Reading in Public

One of the biggest differences you will notice between train/bus journeys in India vs. America is that in India no one, even on long journeys, seems to be reading. I have never been on a train in India where I’ve seen more than and elderly man or two reading a newspaper, nor have I seen a book (in any language) other than the several I tend to bring along with me (I have a bit of an OCD-type thing about always having one or two books with me). I have a bit of difficulty understanding why this is as India is a pillar (along with Britain and America) of the English-speaking literary world. The biggest names have made it into the American literary conversation- Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, Vikram Seth, Arundhati Roy, Anita and Kiran Desai (Mother-Daughter), Aravind Adiga, etc. etc. -and there is no reason to believe that Indian fiction will slow down anytime soon. Where then are the great readers who turn into these great writers? Having studied for a semester at an Indian university I know that things are different on campus as opposed to being out in public. Reading in public on university campuses, or at least the one I studied at, seems to be commonplace. Is reading a more private thing in India than it is in America? I’m inclined to believe so, but perhaps it is still best to eliminate a few other possibilities using deductive reasoning:

It can’t be because books are too expensive. Not only are new books often heavily subsidized (I buy paperbacks that cost 14-16 dollars in America for the equivalent of five dollars here at bookstores), but illicit copying of books and selling them is a very common practice. Used bookstalls can be found in major cities everywhere in India, often selling for less than two dollars. Two-Five dollars is not outside the price range of the Indian middle class.

It can’t be for lack of interest. There is, sadly, little interest in American literature. However, there is plenty of interest in Indian and British literature. I’m convinced that, having been to dozens of bookstores throughout India, every Indian who can read English has read at least one of British humorist P.G. Wodehouse’s works. Even if there is very little foreign literature in a bookstore there will always be a shelf of Wodehouse’s novels. The English classes that I took at the University of Hyderabad were evidence, if anecdotal, of a vibrant culture of English literary scholarship.

It can’t be due to illiteracy. Illiteracy is still a larger issue in India than it is in the west. However, people who can afford to travel in the more expensive A/C classes of Indian trains will (generally) not be among the illiterate.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that reading is just a more private affair in India than it is in America. Transportation in India seems to be much more of a social event than it is in America. You will never experience the self-enforced silences on trains and buses here that are common in the States. As far as people here are concerned there is no such thing as a “silent” or “vibrate” mode on trains. People talk, and they talk a lot. You will often find yourself (unwillingly, but you get used to it) watching an Indian movie on some neighbor’s laptop because sharing headphones is also not a concept here. India is not a place that is not conducive to keeping to yourself in public and I think that, unlike me, Indians don’t try to fight this reality. 

Uttar Pradesh

The Urdu program that I am taking part in now through AIIS (American Institute of Indian Studies) is located in Lucknow, capital of the state of Uttar Pradesh.  In terms of population Uttar Pradesh is home to around 200 million people, which is nearly two-thirds that of the United States.  This would be enough to make it the world’s 5th most populous country. Even more incredibly, these 200 million people live in a state whose size is comparable to the state of Michigan (about 97,000 sq miles). Can you imagine two-thirds of the population of the United States living in Michigan? The images that come to mind are of massive overcrowding and chaos, but that is surprisingly not the case. Uttar Pradesh is still a largely rural and agricultural state and, if you ever take the train through the state (which you might if you go from New Delhi to Kolkata/Calcutta), you will notice how much empty space there seems to be. Of course it isn’t empty, most of it is used for farmland, but not at all what you would expect given the sheer number of people who share so little space. While the New Delhi Metro-area spills over into Uttar Pradesh, more specifically into the metro-connected city of Noida, there are no megacities in the state. The two largest cities, Kanpur and Lucknow, are home to just under three million people each.  I ask myself every day: how is this possible? Where is everybody? Uttar Pradesh has shattered the many of the assumptions I had held about space and population density.

Unfortunately with the awe-inspiring there is also the bad. There is no way around it: Uttar Pradesh is grossly underdeveloped considering the advantages it has. There are plenty of statistics that show Uttar Pradesh lagging in growth, but it is also a feeling that one gets after having spent time in places like Hyderabad and New Delhi. There are malls in a city like Lucknow similar to those in other major metros, but I have come to miss supermarkets like Hypercity in Hyderabad that made my life so much less difficult. The supermarkets here (save for one that I finally found in Gomti Nagar) are inefficient to say the least, and the picture posted below sum up nicely the problems I face in trying to shop in places that accept credit cards (I have an atm card, but it charges 5 dollars per withdrawal. Cash economies are not fun if you aren’t prepared for them.). The political parties of Uttar Pradesh have made it clear that they will resist the opening up of state markets to outside competition, and I fear that Uttar Pradesh may end up left behind even further.

(The motto of the closest supermarket from my apartment could very well be "Plenty of What You Don't Want, Nothing You Do!") Imagine my face after, having searched in vain for various essentials like deodorant, eggs, peanut butter, and Red Bull (ok, it isn't an essential, but they did stock it for the first month or so I was there until they just decided not to), stumbling upon this actual mountain of choco pies. 

It would be silly to base a feeling on supermarkets alone, so it is worth mentioning a few important facts about UP:

-The Taj Mahal, India’s most famous tourist attraction by far, is located here.

-Uttar Pradesh borders, and is directly connected to via a state-of-the-art metro rail system, New Delhi, India’s capital and second wealthiest (by GDP) city after Bombay.

-Uttar Pradesh is a state with both agricultural and manufacturing advantages due to it’s centralized location in relation to major urban centers like New Delhi and Kolkata/Calcutta (meaning that goods can, potentially, reach markets quicker and less expensively than more remote states)

-Uttar Pradesh contains the home constituencies of the Gandhis (Sonia, party president and widow of former PM Rajiv Gandhi and Rahul, her son), India’s ruling Indian National Congress (Congress for short)’s leaders. Lucknow is also the constituency of former Prime Minister (until 2004) AB Vajpayee.

-Uttar Pradesh is full of history and played a huge role in the 1857 mutiny against British Rule. Palaces and former colonial outposts dot the landscape-there are great opportunities to expand UP's already large tourist inflow (thanks to the Taj)

You would think that these facts would mean that Uttar Pradesh has all of the potential advantages needed to be one of, if not the most, dynamic state in all of India. Instead, UP remains bogged down by successive corrupt regimes. Look no further than Lucknow’s many statues of Mayawati, former Chief Minister and head of the Bahujan Samaj Party, to see what I mean. These statues, built millions in public money, are indicative of a culture of corruption and a general apathy towards both within the state and among the national ruling Congress-led alliance, which depends upon both major UP parties for support (that isn't just a knock on Congress, the BJP will find it difficult to form a ruling coalition without the support of at least one of the two. Unfortunately, sometimes this support is, by implicit understanding, in exchange for restraining India's investigative bodies.). The rival Samajwadi (Socialist) Party is, by reputation, little better. Neither has been able to deliver good, effective governance during their time in power. Instead, too much time is spent registering cases against rival party members while clearing allies who were accused during their time out of power. It is, to say the least, a mess.

My hope is that eventually the people of Uttar Pradesh will get politicians that, at the very least, do not steal from them.  That shouldn’t be too much to hope for, even if it sometimes feels like it here.

(You really could write a book on the state of UP, but for the sake of length I've limited it to a few examples that I believe are relevant when it comes to understanding why the state doesn't quite seem to be living up to its potential)

When It Rains It Floods

Shortly after our arrival in Lucknow in September 2012 heavy late monsoon rains hit and our street, Wazir Hassan Road, was flooded for several days. Therefore when we heard about a rare February rainstorm headed our way (which ended up being the heaviest rains in Delhi in 71 years) we knew that we could probably expect flooding to follow. Sure enough when I woke up on Tuesday morning Wazir Hassan Road was completely under water.  I wasn’t having it: instead of going to class I went straight back to bed. One might be tempted to say, “oh that’s nothing, you can just wade through that!” Indeed many people do (mostly because they have no other choice). People wade through it (seemingly) without the thoughts of open sewers and piles of garbage that keep me inside during storms like the one we were faced with this past week.  In my time in India I’ve adopted a “just go with it” attitude about many things, but I’m still working on it other areas. See for yourself:

Intro From Lucknow

Hello from Lucknow!

I've decided to resurrect my blog, which ended after three posts back in December 2010. The difference this time is that I've decided to expand the focus of my blog to include more of my interests. My original blog was meant to be a travelogue (side note: -nama, is a suffix often used in Persian and Urdu to denote travelogues E.g. Baburnama, a very famous Persian-language travelogue) chronicling my time studying abroad in Hyderabad, India during the Spring 2011 semester. The problem with studying abroad in a vast country like India is that, unless you happen to have some money, you generally cannot afford to spend much money on trips that are under time constraints due to class schedules. The result is that my time abroad had very few of those adventures from place to place that make travelogues so engaging. I didn't get to make it Delhi or Bombay, nor did I get a chance to see the Taj Mahal (a 22 hour train journey from Hyderabad in the south) during that trip. That isn't to say that I didn't have great experiences in Hyderabad, but it was limited in many ways.
Another problem with writing travelogues is very simple: eventually you have to come home. It is too easy to stop doing a blog once there are no longer India adventures to report. It is for this reason that I chose to expand the focus of my blog. This blog will be about the things I love: India/South Asia, Literature, and Otters (With an emphasis on the first two but seriously, have you seen otters? They're adorable.). If I happen to pick up any additional passions along the way those will make their way into my blog as well. I think that this is how it should be-no reason to set limits when it comes to writing.

A little bit about me:
I'm 23 years old.
I have a BA in English from Boston University (Class of 2012)
I am currently studying Urdu through the American Institute of Indian Studies (run by the University of Chicago)
I've always been prose oriented when it comes to literature, in both English and Urdu. My library is full of novels and collections of essays, with a very small poetry contingent.
I love animals, and I love being around so many here in India.

More to follow!