"41.6% of the Indian population earns less than $1.25/day in Purchase Power Parity (PPP) terms."
- Bangalore Times, Saturday June 11, 2011.
Was In: Bangalore, India
When: Saturday, June 4, 2011.
The Indian taxi drivers always ask "Are you going for shopping madam?" I guess this is a reality of American women is that when in India, they prefer the nearest multi-story malls to go shopping. Instead for me, I headed to the Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens - a 92 acre park in the middle of Bangalore. An Indian version of Central Park.
Lal Bagh is delightful - smack in the middle of the park, there is a white temple with blue cow figurines up on a rocky slope. And its mango season here (what is it with all the mangos lately), so there are about 30 different vendors right next to the temple, selling the fruit by the kilo for lunch.
I got to see a crazy sudden rain storm in Lal Bagh, where everyone hid under funky canopy trees - the branches are so fat that they alone, give pretty good shelter. The young kids take advantage of the rain to run around and get dirty. When it is all over, everyone is universally thrilled by the big fat rainbow that appears on the horizon.
Now the same thing happened at Lal Bagh that happens everywhere else in India. People want pictures. It is a little odd. First, they are all shy and wave. Then they say hello. Then they want me to take pictures of them. They REALLY want me to take pictures of them, but with my camera. Then they want pictures of me. Then with their children. And from there it escalates, because in India people tend to congregate when they think something may be interesting. The first families take my picture because I just look interesting--pale, blond, and tall.
And then the second wave mistakenly thinks that the first group of folks were taking pictures of me because I am a celebrity, and so then they want to get into the action. But it is all in good fun - because the India kids are consistently photogenic with these bright eyes and serious smiles. And then the women with their brightly colored weekend saris.
The part that I have a hard time with is the beggars when they show up. When you see the beggars, you kind of have to make your eyes go blurry, like watching a violent scene in a movie. Kids with broken bones that healed at wrong angles, a blind man with really messed-up eyes. It is heart-breaking, but it is a perfectly calibrated system. The beggars have handlers that get all the pan-handled money. It wasn't too bad in Lal Bagh that Saturday - only a couple that followed me around with their beggar zombie walk.
But this is the part that really sticks with me such that I'm writing about it two weeks later -- is that these pan-handlers at best, make the norm in terms of income in India ($1.25/day). And while the woman and her blind companion are asking me for 2 rupees (approx. equal to 5 cents), I happen to be carrying in my bag on that day: an ipad2, ipod, Blackberry, and mini-Nikon camera, and 4 different currencies equal to USD200 (yes, it was a big bag and to would-be muggers, not a normal amount of stuff for me to carry). The value of the crap in my purse is easily more than what these guys will earn in 3 years. There is a really big gulf between the have and have-nots here.
But even so as you will see from a few of the photos, many Indians living with way less creature comforts than what we have in the US, still appear happy, healthy, and fulfilled.
Photos from Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens
