Two weeks at home has been hectic and a blast (又…又 :) ). Meeting family and friends across town and the burbs (overall, a massive expanse of city) including a day long trip to Pune meant that this trip home was little rest and much play, but I hadn't expected otherwise. For example when the location of compromise to meet up with friends is Chembur you know you are in for a long day (Chembur is an hour long train journey from Victoria Terminus [I had called Victoria Terminus ‘VT’ originally and then realized that would probably confuse many of my New England friends]). One expectation that was satisfied, however, was the quality of all the home food which was thoroughly enjoyed over these last two weeks. I write this whilst distracted olfactorally (that really should be a word) by the kitchen. Unfortunately a minor oil spill off the coast of Bombay meant no seafood for me. And as far as any self-respecting Rele is concerned, that is a pretty big blow.
Anyway, on one of my journeys to the north of the city in a swanky new local bus (complete with reserved seats for the handicapped, women and aged as well as TV monitors to play popular Bollywood music videos) a physically-handicapped young man climbed on from the front of the crowded bus and politely asked another man seated in a handicapped zone to vacate the seat for him, describing that he could not remain standing for very long periods of time. The other chap (note: not handicapped in the least) quite simply refused and carried on with his own business. This little incident, however isolated it may have been, got me thinking. Here is a city that recently had made me very proud as grand physical evidence of the successes of Indian democracy. Development. Was there a cost? Was I too blinded in the folly of the desire for my country to ‘develop’. Where does compassion for the other fit into the equation?
We often portray a nation’s development as a race. Although I think that this sort of portrayal is flawed and harmful for reasons I could detail upon in a later blog post, I believe that the general endeavor to improve the standard of living of a peoples is definitely a journey down a particular road. But this road does have many crossings and do we look left and right before we traverse often enough? How far can our racehorse-with-blinders approach take us before we have left someone behind? How many more of these BP vs. the coastlines of the Gulf of Mexico and Vedanta Mining vs. the Dongria Kondh tribes of Orissa affairs can we permit?
I would never argue that development is blind to the sympathies of all the parties involved and is not in general good interest. But I wonder whether development can be deemed sustainable without a tangible element of compassion built into the very core of its purpose.
Early tomorrow morning I head off to Hangzhou, China for a semester and then on to Beijing during January. I decided to start writing a blog with the purpose of posing many more such questions and themes and hopefully answering a few while in a land with many interesting similarities and differences to my own home. I hope my time in China will provide me with a different perspective on questions related to development, environmentalism and lifestyle. I also intend to write about the food, the people, the cities and my experiences. This is my first blog post and if all goes well many more are to come.
