Impressions of India
About 2-3 times a day (today it’s been more like 5 or 6) the power goes down.
Most people don’t act like anything has happened. Conversations continue, backup power supplies kick into action and usually within :10-1:00 - the power is back. It’s a little disjarring to a 1st worlder, but here in the 3rd world - its an everyday normal event.
Smoke is in the air - everywhere. It reminds me of those cold, damp nights in Cali - where folks put a log on the fire - not necssarily to stay warm, but also to have a nice fire to gaze into. But here - the smoke is constant, as its winter time here and a huge percentage of the population lives outdoors. So little fires are lit, smoking roadside concessions are selling food and in general - a haze of smoke and pollution make the air challenging to say the least.
Then there’s the contrast of old India to new. I’ll post some photos and videos of it, but its quite startling. Getting to the resturant last night was like driving through a videogame. Weaving in and out of rickshaws traffic, bicycles, hand pushed carts, huge smoking caravans of make shift trucks, lories and I’m not sure what. This is what day-to-day life is like here.
The roadsides are full of garbage, cows, homeless people and raw resources - just sitting, concievably for sale - but certainly exposed to the elements. Since Gurgaon is a boom town, there’s construction and buolindg going on everywhere - with new high rises, shopping malls and office complexes - taking their place next to garbage dumps, empty lots and homeless shanty town.s
Then turn your head and look inside the gardens. Look at the office complexes, apartment buildings and shopping malls. Watch TV. Look at India’s position in the world today. With 75M people in the middle class, India has more successful people with good jobs then the US has.
My company would be nothing without our Indan programmers and parrtners. We’ve been able to build up a platform that is best of breed, bringing to the world open source social networking - without VC funding. We would never have been able to do that by paying ‘Western rates’ for coders.
I love India. I was first here in 1975. I love the food, the cultre - but most importantly the people. They’re wonderful.
Marc,
Sounds like you are having a good trip - I recall my own visit to New Delhi in 2004 very fondly - need to get back to India sometime soon.
One note - not all of the roadside buildings that appear to be “homeless shelters” are, in fact, homeless peope - some of the may be actual villages - small ones but ones that got swallowed up in the expansion of India’s cities. I remember reading about the complexities of villages and building codes when I was last there - rather complex but in essence there are some of those structures that are family homes tied to a specific village, with some rights and benefits (but clearly not a lot of them).
When we drove from Agra back to Delhi after seeing the Taj Mahal, I remember vividly a specific point in the road where on one side there was an entire village - lots of small homes on the side of the road. On the other side of the street, literally taking the exact same amount of land was a fully modern, right out of any suburb in the world, MacDonalds reataurant, complete with drive through and a children’s play area. (and likely with its own power generator as it was fully lit up and illuminated, more brightly even than the temple complex just down the road).
Marc,
Sounds like you are having a good trip - I recall my own visit to New Delhi in 2004 very fondly - need to get back to India sometime soon.
One note - not all of the roadside buildings that appear to be “homeless shelters” are, in fact, homeless peope - some of the may be actual villages - small ones but ones that got swallowed up in the expansion of India’s cities. I remember reading about the complexities of villages and building codes when I was last there - rather complex but in essence there are some of those structures that are family homes tied to a specific village, with some rights and benefits (but clearly not a lot of them).
When we drove from Agra back to Delhi after seeing the Taj Mahal, I remember vividly a specific point in the road where on one side there was an entire village - lots of small homes on the side of the road. On the other side of the street, literally taking the exact same amount of land was a fully modern, right out of any suburb in the world, MacDonalds reataurant, complete with drive through and a children’s play area. (and likely with its own power generator as it was fully lit up and illuminated, more brightly even than the temple complex just down the road).
Marc,
Sounds like you are having a good trip - I recall my own visit to New Delhi in 2004 very fondly - need to get back to India sometime soon.
One note - not all of the roadside buildings that appear to be “homeless shelters” are, in fact, homeless peope - some of the may be actual villages - small ones but ones that got swallowed up in the expansion of India’s cities. I remember reading about the complexities of villages and building codes when I was last there - rather complex but in essence there are some of those structures that are family homes tied to a specific village, with some rights and benefits (but clearly not a lot of them).
When we drove from Agra back to Delhi after seeing the Taj Mahal, I remember vividly a specific point in the road where on one side there was an entire village - lots of small homes on the side of the road. On the other side of the street, literally taking the exact same amount of land was a fully modern, right out of any suburb in the world, MacDonalds reataurant, complete with drive through and a children’s play area. (and likely with its own power generator as it was fully lit up and illuminated, more brightly even than the temple complex just down the road).