Where the streets have no names
Trip Start
Apr 22, 2008
1
10
26
Trip End
Sep 01, 2008
Mumbai,
India
Monday, June 2, 2008
The press is always rife with comparisons of China and India as the two emerging economic super powers. After visiting China and arriving in Mumbai, the centre of India's financial engine, i was puzzled by any analysis that would put India in the same category as China. Landing in China one sees es bastions of economic progress: freeways, high speed trains, towering sky scrapers and streets flanked by boutiques that rival anything found in Paris. Mumbai saw a journey by antique taxi or rickshaw through endless city traffic past the largest slum in Asia, through re-bar and cement structures and un-swimable polluted beaches. I arrived at Don's apartment and was questioning whether spending time in this country would prove to be a good idea.
An afternoon of beers and catching up followed by drinks around the glam side of the city got my head on a bit more straight, but I was still struggling with how such an ugly and dirty city was creating so much wealth. In the ensuing days exploring it on foot and driving down the coast Ganapatipule (a seaside village just north of Goa) it began to make more sense and I started to fall in love with India.
I got to asking Don a lot of questions about Mumbai and the general development of the country. There are some m ajor differe nces bureaucratically between India and China. India has a very active legal system and any major development projects, including roads, bridges and similar infrastructure, often end up in the court system. The court system is notoriously slow and it is not rare for dec isions to take up to 20 years. With all the problems of the American legal system, at least it doesn't take 20 years! India is also a representative democracy whereas the general rule in China is "what Beijing wants, Beijing gets". Furthermore, it is nearly impossible to demolish a building, even if it is a heinous 1970s cement monstrosity. Finally, the national network of roads is of such poor quality that traveling 350km (210 miles) on one of the "good" roads took us 10 hours. You may be asking yourself, "how could these be good things?" In a democracy with legal hurdles and poor infrastructure "development" can only happen at a painstakingly slow pace. These hindrances have resulted in India lagging behind China in many (all?) economic indicators. I grew to appreciate that the obstacles and chaos are a good thing. India never had a cultural revolution to destroy the3 spirit, faith and culture of its diverse people. It is a mish-mash of religions, socio-economic classes and languages. Many of the holiest sites for two of the worlds oldest religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, are within its borders. Temples and monasteries can physically be protected by the state, but the culture and vibrance of the people worshiping in those places can not. China's breakneck development where towns are uprooted and relocated so that superhighways can be erected have destroyed village life and ushered in a period of urban sprawl that favours capitalism and globalization over agrarian tradition. India's chaos and slowness, whether by conscious choice or divine providence, is ensuring that economic development is not occurring at the cost of a cultural holocaust.
This is probably better described anecdotally (and will come across as a little less preachy than what I wrote above). On our drive down the coast the first storm clouds of the past 8 months gathered and broke, marking the end of the drought and the arrival of the monsoon. In the communities we passed through, so dependent on the annual return of the weather system that drenches the parched countryside and allows the land to produce sufficient crops to feed the worlds second largest population, people took to the streets. Young and old smiled, children jumped in puddles and danced, and everyone celebrated the breaking of the monsoon. Is it really progress to replace this culture with Monsanto grain, large combines and big agrobusiness?
The final anecdote I will leave you with is from my return to Mumbai. The monsoon dumped 160 mm of water in 24 hours. This deluge flooded block after block of the city with drains unable to cope with the return of the rain. Cars were broken down all over the streets, water was above the knee on certain blocks and the entire scene looked like something that would cripple an American city. The city would shut down and the national guard would be called in. But what happened in Bombay? Where was the guard? Kids played and swam in the flood. Motorists plodded along until they broke down, then got out of the car and continued along their way by pushing their vehicle. Pedestrians hiked up their saris and continued their commute. I even saw a woman in a burqua holding hands with another dressed in western attire laughing full belly laughs at the absurdity of their attempt to cross the newly formed rivers.
What came through in India was a huge surprise. I did not expect it to be as different as it is from every country that I've ever visited. Traveling there can be frustrating because it is so chaotic and inefficient. Nothing at first glance appears to work at all. After a bit of time and a requirement to check your western notions (and timetables!) at the door one thing emerged: although it may seem like nothing is working and the system is broken, nothing is actually broken at all Everything works and progresses, but it does so in the way that India, not the west, wants it to. When you can swallow that paradigm shift, the country has some unbelievable experiences to offer. I am now dying to come back.
