Kapalkeras - never fail to disgust me

Reflections on India By Sean Paul Kelley

If you are Indian, or of Indian descent, I must preface this post with a clear warning: you are not going to like what I have to say. My criticisms may be very hard to stomach. But consider them as the hard words and loving advice of a good friend. Someone who’s being honest with you and wants nothing from you. These criticisms apply to all of India except Kerala and the places I didn’t visit, except that I have a feeling it applies to all of India, except as I mentioned before, Kerala. Lastly, before anyone accuses me of Western Cultural Imperialism, let me say this: if this is what India and Indians want, then hey, who am I to tell them differently. Take what you like and leave the rest. In the end it doesn’t really matter, as I get the sense that Indians, at least many upper class Indians, don’t seem to care and the lower classes just don’t know any better, what with Indian culture being so intense and pervasive on the sub-continent. But here goes, nonetheless.
India is a mess. It’s that simple, but it’s also quite complicated. I’ll start with what I think are India’s four major problems–the four most preventing India from becoming a developing nation–and then move to some of the ancillary ones.

First, pollution. In my opinion the filth, squalor and all around pollution indicates a marked lack of respect for India by Indians. I don’t know how cultural the filth is, but it’s really beyond anything I have ever encountered. At times the smells, trash, refuse and excrement are like a garbage dump. Right next door to the Taj Mahal was a pile of trash that smelled so bad, was so foul as to almost ruin the entire Taj experience. Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai to a lesser degree were so very polluted as to make me physically ill. Sinus infections, ear infection, bowels churning was an all to common experience in India. Dung, be it goat, cow or human fecal matter was common on the streets. In major tourist areas filth was everywhere, littering the sidewalks, the roadways, you name it. Toilets in the middle of the road, men urinating and defecating anywhere, in broad daylight. Whole villages are plastic bag wastelands. Roadsides are choked by it. Air quality that can hardly be called quality. Far too much coal and far to few unleaded vehicles on the road. The measure should be how dangerous the air is for one’s health, not how good it is. People casually throw trash in the streets, on the roads. The only two cities that could be considered sanitary in my journey were Trivandrum–the capital of Kerala–and Calicut. I don’t know why this is. But I can assure you that at some point this pollution will cut into India’s productivity, if it already hasn’t. The pollution will hobble India’s growth path, if that indeed is what the country wants. (Which I personally doubt, as India is far too conservative a country, in the small ‘c’ sense.)

The second issue, infrastructure, can be divided into four subcategories: roads, rails and ports and the electrical grid. The electrical grid is a joke. Load shedding is all too common, everywhere in India. Wide swaths of the country spend much of the day without the electricity they actually pay for. With out regular electricity, productivity, again, falls. The ports are a joke. Antiquated, out of date, hardly even appropriate for the mechanized world of container ports, more in line with the days of longshoremen and the like. Roads are an equal disaster. I only saw one elevated highway that would be considered decent in Thailand, much less Western Europe or America. And I covered fully two thirds of the country during my visit. There are so few dual carriage way roads as to be laughable. There are no traffic laws to speak of, and if there are, they are rarely obeyed, much less enforced. A drive that should take an hour takes three. A drive that should take three takes nine. The buses are at least thirty years old, if not older. Everyone in India, or who travels in India raves about the railway system. Rubbish. It’s awful. Now, when I was there in 2003 and then late 2004 it was decent. But in the last five years the traffic on the rails has grown so quickly that once again, it is threatening productivity. Waiting in line just to ask a question now takes thirty minutes. Routes are routinely sold out three and four days in advance now, leaving travelers stranded with little option except to take the decrepit and dangerous buses. At least fifty million people use the trains a day in India. 50 million people! Not surprising that waitlists of 500 or more people are common now. The rails are affordable and comprehensive but they are overcrowded and what with budget airlines popping up in India like Sadhus in an ashram the middle and lowers classes are left to deal with the overutilized rails and quality suffers. No one seems to give a shit. Seriously, I just never have the impression that the Indian government really cares. Too interested in buying weapons from Russia, Israel and the US I guess.

The last major problem in India is an old problem and can be divided into two parts that’ve been two sides of the same coin since government was invented: bureaucracy and corruption. It take triplicates to register into a hotel. To get a SIM card for one’s phone is like wading into a jungle of red-tape and photocopies one is not likely to emerge from in a good mood, much less satisfied with customer service. Getting train tickets is a terrible ordeal, first you have to find the train number, which takes 30 minutes, then you have to fill in the form, which is far from easy, then you have to wait in line to try and make a reservation, which takes 30 minutes at least and if you made a single mistake on the form back you go to the end of the queue, or what passes for a queue in India. The government is notoriously uninterested in the problems of the commoners, too busy fleecing the rich, or trying to get rich themselves in some way shape or form. Take the trash for example, civil rubbish collection authorities are too busy taking kickbacks from the wealthy to keep their areas clean that they don’t have the time, manpower, money or interest in doing their job. Rural hospitals are perennially understaffed as doctors pocket the fees the government pays them, never show up at the rural hospitals and practice in the cities instead.

I could go on for quite some time about my perception of India and its problems, but in all seriousness, I don’t think anyone in India really cares. And that, to me, is the biggest problem. India is too conservative a society to want to change in any way. Mumbai, India’s financial capital is about as filthy, polluted and poor as the worst city imaginable in Vietnam, or Indonesia–and being more polluted than Medan, in Sumatra is no easy task. The biggest rats I have ever seen were in Medan!
One would expect a certain amount of, yes, I am going to use this word, backwardness, in a country that hasn’t produced so many Nobel Laureates, nuclear physicists, imminent economists and entrepreneurs. But India has all these things and what have they brought back to India with them? Nothing. The rich still have their servants, the lower castes are still there to do the dirty work and so the country remains in stasis. It’s a shame. Indians and India have many wonderful things to offer the world, but I’m far from sanguine that India will amount to much in my lifetime.
Now, have at it, call me a cultural imperialist, a spoiled child of the West and all that. But remember, I’ve been there. I’ve done it. And I’ve seen 50 other countries on this planet and none, not even Ethiopia, have as long and gargantuan a laundry list of problems as India does. And the bottom line is, I don’t think India really cares. Too complacent and too conservative.

Lagu-lagu yang bagus

sejak di India ni agak kurang meriah dunia muzik aku. setakat ni kalau dalam dunia muzik barat, lagu Lady Antebellum - Need You Now agak melekat dalam cuping telinga. Meninggalkan perassan seolah-olah duduk di dalam trem menuju ke destinasi urban, dengan hati yang berat.

tempohari masa balik Malaysia, terdengar 2 lagu dendangan artis tempatan yang cukup segar dan enak didengar. Satu, lagu Fabulous Cats - Cinta Kosmik. Something about the girl's vocals really shoot up to the sky. Nyaring dan kosmik. sangat padan dengan beat, melodi, title dan lirik lagu tu. Feels like everything falls into places.

Lagu kedua : Alyah - Dewi apentah. Pun cukup segar. walaupun dia nye style nyanyi ada bunyik macam Jaclyn Victor sket, tapi takdelah bunyi sampai tahap klon macam Elly Mazlein nak jadi Siti Nurhaliza. Kalau driving masa dengar lagu ni, rasa macam nak keluar kereta dan terus berlari.. hehehe.

Dengan 2 lagu tu, terasa muzik Malaysia dah ada identiti baru. Takyahlah sebut pasal Faizal Tahir, kadang aku rasa he pushed himself too hard to be heard. Siti Nurhaliza pun dah mula mengarut dengan lagu ala-ala berbalas pantun dengan Kris Dayanti. Nasyid dah lesap, last aku suka dengar nasyid utk lagu Aku Tanpa CintaMu. Dangdut? Wujud lagi ke?

Pastu bila terdengar lagu Cari Jodoh - Wali Band tempohari, terasa tertinggal sungguh kreativiti Malaysians nak banding dengan Indonesians dalam arena pembuatan lagu. Lagu tu simple je, tapi dia nye catchy tu memang menangkap.

Kat India ni, muzik sangat kuat pengaruhnya dengan bantuan industri perfileman dia yang super rancak. Part Hindi, aku rasa semua pun dah biasa dengar. Tapi kalau Tamil.. memana filem yang dibintangi Surya, lagu dia mesti meletup-letup!

Ah.. tetiba terbayang Asin nyanyi lagu "Mukunda mukunda.." hehehe.. Ammmaaa!

Apa lagu yang korang suka dengar sekarang?

kembali lagi ke sisimu

tetibe terkenang lagu Farah Asyikin tu (yang katanya nak meneruskan agenda berbaju kurung sebagai artis.. setelah seksi tidak berapa mendapat sambutan)

Alhamdulillah, syukur semuanya berjalan lancar. Majlis lancar, cumanya agak terkilan sebab tak berkesempatan nak jumpa dengan semua kawan-kawan. Nak jumpa Aisyah Karev dan Ellya dalam sesi kepak ayam - gagal. Nak jumpa Bard dan Mazlan - gagal. Nak lepak ngan kawan-kawan seperjuangan di PTP pun tak berkesempatan juga. Nak berjumpa Pengarah Bahagian pun gagal juga! dah 2-3 kali buat appointment, semuanya tersasar.

So, apa aku dapat dalam Malaysia Trip yang lalu?

• dapat berkaraoke secara besar-besaran di Redbox Plus, Pavilion bersama Nije, Nana, Nini, Titi, Pitpit, Zuzul, Ani, Ati dan Shasha. Sungguh mengebom!
• dapat bertunang.. lalala :)
• dapat jaga Abah
• dapat pi Perak for Cuti-cuti Malaysia!
• dapat tgk cucu sedara dan anak-anak sedara yang baru! sungguh chomel!
• dapat makan duyan!
• dapat berkursus. Sungguh memberikan kesedaran..
• dapat jumpa kawan-kawan
• dapat belajar teknik baru fotografi - higher ISO for better reflections, and play around with shutter speed for brilliant lightings!

all in all, syukurlah Allah masih memberikan peluang untuk menikmati semua ni. kalau aku orang palestine, apakah mungkin ini dapat dirasai?

balik kampung

makin dekat harinya nak balik Malaysia. Ni kali keempat aku menjejak semula ke tanah air tercinta, dan barangkali sebab kerap semacam itu, aku tak berapa jakun nak balik. macam dah ready sangat je.  huhu.

ekceli ada banyak perkara nak diselesaikan kali ini. selain tarikh 6 Jun untuk menghantar dulang-demulang dan menyarung-cincin-mengikat-janji-setia, aku perlu hadir berkursus juga. oh, bukan kursus yang itu. ni kursus yang aku tertinggal tahun sudah yang mengundang dengan rasa kecewa tertinggal satu perjalanan komuter. syukurlah, masih dibukakan peluang untuk turut serta.

aku telepon mak tempohari. katanya abah dah tak dapat mengawal motions penyahtinjaan chota dan bada nya lagi. kesian pada mak, kadang termuntah2 membersihkan kesan-kesan peninggalan. belum biasa. kesian mak. aku rasa nak kena bawa abah buat 'Ultra Sound scan, tgk post-void residue pada prostate' - seperti kata Dr. Chandrasekhar Chandilya dari Apollo Hospital. Untuk kawalan air kecil, aku kena dapatkan Urimax  0.4mg. hmm.

yang rasa tak seronok tu sebab aku terpaksa tinggalkan pejabat dalam tempoh yang panjang. tapi bila kenangkan asyiklah takde letrik, network kerap sangat down, laporan yang dah dibuat kena taip balik, emel yang hantar tersangkut kat draft. tensi.. tensi.

aku rasa nak buat road triplah. pusing satu semenanjung. siapa nak ikot?

award lagi?

thanx Chech - ada ayat yang mengatakan "orang memberi kita merasa, orang berbudi kita berbahasa".. maka u pun telah diberikan award juga. sila baca previous entry

award ni ditujukan khas buat 12 orang penerima, yang bila aku baca blog mereka, membuatkan hati saya ceria - menari-nari bagai bunga kembang setangkai ditiup angin yang nyaman. It's not in any particular order tho, so janganlah berebut korang dapat nombor berapa.

• Hearts
• Toink
• CikChahSeribuTahun
• ThisisNije
• rafiqadhurries
• Zahax - tolonglaa update
• bini Zahax
• Nishashburn

lagi 4 aku tak mau bagi.. sebab diorang dah laama tak update blog.

So, untuk yang dah dapat anugerah, silalah publish gambar anugerah itu dalam blog korang, dan seperti biasa berterima kasih kat saya sebab memberi anugerah, kemudiannya memberi anugerah itu kepada yang lain.. nak bagi kat saya semula pun boleh. huhu.

Bye

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