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While it is not my intention to focus on anything but the wonderful things we saw, I would like to add the following observations: In practically every place we visited, I was hard pressed to find a trash can. The litter problem seemed worse in some of the rural areas, where cows and pigs munched their way through piles of plastic bags, bottles, and garbage along the side of the road. The obvious question is: Can some recycling effort make trash valuable so that there is some incentive to collect it? Turn trash into cash? Sanitation is another issue. Quite common in villages, and even in the inner urban areas, there is a ditch running along the sidewalk, brimming with water and trash. Into the ditch runs a trickle of liquid coming out of a pipe in a nearby wall or seeping up from under a building -- most likely household wash water. But I got splashed with some of this stuff and was near hysteria until I could change my pants. Also, it is not uncommon to see a man facing a wall or a tree with a trickle and a splash at his feet, and an early morning train ride may take you past a group of "squatters" along the side of the track. The details of daily life of the poor might make one squeamish, but go a little farther: You just have to look at it. Someone else is out there living it. Begging is a disturbing issue, too. Children who come up and point to their mouths or show you a scar, and then open their hands, are at first hard to ignore. After several weeks of brushing past hundreds of young beggars, one realizes that giving rupees just encourages begging. A kid who collects easy rupees from soft-hearted strangers won't be sitting in school. So, I find myself in the ultimate contradiction: Visiting a place that should deepen my sense of compassion, I have to train myself to hold back, brush past, not look, not give. The hawkers are a nuisance, but I did get some good deals in camel bone necklaces and other gift items. Just keep on walking, shake your head, say "No thank you", and they'll move on to pester the people behind you. There are some fantastic, and not-so-fantastic things to experience in
India, just like there are back home. It's a dazzling place, but
where there's light there's
bound to be a shadow.
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