A glimpse of India through my Window

I just returned from India after spending two extremely hectic weeks making lots of wonderful memories with relatives and friends, seeing my name sake – the mighty Brahmaputra, riding an elephant in the Kaziranga National Park (KNP) and over indulging in great meals cooked with lots of love.

However, on a different note, things have definitely changed in India. I am not sure if the good offsets the bad. The economy appears to be catered for 25 - 30% of India’s new middle class (by Indian standard, poverty line is defined at INR 300.00/month, i.e. less than a US$ 0.25/day and 300 million people are below this line. However, by World Bank definition of poverty at US$1/day/ person, 750 million (75%) Indian people are below poverty line.). A vast majority have practically nothing.

Insatiable needs of the middle class have created concrete jungles and a sea of automobiles. There are more tall buildings, highways, malls, blue jeans, cargo pants, McDonalds, cell phones, satellite dish, and so on. They are cutting down beautiful hills and trees to make room for the new rich. Land is becoming like gold and the poor is being squeezed out to the streets or the slums. There is horrendous traffic at standstill pace with trucks, sedans, rickshaws, three-wheelers, bicycles, cows, dogs, goats, pedestrians making their own traffic rules. Obviously all of these have resulted in deafening noise, air pollution, dust, etc. Crimes like murder, rape, mugging, car theft are on the rise. I suppose that is the price of so called progress.

There still are snake charmers, fortune tellers, and monkey owners trying to make a living on the streets. There is a silent exodus from rural India to urban jungles caused by the lure of city lights and Bollywood glitter. Once in the city, generally they get trapped with no way out but to accept the harsh reality of the “City of Joy”. The disparity between the “haves” and “have-nots” seems to be widening at an accelerated pace. Construction workers are still not provided proper working conditions like drinking water or portable toilet at job site, safety gears, etc. So, they do their thing on the road side; make their own safety boots of gunny sacks to walk on hot tar to build roads, and carry pebbles in a basket on their head. Life goes on. When you show the slums (“Slum Dog Millionaire”), the “haves” resent it. They do not want to know the truth. They want to live in a cocoon isolated from the Indian reality.