Responding Back

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I have recently gotten a comment about my “A reminder of the Truth” blog. Originally I wasn’t going to respond because the critique had little to do with my writing and more to do with excerpts I had taken from my mother’s journal entries while she was visiting me in India. This blog is mine. Not my Mothers.

While I am up for any public criticism of what I write, I will not subject my mother to them. She did not ask for her blogs to go public but has graciously agreed to having me post them.

But…the comments that Ashish made stirred something up in me. So I felt the need to respond. Below you will see the original entry pulled from Janine’s journals followed by the comment from Ashish…and my reaction below.


"We are all back at Jenn & Dan's once again. I am taking Lots of heat at this end for my descriptive writing on Varanasi . Truth is...I told the truth. It has NOT depressed me or changed my overall view of this place. India is a tremendously poverty ridden country. There is no way to sugar coat that fact. It is what it is and poverty is everywhere....But the people are proud of their villages and towns. Everywhere, (even Varanasi ) the people seem excited to be living there and happy to tell you all about the wonders of their home. They know no other way and they are proud to show you their town or village. I suspect that if you know no other way of living, then you have no comparison and therefore...everything is fine. It is definitely a different way of life but there are also beautiful places."

Hi Janine, If you stop being arrogant, you will understand that truth is not absolute or that "only" you say or percept. Everything is relative to your idea of that thing. You say India is a tremendously poverty ridden country because you have your own set definition of well beingness. But your definition of well beingness is "not" the truth as you are claiming. It is just relative truth of your set ideas, which are based on very little experience about the subject matter of India and travel within India. This is one (yours too) of the ideas that people are happy if they have money and a certain life style. BUT there are other ideas about happiness as well. Denying their idea, is as good as somebidy denying your idea. People in India are happier compared to their western counterpart. Attributing their happiness to their ignorance is basically your ignorance and a sort of superiority complex without a basis. There is no more ignorant people in the world than they are in the west. Also, see a simple logic that India is accomoding almost 1/6 the of humanity that is ~4 times of the U.S. within an area, that is 1/7 of that of U.S. I think it triggers you something in your thought process. You despise poverty of India as much I as I despise hollowness in western culture. In west, people are so engrosssed in themselve that they have no real sense of the world. I am also surprised that even though you received lot of heat for your comments, I dont see any of them in the blog. Have you deleted them? Please dont do that and let them be there for all to read as people read your blog. I am hoping you approve my comment. wish you all the best and relative pleasent stay.

Adventure India’s reaction:

Arrogance has nothing to do with my mother’s writing or any other contributor on this blogs writings. Pointing out differences between cultures or between developed and undeveloped nations is hardly the same as making a pretensions claim that mine is better than yours.

Ashish said that “You say India is a tremendously poverty ridden country because you have your own set definition of well beingness. But your definition of well beingness is "not" the truth as you are claiming. It is just relative truth of your set ideas, which are based on very little experience about the subject matter of India and travel within India.”

Its true, my mother has very little actual experience with India; just her 2 week stay with me in October. However, one does not have to be in India long, nor dig too deep to see that there are fundamental issues with this developing country. I didn’t want to rely on my own opinions to support this statement, so I did some research.

Sourced from the UNICEF website:
• Every second young child in India is malnourished
• Less than ¼ of rural population use toilets

Sourced from the BBC:
• One quarter of the world poor are living in India
• 150 million people in India are living in slums:
• 63 out of 1000 children in India die before the age of 5: according to UN report
• An estimated 150,000 street children live in Delhi:


You assume because she or I, for that matter, is from the West that we can not look past our "western mentality" of what is right and wrong. We are so spoiled by richness of the west that when we see poverty in India we judge, instead of understand.

Ashish also said: “This is one (yours too) of the ideas that people are happy if they have money and a certain life style. BUT there are other ideas about happiness as well. Denying their idea, is as good as somebidy denying your idea. People in India are happier compared to their western counterpart. Attributing their happiness to their ignorance is basically your ignorance and a sort of superiority complex without a basis. There is no more ignorant people in the world than they are in the west.”

Money can not buy peoples happiness. I believe this statement to be very true. You are judging that fact that because we are from the west we are indeed very happy with Money. That statement shows your arrogance. For me, happiness comes from holding my husbands hand. From sharing good conversation with friends and family. From enjoying the beauty of a sunset or sunrise. None of these things cost me money. But they do bring great happiness. And your argument that people in India are happier compared to their western counterparts; well a person can only assess their own happiness within their own hearts. I will not, nor should you, make a generalization that the 1.2 billion people in India are all happier than all of the people in Western cultures simply because of what??? They are freed from the ignorance caused by earning a living wage? By having a proper education? By having safe and healthy living situations?

Finally you said “You despise poverty of India as much I as I despise hollowness in western culture. In west, people are so engrosssed in themselve that they have no real sense of the world.”

Do not make comparisons between what I believe and your own jaded view of western culture. I do not despise the poverty in India, I don’t even look down upon it nor judge it. But I will not deny that seeing poverty in India, first hand, does leave an impression. I see so many areas for growth in India. And I feel like that growth can only come from one place. And that is Education. Education about safe drinking water so children and adults alike do not die in mass from dehydration. Education about general nutrition so the next generation of India can use their strong minds and bodies to create a safer, healthier and more impactful India. And finally, I would like to offer up this question to you. If people from the West were so engrossed in themselves (again a horrific generalization on your part), what would India do if all the NGO support from the west left? If all the businesses looking to invest in India to develop her economy left? If all the tourist dollars dried up? What would India be left with then?

In today’s global world people (men/women/eastern/western) need not be thinking about “Them vs. Us,” but instead need to be thinking about “We.” How can we help each other? How can we learn from each other? How can we support each other? This is not a time in history for arrogance and false pride. This is a time for unity.

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