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Images of India

One of the great ironies of the third world is the abhorrent quality of the physical infrastructure as contrasted with the modern wireless cellphone services. In fact, their mobile phone carriers are even more advanced than ours...and cheaper. I have unlimited high-speed access (for you geeks, its EDGE at 384k!) on my Treo for only $2.50 a month, which is about the cost of an hour's rental for an outdated PC in an internet cafe with 10 people sharing a 56k dial-up connection.

So I find myself relying on the Treo more and more--even using it as my 'real' camera quite a bit. The grittiness of the camera matches well with that of India itself. Take a look...

India is Burning Man

Now for those of you who have never been to Burning Man, never seen Black Rock City, never traveled to India, this post will have little meaning. But for those of you with whom we have shared a spot of playa in the past, we are telling you: India is Burning Man. Here's why:

1. Dust. Dirt. Everywhere. Under your fingernails. Coating your contact lenses. Coloring your Kleenex black. Sound familiar?

2. Every vehicle is an art car. From three wheeled trucks to city buses to cycle rickshaws. Brightly painted eyes, Shivas, and slogans such as 'India is Great' and 'Good luck' adorn the sides, fronts and backs of them all. It's magnificent.

3. No infrastructure. The roads are dirt. Generators power everything. Machinery looks like turn-of-the-century creations of belts and pulleys and flywheels. Oh, and you have to rely on bottled water. For everything.

4. A gift economy...almost. When your lunch costs $0.44, it's as good as free.

5. Sensory overload. Sights. Sounds. Smells. Scenes. Aaaahhhhh!

6. Burners, burners everywhere! Oh yeah, only here they call them sadhus - holy men swathed in robes, smoking their spliffs with big, happy grins on their faces.

And a few ways in which India is NOT like Burning Man:

1. People here are really poor, not just pretending to be poor. The poverty is heart-wrenching. We spent yesterday touring the deepest slums of Calcutta with a non-profit that provides schools, medical care and homes to street kids. And we ended up 'adopting' (sponsoring) a 12 year-old girl named Rama who was rescued just one week ago, about to be sold into sex slavery. $200/year - that's the cost of your Burning Man ticket, folks - will feed, clothe + educate her for a year.

2. Poop vs. Moop. There's no such thing as a 'Leave no trace' policy here.The streets and the rivers - even the holy river Ganges in Varanasi, the holiest of cities - are your garbage can. And your toilet. And your bathtub. Ick.