Snapshots of India

I've had a very hard time putting together blog thoughts during this trip to India. The absence of spare time short of sleeping hours has probably played a part. But I think it's something else as well. India has an immensity about it that is very hard to define. 

Just a few "snapshots"

- Contrary to popular misconception in the West, Hindi is not spoken throughout India. While Hindi and related languages are spoken across the vastness of North India (approximately 250 million speakers, plus many more who use it as a lingua franca). In the South especially, local languages predominate -- Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada are just a few, spoken by tens of millions. Official things are labeled in three languages. Many things in the city are signed in English and the local language, but there are many, many things written only in the local languages.

Elevator labeled in Tamil, Hindi, and (British) English

- Religion permeates everything in India. As you drive through the streets of a South Indian city, you are about as likely to see a  mosque in the Mughal style as you are to see a Hindu temple or a Christian church. Although Hindus compose the vast majority of Indians, the numbers of Muslims (160 million) is the second largest Muslim population after Indonesia. Christians may compose up to 7% of the population, including ancient communities of Syriac Christians that go back to nearly apostolic times. 

A Hindu temple in Chennai

- If Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state, were an independent nation, it would fight with Brazil for fifth most populous in the world (200 million people). The region commonly called North India is home to 900 million people or 12% of humanity. This is about equal to the population of sub-Saharan Africa, just shy of three times the population of the United States, and and about 150 million more than live in all of Europe. 

- The new highways leading the the Bangalore airport (one of India's best) are still under construction and reconstruction, so they involve some creative driving. The occasional herd of cows can wreak havoc on traffic. Stepping into the B'lore Airport, however, you feel like you've moved into a parallel consumerist paradise. Enormous banners above the concourse announce that "Dubai Shopping Festival," showing photos of Indians in hotel rooms with amazing views of the Dubai skyline sheerly exhausted by their shopping endeavors, surrounded by the horde. India is a world of contrasts. 

New construction in Bangalore

- Indian airlines, in my experience, are quite an efficient affair. With the exception of one flight on this trip, I don't think my front door-to-boarding gate experience has ever been more than 15 minutes. They also manage to serve a meal (and not a bad one) on most domestic flights. A burgeoning budget airline industry is also connecting the nation as never before. The new airport in Delhi is a site to behold with sculpture parks, soaring atria, and futuristic electronic billboards announcing the latest entertainment "news." 

Domestic arrivals area - Delhi Airport

- I know of nowhere where the movies hold a greater cultural sway than India, be it the Hindi industry based in Mumbai or the south Indian (especially Tamil) industry in the south. Movie posters -- an artistic genre all their own -- blanket Indian cities. There are a few film stars that are probably among the world's most recognizable faces. 

A few movie posters (far from the best) in Chennai

You see so many things that contradict one another. Ridiculous wealth. Grinding poverty. Soaring, sleek skyscrapers. Crumbling, fetid slums. Remarkable efficiency. Mind-numbing bureaucracy. Yet it's all the same. Every nation has its complexities, contrasts, and ironies. China is another colossus of complexity. But India, if nothing more than in the scope and scale of its smack-you-in-the-face diversity, is in a league of its own.