A visit to India

In one of my previous posts, I had mentioned about the visit of my 20 year old niece from Sydney who stopped by in Singapore for a few days on her way to India. Well, she did a write-up on her experiences and has given me the permission to reproduce it on this blog. So here are the thoughts of Rimmika Shankar from her recent visit to India...

Destination-Barelli Express, Somewhere in North-West India 9:53 am-Thurs.

As I sit here in an AC tier compartment sipping on a Frooti, looking outside at the harsh, barren, arid sprawl of the Desert that lies all around, watching it go by, I've found some time to reflect .
So off I go.
My plane arrived in India 9:30 pm Local time, Sunday.
It is now Thursday morning and the only word I can use to describe the past few days is 'Amazing'.
Everything has literally left me gob-smacked because India is like it has been described countless times before-truly Incredible.
Starting from the lady that cleans our Toilet in ‘Chowki Dhani’( a completely make-belief village) to the man who attended to us in the Institute of Town Planners Guesthouse (who also happened to look like Superman)-Pan Singh.
In all its expanse and what can at times be a fairly depressing amass of population, people seem to from what I could see be happy, or at least complacent to a degree.
There is somewhat of a social Divide where the rich can afford almost anything but there is a large population that can’t.
Living simply is not one concept that the upper middle class accept and living gallantly and flamboyantly is somewhat of a business churning out a profit within the millions. All you need to do is visit the country clubs in Gurgoan and spend a night celebrating a one year olds birthday as I did, where the bar tab easily exceeded a mark of about 50,000 Rs, maybe more.
The traffic so chaotic and loud, the common man has time for little but their own worries-worries so vast I can imagine that it leaves little room for consideration of others, let alone the environment.
Failure to give way to an Ambulance in crowded peak hour and leaving rubbish on the train and even going to vast lengths to conceal the removal of rubbish in a manner that evades prying eyes and looks of disapproval, yields to me a sentiment that reflects a subtle resignation from the need to advance.
Covering your bodies with just the leather band of a seatbelt, laying across your chest -merely expressing the appearance of a fastened seatbelt-although signals a defiance and lack of obedience of the Law, it displays a complete disregard of concepts and ideas put in place for the safety and protection of its own citizens.
This disregard can only stem from what I believe is a 'what’s the point' belief which harbors a deep saddening tone which I can’t seem to grasp-only feel greatly at a loss for, on behalf of all the citizens and well intentions it had first been established to protect.
In a country where people are so vastly abundant, you cannot go for a second without seeing a fellow being, if consideration for others still exists I wonder where this unique and spectacular display of human behavior showcases its colours.
It may be a country of colour and beauty, contrasts and comparisons, constantly confronting and of everlasting entertainment but this great, vast land leaves has a somber undertone and I feel nothing but saturation at each point.
With the Image of the unending rows of motorcycles parked outside the office of Dainik Bhaskar (a Local newspapers' office in Jaipur)-I start to not only grasp the vast number of people that inhibit this greatly overpopulated and dense landmass, I start to sympathize and try to imagine what it must be like dealing with the state of affairs of this nation on a ritualistic basis.
Why should I give way, when my way involved shortcomings, deception, corruption and connivery?
Why should I not spit on the road when I feel like my dreams have been spat on and left on the railway tracks in a drain blocked and cluttered to the rim.
Why should I keep my area clean when regardless of how clean my area gets there is a slum just outside which thrives on the piles of plastic and paper, selling the pieces -making a relatively meager, modest living.
But even in all this, I have the belief (dreamy-eyed as it may be) that hope may prevail.
Victories and triumphs do occur like the fisherman outside Amer Palace, catching fish from what would have at one point been a water catchment area, outside the palace. Now however ashamedly dried up. As he threw his fishing net into the pitch dark , murky waters full of muck and filth harbored by local boars and wild pigs, many stood as I did watching in silence with a slight feeling of victory within us all when he caught amongst the muck a single fish and on occasion-two.
Perhaps at times slivering in disgust not delight, failing to rejoice with a song and dance for his achievement- I do however think on a small scale we were left better assured that the fisherman’s efforts did not go unrewarded and as unhygienic as the fish that he caught might have been, we walked away with the assurance that he had some, if any fish at all.
I should also mention this palace was one where we were denied access, regardless of whom or how far many had travelled, all turned away as the Film shooting of a Salman Khan movie carried on within in enclosures.
In a country where 'The real India' is what I set out to see, my very real experiences although harsh, full-frontal and however immense in nature they might have been, they delighted, surprised, amazed and recreated an image in my head of the India I left behind, the India I have returned to and the India I hope it may or may not transform into.
Till then I wait in anticipation and hope that I might someday be able to contribute and lead this country in the direction of that positive vector.
A venture I hope yields respect for self, thy country and thy neighbor and of course, the Environment.In hope that the innocence captured in the eyes of a child leads this great nation to unleash its vast untapped potential, open its eyes to its beauty and that progress may come to one and all, inextricably.