Trying Really Hard To Like India

Last Week Seth Stevenson, from Slate, wrote a week long journal about travel in India, "Trying Really Hard To Like India." All of the entries have great insights (and most are hilarious), but I'll leave you with his genral impression of India:

It's the spinach of travel destinations?you may not always (or ever) enjoy it, but it's probably good for you. In the final reckoning, am I glad that I came here? Oh, absolutely. It's been humbling. It's been edifying. It's been, on several occasions, quite wondrous. It's even been fun, when it hasn't been miserable.

That said, am I ready to leave? Sweet mercy, yes.

Comments

[Poje]

I went to India in July and am going back in December. What I found most depressing is that even the fairly well off people I work with there have what still feels like a subsistence existence. Sure they have servants, drivers, and nice homes, but outside of the four walls of their homes and offices there is nothing really to do. Some people golf, some are into cricket, but other than that they watch movies and visit with family and friends. Nobody really has a hobby or interest outside of work and family. You can't go camping, boating, hiking, or fishing. There are no public festivals like Bumbershoot, the Folklife Festival, Seafair, or other events we enjoy in Seattle. Maybe I am imposing too much of my own values on my perspective.

[MC]

Hey Poje, I envy the fact that you get to travel for your job. But I think you are imposing some of your values here, isn't this the country that started the "laughing club", and cricket, as you mention, is a national obsession. Did you read the entries in the journal? A country of contradicitons-I haven't been there yet, but I feel as though I should at some point.

I think your position might have something to with the class of people you are fraternizing with. How could there not be any festivals in a country with that many religions and people? Perhaps nothing akin to Bumbershoot or Seafair, but more exotic I imagine. And really, would you want to go camping in such a dirty an hot place?

[lou]

poje, you crack me up. You were depressed that the people of India don't know the joy of fishing?
They watch movies and visit with family and friends. Sounds horrible.
What about NASCAR - is there NASCAR in India?
And perhaps I'm a little confused but I thought we hated Bumbershoot. enjoy Folklife? You've got to be kidding me, right? The next time you're in India you should introduce the people to the good sport of hackysack (or even handysack), then perhaps they will have the impetus to organize a Folklife.

[edward]

I actually don't do that much in my spare time outside of eating and drinking - usually done with family and friends. I think if you can enjoy these 'subsistence' activities enough then you tend to not look for other distractions. I guess the Indians and I are just easily pleased, (although I've considered that in my case it might be laziness as well).

[jessica]

umm... poje... i don't know WHAT you did there but if u missed a festival India or had nothing to do there; it lookes like your the problem and NOT the country. what a joke!

[Foolish Hiroo-ics]

Gave myself a new moniker as a resident of "posh" Hiroo district of Tokyo...within walking distance of Omotesando "shills" which is another grossly inverted mid-Western mall concept imposed by the naughty Mori family on dimwitted Tokyo-ites with the hypnotic drone - this is world-class development, hey look Ando did this pile of junk....

Anyway, 1) about India and spinach and 2) about India and festivals. Last year on a long walk around Okubo, my friend and I ended up in a local hole-in-the-wall Indian restaurant and thinking "healthy" I ordered the spinach curry. Great and now I use it all the time - 2 minutes in boiling water and 2 minutes in the blender and you get pure chlorophyl delicious where you can "imbed" all kinds of other curry tastes or just serve plain with a bit of salt. Regarding festivals, the word "matsuri" in Japanese means "festival" in today's jaded lingo, but from ancient times it meant "governing the affairs of the public" or something, hey, life is a festival, your work is a festival, and if you can't find that in Hindu culture and every place you turn in India - YOU ARE CULTURALLY BLIND and TONE DEAF dude.

ps. I love the comment about Nascar. Of course, Indians do Nascar. Even been down to HIndianapolis Raceway down Kerala way? Like Daytona except weirder.