INDIA BLOG ARCHIVES (2) - 24 Jan 2005

This was posted on the a/o forum as Msg# 5685 on 24 Jan 2005 under the title `Indian Odyssey - 1`

I have adopted a new title for this series.

To echo Karam, India has indeed a fascination that grips our imagination. It is, as countless other writers have observed, a paradox - it can beguile and bewilder, charm and chasten us and can evoke a whole plethora of other emotions and reactions. Towards the end of our month-long trip, we were ready to come home of course (as anyone would be) but not out of boredom or disillusionment, but simply because it was time.

Our first 10 days in Kerala were in the nature of a relaxed holiday tour. The people of Kerala are so civilized - gentle, self-assured and respectful. At Varkala, our first stopover, we were to witness a tranquil scene at the beach in the evening twilight: local folk (individuals, familes and children) just sitting, talking, playing volleyball (with one or two white tourists joining in - something that we saw elsewhere too), watching the sunset and gazing at the sea waves - much as any small town seaside community. A week later the whole place was to have been transformed by the Tsunami (ps> see Msg# 5220 appended below). The trunk roads had a continental (ie. European) feel about them - orderly traffic, proper signs, traffic lights or cops that controlled the movement of vehicles, people and vehicles keeping to their correct side, no cows and other animals clogging the way - such a contrast to Ahmedabad and other cities and towns in Gujarat for example.

Right through, from this auspicious beginning, there was no mistaking that India has indeed changed. All that is being said about India, in company with China, as fast developing and being global economic players to be reckoned with is true. We found obvious improvements in the infrastructure and service sectors generally. Whereas 10 years ago, even in the best of hotels there used to be problems with running water, electricity, plumbing, telephone and other services, now these can be taken for granted (any interruptions are quickly remedied). The use of mobile phones and IT is very widespread - as is that of credit cards. Indeed, every credit card transaction that we did (in hotels and stores) was efficiently and speedily concluded, with instant automatic authorization. Money changing is no longer a hassle - both officially and on the side. Air travel too is greatly changed. We took several internal flights and were truly impressed with the absolutely first-class service that we received from Jet Airways. Airport procedures however are slow and cumbersome, but meticulous. Documentation is repeatedly checked and scrutinized rather tediously and in detail, but minute offending articles are detected with ease through x-ray.

There is no doubt that the vast Indian middle-class is up and on the move, with even local people saying they have never felt so confident about their progress and future. There is an obvious sense of professionalism and pride about the way everyone does what is expected of them. Taxi drivers said there was no point in cheating or causing bad feeling over small sums of money! There were occasions when one was wrong-footed trying to tip employees which they simply declined, indicating that they were simply doing their job - some were even sort of horrified! Shopping at outlets such as Metro Shoes, Rhythm House, the Asiatic (mutliple store) etc or other, smaller, shops, was again very dignified and satisfying. Even stall holders and roadside vendors give a good service, with wrappers or bags for little things that you may buy. Gone are the days of the tattered and dirty Indian currency notes: one can handle them without soiling your hands.

But all is not honky dory. Yes of course India has made tremendous strides and (as much as has been said about China) the slumbering giant is at last awake, but the problems associated with massive poverty and disadvantage in the villages continue to affect a huge underclass of people and resolving them will remain a mammoth task. This time, we travelled through a great chunk of the countryside, both in Kerala but more importantly in Gujarat (and around Aurangabad), by car and saw how the rural population lives. At that level, by our standards, life is primitive. The greatest single factor is the sheer number - there are just too many people everywhere. Just as dogs sit shit and defecate everywhere and cows amble around aimlessly, so do people - they have no regard for their own safety; vehicles have to navigate their way round people (walking, standing, darting across without looking, regardless of anything or anybody around them). It is not even fatalism; it is a kind of automatism - they just don`t care. These are people on the lowest rung of the socio-economic scale, but in the villages they abound. And of course there is dust and dirt everywhere. We could be staying in the best of hotels but the reality outside their cloistered environment was grim. All through our travels, I longed for the moment when I would be able to step outside our hotel and walk on a proper, paved, sidewalk - and I knew that the only place I would be able to do that was in Mumbai, and so it was - ah, what a pleasurable climax it was as I took my first free strides along Marine Drive! More on that and other things later.

RAMNIK SHAH

Surrey England

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Msg#5220

RE: [orientalia] 8.9 Magnitude Earth Quake strikes Indonesia

Posted By: • dinit4

o Tue Dec 28, 2004 12:56 pm |

Here is a forwarded message from Ramnik Shah:

-----Original Message-----

From: rkd@... [mailto:rkd@...]

Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2004 12:01 AM

Subject: Alive and Safe in Kerala

Dear All

Just a few quick lines to say that we are alive and well

here, having just escaped the effects of the earthquake and

tidal waves that it created. We were on our way from Cochin

down to Kovalam while the tragedy was unfolding - but we were

complelely unaware of it until after we reached our hotel the

Travnacore Heritage Resort and looked at the tv. Although

both to the immediate north nnd south of where we are the

coast was hit and there were hundreds of casualties, our

particular area of the shoreline was miraculously untouched.

Just now, we are waiting for transport to go to the airport

for our flight to Ahmedabad - that is when the next major

part of our tour will begin.

Kerala is beautiful, serene and its people are most

civilized, cultured and hospitable. Glad we came here. For

anyone who comes to India for the first time, this would be

an excellent point of entry - we have been in all sorts of

places - hill station resorts, Cocounut Lagoon and Cochin etc

and everywhere we have found the experience quite

overwhelming.

More later.

RAMNIK

Kerala, India

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Postscript to Indian Odyssey -1

The following was posted by me on a/o as Msg#5722 on 25 Jan 2005 in reply to some responses to the above:

How extraordinary!  I can recount an almost identical experience about the lack of any facilities for disposing litter. We too had stopped by the roadside (this too was actually in Kerala) because my wife wanted to go to a chemist and our guide had spotted one. Well, she came back excitedly telling us how cheap medicines were in India. But then she handed me some rubbish to put away and unable to find an obvious receptacle for it, I went back inside and asked the bemused shopkeeper to dispose of it. He simply shrugged and threw it right out. 

 

Later through our travels, we had other similar experiences. One street vendor who sold us the `maddaaf`, when we handed it back to him, simply threw it aside, though to be quite frank at another time the guy put it back in his cart. When we were visiting the villages around Bhuj, our local guide - a very mature, learned and likeable man whose main job was that of a PWD engineer - when we had finished our picnic lunch simply screwed up the bag containing the remains and flung it right into the wooded area lining the water station where we had stopped. On Marine Drive in Mumbai, I saw a couple of walkers by deliberately dump some unwanted things right over the parapet into the sea. Elsewhere, there was casual neglect adding to the general squalor. Civic sense is a luxury that presumably only the better off can afford!

RAMNIK SHAH
Surrey England