Friday, November 4 Tourists in India, Diversity, Pushkar, Train to Delhi

India probably gets such a bad impression of tourists. There are like 5 kinds of people who come to India: Businessmen and politicians, who only stay in five star hotels and are chauffeured from meeting to meeting; Old European tourists with huge cameras and bucket hats, who only stay in five star hotels and are chauffeured from the Taj Mahal, Agra, and Jaipur; Rich Non-Resident Indians living in the Diaspora, who only stay with their relatives and are chauffeured to and from their houses; Young Western hippies who read the Lonely Planet coming to gain some sense of enlightenment, either through meditation, seeing poverty, or drugs; and refugees or immigrants fleeing from awful countries like Tibet or Bangladesh. So, the Indians only see a small and misleading sampling of foreigners. I’m sure they have some crazy stereotypes about people like me. It must not be all bad, though, because they’re very curious, friendly, hospitable, and generous to non-Indians. What’s weird is that there are virtually no American tourists. They are all too scared, I imagine. They think India is 1) Like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, 2) Too far away to spend money to get to, 3) Not a Hawaii, NY, LV, or Disneyland so why leave the country?, 4) Essentially a shithole where black and brown people wearing turbans and saris live in slums, trash, and poverty. I will attempt to defend them by saying these conceptions of India are true to a degree. All of the above instances are true. However, if you travel to India, the scope is not so narrow at all. It’s like saying that all US Americans are white, Protestant, rich, materialistic, of loose moral character, and beautiful. If you live in Beverly Hills, then yes, this is true. But I bet that if you ask any American they will say that they are normal, middle-class Americans, and that America is a diverse melting pot (ok fine salad bowl if you want to be PC). But I challenge you to think about India in the same way. I know you don’t honestly think that there isn’t some diversity within the population. Well then let me give you these facts: In terms of area, India is a subcontinent. It is 3,287,263 square km, making up 2.4% of the earth’s landmass, which puts it as the seventh largest country. It stretches from China to Pakistan to Afghanistan, and shares borders with all other South Indian nations. It has every type of landscape; vast fertile plains in the north (Indo-Gangetic Plains), the highest mountain ranges in the world (Himalayas), 7,516 km of coastline ranging from mangroves to rocky to sandy to coral reefs, arid sandy desert and scrubland (Thar and Ladakh Deserts), cool wet temperatures (Himalayan foothills), huge rivers (Ganges and Brahmaputra), and verdant jungles (Deccan Plateau). India has 1.1 billion people living within its borders, or 1/6 of the world’s human population. This means it has almost twice as many people than the whole continent of Africa. It is the world’s largest democracy. India is also a nuclear power. It has a rich history, and one of the oldest civilizations in recorded history. India has been invaded by Central Asians, Persians, Turkish Muslims, the Chinese, and the British. Four major world religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism) started here, and every major religion is now practiced here, including among the former four, Islam (it has the world’s second-largest Muslim population to Indonesia), Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Judaism, and tribal religions. In terms of linguistics, 1/3 of the world’s languages are from India. There are 11 official languages, of which English is the administrative and is second wordwide in terms of number of speakers, Hindi/Urdu (which is actually a hodgepodge of Sanskrit, Indo-European languages, Arabic, and Persian) ranking 3rd, with Bengali and Punjabi also in the top 10. India has three cities with populations (only the official numbers) exceeding 10 billion (Mumbai, Kolkata, and Delhi), and over 25 cities with populations over 1 million. And 75% of the population lives in rural areas. Style of clothing ranges from the latest imported fashions to saris and loincloths. India is home to extremely wealthy people like the Tatas and the Birlas, it is home to a growing 300 million-person middle-class population, and it is home to hopelessly destitute individuals. In fact, 1/3 of the world’s poor live in India, and it is also one of the largest centers of high-tech, IT, and telecommunications in the world. Its infrastructure is also diverse; it has the world’s second-largest train network, some of the world’s finest medical facilities, one of the largest and most developed phone (landline and mobile) networks, and roads with bus service anywhere in the country. Genotypes range from Mongoloid Tibetans and Burmese, to central Asian Kashmiris with brown hair and green eyes, to tiny Bengalis, to dark Tamil southerners, to distinctive tribal Dravidian peoples, to large Punjabis, to pale Indo-Europeans. Every color of skin, every color of hair, and every facial feature can be found within India’s population. With all of these facts, clearly India is a diverse salad bowl, like America, but even more exaggerated and extreme. You can go from walking through garbage, urine, feces, dirty water, and squatter slums to the world’s most expensive shopping malls, restaurants, and luxury hotels. You can be riding in a bus beside the latest Mercedes, a huge semi truck, a tiny Suzuki, a bicycle, a tractor, a cart being pulled by a water buffalo, a bicycle rickshaw, an auto rickshaw, cows, dogs, pigs, and pedestrians. Well I think I’ve beaten the dead horse to death again. I wasn’t feeling well (my stomach hurt), so I took food and sightseeing off for the day and lounged around the hotel and went shopping and bought myself some poofy Afghani Aladdin pants, they’re great! Then we had to check out and find a taxi to take us to the train station in Ajmer, a city over. That was a hassle; the guys didn’t show up to pick us up, so we had to try and negotiate with the taxi drivers themselves, who were all fiercely yelling at each other when they would make the price lower. We finally got a stylish Ambassador and drove through the winding hills and down again, to Ajmer, a little Rajasthani city on a like, like Pushkar. The train was waiting for us at the station. For the first time, I took a Chair Car. It was pretty nice; it cost about $20, which is about $15 too much, and why there were only really rich Indians and foreign tourists. Hence the reason it announced in English at every stop some little brief intro straight from a guidebook like, “Delhi is the capital of India, the world’s largest democracy. It has endless shopping and dining opportunities, as well as being the gateway to Northern India. We will be stopping here for two minutes only”. The ride, even though it was a Super Fast Shatabdi, took seven hours. It was like riding on the plane; you get your own reclining seat and tray table, they keep feeding you every hour, and storage is up above. It was pretty comfortable, with ample legroom. We de-boarded at New Delhi Station, and took the Metro home. It was a good trip, but we later were to learn that back home, things were anything but good.