The People of India

India Trip III

Dwelling some more on that contradiction I mentioned in the Delhi post led me to realize that the people of India are at the same time its greatest strength and weakness. I did not expect to find such hardiness from them, but I was similarly shocked to discover such bureaucracy and laziness, though of that I have little experience; the only business in India was conducted by my father. Nonetheless, I maintain that the shock of India came most from the people, and it is on them which I still muse.

When we first arrived in India we stayed some nights at a Holiday Inn in close proximity to the airport, and that was my first introduction to the people. Of course, I'd been in India several times before, including a much prolonged stay in my early childhood, but now that I see the world through the eyes of an adult, that is to say, one who can fully appreciate the breadth of society, I observe more than I ever did before.

So we stayed at the Holiday Inn, and ate breakfast there every morning at their buffet, and I was amazed by the service. Not only did they seem to have more staff than they could handle, but there were always people kindly asking us whether we'd care for tea or coffee, or perhaps something à la carte. They whisked away our plates almost as soon as we were done eating, and were polite and showed us every courtesy. Even the security guards outside did more than just see us into and out of the hotel; they helped us offload and reload our luggage, and opened the doors for us as we entered. And that is but a microcosm of the incredible service industry which India is breeding.

On the flip side of that is the laziness displayed by many of the workers in the banks and other higher branches of Indian business. On this I regrettably can't speak much, but my dad once told me a story of how he was sent on a goose chase throughout New Delhi, going from bank to bank to get a job done, until he ended up at the head office, where he was told he should've been able to get it done at the first bank he'd gone to, and was sent back there after the boss had called that office to ask the worker what he was thinking sending my dad about like that. And the worker had to apologize and agree to help them on their return to the first bank. But when my dad got back to the first bank, the worker repeated his prior instructions and insistence that he go to a different bank, at which point my dad chewed him out, saying that he'd heard him agree to help them on the phone just fifteen minutes ago, at which point the banker's reply was essentially, "Ohhh, that was you. Alright let's see what I can do." And if that doesn't paint a clear picture on what it's like trying to get anything done, then I don't see what will.

But whether there are more people in India trying to hinder or help you, one thing is certain; the people there are some of the strongest people I have ever seen, if not only because of the conditions and manner in which they live, then also because life affords them so little opportunity to move ahead, that they take solace in whatever they can find, which is why it is no surprise to see so many devoutly religious people in India. They have almost nothing else to hold on to, so they take their faith with the utmost seriousness, in hopes that at least after death they may find something worth living for.

The picture above was taken from my seat on a train traveling first class from Delhi to Hardwar, and it is poignant in that it shows the crowded manner in which these people live, where one's neighbors are practically on top of them, and privacy seems to be a thing of the past. The streets are so crowded as to make it seem as though every hour is peak rush hour, and there are horses, cows, and pigs all eating off the sides of the streets, and hindering traffic further by going wherever they please at their own leisurely pace. The homes aren't air conditioned in the triple digit summers, and have no heat as the temperature falls to below 40 at night in the winter. The insects are out of control if given even the slightest hold in which to live, and it's no strange sight to see people, especially children, digging out of the trash to find something to do, or women hanging clothes to dry on the roofs of their homes, even when the air is closed in around them with a deep fog in the winter. And on top of it all the scars of the caste system still linger in their maleficent way, and economic gain is extraordinarily difficult to attain, with many people living off less than a five dollars a day.

Yet despite these obvious malformations of society, both environmental and economical, live goes on for the billion plus people crammed into this subcontinent. Somehow these people find a way to live in a system that is so against progress that it has beaten them into their own homes, trying to find some semblance of meaning in their lives through religion. India seems at once primed for an economic boom, and teetering on the edge of a recession. Shops, homes, and seemingly people themselves are crammed in one on top of another, giving even the somewhat well-to-do areas of India a shantytown appearance. Yes, the people of India are to be pitied, or rather, the condition they are forced to live in deserves such. Yet these people do not take pity on themselves, and work ceaselessly to better themselves and gain a foothold in the modern world. It is truly commendable then, and India should be proud of the people it has fostered. Even though they can be stubborn, lazy, and bureaucratic, they can also be helpful, kind, and loyal to a fault. If a nation is defined by it's people, then India is a most hardy, most noble country. While a weakness they may be, in that they further to hinder progress in India, they are doubly a strength.