Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Poverty in India

Throughout my life, people have asked me how I deal with poverty in India and still enjoy my time there. Unlike poverty in the West, poverty in India takes on a whole new face altogether.

Here, the guy who begs on the street corner but still looks sufficiently clean and totally able bodies is pitied and people throw money encouraging him. I have always maintained that people who give money to them are doing society a great wrong. Granted that this man who is totally capable of working could have seen better days, could just be at a moment in life where he is down and out, or could be a drug addict and it's necessarry for our society to reach out to them. Total Bullocks! I am sorry if the guy has seen better days - bad luck is something none of us can plan against. I am sorry if the guy has come upon drugs - but I see no reason to fund him using more illegal substances. There are plenty of ways our very generous government goes out of their way to make life livable and even help these people. It's up to them to not accept it and to choose to live the life they live. If they are capable of work, surely they can get a job at McDonalds or any other job that is easily available. But they choose to hang around the streets and beg and this I have a problem with.

Now, before I get a platitude of emails about how I do not understand poverty, how I have a priveledged life etc - I want to clearly state - I do understand povery. I may not have experienced it, but Ihave seen real poverty and that is the kind of poverty that motivates even the hardest ones of us to search in our conscience to justify how we are contributing to this world.

The poverty that I speak is what is found in India. As everywhere, poverty exists on different levels. You have the inhabitants of shanty towns in big cities who live in their huts, both parents have jobs and work day and night and still, because they have so many children the possibility of a better life for the next generation is remote. These are the people who spend their days cleaning and cooking for others so that their kids can have a glimpse of a better future. They do this without grumbling. They are about as hardworking as I have ever seen, waking up at 5.30am to cook for their families and then spending the day cooking and cleaning for as many as 4-5 homes in a day. It is these people I have deep respect for.

There is also another group of poverty stricken people for whom my heart totally bleeds. It is the children and aged who have been abandoned not only by their families, but by the Indian government and society. Nothing you have seen will bother you as much as the absolute poverty these two groups experience. Children in rural india are often seen rummaging through garbage, when we were in Madhya Pradesh we saw such extreme poverty among these kids that it just made you wonder what is the purpose of life. It is an open fact that these kids are easy prey for the vile pedophile industry. Nowhere is this more apparant but in Mumbai where you see little girls and boys beg for food every day and then one fine day, you see them all dressed up in pretty clothes with lipstick and makeup on their faces, their stomachs obviously fed, oblivious to the evils that society has forced them to endure to get a meal.

As for the aged, the sad thruth is that even the sex agencies don't want them so they are just left on street corners to die our of starvation, disease or even beaten up.

What I find totally appaling is how foreign tourists to India choose to look at poverty. One of the "in" things to do on the travel circut is to pay touts $100 to get a tour of the shantytowns and slums. Somehow, these pitiful western tourists feel they are bonding with the poor by going on this voyage. How utterly stupid of them. Surely within 10 seconds of arriving in India they must have figured out that poverty is pretty acceible - you don't need to shell out a lot of money, you need to have good intentions if you want to really experience it. The $100 they give goes to the local goon, who in turn runs the local prostitution-pedophile-drug racket with his henchmen. It would be far more sensible for them to just give the money to a reputable charity and allow them to continue their work.

And as to how I deal with poverty in India, every time I come accross a hard working poor person, I made sure I tip him handsomely - if nothing else, atleast this will keep him trying to get out of the trap of poverty.

Green Beans in Mustard Seeds

This recipe was given to me by chef extra-ordinaire Ramu in India during our visit there. It's really super easy.
Ingredients:
3 cups green beans
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
salt to taste

Method:
  1. Wash and trim the ends of the green beans.
  2. Heat a pan on medium heat and add the olive oil. When the oil is warm (about 30 seconds) add the mustard seeds. Cook the mustard seeds until they start to "jump".
  3. Add the beans and stir so beans are coated in the seeds. Cook at Medium High for 2-3 minutes.
  4. Cover and cook at low for 5 -6 minutes.
  5. Can be served hot or cold.

Beet and Orange Salad

Ingredients:
6 small beets
1 large orange
3 spring onions or 1 small regular onion
juice from 1 large lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt to taste

Method:
  1. Cover beets and roast in an oven at 350C until tender (about 3 hours).
  2. Cool the beets slightly then wash under cold water. Peel off the skin and slice into small cubes. Place the cubes in a bowl.
  3. Slice the onions finely and add to the beets.
  4. Cut the skin off the orange with a knife. Take out all the seeds and the white parts. Cut into pieces and add to the beets.
  5. Squeeze the juice of 1 lemon on the beets and add the olive oil and salt. Stir and keep in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Reflections of India

We've just returned from our 5 1/2 weeks annual holiday. This time, the destination was India. I can honestly tell you that it was the most fun trip of my life! Travelling through India is so easy and uncomplicated as compared to travelling in Europe or North America. I realized from day 1 that the trick to making things work efficiently in India is to outsource them - I'm serious! Pay someone to find someone else to do the job efficiently and you will be happier and it will cost you less than you doing it yourself. We rented a car with a driver, got an Indian travel agent and gave them enough leeway so that they could negotiate and provide us with the best of things in our budget. I am pleased to say that we were not at all disappointed.

I have travelled a fair bit around the world and my favorite place of travel has always been Canada (part of the reason why I moved here) - nowhere do you really find the beautiful vistas, good service, decent hospitality and value for money as you do in the Great North. However, I have to say, that travelling around India showed us that it is a pretty amazing country and the level of hospitality and quality of service you find for the dollar is unsurpassed. You expect to be pampered and they do not let you down.

We have seen the most amazing sights. Our breath was literally taken away when we first saw the Taj Mahal - all we could say was "Oh Wow"- you really cannot imagine how completely beautiful it is. We admired centuries old monuments and buildings built by the Mughals and Rajputs - The Agra Fort where "Akbar the Great" used to rule, Fatehpur Sikri -the beautiful city he built, Sikandara- where he was put to rest - all built in the 15th century and testament to the powerful force Akbar had made himself into. Continuing onwards to Delhi we saw Humayun's Tomb (built in late 14th century), the totally inspiring Qutub Minar which was built even before that with Quranic inscriptions all the way to the top of this 10 story tower, the Red Fort where Akbar's grandson Shah Jahan (the guy who built the Taj) created more amazing rooms and where the famous peacock throne (a throne built like a peacock full of emeralds and pervious stones) was placed. We saw the point at which Indian independence from British rule was declared. Onwards to the Himalyas and the Punjab where we visited the new city of Chandigarh with Asia's largest rose garden and the most interesting Nek Chand's Rock garden - at all these places we saw and appreciated the power of imagination and the beauty that can be created by all who really want to. Our tour continued to Amritsar and the Golden Temple. If there was a place where we felt at peace it was here, sitting by the pond looking at the magnificent temple that was built as a testament to faith. We even visited the India-Pakistan border at Wagah and joined the crowds there! History of several centuries surrounded us wherever we went and as India modernizes, we realized that Indians have developed a wonderful way to mix the old and the new to create their own unique blend of modernism in India.

Travelling with Baby M her safety and well being were our prime concern. Apart from a bad case of diaper rash because of the heat, she was fine. Food wise, Indians seemed to bend over back ways when they found out we had a baby. We were given the freshest stuff and when we visited the roadside stalls (dhabas) they would actually make things fresh for us so we wouldn't fall ill. At Delhi, we discovered the Indian Infant cereal called Cerelac - imagine our surprise when Baby M gulped down bowls of it. It tasted so much better than the cereal in Canada. At times I felt guilty about pre-judging India. We had automatically assumed that it would be difficult to find diapers etc there - somehow taking it for granted that the country had not modernized. Diapers were available at every street corner! My Indian friend in Delhi had told me that the Indian one were no good - I found they performed just the same as the imported ones. With Baby M - leaks always happen! I felt totally stupid when it dawned on me how naive I had been on India - here is a country of 1 billion people, from whom at least 25 million are infants under the age of 1 - how presumptuous for me to assume that there would be no facilities for 25 million citizens!

There is no doubt that we stayed in the best of hotels and lived a very luxurious life. But such luxuries are not that steep in India. In Delhi, our wonderful travel agent, got us a room at The Oberoi (one of India's best hotels) where we had our own personal butler. I would press a button and my smiling genie in a white uniform would appear and everything I needed would suddenly appear. When we ordered room service, instead of coming on a tray- they brought in a whole table totally laid out with silver settings. It was service fit for royalty. The price tag for this indulgence was $250/night. While that seems like a lot, we paid the same amount when we stayed at Blue Mountain in Ontario in January and certainly did not get a butler! That's also the same as 160 Euros and anyone who has recently been travelling to Europe will tell you how pathetically expensive Europe has become and how even if you pay 160 Euros you can just about get an IBIS in a major city. Top end service in India is unsurpassed!

The ONLY sensible way to go around India with a child is by renting a car. You would need to be totally suicidal to drive on these roads yourselves. You need specialist drivers who have developed nerves of steel through years of driving and who know where to take you and how to negotiate the various road blocks. Renting a car in India also means you no longer have to worry about the petrol, or tolls, or parking charges or directions (Indians are totally challenged when it comes to maps. I was proud to get a map in Delhi only to realize that it's utterly useless as the roads are not marked!) Having a driver is the way to do it. You wake up and your car is cleaned, ready and has a full tank of petrol. The chauffer knows exactly where to take you and how to get there and provides all sorts of interesting information on Indian life that you would not normally get. Our driver Mahavir, went out of his way to make sure we had a good trip. Apart from the excellent driving, he also got our clothes ironed at the street laundries (Indians DO NOT wear un-ironed clothes and I DO NOT iron on holiday), went into the "dhabas" and checked out their kitchens and terrorized the cooks so we could get fresh food, and would spend 2 hours in every town finding a good dairy to get fresh yoghurt for Baby M. Such service you could never find in the West!

In ending this blog, I have to say that at every step of our trip we were shown respect, friendship and kindness. Whether we were at my friend's place where Raju, Nitin, Kishore and Gita took care of us, or at my Mum's where Majid cooked us amazing biryani and samosas while Rekha and Farid took care of Baby M, or at a hotel - we were always welcomes and the red carpet was laid out for us in every way. I often wondered what happened to the stereotypical uncouth Indians who used to steal from foreigners and who would generally try to make your life difficult. I then realized, like anywhere else, we tried to fit in. My husband wore the Indian "Kurta Pajama" for most of our trip - a sight that won us immediate approval. Most of the time they just assumed he was from Kashmir and nodded to us. Unlike some of the foreigners or Indians returning from overseas, I never showed any skin (mind you, I don't really show much skin in Toronto as well). My Hindi is still fluent though it's now probably easy to see that I am not a local but I did use it as much as I could.

To really enjoy India, you need to go there not only with your body, but also open up your mind to explore and understand the various things that make this country such an incredible nation.
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Excellent Indian Travel Agent: Rupali Desai (+91-98210-79311) poly71@hotmail.com

Friday, April 4, 2008

Travels through India: Rajasthan

We left Mumbai on the Kingfisher flight - the first thing that strikes you is how sunning all the inflight attendants are. The owner of the airline, Mr. Vijay Mallya - India's answer to Mr. Branson is well known for his playboy antics and this is probably why the woman and service is so stunning.
We're staying in Udaipur at the Trident Hilton set among 22 acres of greenery - it's a lovely property and overall the service has been good. On arriving, we saw the Fateh Sagar lake - how lovely! We saw the Sahelion ki Bari which is a garden and fountain complex built by the Raja for his harem. Very beautiful! He built fountains all over - all of which are intricately carved. The water for the fountains comes from the lake and the hydrolics used are still being . How the Raja managed to get water 5 kms away from the manmade lake and have the fountains working is pretty incredible considering it was built in 1700s!
We then saw Pichola Lake and the Lake Palace Hotel. I was hoping to go there for lunch, but it is now closed to non-residents so it's a bit of a dissapointment. We decided to go for dinner at the Fateh Prakash - the royal residence of the existing Maharaja. The view was stunning - we could see the Lake Palace and the Jagmandir lit up like jewels on the Pichola lake - but the food was much too spicy for us and we got completely bitten up by mosquitoes! However, the view remains totalls beautiful. Totally inspiring. Totally awesome.
My husband has been calling Baby M "Chickoo" after a delicious fruit that is eaten in India. It's brown, sweet and has a texture like apples. He says " She's sweet like a chickoo. She's small like a chickoo and she's brown like a chickoo". Baby M seems to like this name!

March 27
We saw the City Palace in Udaipur - totally lovely! The passion with which the Maharaja has built this palace is totally evident. Nowhere have I seen such beautiful rooms. We saw the Peacock Court where the king sat on the throne made to resemble a peacock full of gems - it was really beautiful! We also saw "Moti Mahal" or the the Pearl room, where everything from the ceiling to the floor was covered in Mother of Pearl, the "Sheesh Mahal" or Crystal Palace where the king had imported crystal from Belgium and created a whole room of it, the Ruby Dining room where the walls were at one point covered in rubies and emeralds and courtyards which were truly spectacular. Architecturally, it is built in white marble which keeps the palace cool in summers. Baby M was also pretty impressed with it, she kept herself busy looking at these things.

After this we headed to Devigarh for lunch - it's the much heralded resort built into a castle. I had heard so much about Devigargh that I was really expecting spectacular - this is was not. It's very beautiful but not really worth the price tag. We paid Rs. 7800 for lunch for the three of us and it is by far one of the most expensive meals I have had in India. I cannot say it was truly exciting - but my mum, husband, Baby M and I got to relax and that was a good thing. We spent the rest of the day shopping where my mum bought Baby M her second Ghagra.

March 28
We visited the Monsoon Palace in the morning - you have to go up this steep hill from which you get amazing views of Udaipur. It's interesting to think how in the 18th century the Maharaja must have built a palace on the very top of a hilly mountain where it today takes us 25 minutes to drive up. Trying to imagine the logistics of moving all the tons of marble up to the palace is really mind boggling. The Lake Pichola looked lovely from the top. The climb to the top was steep, so my mum rested in the cafe, where she put on her shades, took up a bollywood pose and relaxed!
After this, we drove 2 hours (but only 65 kms) t0 Kumbalgarh. The scenery en-route was sectacular - I could not have imagined such lovely scenery in Rajasthan. We drove through the Aravalli Hills which are more mountains than hills. The vistas were amazing. We drove through dry arid land which had nothing but these large trees with big bright orange flowers - no leaves, only flowers - I've never seen anythign like it. We drove through sugarcane fields, wheat fields. saw men in turbans moving bullocks around a large wheel that in turn pulled water out of the well for irrigation - It's the first time even I have seen such typical countryside in India. We even ssaw a Jacaranda tree - one of the most beautiful trees in teh world which lovely blue flowers - I ahven't seen one since I was in Pretoria. It was wonderful to drive through the countryside because we got a sense of what the real Rajasthan was all about. Everyone was friendly, the ladies wore these extremely bright sarees and ghagraswhich contrasted beautifully with the bleak landscape. I personally fround the scenery to Kumbalgargh very inspiring.
The fort itself is astounding. It has one of the largest walls after Great Wall of China. None of us had seen such a large fort. It seemed to go on for ever and ever. It's even more interesting to learn that it was built in 1450! How in the world did they move all this stone to this place in the middle of nowhere and build a fort here?! The views from the fort are even more astounding. We are certainly spoilt for views here.
A note on how nice people are to us: We had lunch at Aodhi hotel - part of the royal retreats here and the manager opened up a new cleaned room for us to change Baby M's diaper and for us to freshen up - imagine that happening in Canada or Europe!

March 29
We spent the day visiting the holy shrine of Hussein Tekri - known for it's blessing those who are really in need. We were certainly not prepared for what we saw here. You had the poorest of the poorest and the weakest of the weakest begging for help here. It's taken us 6 hours on totally atrocious roads to get here but it has certainly been an eye opener for all of us. Never have we seen this kind of poverty - you had little children begging and totally destitute people waiting for mercy. I was surprised that all these kids were begging when they shoudl really have been in school. Of what use is the economic success in India when a large part of it's youth is left out?
We went there to weigh Baby M on the holy scales and distributed an equal amount of jaggery to the poor. It was in some ways a rather shocking and eye opening experience.
Hussein Tekri is in the state of Madhya Pradesh and I was somewhat surprised at how bad the roads still are there. India has a long way to go when it comes to progress. Success in the stock market in Mumbai has certainly not showed up here.

We were sharing our road with camels. donkeys, dogs, cows stolling down the highway, bullock carts, trucks and all sorts of people. It took us 6 hours to complete a journey of 130kms.

We arrived in Chittorgarh only to be told that there was a curfew in place because of the Hindu-Muslim tension!

March 30

We spent the morning looking at the Chittorgarh fort - legendary in teh Indian psyche for he practice of "jawhar" or mass suicide to save one's honor. At one point 22000 (yes Twenty two THOUSAND) women committed suicide to save themselves from being taken prisoner by the Mughals. While I think of it as a rather waste, in Indian folklore this is much respected. I found it even more scary that they burnt themselves alive on a pyre made of twigs and ghee!

We then proceeded to Ajmer Sharif. This is considered to be the 2nd most holy place for Indian Muslims after Mecca. There is a belief that if you ask for something here it will come true. Again, religion adn faith are all about belief. If you believe in something then it helps you and takes on a power of it's own. In India, religion is everywhere. You cannot remove it from the national fabric just as you cannot remove the church from Europe's history.

Ajmer has unfortunately come under the mafia of the Khadims (custodians of the shrine) and they have turned it into a money making, corrupt place. While I enjoy going to the Ajmer the problems with the khadims can be an issue. Our trip there cost us Rs. 2000 (about $50) which could easily have been put to use to so much better use. I am disspointed with how they are converting such a lovely place into a money making business.

Baby M has been a total star through all of this. A wonderful sport- she is really the ideal treavel companion. My husband carried her in the Baby Bjorn infant carrier and since he is much taller than most poeple here no once came close to them. My husband was also dressed in Indian clothes and the khadims just automaticlaly assumed he was from Kashmir since they have lighter skin there and kept talking to him in Hindi. He politely nodded his head and smiled.

March 31- April 3 JAIPUR

We'rte staying at the Taj Jai Mahal Palace which has been completely renovated since I stayed there 4 years ago. The rooms are very spiffy - and they even have a window that looks into the bathroom just incase I want to continue conversation with my husband while he pees!

Overall, our stay in Jaipur has been good. On Day 1 we saw the City Palace. I had such high expectations of it but the part which was open to the public is not half as interesting as the City Palace in Udaipur. We saw the wonderful collection of royal carpets, buggies (charriots pulled by horses) , two silver jugs which are the largest in the world and which hold 50 gallons of water each - these were used to transport holy water from the Ganges to London so the Maharaja could bathe in the holy water while he attended the coronation of Kind George. The City Palace came alive for us because we both read the book by Maharani Gayatri - the 3rd wife of the king of jaipur and her descriptions of the palace bring the place alive for us.

The next day we went to see the Royal Cenotaphs. There si one thing that has always truck me about India - we don't necessarily take very good care of people when they are alive but the moment they die they become eternal in memory and in very grand structures made of stone.

On Day 3 we took Baby M and my husband on an elephant ride up to Amber fort. Whiel Baby M and I found the ride to be relaxing, my husband looked very nervous on an elephant! Amber Fort has historical significance because it is here that the Mughal Emperor Akbar married the Hindu Princess Jodha and that put an end to the wars between the Mughals and the Rajputs. We had a guide here who has given my husband some very romantic lines to use on me. One of them is " You are the moon and above all beauty" - now say that in a Russian accent and try not to laugh!

After this, there was a visit to Jantar Mantar - the ancient Royal Observatory built in the 16th century - this is something I have wanted to see for a long long time. It uses a sun dial to accurately tell you the time - when we visited it was spot on!

My husband has pretty much been wearing only Indian clothes since we arrived in India. He now has about 9 indian outfits.


He looks very royal in these and everytime we go anywhere, people jump up to attention and salute him - a sign of great respect here. In return, he nods his head and smiles back. I am also surprised with how friendly people are towards Baby M. It takes us 10 minutes every time we enter a restaurant for the entire staff including the chefs to come and say Hello to her and another 10 minutes for all the staff to say Bye when we are leaving. We are also totally taken aback by strangers wanting to take their photos with her or old ladies coming up to talk to her. We've likely offended quite a few people when we said hey couldn't carry her, but overall, we seems to be managing the situation well.

More on Agra and Delhi in my next post ... until then ..Namaste!