Middle Ages plus Technology

There are many things that can be said about India as generalizations. They are all expressly true and false. India is just too enormous to categorize in one statement.

THAT BEING SAID...

India is like the middle ages plus technology. Everyone knows about the technology sector of India. The sheer magnitude of corporations and offices opening just based on computers and medical technologies is simply staggering. However, even with all these things, standards here are remarkably similar to certain standards in Europe in the Middle Ages. Let me give some examples (partly courtesy of my sister)

First, the fashion here hasn't changed in quite a long time. I don't know when the sarree and its related fashions were invented and implemented, but they are still around. Fashion in Europe was able to develop because civilizations were advancing. Perhaps it's possible that Indian clothing is perfect for India and needs no improvement. But I'd debate that based on the lack of footwear. Many people (even those wearing nice clothing) wear no shoes or very thin shoes which do terrible things to your feet. Not sure about that one.

Second, on the "heels" of the no shoes comment, the sewage system here is still the system of rivers and the ocean. Moreover, in Chennai specifically a lot of that sewage runs right into the street. Many people stop and urinate wherever they want/need. I don't have so much of a problem with that, except that there is enough sewage in the streets to begin with. In addition to the sewage in the streets, there is barely any trash removal service. I saw trash removal happening in Bangalore, but here in Chennai, I have only seen a couple trucks in my nearly four months here. There is, however, an enormous, an unfathomable amount of trash strewn along all of Chennai's lovely streets.

Piggy backing on those ideas... There is a lot of filth. Despite all this, people still eat with their hands. Now, I don't object to this in principal. Lebanese people eat with their hands sometimes too, but there are several stark differences. In India soap is NOT ubiquitous. Not only is there a dearth of soap, but also a lack of handtowels. So when people wash their hands with often not properly treated water (still swimming with sewage bacteria) without soap they still lack to wipe off the majority of the dirt that was there to begin with... Another issue which revolves right in the realm is a similar lack of toilet paper. There is a necessity in that case to eating with the right hand only and leaving the left hand for more sinister activities. But come on people! Toilet Paper is not a big technological invention.

So, let's review so far: Not much wearing of shoes, or proper ones. Lack of sewage and trash removal, lack of toilet paper, soap, hand towels and napkins, and lack of utensils for eating... Not shaping up to be a healthy society.

Well, speaking of health care, while the debate rages on in the United States about how to fix our health care system, there is no social welfare or universal health care system here. Things don't cost much (in general) but even then not everyone can afford medical care.

Finally, there is a small family of problems here concerning literacy and education. According to one study, India had 48% literacy in the year 2000. Ok, that was 10 years ago, but it can't have shot up to 100% yet. Furthermore, despite the fact that the first MODERN literary work on Tamil grammar was written in the 1300s, there still is no universally accepted way to spell certain words. In fact, coming back on the train a few days ago, we pulled into a station named Basin Bridge Junction. The Tamil signs literally said "Basin Bridge Junction" but on either side of the station were two huge signs with different spellings. I can understand not being able to transliterate certain things from other languages, but at a major train station, perhaps we should at least know how to write its name.

Throw in a caste system which still has a strong hold in this part of the world and things are beginning to look medieval in this part of the world, except with loads of technology.