India: "The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly"

This is my 3rd time in India and I felt the need to rant about the pleasures and annoyances of traveling in this country. While India is colorful & beautiful (in parts) it also has its share of challenges & problems. The following is a list of positives & negatives from my prospective:

The Good:

-We have met some wonderful and gracious people. Specifically our guide and travel agent in Delhi Mr. Asutosh Sharma, the proprietors of Mud Mirror Guest House, our camel safari guide, Ali & the folks at Trotters, & some great fellow travelers.

-Some of the landscape and architecture is breathtaking

-We have eaten some amazing meals.

-Some food vendors & chefs are incredibly talented.

-The devotion of pilgrims, regular folk, & a few sadhus is humbling.

-Generally, many Indians have been very friendly towards us.

-We have made several friends from all over the world but mostly from England.

The Bad:

-The filth & trash is cities & towns. I know that many factors contribute to this (lack of infrastructure, govt. corruption, culture, peoples attitudes regarding community and liter, cows wandering streets, etc.) However, there is trash & general filth in almost every place we have been to outside of Jaisalmer fort. Respect your community & clean up your trash.

-Touts & dishonest rickshaw drivers/store owners. I am not a human ATM machine, don't try to charge me 300 rupees for a service that should cost 100 rupees.

-The poopy smell in a lot of cities. The poor sewage systems, cow shit in the street, & peoples attitudes towards going to the bathroom in public all contribute.

-Polluted rivers & air. This is very sad as India has some gorgeous rivers & natural scenery however uncontrolled industrial pollution, sewage running into rivers, vehicle emissions, & generally bad habits have caused grave pollution in some areas.

-The caste system is alive and well in many parts of India which, in my mind, can lead to a lack of upward mobility contributing to some of these problems.

The Ugly:

-The way a lot of Indians treat animals. I have seen a lot of mistreatment of animals (generally dogs, cats, & even some cows).

- The amount of adult and child beggars. Another huge problem with many causes.

-The poor treatment of Indian & foreign woman in some communities. While the status   and treatment of woman in India is improving, we have seen woman treated very poorly in some communities. Woman are people, not objects to be made to do hard manual labor while you sit around nor gawked at or molested.

-Disingenuous, fake holy men. I got into two seperate arguements with these crooks in Pushkar. When you go to religious sites you may be approached by so called holy men who will demand exorbanent fee's for saying a prayer for you or your loved ones. Some can get quite rude and aggressive if you refuse. These people are usually con artists posing as "holy men.". I thought the purpose of becoming a sadhu or religious figure in Hinduism is to renounce worldly possessions not to rip off people for hundreds, sometimes thousands of rupees. These crooks should be banned from all temples, etc. but I believe they operate a criminal racket. It is sad because there are some genuine holy people but there are a lot of scammers out there.

These observations are taken from my experiences in North & Central India. I have not been to the south or far North parts of India where things may be different.

Thanks for reading.

Jeremy