I was waiting to be collected from a well known shopping precinct. I stood on the corner by a small kiosk that sells sweets and tobacco pouches, both popular in India, and manufactured "singly" so people can afford them. The trouble with that is that men buy them, tear them open and throw the packet on the floor. The kiosk man was busy cleaning the patch in front of his kiosk. He painstackingly moved motorbikes and shifted chairs and swept all the rubbish into a nice pile and then ...he swept it under the parked car right next to the kiosk !
A young man finished his Sprite and simply threw it on the floor as he walked to his motorbike. I was too stunned to protest but patience is a virtue here and as I stood waiting, a woman with a worn and tatty sari came along carrying two plastic bags full of plastic bottles and plastic cups. She scooped up the plastic bottle and hey presto instant recycling.
On my way home I saw a mum lifting her toddler onto a wall and the toddler pooped in someone else's garden.All part and parcel of the state's failure to provide ....
Hence the well known acronym NIMBY. Don't for a moment think this is India's problem only.It happens wherever that selfish gene takes over and shows a lack of responsibility to the community you live in. In India's case one could say there are mitigating factors perhaps because of the states failure to provide.It is all a question of education and collective consciousness but you would have thought that 60 years was long enough to get this sorted.
Can you guess what it stands for ?
apisteuto marina.an kai india apo oso exo akousei ,apo tous touristes ektos apo ta omorfa meri pou exei ....oloi thimountai kai ta posa polla skoupidia exei.opos eipes:of course all is matter of education.(an to egrapsa sosta)
ReplyDeletean kai prin apo liges meres eida sto youtube ena video (ektos apo ta palatia tis indias kai ta axioatheata tis)eida mia perioxi gurgaon pou itan...panemorfi kai pentakathari.mia poli oxyromeni me fylakes,eseis sigoura tha tin gnorizetai.itan apla teleia(an kai ekei apo oti eida sto video meta apo 500metra exo apo tin oxyromeni poli ypirxan pantou skoupidia agelades kai ta slums.
ReplyDelete"The state's failure to provide?" I'm afraid you let the people off far too lightly. The people pay no taxes, hoard black money (I'm sure the little shop that sells tobacco pays next to nothing to the Delhi municipality), steal electricity, and complain about corruption. The people deserve the services and the government they get. Western observers are still waiting, frustrated, for the Indian Revolution to explode. But it's not going to happen because everyone knows that the individual is not exactly an innocent victim either.
ReplyDeleteThis blog post of yours is making its rounds on social networks and providing comic relief to millions of Europeans and other Westerners. "Filthy shameless sub-humans - these Indians", one Cypriot American intellectual from Virginia quipped. We are so very sorry that you are having to witness such misery. A good percentage of our population cannot eat on days they don't work. And in this struggle to survive, we often cannot afford to be presentable. In a few years, you will be in a much better place and this short stop in India will be just a bad memory. Meanwhile, when you go out just ask your driver to hustle and drive you to the up-scale part of New Delhi. You can also tint your windows dark very cheap, so you don't have to see us and our living conditions.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the post and your observations.
so what if this blog makes round on social networks?describes something untrue??????what irrelevant response from 2nd anonymous......he just saw comments and complains and protests from around all blog about india???i don t think so!!!and also anonymous has provided some tips(dark windows on car-or -drive to the up-scale part of new delhi)and totally void.india is nice but to accept that and has many many many problems too.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice to have a name with a comment. That is the right way to leave an opinion. Everybody is entitled to their own. I am sorry Anonymous feels this way. Your comments are certainly not justified and I do not need to defend the way I live in India and my comments about it. It is sad that you cannot see the wood for the trees.
ReplyDeleteSofia se eucharisto gia to scholio sou. Panta uparchoun anthropoi pou diafonoun. Os anafora to Gurgaon zo poli konta se auti tin poli. Nai sigoura eînai omorfi se ena vathmo,kainourgies polukatoikies kai ktiria alla ligo prasino. Protimo chilies fores to Delhi tou Lutyens opos to ektise me tous fardious dromous gemato uperocha dendra kai katapliktikes monokatoikies. Elpizo na ta deis kammia mera kai esu ! Marina
ReplyDeletesigoura panta yparxoun anthropoi pou diafonoun alla o anonymous den thelei na paradextei tin alitheia kai ta tips pou egrapse einai entelos (xaza).kai nai elpizo kai ego na ta do apo konta to fthinoporo i to xeimona an ertho kai symfono panta einai kalytera se pio isiha meri me monokatoikies oxi mono stin india alla pantou..........(kai ekana auto to sxolio gia ton anonymous giati nai men egrapse tin apopsi tou alla den itan katholou eugenikos)toulaxiston etsi to katalava ego.
ReplyDeleteSumfonoume apoluta. Opos eides uparchei kai allo sxolio opou kapoios allos eipe oti ftain kai oi idioi pou den exoun mia upeuthinotita apenanti sto kratos. M
ReplyDeletegotta love the free press!
ReplyDeleteYES everyone has a freedom to express themselves as they wish HURRAY !!
ReplyDeleteI know what NIMBY stands for !!
ReplyDelete