This video from Anaheim (California) is reminiscent of travelling around Dehli (from 39' in - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF7hWzqdPDk). The level/amount of poverty in this video is shocking.
This is a fairly honest unflinching piece.
A visit to India can induce severe "Cognitive Dissonance" in the unprepared. There is obscene display of super affluence right next to shocking Poverty. I see this every single day -
A beggar & her naked child begging at the window of an Audi R8.
The salesman in a high-end TV shop taking the bus to work.
The Marriot main-gate where super high priced cars drive out to be greeted by a forest of beggars.
Mumbai City simultaneously houses the most expensive residence in the world [1] and the largest slum in the world [2]
The leaders and the bureaucrats of the Govt. of India deserve to be shot in a public square for their sheer corruption and incompetence. They rob the country blind; feather their own nests and manage thru coercion to get elected (or posted to plum postings) over and over again.
Oh man I live in jeedimetla, Hyderabad,India ( lower) middle class neighborhood. We still have buses from the 90s, no paved roads, pigs, cows, musqitos, constant steet noise, no garbage pickup, twice a week water supply, nasty industrial air.
Yeah please look at India from San Francisco.
Peoples minds work on such a strong relative level.. You can be upper-middle-class in California and kill yourself from depression. You can live in a slum and work all day and be happy (Theoretically that is, if they weren't constantly reminded by a skyline, TV, commercials and rich tourists of their relative position. In fact, commercials are designed to lower your happiness, as they essentially try to show that life can be better.)
Yes you can live a depressed life in California and you can also live and work in a slum and be happy. But I don't quite agree with the point that constant reminders of a skyline, TV etc in anyways dampen their spirit or make them less happy, on the contrary I think it motivates them. The relative differences show these people what they can be or want to be. I know of slums in other Indian cities as well, not many of them can boast about "running an industry" or the number of television sets as compared to dharavi(the one in Mumbai). What is evident is that in the more developed and prosperous cities, the happiness quotient of people in slums is generally higher as compared to slums in other less-developed cities.
That being said, I am not suggesting that prosperous cities lead to better slums. In fact there isn't a larger difference between the rich and poor anywhere in the world than there is in Mumbai. Poverty needs to be tackled and there are a lot of NGO's working towards this. All I'm trying to say is that the relative difference these people see around them does not make them feel less happier, it's a reality they live with and aspire to reach.
I traveled around India for about 6 months. I was happy to give initially, but being taken advantage of over and over took a toll. Beggars tried to emotionally exploit my girlfriend, sending their young kids at her to literally grab at her pant legs and make the motion for food. She'd give them money. When we passed by an hour later the same kid would be at my girlfriend again for more. She ended up crying a couple times a month because we didn't have much money, certainly not enough to hand out.
We have bad conditions for sure in San Francisco and poverty elsewhere in the US that all Americans should be ashamed of. Frankly the state of poverty in America is unacceptable. But the poverty we have is nowhere near the scale and absolute horror of Mumbai slums. I've traveled extensively through South America and seen horrific conditions there but nothing was as shocking as Mumbai slums.
I find posts like yours are misguided and demonstrate total ignorance regarding human suffering.
Thanks for sharing that. I've had similar experiences.
I grew up in Seattle, went to school in Philly, and just spent a year traveling through 14 countries in Asia (incl 6mo in India). The poverty on the streets of my hometown when I returned was absolutely shocking. And I found the poverty in Philadelphia to seem so much more crushing than what I saw in far poorer areas, like Indian slums or Laotian villages (I'm really struggling to deconstruct exactly why I had this feeling).
Ideologically yes, but practically & subjectively it doesn't feel that way in large Indian cities (anecdotal, I visited India for 2 months years ago). Walking through the center of Delhi (and many other large Indian cities) you see the kind of poverty you never encounter first-hand in developed-world cities like those in Western Europe, North America, Japan, Singapore, etc.
It was definitely a shock for me at first & is not a pleasant way to live IMO.
When I lived in India I saw the following...the image will always stay with me and has really changed me. In Bangalore (Koramangala) where I was living was an area filled with very rich people (like western standards rich) who had massive houses, security guards, huge walls and literally right across the street was a garbage dump with people living in it. Was heartbreaking.
I spent three weeks in India last year teaching in a slum school, and this is the most candid and accurate description of the country I've read yet. Well done. I think some people are afraid to really be honest at the risk of being politically incorrect, and I appreciate the author's honesty.
I had the same reaction the OP did when I saw so many living side-by-side with the impoverished - especially children - and being so callused. But the reality is that poverty is everywhere in India, and because it's a way of live, people simply adjust.
But it doesn't make it any less sad. It's sad to see full-grown, gaunt men struggling to pedal their rickshaw in flip-flops over washboard roads for pennies. But it's devastating seeing small children who are really, truly famished.
We would buy food for hungry children whenever we could, and often they would stare at us blankly at first. They'd accept the food, but would have no reaction. I figured they simply didn't appreciate it or couldn't muster a reaction.
But then I started watching them after we left. And after they realized they weren't being had - and we really were giving them food with no strings attached - they were transformed. I looked back at one begging child to see him absolutely gleeful, grinning from ear to ear. Another child who I gave some candy and bit of money ran after our departing rickshaw - while holding his 1 year old sister - waving, smiling and dancing with joy. It almost most made me cry.
But I didn't cry, not until the night before we left. After three weeks in India, I was ready to to leave. But at the same time, I felt almost guilty that I was able to return to such a country of prosperity and wealth while the children I'd taught would simply stay behind. And while my wife and I had worked our ass off for 2 weeks to improve the school, the curriculum and the educational prospects for the kids, ultimately our effort wasn't going to move the needle, and few if any would ever leave the slums. They had almost no shot at making a life for themselves. With all these emotions stirring in my mind, my wife held me as I cried.
If you're living in the U.S. or any Western country, you are incredibly blessed / lucky. Don't take it for granted. If you haven't been to India, it's a trip that will forever change your perspective. Before leaving for India, I simply lived in a home. But I returned with the knowledge that I live in a luxurious castle.
Comparing downtown Delhi with downtown Shanghai is no comparison. I've lived an traveled in the Chinese countryside and that poverty is not even in the same ballpark as India.
This article is too close to home. I am in Chennai now (South India) and I see the sights mentioned in the article every day. Heck!, I got people sleeping on the streets right outside my parent's house doorstep. In the last 10 years or so, with new airports, 4 lane highways, new shopping malls and numerous kinds of cars, all these has made ZERO impact on poverty!.
While I get what you mean, to somebody who spent whole life in pretty egalitarian society it still sounds pretty horrible. You get much better working society overall when this kind of shit isn't there. If whole society prospers, everybody gets the benefits in many ways.
I've spent 6 months backpacking all over india in 2008 and 2010, and what I saw there broke my heart many times. The frequent kindness of the poorest folks on top of their misfortunes was very inspiring though
While I was in SF this wealth disparity feeling was present, but it was an order of magnitude less than what I saw in Mumbai. There you have 30+ story building acting as the personal residence for a multi bilionare (complete with 2 helipads) and across the street a family of 3 living on a "tent", cooking food on a makeshift fire made from trash and a baby drinking milk out of a transparent plastic bag - all of this under the nauseating smell of human feces. This wasnt a one off thing, its all over the place.
reply