convert to run on cleaner-burning compressed natural gas (CNG) came into effect in 2002. And now, the taxis can be retro-fitted to run on CNG as well, with more cities following suit.

 

Indians sometimes seem to have an inferiority complex. If you point out the progress their country has made, they'll often say, "Yes, but China is ahead of us. They're more advanced." And of course, that's true. But in my opinion, what India has done is far more impressive than what China has done. It's much easier for a country to have a singular vision if they are essentially a dictatorship. India is a democracy; China is run by the Communist Party. India has labor unions; China has prison camps, labor camps, and no labor unions. India has four times the amount of people living below poverty level than China. India is, as of this writing, 57 years old; China is 5000. What India has achieved is, in my opinion, nothing short of miraculous.

 

Yes, of course you can say that they still need a lot of improvement. No one will argue with that. Poverty, population explosion, AIDS, the need for stronger infrastructure, sex trafficking, child labor, its poor treatment of Kashmiris (although this is improving), all that. And obviously, what would help is if India can improve relations with Pakistan. This 50+ year conflict with Pakistan over a poorly-drawn map during Partition has inflicted a terrible toll on both countries, with billions and billions of rupees siphoned off to fuel a war with their neighbors when this could be going to help their people instead.

[Phait]

Wait India is 57 years old?!

 

I thought it was ancient.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_India

 

British Raj 1858-1947 - did India not have its own government until '47?

 

Say, what is this? "*Not included: airport taxes, fees & September 11th Security Fee"

http://www.affordabletours.com/search/tours/16861/ 8 Day North & South India with Mumbai & Kochi (Cochin) Tour

 

"The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has issued an interim final rule that imposes a $2.50 fee on each air carrier passenger enplanement in order to help pay for the Federal government

[Roy Brooks]

The Parsi rotting dead tours- I would want to see that.

[Etienne Rambert]

India is the one country I want to visit before I die. There is a small list of countries I will pay my own money to visit. India, France, USA, Cambodia, Brazil. There is a much larger list that people must pay me to visit.

 

India is at the top of my list of places to go. Don't know yet when I'll make it though.

[UstadKhanAli]

India as a democracy has been in existence since 1947 (I was there for the 50th Anniversary in 1997, with some spectacular fireworks displays and parades in New Delhi to commemorate the event). Before this, India was under the rule of the British for several hundred years, I believe it was, and before that, a combination of rulers, either invaders from the north (Persians and Afghanis) or royal rulers or a combination thereof, often divided into various kingdoms and whatnot.

 

South India is more uniquely "Indian" because they didn't have nearly as much influence from the north as North India.

 

BTW, most of the restaurants in North America are northern Indian cuisine, which is obviously influenced by Afghani and, to a lesser extent, Persian cuisine, although still obviously different and "Indian".