India - first comments

January 19

India - first comments

On Friday, January 16, Ana and I flew from Bangkok to Calcutta, a two and a half hour flight. We arrived about 11 am. Faced with a 6 hour wait till our connecting flight to Bangalore, we hired a taxi to take us to the center of Calcutta to do some sight-seeing. As we drove from the airport, we observed constantly honking traffic, people everywhere, some really terrible living conditions, and a lot of dust, polluted air and garbage on the streets and in the nearby canal. Traffic was so bad it took us about an hour to go just 5 miles. When the driver estimated another 1 1/2 hours to get to the Victoria Palace in the city center, we told him to return to the airport, fearing that we might lose our connecting flight, and spent the afternoon in the airport. Arriving in Bangalore about 9 pm, we took a bus to a guest house where our friends had reserved a room for us in Bangalore. The ride took about an hour and a half and we were let off on a busy street. Completely lost, we had to show several people our hotel address and walk many blocks with all our baggage (we each are carrying a backpack and a smaller bag). It made us nervous to be walking around in some poor neighborhoods around 11 at night with all our baggage, too. We finally located our small guest house in a quiet residential neighborhood and rang the bell. A polite young man came to the door and let us in. We were dead tired. Many strangers on the streets had been helpful to us, as strange looking to them as we must have been.

In the morning, the kind and helpful young man at the residence went to bring us a delicious South Indian breakfast. The breakfast consisted of idly (a spongy, very light cake made of millet (I think), a spicy vegetable tomato based soup, and a kind of puree made with coconut. It all tasted great.

Bangalore, a fast growing city of 7 million, is one of the centers of India's computer industry. Here we observed horrendous traffic, and much visible poverty as well as some more affluent zones. We also observed the construction of an elevated metro system. We enjoyed our two days in Bangalore, visiting some sights and getting to know the city and our middle class friends, who are the in-laws of our good friends in S.F.

I wonder if the religious devotion so evident in India is a hindrance to progress regarding the serious health, population control and ecological issues India needs to solve. Today in the paper, it was announced that over 1 million India children die yearly, a shocking statistic. Yet India's growing middle class, now 10 to 20 % of the population, seems materialistic and preoccupied with living "the good life". This combination of religious fundamentalism, consumerism in the middle class alongside a democratic political structure (but not a true democracy), reminds me of the U.S. In the papers here there seems to be quite a bit of anti-Pakistan sentiment stoked by the recent terrorist attack in Mumbai. In fact, this seems to be the issue that is most discussed in the India media, rather than the problems of class and caste exploitation and environmental problems.

I bought a book in a wonderful little book store in the Calcutta airport by Krushent Sinh, a famous and prolific India author/philosopher/ex-politician, who is an agnostic and quite critical of Indian society and raises these kinds of issues.