Radhakrishnan Nair rknair15 at gmail.com Wed Nov 14 22:42:25 PST 2007 wrote: > >From a post titled [Goanet] Selma's sensationalism > <<Fred to Selma: What you're used to in the West would probably not be attained even in our dreams here.>> > Don't be so diffident, Fred. Since when have the Westerners become so conscious of hygiene? In the 18th and 19th centuries American farms were malodorous pigsties. Indeed, in the early days of the railways in Britain, even Her Majesty the Queen on her journeys to Wales and Scotland went into the bushes abutting the tracks with a tumbler of water and reams of toilet tissues in hand to unload her royal bowels! > Mario asks: > I don't know about Fred's dreams, but I would like to see someone in leadership positions and educators and journalists like Fred wake up from dreaming and begin to publicize the societal carelessness in India. > To begin with, I'm not sure why RKN is comparing Westerners in the 18th and 19th centuries with Indians today? Did India somehow skip the 18th and 19th centuries? Oh, right! The Brits were in charge. > And, where did RKN learn that there is no difference between an American farm and an American pigsty, either in previous centuries or today? There have always been farms with and without pigstys, and one can tell the difference with your nose - even today. > RKN's knowledge of the sanitary habits of ancient "Westerners", including British Royals, while quite remarkable in its perspicacity and attention to detail, may be far more information than we needed to know:-)) A generation ago, the Brits were still working on bathing more than once a week, and I may be exaggerating on the high side here to avoid the inevitable brickbats from our irritable British menbers. Calm down, guys. That was then. I'm sure you all bathe every day now :-)) > Radhakrishnan Nair wrote: > But then it's always easy to poke fun at the poor and the defenceless -- as if they are doing it for fun and not because they're being exploited and left to their own devices without even basic amenities. > Mario observes: > I'm afraid the careless sanitary habits of many Indians extends far beyond the poor who may have no choice. When in India one needs to be constantly on guard for the spitball missiles are launched willy nilly from any and everywhere, including expensive automobiles waiting at traffic lights, where the missile launchers could hardly be classified as "poor". When the airconditioned Volvo busses from Mumbai to Pune stop at Khopoli for a bladder-break, about half the male passengers, hardly "poor", head for the adjoining bushes when there is a clearly marked public toilet in full view. > I have watched the poor in several Latin American countries. They all use the public toilets when they don't have toilets of their own. > Have you ever noticed the societal carelessness on Indian roads? Somehow, perfectly sane Indians, none of them "poor", turn into raving maniacs the minute the car door shuts behind them, then turn perfectly sane again as soon as they exit the parked vehicle. > I'm sure you've noticed that most Indians, even the poor ones, tend to keep their personal abode as clean as they are able to, but the adjoining public spaces seem to be free fire zones for whatever kacchra needs to be discarded. > Arre, challega, yaar! Bharat mata, zindabad! > Hey, and I say this as an ex-Indian who is tremendously proud of what India has achieved since "liberalization" - the euphemism used for discarding mindless and extreme socialism - but if India wants to rise to the next level to true superpower status, they need to work on these personal habits, without drawing inappropriate comparisons to 18th and 19th century British Royals and American pigsties. > Another dirty little Indian secret identified in an article in Silicon India Magazine recently: tax evasion. Apparently, in 2005, only 39 million tax returns were filed in India. One doesn't need acute analytical skills to know what that means. > Apparently, the only ones that pay taxes relatively honestly in India are those whose salaries are taxed at the source, and those who receive interest and dividends where income taxes are withheld at the source. > Can we say, "Kala paisa, zindabad?" >
