do.rflex wrote: > 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.) >
He must not have visited Cochin in Kerala. That is a very modern city perhaps the most I visited there. I was going to post on that "did you experience this in India" thread my experiences and the cool contrast Kerala presented. But I was busy and didn't have time to reply. Here's the thing: Kerala was the first state to go communist in India yet I saw commerce and business thriving. Beggars? Saw none on the beach in Kovalum, Kerala but instead vendors selling fruit and cigarettes and wondered if they just enlisted people who would have been beggars to do that. I only encountered one beggar outside of a cafeteria in Cochin which two of us feeling the hungries for fish and chips decided to go to a 5 star hotel restaurant and get some which was a welcome break from Indian and Chinese food (the latter for pitta types like me). I do have to cut India a break because they were quite oppressed under the British and then the Nehru dynasty. Indians who have been successful in the west and have returned home have been initiating efforts to pick up the country by its bootstraps. Their current leader ran on a platform of extending the prosperity the tech sector was bringing to the rest of India. People comment, at least still in the 1990s, that a lot of people live on $1 a day there. How much is that an hour? 50 cents, because they only have to work two hours a day to make ends meet. We should be so lucky. And that income is relative as it bought a helluva lot more there than $1 here would. And a vast majority of those living on $1 a day probably didn't have to pay any rent as they were living in home passed down through the family (especially in the villages where this figure holds up). The best ice cream sundae I've ever had was in Calicut at a penthouse restaurant. Freshly made ice cream with fresh cashews and pistachios topped with chocolate liquor. ------------------------------------ To subscribe, send a message to: fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!'Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: fairfieldlife-dig...@yahoogroups.com fairfieldlife-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: fairfieldlife-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
