Travels and Incredibly X India
It is hard NOT to be an observer when you travel and when you observe, it is hard NOT to be a writer (not a photographer: privacy issues; not a painter: you need tools).
- There is an ad for Oracle Exadata which is basically a picture of a metal box. This is the best ad one can create?
- I watched the movie And Who Taught You To Drive? on the plane, a movie about three expats (german, american and korean) trying to get a drivers license in foreign countries (india, japan and germany, resp). It is an interesting exercise in teaching and other idiosyncracies of cultures, who knew getting a drivers license was so hard, and the strange part is who succeeds (no spoilers).
- There is a tourism ad campaign for India called, Incredible India. There might even be an exclamation point somewhere. I think there are missing adjectives. Incredibly colorful/indelible/insane/.. India. I would like to see Incredibly Clean India. There is an outstanding question. In the 5k+ yrs of Indian civilization, when did the local population manage to keep public spaces clean?
posted by metoo at 10:53 PM
5 Comments:
re public spaces clean: have you been to the mountainous parts of the far northeast or himachal? believe those are significantly better than average. --amit c
AC: you are right. Also, work/corporate places nationwide are probably clean too.
-- Metoo
You mean the set of clean public spaces has measure zero :).
Chandra
It is well known that the Harappan cities were the epitomes of public cleanliness, with some of the best sewer systems ever designed. When it went downhill from there, we don't know!
"Incredibly clean India" is never going to happen without a radical, massive culture change, akin to a mass hypnosis. We Indians don't seem to have a sense of pride and belonging when it comes to public spaces (our own homes are a different matter!) The same Indian who throws trash in the garbage can in a foreign land will litter away when back home.
We can introduce fines for littering public places, but the police constable in charge of fining you will probably let you go scot free by accepting a bribe that is a fraction of the fine you'll face.
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