I feel ashamed, and a bit ticked off, that I have not traveled as I dreamed I would in this confusing, maddening, amazing country. I will use my scapegoat excuse...my kids. They are 5 and 8. They will not eat Indian food, they need a bathroom every two hours, and I am just not keen on listening to the incessant "When are we going home? I'm tired!!!" I have resigned myself to the fact that we are NOT going to travel here. No Taj Mahal. No Goa. No distant temples. Damn! I wanted to see so many things with them! I am already planning, in my head, a return trip when the youngest turns 15 and will eat more than pasta, so we can see a few places. In some ways I feel I am missing out. In other ways...well...
I live in a wealthy gated community here in Bangalore. This is by no means the *real* India. Here they have sewer pipes, as opposed to slabs of granite covering stinking fetid trash strewn open water ditches, also known as "sidewalks" here in Bangalore. There is no trash in this community. When I take my daughter to school, however, trash abounds. Her building is next to a "recycling center" in Bangalore. This means there are piles of plastic bags, plastic bottles, rubber hoses, cd's etc. Piles 20-30 feet high next door to my daughter's school. I feel badly dropping her off every morning, but not because of the trash. Trash is ever present here. It is in the water, it is burned and it is in the air, it is strewn on the street for stray dogs and cows to pick through. It is in every empty lot left in the city. There does not seem to be any real strategy to getting rid of trash other than to throw it on the first bare patch of grass you see, or burn it. As I said earlier, the trash is not what makes me feel badly when I drop my daughter off at school each day, it is the family that lives in the "recycling center" that grips my heart. 2 babies, scarcely clothed, toddle about. The house is scrap metal held together I don't know how. Trash is piled up on all sides of the place, even on the roof. There are small pinprick holes in the side to let in some light. This is actually not as bad as it gets in India. Their house is made of metal, and they have a government sanctioned job paying out rupees to people who bring in recyclable material. Down the road a piece, others are not so lucky. They live in tarps, bound together to make tents. I can't count all the tents in the community; there are just too many.
When I ask other families about traveling in India, I get mixed reviews. Some love it. Others say don't bother; the pollution is worse in other cities, so why spend the money on travel to "get away"? To see a temple? Temples are on every corner here. To see the "real India"? I walk out my gates and see that every day. So no travel for me & mine.
Instead I have started volunteering at a government school, teaching English. The kids sit on the floor. They have 1 pencil each, and ready smiles. I wear a saree once a week. I love dressing up! I point things out to my kids when I can; the stray dogs, the trash, the smiling kids. I want them to remember the "real India", and hopefully they won't resent me later on for not dragging them to every historic sight in the land! I still wish we could see a couple places here before we leave in 4 months, but unless the kids learn to like chiles and learn to hold it on long trips, it's just not going to happen!
I live in a wealthy gated community here in Bangalore. This is by no means the *real* India. Here they have sewer pipes, as opposed to slabs of granite covering stinking fetid trash strewn open water ditches, also known as "sidewalks" here in Bangalore. There is no trash in this community. When I take my daughter to school, however, trash abounds. Her building is next to a "recycling center" in Bangalore. This means there are piles of plastic bags, plastic bottles, rubber hoses, cd's etc. Piles 20-30 feet high next door to my daughter's school. I feel badly dropping her off every morning, but not because of the trash. Trash is ever present here. It is in the water, it is burned and it is in the air, it is strewn on the street for stray dogs and cows to pick through. It is in every empty lot left in the city. There does not seem to be any real strategy to getting rid of trash other than to throw it on the first bare patch of grass you see, or burn it. As I said earlier, the trash is not what makes me feel badly when I drop my daughter off at school each day, it is the family that lives in the "recycling center" that grips my heart. 2 babies, scarcely clothed, toddle about. The house is scrap metal held together I don't know how. Trash is piled up on all sides of the place, even on the roof. There are small pinprick holes in the side to let in some light. This is actually not as bad as it gets in India. Their house is made of metal, and they have a government sanctioned job paying out rupees to people who bring in recyclable material. Down the road a piece, others are not so lucky. They live in tarps, bound together to make tents. I can't count all the tents in the community; there are just too many.
When I ask other families about traveling in India, I get mixed reviews. Some love it. Others say don't bother; the pollution is worse in other cities, so why spend the money on travel to "get away"? To see a temple? Temples are on every corner here. To see the "real India"? I walk out my gates and see that every day. So no travel for me & mine.
Instead I have started volunteering at a government school, teaching English. The kids sit on the floor. They have 1 pencil each, and ready smiles. I wear a saree once a week. I love dressing up! I point things out to my kids when I can; the stray dogs, the trash, the smiling kids. I want them to remember the "real India", and hopefully they won't resent me later on for not dragging them to every historic sight in the land! I still wish we could see a couple places here before we leave in 4 months, but unless the kids learn to like chiles and learn to hold it on long trips, it's just not going to happen!
