Posted on 01/05/2014 6:11:07 PM PST by daniel1212
India is the dirtiest country I have ever been to. I have heard people say that Pakistan, which is to the west and Bangladesh, to the east, are worse, but that is probably beyond the limits of my imaginatio n.
In two months in India, I went from south to north, visiting some tourist towns that I had read about. I also went by train and bus to countless towns and open fields that weren’t so famous, and everywhere there were people had something in common — dirty, messy and stank. Interestingly, I also saw countless foreigners having a great time.
Tourists have been coming for years to the small town of Bodhgaya , the place where 2500 years ago Buddha achieved enlightenment, bringing their foreign money to the pockets of a few hotels and tourism operators, but still they live in abject poverty. The streets are lined with rubbish, wild animals squabble to find their breakfast in it. Look carefully and find wild pigs, dogs, mountain goats, and sometimes even cows, which are considered sacred, make an appearance. No wonder the locals don’t each much meat, these animals depend on trash to survive.. .
Puri is a tourist hot spot on the east coast, where heaven and hell come together. One side of town is the hotel area, with its picturesque beaches, the other side is a poor fishing village. The inhabitants’ straw huts are lonely islands in a sea of trash, and I got the feeling that it’s never taken away.
The most shocking thing: every villager would defecate on the beach. It wasn’t only villagers who would take a crap on the beach, out in the suburbs you’d get used to seeing people doing it on the side of the road, and the Indian men would do it out in the open, never sneaking off to a secluded spot in the undergrowth. Everywhere from small towns to large cities would have men showing the special characteristics of their culture; even in the major city of Kolkata [Culcutta], on the most upmarket of streets, were white collar workers carrying briefcases walking past crowds of people urinating against walls....
A holy ground covered with feces! Note: No toilet paper!
I am filthy, but I am brilliant. In the ancient city of Varanasi [Benares], on the banks of the Ganges, all the sewage created by people relieving themselves on the ground in corners, and the rubbish, everything flows into that sacred river, the same water where pilgrims come from all over, brushing their teeth, washing their faces, bodies, and swimming. However, the dirty Ganges and Varanasi are India’s most beautiful place, lots of foreigners love it, staying for months at a time. I lived there for a while, living like a local, swimming in the river like one of them. The ancient town’s intense artistic spirit and religious fervour made me forget material poverty. This important part of the Indian psyche is passed down even today: the spirit is greater than physical riches.
India is indeed “dirty”, “messy” and “smelly” but I have gotten more out of it than any other place I have been. If this wasn’t the case in my two months I wouldn’t have met so many expats who return often, or never leave. As the Taiwanese dancer Lin Huaimin said, whenever he is stuck for artistic inspiration, he goes back to India.
The famous morning bathing by the Ganges, washing as if the rotting corpse floating by was nothing!
A corpse in the midst of the morning bathing at the Ganges, what do you think?
Natural clothes washing area + sun drying clothes area + cow and sheep bathing pool + excrement flowing and mixing together.
Ganges River morning bathing, how can this water be used for brushing teeth?
Here comes the close-up!!!! Note the flies!!!!
Indians don’t use toilet paper when using the toilet, they use their hands. After defecating, you use your left hand finger to wipe the feces around your anus, and then use the water in the bucket to wash your hand. The custom is to use your left hand to wipe your butt, so when you go into a store to select food, you mustn’t use your left hand...
Don’t look if you won’t like it…you are responsible for yourself…
A person more frightening than the rotting corpses and old leper! Seems to be someone who carries dead bodies professionally.
Here, let’s let the JY people see India’s free medical care.
A public hospital’s surgery room.
Ganges River in the early morning, bustling because of the crowds…some to wipe themselves down, some to get water, some to bathe.
Yet no one complains more than Americans, and i am not talking about the complains against those whose liberal ethos works to turn this country into another socialist "paradise."
But to whom much is given, much is required, and eternity will see justice, and the extent of God's mercy and grace.
Support Gospel for Asia .
Ping. Warning, graphic images.
India is a dreadful, dreadful place. If I had to go to India, I wouldn’t go to the bathroom the entire trip.
Yes, it is filthy. It is also lively and full of cultural fascinations . If you can take a tour of India staying in 5 star hotels you will have the time of your life.
Oh, here is a readers comment:
Actually, this is exactly how America does it, using violence to beat the Indians [Native Americans] to death, pushing the Asian, African, and poor out into the country, running the poor white people into the surrounding outskirts of the cities. America’s police are even more terrible than China’s chengguan. If you’re within two meters of a police officer, you have to raise your hands, otherwise American police have the right to shoot you dead.
I think the Hellraiser movies had prettier sights, at least in comparison.
The reader is a dufus. Most people in poverty, at least here in the United States, aren’t drinking corpse water with their Aunt Susie floating by.
This poor person would like to express great gratitude for being pushed out into the country.
LOL
nothing will ever change in any of those countries and WHY people would stand behind any AMERICAN especially a POLITICIAN who says they can change it is beyond reason
it is complete stupidity
thank you george bush for taking us over the brink to crapdom
thank you barack obama for ramming the going down up our ...
ahhh...but wait...
it will all change after the next election
PRAY AMERICA
and keep that ammo dry
I’ve lived in India for three years now, and the author is sort of right and sort of wrong. Yes, living here is a bit like living in a very diffuse landfill. There’s a lot of litter. However, Puri isn’t as bad as he makes it sound, for one thing. Also, many Indians *do* use toilet paper, and unlike westerners many middle-class Indians actually bathe after going to the toilet. Only the very poor and uneducated don’t clean themselves. Also, the animals aren’t “wild” here. There’s a lot of “feral” dogs, and (at least where I am) many many cows, but pigs are actually pretty rare. The dogs do eat a lot of trash, but there’s a lot of plantlife around, so the cows usually eat that.
I still remember back some 40 years ago, the older secretary at our office who saved for years to be able to afford a trip to see, as she called it, “Kipling’s India.” She had a romantic vision of the country in her head but when she returned from her two week vacation there, all she could talk about was how filthy dirty the country was. She said that she had no idea it would be like that before her trip. She was utterly appalled at the conditions there.
But we have toothpaste.
Thanks for the objectivity. More from the site.
There are a small number of middle-aged men and women squatting on the steps brushing their teeth, none of them using toothbrushes, half of them using their fingers, the other half using twigs, swallowing the water after brushing, and then cupping and drinking down a few more gulps, which happens to be in the opposite direction of people in other countries brushing their teeth and then spitting the water out.
There’s a caste system in India. It’s like the class system here but much more rigid. These are pictures of the lowest caste. Some of the poorest of the poor. It’s horrid. But not uncommon in the world. If you stick to the upper caste areas it’s lovely. Just don’t cross into the slums...
Ok, I know the hype - what's the real skinny?
I’ve NEVER had the slightest desire to go to India. I now KNOW I never will.
And dogs aren’t feasting on dead folks floating down the river.
Well, I suppose there is Detroit.
The Ganges River pics are exceptions to what I've witnessed firsthand. The diseased alive and definite dead are there, but you'd have to go looking for them. Shat shore must be a very isolated area that I never had to negotiate walking down the beach. Accurate is that men urinate out in the open at what appear to be public pissing walls — which I determine to be adequate license for having survived transit through any traffic roundabout.
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