Hi all Back to the land of the rain in the UK after my travels to Delhi, Shimla, Agra and Jaipur. Travelling on the Shatabdi express train from Delhi to Agra clutching in my hand the book by Mahatma Gandhi “India of my Dreams”, he wrote his dream in over 300 pages, mine was a one liner, instead of viewing scenes of endless garbage, filth and men openly defecating over rubbish piles, I was wishing for a million fairies to come down, wave their magic wands and transform this site into a bed of beautiful roses and landscape gardens. The electric wiring took on a Picasso art form (just like Goa) so much so that everyone in our touring group was instantly moved to take a photograph for their album. The nature scenes were at their best. While in the West all our cows are in fields and our monkeys, yaks, elephants and camels safely in zoos and domestic dogs are man’s “best friend” , here all these animals roamed free as nature intended. This included the highway, the roundabouts, the side roads, the bazaars, the heritage sites, etc. There was no need for experiments in human or animal behaviour either, all tourists were strongly advised to take off their glasses/sunglasses when entering monkey land. Apparently, the monkeys would snatch your glasses/sunglasses and only return them to you in exchange for a sizeable treat! It won’t be long before they work out the importance of mobile phones, cameras and tablets to us humans, goodness knows what they will want in exchange for these! Yet, amongst all what I viewed as chaos, there were smiling faces, people who were the happiest and content in the world, comfortable in their own skin. All enjoying what India had to offer, the best in street food, fresh vegetable and fruit produce straight from the nearby fields, lovely sunshine and warm temperature. While our tourist bags were full of anti-bacterial wipes, anti-bacterial liquid, toilet paper and Imodium, locals walking around our coach were tucking into delicious smelling food freshly prepared on food carts, food that we would be too frightened to eat lest we were struck down with Delhi Belly. Seeing all this, the very first line in Chapter 1 of Mahatma Gandhi’s book “India of my Dreams” made sense when he wrote: Quote: Everything in India attracts me. It has everything that a human being with the highest possible aspirations can want. Unquote Watching a programme recently aired in the UK, it was interesting to see the resistance the inhabitants of an Indian village had to the introduction of electricity in their village. A video film was being shown advising them on the benefits of electricity. Their resistance was mainly due to the fact that land near to them was to be mined for coal affecting their environment and livelihood. The women in the village were definitely not open to the change. One of the local charities became involved and the programme concluded with the whole coal mining scheme being scrapped. Garbage, lack of clean toilets, open defecation affect more those of us living in the West. My run-in with two young men at a tourist spot confirmed this. Both of them were just hanging around, doing nothing, so I asked them why they did not pick up a broom and clean up the environment they were standing in. One answered “It is not my job, it is the job of the Government” to which I replied “Did the Government fill up a suitcase with rubbish and drop it on your doorstep, is this rubbish not yours?”. At the end of the trip, one of my friends said “It amazes me how little people have, yet they survive”, my sentiments too, especially when we are told that the population of India will soon be more than China in a few years time. Rose Fernandes Thornton Heath, Surrey, United Kingdom 4 November 2014
