Tell us more! I like to hear about India. Crazy place... Crazy in a good way!

Tell us more! I like to hear about India. Crazy place... Crazy in a good way!

Sorry to disagree, but I would say crazy in a really, really bad way.

It was sort of like stepping back in time a couple of hundred years in some ways. While I was there, these stories were in the papers:
'Office worker loses her footing and falls off the train and dies on her way to work', Several deaths from malaria and leptospirosis were reported, Also several 'honor killings' had happened recently. Honor Killings, for those not familiar with the term is the murder of a woman by her own family for 'disgracing' the family in some perceived way. for instance in one area of India it is taboo for members of the same villiage to marry, even though they are not related. They may both be killed for such an offense.

I was working from viturally the time I got up, until 6 in the evening, 6 days a week. So, I had very little time to shoot. I also felt little inclination since I was feeling a bit sickly most of the time.

The following is the view from my office in Mumbai. Note the slums by the river.



Here are some other mixed images from the vicinity.

Interesting photos. I spent a long time in Bombay too- a couple of months, plus another couple for other parts of india. Yeah, I got really sick. The poverty was harsh, and the heat was extreme. But next time you go I recommend you try to see the positive side too- because India has a lot that we can learn from, although it's rather hidden behind a sometimes-harsh surface. The people are very interesting- the religious aspect is very strong and well worth taking to to soak up. I went there on holiday and ended up finding a course in website development. (It was 200 dollars for one-to-one tuition for over a month- and it was very good.) One of my teachers was a Parsi priest who would come in some days after waking up at 3am to perform the ritual of putting the dead on the roof of the temple for the sun to burn. They used to have the vultures eat the bodies, but with the lack of vultures these days in Bombay he tells me that they now use well-place giant magnifying glasses to burn the bodies in that city. The conversations you have with regular indians can sometimes be very interesting- in fact, Ive had conversations about life, death, and religion on long-distance train journeys with peasants who had rarely travelled, which were far more interesting than the usual "pint down the pub" talk I have at home. When you start getting into the belief systems of Indians, you really see how deep the whole thing is. The architecture is also quite fantastic in places (although Bombay is more western and perhaps not as interesting as somewhere like Old Delhi which is fantastic in places). Delhi has a good 4 buildings that are about as amazing as the taj mahal. There's also the energy of the place- you don't get bored there, which for me is a big bonus. The hussle and bussle is quite extreme.
So, where I can understand what youre saying- and a good half of the people who go to india end up hating it- I do think that with the right attitude, you can get a lot from it. But still, I wouldnt recommend it to anyone unless they genuinely already have a big interest in the place. It's a tough trip, with many down-sides.

Still, it feels good to be back eh?! I remember- after India I went to Malaysia which of course isnt particularly wealthy... It felt so so comfortable it was great A complete relief!

Notice I did not complain about the people themselves.

No, I was there working sometimes very closely with many Indians. By and large they are wonderful, intelligent people, and yes their faith runs very deep. Sorry but I am not impressed by that. I consider most 'faith' to just be a remnant of our primitive brains not fully able to comprehend nature. In other words superstition.

Oh, another story I just remembered from the trip. All air traffic had to be delayed from landing on an airstrip, due to the fact that a 'family' of lizards had wandered onto the tarmac!

@Leontura - My wife is from Indonesia and I have spent a great deal of time there. Also 'third world', but waaaay ahead of India.

@Tina - Glad you and your family were not ill. I was with a group of 30+ people from the USA there on business. Many of my co-workers  are originally from Japan, China, Korea etc. About half of us fell ill. One poor young man was in the hospital for two days.

What I saw was much more than litter. Cows, dogs, sheep and goats in a major metropolitan area walking casually through the streets. Defecating wherever they please. People as well. There was a large open field that the people from the slum used regularly as a toilet. This was directly across the street from my office building. During monsoon season, which is June-July, all this raw sewage runs into the streets and the rivers. I need not explain what this does to the water supply.

People see what they want to see.
If you go there seeking faith and the way to nirvana, possibly you will find it. I am a hard core realist. I see the suffering, disease, poverty and also the extreme wealth of the few and wonder why it has to be that way.
Their government is to blame. Nothing gets done the until the proper palms are crossed with $$$. Some people are becoming very wealthy on the backs of the poor (the poor in the US don't know how comparatively well off they are) and I find it offensive.

End of rant...for now 

As a European expat living in the US it always irks me to see how narrow-minded people (mostly Americans, sorry to say that but it is true)

I think generalisations like this are odious, unhelpful and patently untrue.

And I'm European and I have lived in the US. There are broad and narrow minded people everywhere ...