The Wretched Humanity and The Huddled Masses
By Lothar. Filed in India |
The bureaucracy in India is horrendous: We had to show our passports at every hotel, and the front desk clerk had to fill out a ledger with our passport and visa numbers, address in the US, length of stay in India, where we had been the day prior and what our next destination was. We had to give multiple signatures every time we checked in or out of a hotel. One time I was not allowed to pay our hotel bill at that particular time, but the front desk staff asked me to pay later. Maybe because the money was under the table and other people were standing at the front desk ? Who knows. We had to fill out multiple papers to buy a train ticket and stood in 3 separate lines!
The terms “wretched humanity”, “dirt poor” and “huddled masses” have a whole new meaning for me now.
It is unbelievable how many people in India are living in the street, on the sidewalks or along the railroad tracks. Looking out our dirty train window, we saw people sleeping, cooking, pissing, shitting or just squatting and not doing anything. Indians tend to sit on the ground, but many are able to remain in a squatting position for an extended period of time. The innocent observer can only guess, if they are relieving themselves at that moment or are just waiting for the day to go by. The belief in reincarnation and a better next life certainly helps them to endure their present life.
The dirt and garbage is all over the place : in the streets, in front or behind houses, along the train tracks. Holy cows and lower caste Indians sift through the garbage for anything edible. Even the streets of New Delhi, the capital, were full of cow dung and human excrements. Especially Gabi did not care for the Indian men pissing against any wall along the street with us passing by within 2 or 3 feet from them.
The Indian railroad is the country’s biggest employer, transports 11 million passengers every single day, and, in my opinion, also qualifies as the biggest public toilet in the world. The train toilets empty the excrements right on the tracks and the country population uses the ditches along the railroad tracks as one big open air toilet. On top of this, people walk on the train tracks because of lack of streets or sidewalks.
We also saw many cow dung patties stacked near the huts to be used as ” fire wood”.
The cheating and corruption is also very interesting. The initial price quoted is never the correct amount. At one time the hotel quoted our cab fare as being 350 Rupees for a 5 minute ride. I laughed at them and the updated price 10 seconds later was 150 Rupees. In the end we paid the fair price of 80 Rupees.
You are supposed to be able to go to the prepaid cab fare counter at the train stations in order to pay the official price. We were told more than once, that the counter was closed, even though we saw the staff sitting behind the window. Even uniformed policemen were part of the scam, working together with the cab drivers!