Rajasthan is the largest of India's 29 states, though it has only slightly more than 50 million people living here - it is a land of sparse population, though the colors and rich culture more than make up for the harsh desert landscape...
Rajasthan has always been a proud, and fiercely independent region of the world. Some of the warrior tribes here successfully fought off both the Mughal and British Empires, and were never fully subjugated by either (a feat unmatched by the rest of India). When faced with certain defeat in battle, the brave Rajput warriors would commit mass suicide rather than live under captors.
Today, one still gets the feeling that this part of India cherishes its unique culture and independence. The food is simple but very delicious. The music is rich and complex (often tied to dances), and many of the instruments used are not played anywhere else in the world. At night, exotic desert music floats through the air, evoking a distant past. Even the curved mustaches on the men seem to be found only here. But what really sticks out to the most casual visitor, are the colors. The women's clothing here nearly radiates color due to the strength of the dyes used. The men's turbans likewise seem to use every color in the spectrum (different colors signify a certain status in society). Eyes strain to keep up with the multitude of colors that people flash on the streets. But these wonderful colors aren't just found on the people.
Oddly enough, the cities here seem to be color-coded, like patches of colorful desert flowers. I visited Jaipur, the capitol of Rajasthan, and could see why it was called the "Pink City." The markets and buildings of the Old Town are all painted a pink hue, almost a salmon color. I then visited Jodhpur, and the buildings of its Old Town, settled at the base of a magnificent fort, are painted a rich blue, to symbolize the Brahmin caste that used to exclusively live here. Further west, almost on the border of Pakistan, I came to Jaisalmer, with another indomitable fort - this fort (and the rest of this small, ancient caravan city) has a golden, honey colored hue that comes from the local sandstone. Furthermore, Pushkar (the city with the holy lake where Ghandi's ashes were spread) is almost completely adorned with white buildings. The different colors of these cities seem to evoke a uniqueness, or a way to separate one from the next- a very independent spirit to match the independence of its people. Such a dense arrangement of colorful cities is hard to match anywhere else in the world...
For all the color and culture that I found in Rajasthan, I could not help but notice a huge problem that is only getting worse...Water scarcity. The lake of Pushkar(or the lack thereof) is a perfect example the water problem here. Only a few years ago, this lake was nearly full, supplying holy water to the thousands of pilgrims who visited it. Today, the lake is completetly gone - an invisible holy lake. In Udaipur, where I am currently staying, the lake is still here, but it is very low, and slowly shrinking. Such recent problems are unprecedented here.
Rajasthan is a desert, and much of it is dry and poorly irrigated - its people heavily rely on the unpredictable monsoon to grow crops. Almost 70% of Indians still depend on farm incomes, and 60% of India's farms depend on these monsoon rains, according to the BBC. Sadly, 2009 was the weakest monsoon season in 40 years, and India (especially Rajasthan) is currently facing a sever water shortage. Not only is there not enough water for personal use, but crops are not getting the water they need, and food is becoming scarcer. Such scarcity is a driving factor in the relocation of people from rural to urban areas. One only needs to look in the news today to notice that Indian prices for such staples as potatoes, pulses, wheat, and rice have sharply risen in the last year. Overall food inflation in India is currently at about 18%, the highest it has been in nearly a decade - this is a clear sign of water and thus food scarcity. For a population that is only growing (India's population is set to double by 2050), this is an ominous sign. Soaring food prices in 2007-8 caused riots all over the world. Water wars have already been fought in Sudan and Somalia with brutal ferocity, and future water wars will be no less violent. It doesn't help that more than 70% of India's precipitation runs off into the sea! It is obvious that India does not have an effective water management strategy, and it better get one soon!
For all of the problems with water shortages in the world, including Australia and the American SW and SE, you would think that people would start to take this matter seriously. Local reservoirs, rivers, lakes and dams are blatantly short on water, and the fact that 2007 and 2008 were in the top ten hottest years on record should further highlight this problem. Yet in October 2009, only 35% of Americans believed that climate change is a very serious problem, down from 44% in April 2008 (Pew Research Center)!! Of course the economy can be blamed for turning people's attention away from the more long-term problems of the environment, but can we not think about more than one thing at once?
This is not just India's problem, but that of the entire planet. By 2050, the world population will be at around 9 Billion people, and in order to feed that many people, global output of food will have to increase about 70% (AP). Is this even possible, with more and more land being overused or developed each year? Time will tell. Nevertheless, these problems are very urgent and very serious - not even the most colorful cities or pashmina scarves of Rajasthan can cover them up...
2/19/2010
2/12/2010
Varanasi: City of Life and Death
Wherever you go in the world, you can witness life, you can experience life, and you can ponder life...
But Varanasi is the only place in the world where you are guaranteed to confront both life and death. It is a city where the full cycle of life is embraced on a daily basis. Death is literally floating in the air! Whether it is the flicker of a funeral pyre or the smell of a burning body, one is constantly reminded of mortality while walking along the ghats (steps) of the Ganges River. Spirituality seeps from this city. It is saturated in history and enlightenment...
It is at first very shocking to see dead bodies engulfed in flames. After about 3 hours of burning, they are completely reduced to ash and smoke, only to be carried away by the wind and water. But quickly the experience becomes rather calming and relaxing. The power and significance of this event is too great to feel sad or uncomfortable for too long. It opens your mind to say the least, especially if you are used to a normal funeral at the cemetary...
There are two main "burning ghats" where people take their deceased loved ones. But first there is a procession through the streets of the old town, where the body (wrapped in cloth ranging from a simple red to lavish golden and orange, depending on gender and caste) is carried on what looks like a bamboo stretcher. The body is eventually taken down steps to the Ganga (as they call it), where it is given a final bath, and then placed on the destined pile of logs. Different wood can be chosen, and each type has a different price (sandalwood powder is the most expensive). There are specific men who weigh out the wood with scales - it is said that weighing just the right amount of wood for each different body is considered an art. Indian men are the only ones who watch the burning, as women have been known to become so upset at the sight that they throw themselves on the fire! As one guy told me, only "strong men" are allowed to watch. The bodies of the lower castes are positioned closer to the river, while the higher castes burn higher up the slope and farther from the river. Cows sit and occasionally gaze over, completely indifferent to everything. People just stare quietly, deep in contemplation, as smoke fills the air. Temples long ago stained black from the smoke provide the backdrop of this dramatic sight. Boys from the lowest castes eventually scoop up the ashes with a shovel, which are then given to the Ganges River...
The first time I experienced the ghats of Varanasi was in a rickety little boat rowed by an old, bearded man. The colorful ghats that lead down to the river from the narrow alleyways of the old city all seemed to have unique atmospheres. Some were crowded, and some were desolate. Temples, shrines, and palaces loomed over the water like a canyon of history. The current was peaceful and slow, almost nonexistent as it carried the ashes of the deceased into the oceans of the world. For all that my eyes were seeing,all I could really hear were children laughing, bells and cymbals occasionally being struck, gulls squawking, and the sound of the river lapping against the boat and paddles. The discrepancy between my vision and hearing was something to marvel at. It was the ultimate boat ride.
The newer parts of town have a peaceful chaos about it that I grew to like. Sure, there is dirt and garbage (also tons of cow dung everywhere, watch your step!). The traffic is dense mostly with honking motorbikes and rickshaws, as speakers emit exotic Indian street music from a secret location above the roads. Flea-ridden dogs and holy cows roam the streets. Young children caked in dirt beg for money while people try to sell you drugs and peddle boat rides. Sadly, the Ganges is literally septic, with dozens of sewers constantly spilling into it. But in the end, these are mere sidenotes to the entire experience that occurs along the river (the beating heart of Varanasi). While death is something that most people are afraid to think about, we all know it will eventually come. In the end we hide from it and push it under the rug, only to briefly think about it occasionally. For people who inhabit or visit Varanasi, the imminence of death remains in your thoughts at all times. Time does not seem to exist here sometimes. Powerful stuff...
It is not just death that is here - it is also the full range of life. Here people pray, bathe and do their laundry in a river that they believe enhances both their life and afterlife. People connect with their gods and the spirits of their family members and friends who are no longer here, while young married couples sit by the water, connecting in only a way they will truly know. Kids laugh and play cricket along the banks of the river, yet at the same time beggars and street people hold dearly onto life. Such life experiences are walking distance from burning ghats, where day and night bodies are lit on fire and disappear, only to become a memory. Life and death really do coexist on a permanent basis here, and in plain view.
Varanasi (or Kasi as they used to call it) most represents India to me - like India, Varanasi inspires every single human emotion. The great and the horrible will surround you at the same time, and never seem to leave. If there is a sight, smell, sound or feeling that isn't in India, it doesn't exist. Varanasi is a microcosm of India, which in itself is the world in concentrate. Nothing is watered down or covered up here. Take it or leave it.
When compared to every other city I have seen, Varanasi is like a wise, old guru who knows everything about life and is willing to share its secrets with whomever seeks them. The maturity of this city is impossible to surpass, and a visit here is more than highly recommended. It is one of the most surreal and amazing places on Earth...
But Varanasi is the only place in the world where you are guaranteed to confront both life and death. It is a city where the full cycle of life is embraced on a daily basis. Death is literally floating in the air! Whether it is the flicker of a funeral pyre or the smell of a burning body, one is constantly reminded of mortality while walking along the ghats (steps) of the Ganges River. Spirituality seeps from this city. It is saturated in history and enlightenment...
It is at first very shocking to see dead bodies engulfed in flames. After about 3 hours of burning, they are completely reduced to ash and smoke, only to be carried away by the wind and water. But quickly the experience becomes rather calming and relaxing. The power and significance of this event is too great to feel sad or uncomfortable for too long. It opens your mind to say the least, especially if you are used to a normal funeral at the cemetary...
There are two main "burning ghats" where people take their deceased loved ones. But first there is a procession through the streets of the old town, where the body (wrapped in cloth ranging from a simple red to lavish golden and orange, depending on gender and caste) is carried on what looks like a bamboo stretcher. The body is eventually taken down steps to the Ganga (as they call it), where it is given a final bath, and then placed on the destined pile of logs. Different wood can be chosen, and each type has a different price (sandalwood powder is the most expensive). There are specific men who weigh out the wood with scales - it is said that weighing just the right amount of wood for each different body is considered an art. Indian men are the only ones who watch the burning, as women have been known to become so upset at the sight that they throw themselves on the fire! As one guy told me, only "strong men" are allowed to watch. The bodies of the lower castes are positioned closer to the river, while the higher castes burn higher up the slope and farther from the river. Cows sit and occasionally gaze over, completely indifferent to everything. People just stare quietly, deep in contemplation, as smoke fills the air. Temples long ago stained black from the smoke provide the backdrop of this dramatic sight. Boys from the lowest castes eventually scoop up the ashes with a shovel, which are then given to the Ganges River...
The first time I experienced the ghats of Varanasi was in a rickety little boat rowed by an old, bearded man. The colorful ghats that lead down to the river from the narrow alleyways of the old city all seemed to have unique atmospheres. Some were crowded, and some were desolate. Temples, shrines, and palaces loomed over the water like a canyon of history. The current was peaceful and slow, almost nonexistent as it carried the ashes of the deceased into the oceans of the world. For all that my eyes were seeing,all I could really hear were children laughing, bells and cymbals occasionally being struck, gulls squawking, and the sound of the river lapping against the boat and paddles. The discrepancy between my vision and hearing was something to marvel at. It was the ultimate boat ride.
The newer parts of town have a peaceful chaos about it that I grew to like. Sure, there is dirt and garbage (also tons of cow dung everywhere, watch your step!). The traffic is dense mostly with honking motorbikes and rickshaws, as speakers emit exotic Indian street music from a secret location above the roads. Flea-ridden dogs and holy cows roam the streets. Young children caked in dirt beg for money while people try to sell you drugs and peddle boat rides. Sadly, the Ganges is literally septic, with dozens of sewers constantly spilling into it. But in the end, these are mere sidenotes to the entire experience that occurs along the river (the beating heart of Varanasi). While death is something that most people are afraid to think about, we all know it will eventually come. In the end we hide from it and push it under the rug, only to briefly think about it occasionally. For people who inhabit or visit Varanasi, the imminence of death remains in your thoughts at all times. Time does not seem to exist here sometimes. Powerful stuff...
It is not just death that is here - it is also the full range of life. Here people pray, bathe and do their laundry in a river that they believe enhances both their life and afterlife. People connect with their gods and the spirits of their family members and friends who are no longer here, while young married couples sit by the water, connecting in only a way they will truly know. Kids laugh and play cricket along the banks of the river, yet at the same time beggars and street people hold dearly onto life. Such life experiences are walking distance from burning ghats, where day and night bodies are lit on fire and disappear, only to become a memory. Life and death really do coexist on a permanent basis here, and in plain view.
Varanasi (or Kasi as they used to call it) most represents India to me - like India, Varanasi inspires every single human emotion. The great and the horrible will surround you at the same time, and never seem to leave. If there is a sight, smell, sound or feeling that isn't in India, it doesn't exist. Varanasi is a microcosm of India, which in itself is the world in concentrate. Nothing is watered down or covered up here. Take it or leave it.
When compared to every other city I have seen, Varanasi is like a wise, old guru who knows everything about life and is willing to share its secrets with whomever seeks them. The maturity of this city is impossible to surpass, and a visit here is more than highly recommended. It is one of the most surreal and amazing places on Earth...
2/05/2010
The Taj & The Train
My time in Uttar Pradesh has allowed me to see the best and the worst of India. UP as they call it here, is the most populous state in India, with 170 million people crowding the Northern strip of plains along the Ganges, the holiest river in Hinduism. It is a very rural area, and quite poor as well. Thousands of villages hug this precious source of life.
In the midst of this all is Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. I can't say much about the town - it is a very boring (but bustling) tourist town that is mostly a sidenote to the Taj. But the Taj itself is a different story. We have all seen images of this masterpiece of design, but it is only until one visits the place that true appreciation can begin...From afar, one will never notice the intricate marble inlay designs that covers this memorial, nor can one see the design of the entire space. The Taj is set in a large, beautiful courtyard, true to its Mughal (Muslim) design, and it is flanked by other gorgeous buildings that are sadly never noticed. And the beautiful Yamuna River (Hinduism's 2nd holiest river) that flows behind the Taj creates a whole new atmosphere of natural serenity that pictures will never capture. Both the intimate details and grand design can only be seen in person, and I will not try to describe the indescribable to you any longer. It is a futile effort. But the Taj Mahal is truly something to behold, and it is possibly India's greatest gift to the world...
But it was after my visit to this wonder of the world that I got to see a different part of India - the trains. India's railway system is the 2nd most extensive in the world, covering just over 39,000 miles (one of the few positive legacies left behind by the British). But the train situation in India is currently stagnant at best.
Let's start with a typical Indian train station - extremely crowded with people sleeping, practically camping out. To grab a plot of floorspace that is not covered with dead cockroaches, betel nut juice spit, or general garbage and filth, is a miracle. The stations almost feel like refugee camps, or sess pools. People jump down onto the tracks and urinate in front of everybody. Since many of these people do not live in areas inhabited by tourists, this is their one chance to inhabit the same space. I had numerous people just come up to me, and stand there - staring. Awkward to say the least...And it doesn't help at all that trains in India are ALWAYS late. I have taken two trains so far, and one was 5 hours late, while the other was a measly 3 hours late. One guy told me about his train being 12 hours late!! At that point I say cancel the thing...
So once I got on the train, I found my sleeper compartment. A slab of hard leather, which I have no problem with. But this slab of leather got really cold at night, especially when half of the windows in the car were missing! I was near hypothermia by the time the sun came up the next day. I saw a mouse scurrying around the car, as well as cockroaches. Not a pretty sight. The smell of human waste emanates from the bathrooms (in which the toilets merely open onto the train track below, a convenient but unfortunate short-term solution to the problem of waste disposal on the trains). These things I (and probably you too) take for granted in the USA and the West. I will, after this, discontinue any negative remarks towards the US train system...
It really makes me wonder about the state of Indian infrastructure if something as basic and simple as the windows of a train are missing...can the government not even try to keep people from freezing? Do politicians here even care? The roads of India are not any better...The harsh Indian sun and weight of millions of automobiles is constantly thrashing the roads and highways here, making road work an endless project. India has the highest ration of workers to miles of road in the world (one for every 1.25 miles of road), yet this still is not enough to prevent potholes that can sometimes be the size of a bathtub! Unfortunately, anybody employed by the Indian government can NEVER be fired under a certain article of the Indian constitution, so these workers never show up for work, since they will get paid either way. This also explains many problems in the country - rewarding people for not working may prove to be disastrous for this country. This all sounds trivial, until it is understood that up to 1/3 of all vegetables grown in India rot before they reach their destination, due to slow travel caused by poor road conditions. Similarly, up to 1/3 of teachers miss school each day here because they cannot reach their school on time, also due to poor roads.
The bad state of Indian infrastructure will only hurt India as a society and an economy, and it will make life difficult not just for a visitor like me, but for the rest of the country (that's 1.3 billion people and counting by the way). Fortunately, a massive highway project called the Golden Quadrilateral Highway is nearly finished, after it was begun in 1998. This highway connects all four of India's big cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata), basically forming a loop around the edges of the country. Another highway is in the works to bisect India down the middle from the North to the very South. These projects should help things immensely in the long run. But the train system must be developed further and made more efficient, since trains are less energy-intensive than automobiles. Let's hope things start to seriously pick up, or else the added weight of more people with more cars will only drag this country down to the pace of a snail...
In the midst of this all is Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. I can't say much about the town - it is a very boring (but bustling) tourist town that is mostly a sidenote to the Taj. But the Taj itself is a different story. We have all seen images of this masterpiece of design, but it is only until one visits the place that true appreciation can begin...From afar, one will never notice the intricate marble inlay designs that covers this memorial, nor can one see the design of the entire space. The Taj is set in a large, beautiful courtyard, true to its Mughal (Muslim) design, and it is flanked by other gorgeous buildings that are sadly never noticed. And the beautiful Yamuna River (Hinduism's 2nd holiest river) that flows behind the Taj creates a whole new atmosphere of natural serenity that pictures will never capture. Both the intimate details and grand design can only be seen in person, and I will not try to describe the indescribable to you any longer. It is a futile effort. But the Taj Mahal is truly something to behold, and it is possibly India's greatest gift to the world...
But it was after my visit to this wonder of the world that I got to see a different part of India - the trains. India's railway system is the 2nd most extensive in the world, covering just over 39,000 miles (one of the few positive legacies left behind by the British). But the train situation in India is currently stagnant at best.
Let's start with a typical Indian train station - extremely crowded with people sleeping, practically camping out. To grab a plot of floorspace that is not covered with dead cockroaches, betel nut juice spit, or general garbage and filth, is a miracle. The stations almost feel like refugee camps, or sess pools. People jump down onto the tracks and urinate in front of everybody. Since many of these people do not live in areas inhabited by tourists, this is their one chance to inhabit the same space. I had numerous people just come up to me, and stand there - staring. Awkward to say the least...And it doesn't help at all that trains in India are ALWAYS late. I have taken two trains so far, and one was 5 hours late, while the other was a measly 3 hours late. One guy told me about his train being 12 hours late!! At that point I say cancel the thing...
So once I got on the train, I found my sleeper compartment. A slab of hard leather, which I have no problem with. But this slab of leather got really cold at night, especially when half of the windows in the car were missing! I was near hypothermia by the time the sun came up the next day. I saw a mouse scurrying around the car, as well as cockroaches. Not a pretty sight. The smell of human waste emanates from the bathrooms (in which the toilets merely open onto the train track below, a convenient but unfortunate short-term solution to the problem of waste disposal on the trains). These things I (and probably you too) take for granted in the USA and the West. I will, after this, discontinue any negative remarks towards the US train system...
It really makes me wonder about the state of Indian infrastructure if something as basic and simple as the windows of a train are missing...can the government not even try to keep people from freezing? Do politicians here even care? The roads of India are not any better...The harsh Indian sun and weight of millions of automobiles is constantly thrashing the roads and highways here, making road work an endless project. India has the highest ration of workers to miles of road in the world (one for every 1.25 miles of road), yet this still is not enough to prevent potholes that can sometimes be the size of a bathtub! Unfortunately, anybody employed by the Indian government can NEVER be fired under a certain article of the Indian constitution, so these workers never show up for work, since they will get paid either way. This also explains many problems in the country - rewarding people for not working may prove to be disastrous for this country. This all sounds trivial, until it is understood that up to 1/3 of all vegetables grown in India rot before they reach their destination, due to slow travel caused by poor road conditions. Similarly, up to 1/3 of teachers miss school each day here because they cannot reach their school on time, also due to poor roads.
The bad state of Indian infrastructure will only hurt India as a society and an economy, and it will make life difficult not just for a visitor like me, but for the rest of the country (that's 1.3 billion people and counting by the way). Fortunately, a massive highway project called the Golden Quadrilateral Highway is nearly finished, after it was begun in 1998. This highway connects all four of India's big cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata), basically forming a loop around the edges of the country. Another highway is in the works to bisect India down the middle from the North to the very South. These projects should help things immensely in the long run. But the train system must be developed further and made more efficient, since trains are less energy-intensive than automobiles. Let's hope things start to seriously pick up, or else the added weight of more people with more cars will only drag this country down to the pace of a snail...
1/28/2010
New Delhi
Flying in, the first thing I notice about New Delhi is that I can't notice anything...It is so horribly shrouded in a smoky, hazy cloud that it makes LA look like Yosemite. The visibility is no more than 200 yards in any direction, and I almost feel like I am in a dream, though not necessarily a good one...
The smog makes any hint of orientation a pipe dream, and I feel perpetually trapped within its confines: the streets all seem to lead to a murky oblivion. Each breath tastes like a pull from a cheap hand-rolled Indian bidi. Within 3 hours, I am already coughing up black mystery-paste, and my throat feels infected. This fine concotion of breathing material- I can't bring myself to call it air- results from thousands of car/motorcycle/rickshaw exhausts, unchecked factory emissions, and thousands of charcoal ovens in the streets (the coal is high in ash content: the dirtiest kind). People on the streets also burn wood and trash, which only adds to the problem. What I find crazy is that air particle pollution has decreased 30% in the last ten years, since public transportation switched from Diesel fuel to Compressed Natural Gas in 1999!
New Delhi seems to be part construction site, part farm, part slum, and part urban center. It has the energy of a big party (which people keep coming to and never leave) and the confusion of purgatory. The traffic reminds me of a crowded parking lot at an NFL game, and when things finally do get moving, there is absolutely no order to the traffic - cars, bicycles, rickshaws, cows, and pedestrians compete for every sliver of road space available. There is no right or wrong side of the street ("Left or right, it no matter" says my cab driver casually). Pedestrians have no right of way (that includes old ladies), and if you aren't careful you will get mowed down. Each driver honks his/her horn every few seconds to keep any drivers nearby in the loop, creating a symphony of honks (in India, horns are as important as steering wheels). BUT, it is surprisingly fun to get swept up in this circus of traffic, even though near death seems perpetual. The best part is seeing the calm expression on everybody's faces as they navigate the roads - this whole process seems as second nature to them as a religious ritual. I wonder if they know that every minute there is a car accident in India, and every 5 minutes a deadly one...
New Delhi has very odd contradictions that exist in few cities of its size. It is the richest city in India (the average income is 2x the national average), and the center of the Indian government- therefore the newer part of town is home to huge, stately government buildings and wide regal streets dating back to the British Raj. Yet nearby I see thousands of people living on the side of the roads in makeshift tents or shacks made of corrugated metal. Garbage piles up in mounds on the side of the road, waiting for the lower caste street sweepers (or a hungry cow) to come scoop it up. I occasionally see a businessman smartly dressed in a suit, talking on a cell phone, standing next to a homeless person. Every time my car stops at a light, a beggar woman or child comes to my window, pleading for money, sometimes hitting their heads against the window of my taxi. Such extreme wealth and poverty sharing the same space is hard to understand, because there is really no explanation.
As of now, New Delhi has an "official" count of 16-17 million people. You can add on a few more million who are not being counted or who are passing through for a few hours or days at any given time. By 2025, the "official" population count is expected to be 30 million people (more like 35-40 million in reality). Up to 40 million people living in a place as polluted and crowded as this will cause huge problems. Currently 1/8 of premature deaths in India are caused by pollution. And the total health-care costs for pollution-related illnesses in India total up to 4.5%of its GDP (in other words, pollution wipes out half of India's annual economic growth). If this pollution does not subside drastically, many more people will become sick or die. People do not seem to be physically fighting over food, land, or water yet, but if people continue to outnumber resources, you can bet that people will do whatever it takes to survive. Leave it to Gandhi to put it best: "Crores [tens of millions] of people will never be able to live in peace with each other in towns and palaces. They will then have no recourse but to resort to violence and untruth."
The big problem is that the city is paralyzed by a tangle of red tape. The police are under the control of the National Government, the State Government controls governing the city, and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi handles roads, sewage, and local taxation. Because these factions are not under any single oversight body, coordinating even the most minor infrastructure project is nearly impossible. Fortunately, the Metro system is making good progress, and it will likely reduce a good amount of traffic on the streets when it is completed in a few years. I sincerely hope it works, because New Delhi is buckling under its own weight.
On a more personal level, the New Delhites that I ran into have not been honest. My first interaction occurred after I got off my plane, and went to an official kiosk in the main airport lobby to buy a bottle of water. A cheerful, smiling man greeted me and sold me a bottle...that wasn't sealed! He had filled an empty bottle with local Delhi water (Welcome to India! Enjoy your dysentary!)... When I showed him, he quickly gave me a new one, with a mock expression of sorrow. I quickly realized that I couldn't trust anybody, as much as I wanted to.
Then, my cab driver from the airport couldn't find my hotel after driving around the narrow side streets of the old town for over an hour. He took me to a "travel agency," which then told me that all hotels in Delhi were overbooked, due to the upcoming Republic Day Festival in New Delhi and a horrible fog problem that was stranding and delaying all trains (one train I took in India was about 5-6 hours late). I even had a reservation at a hotel, but the "agent" called the hotel, which then told him that they doublebooked and thus gave my room to someone else (whether that is true or not I will never know). People have told me that the hotel owner could've sold my room for triple the price due to high demand. I could've neglected the agent's advice and gone on a search for hotels on my own, but I was too jetlagged and intimidated by this beast of a city that I gave in. I pretty much left town after only 2 hours for Agra, home of the Taj Mahal (in an overpriced private taxi that he arranged of course). First impressions last though, and two hours was enough time to see the worst parts of the city.
However relieving it was to leave, I am upset that I didn't get to experience some of the good parts of the city. Friends of friends live there, and I wanted to meet them. New Delhi is also said to have some of the best Indian (and Chinese)food in the world, and the hottest nightclubs in India. And from what I briefly saw, the diversity of people in Delhi was amazing- Tamils and Tibetans; Hindus and Muslims; beggars and billionaires; Holy Men and businessmen. When I was there, it never for a second failed to excite me and stimulate my senses.
This city is like a bad car accident - it may be an ugly scene, but you can't help being curious and watching things unfold.
New Delhi will continue to be one of the biggest and most important cities in the world. It is a wealthy city that has the potential to do much good for India and for the world, but it is also a den of poverty that has the potential to collapse into chaos. It is up to the Indian people to decide which direction things go from here...
The smog makes any hint of orientation a pipe dream, and I feel perpetually trapped within its confines: the streets all seem to lead to a murky oblivion. Each breath tastes like a pull from a cheap hand-rolled Indian bidi. Within 3 hours, I am already coughing up black mystery-paste, and my throat feels infected. This fine concotion of breathing material- I can't bring myself to call it air- results from thousands of car/motorcycle/rickshaw exhausts, unchecked factory emissions, and thousands of charcoal ovens in the streets (the coal is high in ash content: the dirtiest kind). People on the streets also burn wood and trash, which only adds to the problem. What I find crazy is that air particle pollution has decreased 30% in the last ten years, since public transportation switched from Diesel fuel to Compressed Natural Gas in 1999!
New Delhi seems to be part construction site, part farm, part slum, and part urban center. It has the energy of a big party (which people keep coming to and never leave) and the confusion of purgatory. The traffic reminds me of a crowded parking lot at an NFL game, and when things finally do get moving, there is absolutely no order to the traffic - cars, bicycles, rickshaws, cows, and pedestrians compete for every sliver of road space available. There is no right or wrong side of the street ("Left or right, it no matter" says my cab driver casually). Pedestrians have no right of way (that includes old ladies), and if you aren't careful you will get mowed down. Each driver honks his/her horn every few seconds to keep any drivers nearby in the loop, creating a symphony of honks (in India, horns are as important as steering wheels). BUT, it is surprisingly fun to get swept up in this circus of traffic, even though near death seems perpetual. The best part is seeing the calm expression on everybody's faces as they navigate the roads - this whole process seems as second nature to them as a religious ritual. I wonder if they know that every minute there is a car accident in India, and every 5 minutes a deadly one...
New Delhi has very odd contradictions that exist in few cities of its size. It is the richest city in India (the average income is 2x the national average), and the center of the Indian government- therefore the newer part of town is home to huge, stately government buildings and wide regal streets dating back to the British Raj. Yet nearby I see thousands of people living on the side of the roads in makeshift tents or shacks made of corrugated metal. Garbage piles up in mounds on the side of the road, waiting for the lower caste street sweepers (or a hungry cow) to come scoop it up. I occasionally see a businessman smartly dressed in a suit, talking on a cell phone, standing next to a homeless person. Every time my car stops at a light, a beggar woman or child comes to my window, pleading for money, sometimes hitting their heads against the window of my taxi. Such extreme wealth and poverty sharing the same space is hard to understand, because there is really no explanation.
As of now, New Delhi has an "official" count of 16-17 million people. You can add on a few more million who are not being counted or who are passing through for a few hours or days at any given time. By 2025, the "official" population count is expected to be 30 million people (more like 35-40 million in reality). Up to 40 million people living in a place as polluted and crowded as this will cause huge problems. Currently 1/8 of premature deaths in India are caused by pollution. And the total health-care costs for pollution-related illnesses in India total up to 4.5%of its GDP (in other words, pollution wipes out half of India's annual economic growth). If this pollution does not subside drastically, many more people will become sick or die. People do not seem to be physically fighting over food, land, or water yet, but if people continue to outnumber resources, you can bet that people will do whatever it takes to survive. Leave it to Gandhi to put it best: "Crores [tens of millions] of people will never be able to live in peace with each other in towns and palaces. They will then have no recourse but to resort to violence and untruth."
The big problem is that the city is paralyzed by a tangle of red tape. The police are under the control of the National Government, the State Government controls governing the city, and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi handles roads, sewage, and local taxation. Because these factions are not under any single oversight body, coordinating even the most minor infrastructure project is nearly impossible. Fortunately, the Metro system is making good progress, and it will likely reduce a good amount of traffic on the streets when it is completed in a few years. I sincerely hope it works, because New Delhi is buckling under its own weight.
On a more personal level, the New Delhites that I ran into have not been honest. My first interaction occurred after I got off my plane, and went to an official kiosk in the main airport lobby to buy a bottle of water. A cheerful, smiling man greeted me and sold me a bottle...that wasn't sealed! He had filled an empty bottle with local Delhi water (Welcome to India! Enjoy your dysentary!)... When I showed him, he quickly gave me a new one, with a mock expression of sorrow. I quickly realized that I couldn't trust anybody, as much as I wanted to.
Then, my cab driver from the airport couldn't find my hotel after driving around the narrow side streets of the old town for over an hour. He took me to a "travel agency," which then told me that all hotels in Delhi were overbooked, due to the upcoming Republic Day Festival in New Delhi and a horrible fog problem that was stranding and delaying all trains (one train I took in India was about 5-6 hours late). I even had a reservation at a hotel, but the "agent" called the hotel, which then told him that they doublebooked and thus gave my room to someone else (whether that is true or not I will never know). People have told me that the hotel owner could've sold my room for triple the price due to high demand. I could've neglected the agent's advice and gone on a search for hotels on my own, but I was too jetlagged and intimidated by this beast of a city that I gave in. I pretty much left town after only 2 hours for Agra, home of the Taj Mahal (in an overpriced private taxi that he arranged of course). First impressions last though, and two hours was enough time to see the worst parts of the city.
However relieving it was to leave, I am upset that I didn't get to experience some of the good parts of the city. Friends of friends live there, and I wanted to meet them. New Delhi is also said to have some of the best Indian (and Chinese)food in the world, and the hottest nightclubs in India. And from what I briefly saw, the diversity of people in Delhi was amazing- Tamils and Tibetans; Hindus and Muslims; beggars and billionaires; Holy Men and businessmen. When I was there, it never for a second failed to excite me and stimulate my senses.
This city is like a bad car accident - it may be an ugly scene, but you can't help being curious and watching things unfold.
New Delhi will continue to be one of the biggest and most important cities in the world. It is a wealthy city that has the potential to do much good for India and for the world, but it is also a den of poverty that has the potential to collapse into chaos. It is up to the Indian people to decide which direction things go from here...
1/26/2010
An Introduction...
It must have been on the 101, maybe the 405- but I was on a generic LA freeway, stuck in horrible LA traffic, when I simply snapped. After all the times I had fought the grind, I just gave in. And I began to wonder, can it get worse than this? I realized that it must, and for some strange reason I wanted to see it, even get swallowed into it for a while. You might call it a perverted embrace of the ugly, the slow, the frustrating - if you can't beat it, join it as they say. And that's when I began to think about a project such as this one.
I have always enjoyed visiting different places, but never to immerse myself in the thick of crowded urban centers and dense swaths of humans. It is usually to see pretty temples, churches, beaches, harbors, mountains, and so on. But I have concluded that while these things are all wonderful (I will never turn down a nice beach), they leave me with a one-sided perspective of the world. For every good, there is bad. For all things clean, there is dirt, etc. I think you get the point - The world is not a picture perfect postcard. It is more comfortable to ignore the things that we don't like, and to hold onto what makes us happy: Perfectly understandable. I also seem to always do this - but for now I refuse to...
I don't happen to know many people who live in villages anymore; cities have more things to see and do, more jobs to fill, more people to meet than villages do. This is how many people think, and you can't blame them. In fact, the whole world is gradually urbanizing. An slow exodus of sorts...
Take India for instance. There are about 680,000 Indian villages, and 2/3 of the population still lives in a village- That's about 750 million people! But in 2001, more than 1/3 of Indian villagers depended on non-farm income for their survival. Since rural life is pretty much centered around agriculture, this tells me that people have a growing desire to move out of their village. In the next 20 years, urban dwellers will eventually make up 2/3 of the Indian population, rather than the 1/3 that now city-dwell (is that even a verb?).
And this could and probably will be the case for the rest of the world. Only so many farmers will be needed in the future, especially once companies begin to take over agricultural production and use machines instead of people. But access to better jobs is not the only reason people are moving to cities. Natural disasters like floods and droughts push people into the cities, and make a slum seem like a blessing. Dams, roads, and other development projects also force unlucky villagers off their land. At that point, there is nowhere to go but the nearest or biggest city possible.
So as you enjoy the horrible traffic and other signs of urban stress in your local city, remember that it will only get worse, not better. And this is something that should be confronted, not ignored. I hope this will help you with that...
In the end, interesting things happen in these big cities. There are plenty of people to meet, foods to eat, things to see and experience, and many stories to be told. It is a sick kind of fun, but an adrenaline rush is a guarantee, and I think it will be interesting, though not easy. I hope to entertain you with some good stories!
Please note that a seemingly negative portrayal of a place does not reflect on the entire culture or country (though it may reflect poor governance). For example, just because New Delhi is a disgusting city does not make India or Indian culture disgusting. Quite the opposite. It just lends flavor and diversity to the country. Cities don't have feelings anyway, so I'm sure there will be no love lost...
A city is like a person: Each is different in its own way, with its own character, personality, and tendencies. Some are pleasant, some are mean. Hopefully I will be able to convey to you the experiences one has when interacting with each different city and its unique personality. But it takes years to ever truly understand a person, and it is the same with a city. I will never claim to know the truth about any city. I will tell you what I see, smell, hear, and touch though, and you can make up your own mind...
Cheers and enjoy...
NICK
I have always enjoyed visiting different places, but never to immerse myself in the thick of crowded urban centers and dense swaths of humans. It is usually to see pretty temples, churches, beaches, harbors, mountains, and so on. But I have concluded that while these things are all wonderful (I will never turn down a nice beach), they leave me with a one-sided perspective of the world. For every good, there is bad. For all things clean, there is dirt, etc. I think you get the point - The world is not a picture perfect postcard. It is more comfortable to ignore the things that we don't like, and to hold onto what makes us happy: Perfectly understandable. I also seem to always do this - but for now I refuse to...
I don't happen to know many people who live in villages anymore; cities have more things to see and do, more jobs to fill, more people to meet than villages do. This is how many people think, and you can't blame them. In fact, the whole world is gradually urbanizing. An slow exodus of sorts...
Take India for instance. There are about 680,000 Indian villages, and 2/3 of the population still lives in a village- That's about 750 million people! But in 2001, more than 1/3 of Indian villagers depended on non-farm income for their survival. Since rural life is pretty much centered around agriculture, this tells me that people have a growing desire to move out of their village. In the next 20 years, urban dwellers will eventually make up 2/3 of the Indian population, rather than the 1/3 that now city-dwell (is that even a verb?).
And this could and probably will be the case for the rest of the world. Only so many farmers will be needed in the future, especially once companies begin to take over agricultural production and use machines instead of people. But access to better jobs is not the only reason people are moving to cities. Natural disasters like floods and droughts push people into the cities, and make a slum seem like a blessing. Dams, roads, and other development projects also force unlucky villagers off their land. At that point, there is nowhere to go but the nearest or biggest city possible.
So as you enjoy the horrible traffic and other signs of urban stress in your local city, remember that it will only get worse, not better. And this is something that should be confronted, not ignored. I hope this will help you with that...
In the end, interesting things happen in these big cities. There are plenty of people to meet, foods to eat, things to see and experience, and many stories to be told. It is a sick kind of fun, but an adrenaline rush is a guarantee, and I think it will be interesting, though not easy. I hope to entertain you with some good stories!
Please note that a seemingly negative portrayal of a place does not reflect on the entire culture or country (though it may reflect poor governance). For example, just because New Delhi is a disgusting city does not make India or Indian culture disgusting. Quite the opposite. It just lends flavor and diversity to the country. Cities don't have feelings anyway, so I'm sure there will be no love lost...
A city is like a person: Each is different in its own way, with its own character, personality, and tendencies. Some are pleasant, some are mean. Hopefully I will be able to convey to you the experiences one has when interacting with each different city and its unique personality. But it takes years to ever truly understand a person, and it is the same with a city. I will never claim to know the truth about any city. I will tell you what I see, smell, hear, and touch though, and you can make up your own mind...
Cheers and enjoy...
NICK
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