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Published: January 21st 2007
So, now we've survived India, my summary...
I'll try to state 'facts' first and save my personal opinions until the end of each bit.
Place
We've had a good share of coast, mountains and city.
Cities - pretty much the India you hear and read about. Crap everywhere, cows and dogs wandering round, in varying states of health. Street food aplenty, cheap and tasty. Rickshaws all over the place (except Mumbai, where they're banned in the main bit of the city and it's wall to wall taxis), which are noisy smelly two-strokes, vastly inferior to their Thai counterparts, the tuk-tuk. Roads and pavements are generally pretty knackered. Horn use is universal - but it works. Traffic moves, I never saw an accident, and the driving skills and awareness are vastly better than in the UK (they have to be or you'd be creamed).
Mountains (Ooty) - beautiful scenery. Nice example of 'provincial' Indian town (actually it might be a city I think). The terrain was lusher than I was expecting for 3500', but I guess it's at a tropica latitude. Certainly there is poverty in the villages outside in the hills, but money aside, a definitely higher standard of living than the slums of Mumbai.
Coast - again beautiful. Kerala and Goa are picture postcard material. Sea was clean here from what I could see, smell and feel. Sand OK too. Lots of semi-stray dogs in Goa, some needing some TLC but generally seemingly well fed (I think they get plenty of scraps from tourists).
Obviously the tourist parts of the cities and the coastal areas are more geard up for tourism, with internet, Western food options etc.
Food
Great but gets boring pretty quickly to be honest. Traditionally, much is fried or oily (e.g. dosa for breakfast, thali/biriani for lunch, curry for dinner).
Lack of any fresh or simply-cooked greens, etc. starts to do your head in. Actually, not sure where the vit C in the diet comes from.
People/Culture
Regardless of the state's rhetoric on abolishing the vestiges of the caste system, it's still here. Beggars abound, women doing lots of legwork (what in the UK would be considered heavyish manual). Blokes of the same social class seemingly getting a more cushy deal in a lot of cases.
Lots of attempted fleecing of tourists, but really only in the tourist areas. Foreigners reagrded with curiosity outside these areas. Lots of direct staring (will hold your gaze if you try to outstare as well which gets quite amusing). Hardly any women in non-Sari get-up, whereas blokes generally do a standard trousers and shirt routine, or similar.
Otherwise, people are generally friendly-ish. Kids, even those in abject poverty, seem genuinely happy. Most of the adults though seem to get embittered at some point and become grumpy (a lot less smiling than in Vietnam or Thailand for example).
Young (teenage) boys are like coiled springs. Don't seem to know what a woman is. Don't even know if there actually are any young girls 'cos I hardly saw any (so maybe the population will start auto-regulating in a few years?). In fact saying that a lot of the older guys don't seem to know what a woman is either.
Women - on the whole get fat in middle-age. Probably all the rich food, because they certainly do enough work to burn off plenty of calories.
Bureaucracy/Jobs
Well I take back anything I've ever said about the French or Italians, because this lot take the prize. Booking a train, there's a million types of class, booking desk, reservation desk, refund desk, etc. Great for the novelty, and to be fair it all works (eventually), but you need patience in spades. 'Pay and use' toilets (at stations etc.) - bit of a joke someone's having there. There's a bloke employed to sit there all day, take a Ruppee of you for a piss, he gives you a ticket which he's just torn in half, you have your piss, and there's a bin on the way out overflowing with used ticket stubs. Tell me that's not the best job-creation scheme in the world (before you ask, the money does not pay for clean toilets, because all Indian public toilets are cess-pits).
One interesting point - virtually no women work in the catering/hospitality business - we saw not a single chamber-maid, waitress (a couple in Kochi), etc. This is why, except in the posh hotels I guess, the rooms are pretty dirty - because blokes 'clean' them. Lots of women doing the tough stuff though - sweeping streets, tea/eucalyptus-picking, etc. Blokes here seem to get the easy jobs and are idle with it, just to rub it in.
General strong feeling of patriotism, the concept of 'Indian' seemingly ironing over any regional differences (unlike the UK?). That's quite something when you consider the size of the country.
Family
Kids are great - well dressed, polite, well-behaved (when on show anyway!). Family days out are a big thing - good to see.
Saw a couple of women with obvious black-eyes, etc. Must have walked into the door-frame again (before you have a pop yes I know it goes on everywhere).
Media
Obsessed with Bollywood. Personally, I think it's shit, but I have slective tastes when it comes to cinema as you know. All the music sounds the same. Choreography in the music vids is pretty good though (but the same). Seem to have this 'India is poised, our time is now' thing going on on TV and billboards, etc. Maybe something I don't know about - initially I thought they were bidding for the Olympics or something?
National anthem in the cinema (yes they stand up and some 'sing' along). Nice antiquated thing going on there.
Overall
Well, if the dominant force in the 21st century is India/China, then you're wrong. It's China. India may have a big industrial/chemical/manufacturing machine, but in other respects, China obliterates it (OK I haven't been to China, but from what I can see they're a lot more up on inersexual equality, tech stuff, social security?, maybe not so hot on the human-rights bit). India is pretty repressed sexually, like the UK maybe 50 years ago. Mostly to blame on Hinduism I think - all intertwined with the belief that sucessive incarnations are based on your previous life therefore you'll move through the ranks eventually, so if you have a rough deal in this life then tough cookie (and then of course if you're a bad person then you come back as an animal, and you can't go from animal to human apparently). If all this sounds familiar, remember Glenn Hoddle?
Going back to my job-creation scheme theory above, this exists in many places. Completely overstaffed restaurants, sometimes almost falling over each other to serve you (always topping up drink, serving food, etc. which gets annoying). Basically, there are too many people here for not enough jobs. I'm not quite sure why as a proprietor you would chose to overstaff your joint - maybe they're paid by the government so the unemployment figues look better? Contraception is available and used I believe, but of course people will:
1. Keep having kids until they get a boy
2. Keep having kids anyway 'cos it's good to have a large family
I think both points come back to the whole culture thing - daughters cost money, no percieved 'continuation' of family line unless a boy, etc.
For such a weathly country in terms of culture, natural resources, exports, etc., the amount of poverty, and, more importantly, apparent lack of social security is staggering. I guess the problem is so massive the government don't know where to start. You would understand if the country had little to make money from (Laos a good example?), but this place has plenty. There's lots getting pissed up the wall or lining someones pockets somehwere methinks.
Interestingly, the trains are somewhere where there is obvious discount for handicapped, etc., but I don't think they could afford it even then.
This all sounds like a big pop I know. I do appreciate that there's not that much difference between the India of now and the England of Dicken's time. They just don't seem in too big a hurry to pull themselves out of it, which is a bit of front when you boast of being the 3rd or 4th world's largest power (but then who ever said 'power' and 'development' went together?)
Did I enjoy it?
Yes definitely glad of the experience.
Would I go back?
Probably, but not in a hurry. Would like to see Rajasthan and Gujarat, which everyone goes on about.
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menina
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Mumbai!
I liked your description.... but I have a different point of view though . Before I went there..I would love to have seen a blog like this ....hope it works for future travellers... I love chaotic and vibrant Mumbai. People is great! Thanks