Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Constant Contention

The trash, the dirt, the grime and the smell are not what is bothering me. It’s the constant, in your face poverty and desperation.

In contrast, I never felt so rich. Granted, I personally did not pay for the hotel we stayed in last night thanks to the hard work that got me into Penn State’s Schreyer Honors College. But, I still felt obnoxiously privileged and honestly for the first time in my life.

I felt lucky to have the opportunity to come to India and here I am feeling too lucky. Seeing the world comes with much responsibility and promised reflection. There are so many ways to live this life and I always felt that none was better than another. But when so many people are blatantly suffering, you have to think something is wrong. Wrong with their system, wrong with the rumored government corruption – just wrong. But why is it so wrong? Whose fault is it? Who needs to take responsibility? I now understand why Supriya shared the statistic that there is one NGO for every 400 people in India.

Clearly this issue is complicated.

Last night we stayed in the Clarks Shiraz hotel in close proximity to the Taj Mahal. I understand why the Taj Mahal is India’s crown jewel – what an amazing, beautiful, ostentatious place. But to get to it you pass countless desperate vendors, selling everything from Taj Mahal snow globes to key chains and T-shirts. Our tour guide, Joli, simply told us to ignore them because once you acknowledge them they think you are interested and will heckle you until you are out of reach.

It’s barbaric. It’s uncomfortable and it makes me feel so rude, rich and mean. All of these characteristics are so unfamiliar to me. I try to go through my life embracing everyone in a positive, supportive way. It sucks when you feel those characteristics just because you aren’t in their shoes. The vendors and beggars that stuck out the most include a man with deformed legs whose knees acted as feet that had to crawl to move; and an adorable little boy selling Taj Mahal snow globes.

What upsets me the most is that I am posting these thoughts. Before coming to India, I heard a variety of negative views. I thought, “I’ve done my share of traveling, I’m understanding and this won’t bother me. I will embrace this culture in the most positive way.” But, here I am reporting the negative and I don’t want you to judge them.

The cities I’ve visit are in constant contention. At first I thought they simply co-existed, but it seems too positive of a word and paints a picture that nothing is wrong here.

I leave you with this: Last night when we returned to the hotel we were bombarded by the hotel staff to go to “Monsoon Kasha”, a party celebrating Monsoon season. My roommate Robyn and I walked in to check it out, and there were 10 hotel staff members standing at buffet tables, along with a DJ. No guests were eating there. It was disgusting. Not the set-up but the obnoxious wastefulness of it all. I didn’t ask, but I’m guessing all of the left-over food was disposed of and did not go to those beggars on the street.

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