final thoughts on India

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India. I still don’t know what to think.

Somehow everyone made it back to the boat. I can honestly say that every single person is so glad to be back on the boat and many people speak about never returning to India. I’m not sure if it’s the hassling, the dirtiness, or just the general mental stress of being in this place, but I can see why this would not be at the top of many people’s tourist destinations.

I’ve heard some incredible stories from my classmates. Some people were in Varanasi which is on the Ganges and is one of the holiest cities in India. They saw the ritualistic burning of bodies and dumping of dead babies (who are considered too pure to burn) into the river. William, whom I traveled with in Thailand, saw the leg of a body just fall off after it had been burned for two hours. Another group saw a baby being tied to a rock and dumped into the Ganges. Many of them also traveled by train, and they said the train conditions were hardly bearable. Many of the trains had no heat (in the north it was quite cold) and one group actually saw a body of a person that had died on the train…presumably from freezing to death. The body was just left there and hundreds of people sat around it going about their business. A girl in my class stepped on a dead body that was covered with a tarp on the streets of Chennai. On my last day in Chennai I watched as a naked two year old boy just pooped on the street next to the sheet of cloth that was his home.

68% of the population of India is literate. That’s 320 million people that cannot read or write.

The poverty line is set at $1. If you make over $1 a day, you’re not impoverished.

The overall feeling is that India was just overwhelming. We are all physically and mentally drained and we saw and experienced things that some of us will probably never speak of again. I never in my life imagined living conditions so disgusting, unsanitary and inhumane. And I have never in my life felt so helpless.

This country was definitely difficult. Difficult as a woman, as a Caucasian, as an American, as an affluent member of Western society and as a human being. I know my experiences in the last week will have a profound, long lasting effect on the rest of my life.

And just think, the next time you fill your car up with gas, you’re spending more money than most make in a month. The next time you buy groceries, you’re spending more money than some people make in a year…

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Comments

[mom]

wow
Not much to say. You said it all. Can't wait to hear more from you about it in person. Love you. xo, Mom

[Will]

Hmmm
Wow, it seems like there were some pretty harrowing experiences had amongst your classmates. Treating the dead in that way seems wrong to us, but does that make it wrong? One thing's for sure, this trip is worth it: just to have seen and been forced to think about those sort of things. I guess Chennai is off the tourist trail, since i know so many people in love with India and it culture. The regional variations must be huge. I'm sorry it wasn't more fun though :-( Don't get cabin fever on the way to SA! xx