A month over here in Sindhudurg - it's not much. But it is enough to get a peek into how people live, what they think, how they act (around me, around others)... it's enough to realise that this is a different world to the one I inhabit back home, but that on the whole human ambitions don't seem to vary that much...
...but in all of this, I seem to have forgotten some basic questions. What do people I meet base their understanding of the world on? TV? Internet? Travel?
Well... yesterday I met a very articulate young man - 20 years old, just a few younger than me. He had a lot to say (as do most, round here) on 'Indian' culture, 'Western' culture - the good and the bad. I would say he was reasonably astute. Anyhow, where did all of this come from - what had he seen?
I asked him if he had ever met a foreigner before? He listed off around 3 or 4 groups of varying nationalities. I couldn't quite believe this - so rephrased the question... it turned out that these were the foreigners who had ever visited his taluka. I was the first person.
What about what he has seen? Has he seen the beautiful beach at Tarkali (20 kilometres away), or the royal palace at Sawantwadi (40 kilometres away). How about the cities of Pune, Mumbai (a few hundred rupees by train).
The answer is no, he has never been out of his district. His trips out of the village are limited to one particular beach at Malvan, that he has visited a few times. Remember - this isn't the poorest of the poor... not even poor at all, really... just a standard rural guy, with parents who work in government jobs.
Why am I so surprised?
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