Walking/Photo Tour of India
Photo Tour of my DOC in India
Thursday, May 8, 10:00, Mumbai, India
This wash basin is located in a residential neighborhood in
the central part of Mumbai. Residents of
the neighborhood wash clothes in this murky water and dry them on nearby
clotheslines.
Thursday, May 8, 10:15, Mumbai, India
Located near the wash basin, this is the crematorium in a
central Mumbai neighborhood. When bodies
are cremated, the fire lasts all day.
This long ceremony reinforces the importance of non-violence and respect
in Indian culture.
Thursday, May 8, 10:20, Mumbai, India
Residents of a central Mumbai neighborhood dry their clothes
here after washing them in the basin.
Newer buildings tower over older residential structures behind the
clothes.
Thursday, May 8, 10:30, Mumbai, India
A Mumbai slum overlooks the Arabian Sea. Although most residents build cheap homes with corrugated roofing and other readily available materials, they find enough money to buy satellite receivers.
Thursday, May 8, 11:00, Mumbai, India
A public cricket ground lies in Mumbai along a main
road. Local teams and residents can come
to this ground to practice their cricket.
Parks such as this appear around Mumbai; parks with soccer and baseball
fields are absent.
Thursday, May 8, 12:00, Mumbai, India
Friday, May 9, 10:00, Mumbai, India
Bamboo scaffolding encloses the street-facing side of a Mumbai building. Compared with US regulations, safety codes for construction work are virtually absent from Indian contracting.
Friday, May 9, 11:30, Mumbai, India
Family and friends attend a wedding in a Mumbai temple. Some watch the ceremony at the far end of the temple, some sing and make music, and others mingle while waiting for the festivities to begin.
Friday, May 9, 19:00, Mumbai, India
With a crowd of onlookers, I attempt to defend the wicket from the bowler. After my first awkward swing with the cricket bat, the crowd erupted in laughter. After a couple more tries I got my swing became a bit smoother.
Saturday, May 10, 10:30, Mumbai, India
A family crafts leis in the flower district of a Mumbai market. Many generations work at the same storefront, creating beautiful necklaces out of local flora.
Saturday, May 10, 11:00, Mumbai, India
Workers unload a full plantain truck. Many plantains are cut into slices, fried, and salted to make chips. Plantain chips in India taste very similar to potato chips in the US.
Saturday, May 10, 13:00, Mumbai, India
Dough on the floor of a bread bakery waits to be put in the oven. Sanitary regulations in this kitchen are well below US standards.
Saturday, May 10, 13:30, Mumbai, India
A man sifts through chips of black plastic in the Dharavi Slum. Plastic is separated by color and type, ground into chips, ground again into dust, then sold back to plastic producers in the form of pellets. In Dharavi, Mumbai's largest slum, nothing is thrown away.
Saturday, May 10, 13:40, Mumbai, India
An open area behind buildings in the Dharavi slum exposes piles of trash the size of which are rarely seen on streets in Boston. Garbage lining curbsides and intersections was a common sight in Mumbai, India's most populous city.
Sunday, May 11, 10:30, Mumbai, India
My DOC group boards a mini train that travels from the pier to an island which holds the Elephanta Cave. While in India, we used many modes of transportation not present in the US including tuk-tuks, rickshaws, and elephants.
Sunday, May 11, 11:15, Mumbai, India
While many US institutions have student discounts, Indian historical sites charge two rates: one for Indians and one for foreigners. The price for a foreigner to enter the Elephanta Cave is 25 times the price for an Indian citizen. Foreign tourists generally have more disposable income than typical Indian citizens, so the institutions make money on these travelers, allowing Indians to visit at a low price.
Sunday, May 11, 11:30, Mumbai, India
The Elephanta Cave, a Hindu temple, was carved out of this hillside over 1400 years ago. It took more than 150 years to carve out the temple. The Elephanta Cave reminded me of the Pyramids of Giza, a much larger ancient construction feat that also required thoughtful engineering and thousands of hours of labor.
Sunday, May 11, 13:30, Mumbai, India
On Sunday, public transportation is relatively empty in Mumbai. The large number of handles on the ceiling of the train indicates how crowded it will be come Monday morning. During rush hour, public transportation in India gets significantly more crowded than the T does in Boston.
Saturday, May 17, 10:30, Bangalore, India
Infosys, a large tech company that makes banking applications for large corporations, has a sprawling campus complete with palm trees, an outdoor amphitheater, and a bowling alley. The layout of the campus reminded me of the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington.
Sunday, May 18, 19:30, Bangalore, India
A street vendor roasts corn on the cob in hot coals. Once roasted, the corn is dusted is chili salt and is a tasty snack. Once again, food sanitation is less of a priority in India than in the US.
Sunday, May 25, 18:00, Kochi, India
Future cricket stars practice their batting and bowling on a small pathway. I have seen kids on multiple continents play sports wherever they can and with whatever equipment they have available. Love of sports is an almost universal commonality among the world's varied cultures.
Sunday, May 25, 19:00, Kochi, India
Outdated fishing nets hang suspended above the waters of the Arabian Sea. These nets were once in use but now serve as a tourist attraction for the town. Piles of trash in public places are almost ubiquitous in India.
Sunday, May 25, 19:10, Kochi, India
Many types of fish, shrimp, and prawns are on display at this stand. In the US, regulations would mandate that this seafood be on ice, but in India no such law exists.
Sunday, May 25, 19:30, Kochi, India
Workers gut and clean fish behind the sales counter. There is no US-grade industrial sink nearby and the men wear no shoes. When eating in India, there is no way to avoid some amount of unsanitary food preparation.
Monday, May 26, 12:00, Kerala, India
An advertisement for New York Fried Chicken covers the side of a pit stop between cities in the state of Kerala. We did not see an NFC, only the advertisement. Some American fast food chains including McDonald's and Domino's were common in the large Indian cities we visited.
Monday, May 26, 12:15, Kerala, India
A road sign warns: "Go Slow, Dangerous Zone." Rather than list a speed limit--which would likely be ignored--Indian drivers are asked instead to use their common sense when driving this one-lane, cliff-side road.
Tuesday, May 27, 14:00, Munnar, India
Tata, a giant Indian corporation, owns this cardamom plantation and all the surrounding tea and cardamom plantations. Cardamom is nicknamed the "queen of the spices" and is used in many Indian dishes. Cardamom costs much more in the US than it does in India.
Wednesday, May 28, 10:30, Munnar, India
Tata, the industry giant, owns all 13 tea processing plants in this region of Kerala. Tea is ground, dried, oxidized, and shipped to packaging plants around the world. Some tea--like Tetley--is shipped to England, packaged, and returned to India for retail sale.
Wednesday, May 28, 17:00, Thekkady, India
Riding an elephant is a popular tourist activity in India. I did not have to sign a waiver of any kind to ride; I only had to pay. The elephant liked us because we fed it a lot of bananas, but the humaneness of its caretakers is unknown.
Wednesday, June 4, 11:00, Delhi, India
Our DOC group took bicycle rickshaw rides around Delhi near the end of our time in India. The traffic in India is crazy--tuk-tuks swerve around pedestrians while cyclists and motorcyclists dodge cars and buses stuck in traffic.
Wednesday, June 4, 11:15, Delhi, India
A tangle of electrical wires weighs down buildings. Through legal and illegal means, more wires are added by business owners and residents to supply power to their dwellings and shops. These wires break many US safety codes.
Wednesday, June 4, 11:30, Delhi, India
A monkey sits atop electrical wires, surveying the rush of people below in search of food or other intriguing objects. Monkeys are often around wherever there is food to be snatched, almost like seagulls and pigeons in Seattle and other major cities in the US.
Wednesday, June 4, 13:00, Delhi, India
A spice vendor displays his wares. The yellow spice on the left is turmeric, a spice in many Indian dishes that has many known health benefits. Spices in India are usually sold in open bins like this rather than in packages.
Thursday, June 5, 10:45, Agra, India
The Taj Mahal, the icon of ancient Indian architecture, is magnificent seen through the doorway of the main gate. Unlike large monuments in other countries, the Taj Mahal is surrounded by a wall and thus cannot be seen in full until you walk through this gate. Here again, the entrance price for foreigners was many times the price for Indian citizens.
The Taj Mahal, the icon of ancient Indian architecture, is magnificent seen through the doorway of the main gate. Unlike large monuments in other countries, the Taj Mahal is surrounded by a wall and thus cannot be seen in full until you walk through this gate. Here again, the entrance price for foreigners was many times the price for Indian citizens.
Reflections on India
India's government, which developed in a starkly different way than the US government, largely influences and is influenced by the culture of its inhabitants. Whereas the US, after the Revolutionary War, got to develop on its own without Mother England breathing down its neck, India's natural resources were exploited by the British until she became and independent state in 1947. There are no welfare or unemployment benefits in India. Thus, Indian citizens have no time for hobbies or coffee shop chats. Lack of government benefits is coupled with little government oversight of businesses, especially the food industry. Despite the many differences between US culture and Indian customs--perhaps because of these disparities--I enjoyed every hour of my time spent touring the streets of India and learning about a way of life far removed from US society.
The citizens of India are incredibly hard-working and take little time, if any, to relax. Absent from Indian culture is an equivalent for backgammon, a Mediterranean board game that is often played while relaxing at a cafe in the afternoon or evening. Many Indians, despite working long hours at hard jobs, still find enough spare cash for television connection. As seen in the picture taken over a poor area of town, a significant amount of the corrugated-tin-roofed homes have satellite dishes. Once a sign of disposable income, the ability to connect to the world through television and internet is now a necessity for any household, no matter how poor.
While Indian citizens do not make time in their days for leisurely cafe games, they are avid followers of cricket. Cricket, a sport similar to baseball, was brought to India by the British. When Indian players first formed cricket teams, they were not allowed to play in British leagues, so they had their own leagues and standings. Finally, some of the best Indian teams were allowed to play against their master country's squads. It was a long time before an Indian team was victorious, but eventually the day came. In present times, India--not England--is the home of the world's most competitive cricket league. The best British cricket players come to India to play. India, despite being ruled by the British for much of its recent existence, is unquestionably the world leader in cricket. We saw cricket everywhere: adults playing in parks, professional games showing on restaurant televisions, and kids practicing their skills on the streets. As football has enraptured much of the European and South American sports-inclined youth, so has India jumped wholeheartedly into loving the game of cricket.
Industry in India is much less regulated than the US industrial sector. This is especially true in regards to the food industry. In one of my pictures, dough is sitting--neatly folded--on the ground of a bread-making kitchen before it is to be baked. According to US standards, there are too many violations in this kitchen to count. First, it is unlikely that the business has a license or the equivalent of a health inspection permit. Also, the workers have likely not gone through food handling training and so do not handle the dough and cooked bread in a completely sanitary manner. Finally, and most obviously, food should not be placed on the floor where people walk, often without shoes. In Indian businesses, these types of procedures are normal for local kitchens and food businesses. In areas where tourists often eat, the sanitary procedures are closer to American standards. Also pictured are two men gutting fish on stumps. These men are not wearing shoes and one is cleaning his bloody knife in water already red from the insides of previous fish sold. Despite the low level of sanitation in the gutting area, some of the fish were kept on ice in the front of the shop, a good precaution to prevent the decay of the meat.
The non-regulation of most industry and business in India leads to other interesting situations as seen from the street. Masses of electrical wires, pictured above, hang onto telephone poles and other wires all over Delhi and other Indian cities. The poles, probably built by the government, start out with a few wires attached to them, like telephone poles in the US. Then, slowly, people living in nearby apartments and who own nearby shops begin adding their own wires to the fray in hopes of obtaining some of the power. These wires are continually added to the poles, by legal and illegal means, in an ongoing fight for electrical power in the neighborhood. Additionally, we saw bamboo scaffolding lining the front of buildings under construction. The safety of these structures is not ensured by the government. Workers, many of whom informally work for the construction company, have no insurance--if injured while on dangerous scaffolding, they lose their jobs and have to pay medical costs out of their own pockets. The US has some undocumented workers, but in India the majority of the workforce is hired and paid by informal means. Informal workers have no collective bargaining rights, cannot form unions, can be fired without reparations at any time, and have little power to negotiate a pay raise with their employers. The huge informal labor market persists in India because workers performing menial labor are much cheaper for companies to hire if they are not documented.
While in India, we visited the largest slum in the world, Dharavi. Over one million people inhabit this neighborhood, with an area of only three square miles. Dharavi is the most densely-populated area in Mumbai, the largest city in India. This area is unlike a typical slum; Dharavi residents are incredibly entrepreneurial. The Dharavi man in the picture is sorting through scraps of black plastic. The plastic, after being sorted by color and ground into chips, is once again sorted before being ground into dust. The different colors of plastic dust are then melted into pellets and sold back to plastic companies to make new plastic.
Communication with Indian residents was easier than I expected. Almost everyone in the service industry--hotel doormen, receptionists, waiters--knew enough English to communicate well with the members of my trip, most of whom knew no additional languages. India has eighteen official languages, each spoken in different regions of the country. English is one language that is spoken in many parts of the country, though not everybody in a given area speaks English. I attempted to buy spices from the shop I am pictured next to in one of the last photos. I had a conversation with the shop owner, but neither of us understood each other. I asked how much the turmeric was, and he responded that 100 grams cost 100 rupees. I though this a fair price and asked for 200 rupees' worth of turmeric. He proceeded to spoon a small amount into a little bag. I was skeptical, because it looked like he was going to short my 200-gram request. He handed me the bag and said "Fifty rupees." I attempted to not show my surprise, took out my wallet, and happily purchased the spice. In general, my conversations with Indian people during the trip were filled with much more understanding than this. It is necessary every once in a while when traveling to be reminded that just as I cannot understand other languages, most people off the normal tourist track do not understand English.
The cultural and educational aspects of my Dialogue in India have inspired me to continue my international travels in future years. I hope to return to India in the near future. I plan to do one of my three co-ops abroad, maybe in this region of the world. I am inspired to learn another language to make my future international travels logistically easier. I am excited to explore further international opportunities in the coming years.
Industry in India is much less regulated than the US industrial sector. This is especially true in regards to the food industry. In one of my pictures, dough is sitting--neatly folded--on the ground of a bread-making kitchen before it is to be baked. According to US standards, there are too many violations in this kitchen to count. First, it is unlikely that the business has a license or the equivalent of a health inspection permit. Also, the workers have likely not gone through food handling training and so do not handle the dough and cooked bread in a completely sanitary manner. Finally, and most obviously, food should not be placed on the floor where people walk, often without shoes. In Indian businesses, these types of procedures are normal for local kitchens and food businesses. In areas where tourists often eat, the sanitary procedures are closer to American standards. Also pictured are two men gutting fish on stumps. These men are not wearing shoes and one is cleaning his bloody knife in water already red from the insides of previous fish sold. Despite the low level of sanitation in the gutting area, some of the fish were kept on ice in the front of the shop, a good precaution to prevent the decay of the meat.
The non-regulation of most industry and business in India leads to other interesting situations as seen from the street. Masses of electrical wires, pictured above, hang onto telephone poles and other wires all over Delhi and other Indian cities. The poles, probably built by the government, start out with a few wires attached to them, like telephone poles in the US. Then, slowly, people living in nearby apartments and who own nearby shops begin adding their own wires to the fray in hopes of obtaining some of the power. These wires are continually added to the poles, by legal and illegal means, in an ongoing fight for electrical power in the neighborhood. Additionally, we saw bamboo scaffolding lining the front of buildings under construction. The safety of these structures is not ensured by the government. Workers, many of whom informally work for the construction company, have no insurance--if injured while on dangerous scaffolding, they lose their jobs and have to pay medical costs out of their own pockets. The US has some undocumented workers, but in India the majority of the workforce is hired and paid by informal means. Informal workers have no collective bargaining rights, cannot form unions, can be fired without reparations at any time, and have little power to negotiate a pay raise with their employers. The huge informal labor market persists in India because workers performing menial labor are much cheaper for companies to hire if they are not documented.
While in India, we visited the largest slum in the world, Dharavi. Over one million people inhabit this neighborhood, with an area of only three square miles. Dharavi is the most densely-populated area in Mumbai, the largest city in India. This area is unlike a typical slum; Dharavi residents are incredibly entrepreneurial. The Dharavi man in the picture is sorting through scraps of black plastic. The plastic, after being sorted by color and ground into chips, is once again sorted before being ground into dust. The different colors of plastic dust are then melted into pellets and sold back to plastic companies to make new plastic.
Communication with Indian residents was easier than I expected. Almost everyone in the service industry--hotel doormen, receptionists, waiters--knew enough English to communicate well with the members of my trip, most of whom knew no additional languages. India has eighteen official languages, each spoken in different regions of the country. English is one language that is spoken in many parts of the country, though not everybody in a given area speaks English. I attempted to buy spices from the shop I am pictured next to in one of the last photos. I had a conversation with the shop owner, but neither of us understood each other. I asked how much the turmeric was, and he responded that 100 grams cost 100 rupees. I though this a fair price and asked for 200 rupees' worth of turmeric. He proceeded to spoon a small amount into a little bag. I was skeptical, because it looked like he was going to short my 200-gram request. He handed me the bag and said "Fifty rupees." I attempted to not show my surprise, took out my wallet, and happily purchased the spice. In general, my conversations with Indian people during the trip were filled with much more understanding than this. It is necessary every once in a while when traveling to be reminded that just as I cannot understand other languages, most people off the normal tourist track do not understand English.
The cultural and educational aspects of my Dialogue in India have inspired me to continue my international travels in future years. I hope to return to India in the near future. I plan to do one of my three co-ops abroad, maybe in this region of the world. I am inspired to learn another language to make my future international travels logistically easier. I am excited to explore further international opportunities in the coming years.
Have you tried the North East of India? Very different in every way! Culturally, food habits, way of life. Living roots bridge. Waterfalls. Much, much more. Try the "Scotland of the East" and neighboring area.
ReplyDeleteYes, I have visited Shillong in North East India! We saw the living root bridge and climbed multiple tree houses. The Elephant falls were very nice as well. Thank you for reading.
ReplyDelete