India Images

27. Mar, 2011 2 Comments

Indian distribution system

(Dana) 70% of the population of India lives in villages and towns. That is 900 million people living outside the cities.

We are sitting in our bus passing countless villages along the way. Images fly by. Each seems like a National Geographic photo waiting to be taken. But if we stop each time, we’ll never get from point A to point B.

We feel as if we’re looking back in history – people living like they have for ages, although with the modern additions of electricity and cable TV. Each village seems remarkably alike, whether home to 2,000 or 20,000.

A running list of sights and experiences:

Rutted bumpy roads jolting us out of our seats on “highways”
Dozens of travelers packed into and on top of jeeps, tuk tuks, buses
Motorbikes transporting up to a family of 5 (their minivan)
Houses ranging from dung and stick huts with thatched roofs to two-story cement structures – all with satellite dish
Fields with no large machinery, just hands for planting and harvesting (we even tried our hand in harvesting wheat)
Old men in turbans and dhotis squatting around shops kibitzing or maybe conducting business
School children in clean but worn school uniforms walking kilometers to school
Post-adolescent boys in tight jeans, on motorbikes, with mobile phones, giving us their best James Dean
Women in colorful saris dotting the green fields or carrying loads of firewood, water or groceries on their heads and infants in their arms (clearly the real workers in this society)
Fruits and vegetables loaded on carts
Vendors of fried snacks with vats of boiling oil
Barbers in small shacks offering 20 rupee haircuts ($0.50)
Government installed wells provide ground water for drinking, cooking, laundry, bathing and washing water buffalos right on the roadside
Oxen-powered, gear-enabled bucket systems irrigating the fields
People squatting in fields and by roadsides in lieu of loos
Sacred cows wandering the streets or tied up in yards, sometimes straying into the road, bringing our bus to a screeching halt
Piles of dung patties from said cows to be used for heat and cooking fuel
Kids whose family cannot afford to send them to school (even though education is free) waving to us
Pigs, goats and dogs snuffling through garbage piles
Camel carts for those who cannot afford tractors
Blacksmith families living as gypsies on carts because in 1550 the community vowed to live like their king who was on the run from Moghul invaders
Trash everywhere as plastic bags proliferate the world
And perhaps the biggest issue, people everywhere.

India is a population of 1.3 billion, adding 20 million people every year. Although we have encountered only kind people with warm smiles, there are so many people in so many
towns. It is hard to imagine how the country’s resources will be able to handle the continued growth. We sincerely hope that they figure everything out.

As Greg said in his first post on Delhi, India is an explosion for the senses. Visually, our bus trips have certainly confirmed that. I have loved this experience.