10 things you might not know about India
bbc.co.uk
10 things you might not know about India
bbc.co.uk
1. India != Hindi. It's just that most people speak Hindi not that everybody knows Hindi and it's not a national language, as many people would think. According to Indian constitution there's no national language, but there are 22 scheduled languages including Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi etc.
2. India != Bollywood. There are other film industries in India besides Bollywood. Checkout this wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_India
I spent 11 days in India last December, and was utterly enthralled, repulsed and fascinated in about equal parts. It's an eye-opening experience to see how the majority of the world lives, and Indian culture and architecture is wonderfully rich. I definitely plan to go back again, as I was only able to scratch the surface of a tiny bit of southern India in 11 days. I'd encourage anyone else considering it to go.
Shameless plug: Here's the blog post I wrote about my trip.
>> "... it’s a scanty collection of rare and rarified bubbles where wealth can temporarily repel the squalor, poverty and filth. Step outside these bubbles, as you must, and you find India."
I grew up in India in privileged conditions, well shielded by all the filth and dirt that exists everywhere. It's only once i started attending university that i realized the extent of filth in the streets and the dysfunction in public infrastructure. Most car owning/laptop wielding Indians i know never realize just how privileged and shielded their lives are...
"Yeah, grandpa everything was terrible when you were young". Well it was. What saved us was the REC, crop insurance and better roads. There's hope for India if the new wealth translates in some way to better infrastructure.