India: Images 84

Buddhist rock paintings.

More Buddhist rock paintings.

I don't know what the deal is with these horses, but whenever they returned from giving someone a ride, there were a little too excited.

I dare you to drive around this corner fast and hit me. I own this place.

On the way to Chamba, waiting for a flat tire to be changed.

India: Images 83

On the way back to Srinagar, there was a landslide. We had to wait quite a while for a backhoe to clear the roadway.

On the way back to Jammu. This was the place where I had first met Shabir's brother. This place is known for their cricket bats. And I don't remember its name.

Just across the border in Punjab, military tanks being transported, while we wait for a flat tire to be changed.

My first night in Dalhousie was enlivened by forest fires. The corner of the building, at the left of the photo, was my bathroom. It was a little funny to see them fighting a forest fire with a little pink hose.

Fire coming from another direction. They were up until 5am. I went to bed at 1am. I wasn't worried.

Millionaire Beggar

When I first came to India, my hosts, Dilip & Krishna, advised me to never give to beggars. Beggars, they said, made lots of money, were part of an organized racket, complete with doctors who specialized in maiming, so they could fetch more money.

Should I believe this? Should I just ignore the beggars? Well, that's a difficult thing to do. There are beggars everywhere in India. In every tourist area, at every temple, at every bus or train station, outside every restaurant, and at every ATM, you will find outstretched arms, maimed limbs waving at you, little old ladies pleading for chapati (a type of bread), women with babies, children, or the family, from some far away city, in need of a few thousand rupees to get home.

You may, to ease your conscience, set aside a small sum of money to give everyday. But this does not make you feel any better for two reasons. First, you still have to ignore most of the beggars you see each day, and second, the ones you do give to, look at the money and at you with an expression that says “What's this? Is this all? I can't buy anything with this.”

So I decided, I'm not giving anything. But then I meet a different kind of beggar. “Hi! My friend, where from?” “USA” “Ah! USA, capital, Washington DC.” “Yes, that's correct.” “President Obama – great man, isn't he?” “Yes, indeed.” “Can you buy me dinner. I'm hungry.” “What?” Once they get you talking, it is difficult to shake them. Some ask for money to buy food, but they just hang around tourist areas and beg in this way.

When I was in Malaysia, I met another traveler, who said he had lost his soul in India. He was referring to the callousness he had to develop to ignore begging. I now know what he meant. But then today, while eating in a restaurant, I was flipping thru the newspaper and came across an article about a millionaire beggar. I felt much better after reading it.

This is not the same article. It is from a different news paper, but about the same beggar. Beggar nets Rs 13 lakh in a 30-year "career", from the Hindustan Times.

Abdul Ghali, the 70-year-old ailing beggar who usually wore dirty clothes, has Rs 13 lakh worth deposits besides Rs 80,000 in cash.
Hailing from Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu, Ghali's riches came to light when some locals in Kozhikode ventured to examine his dirty baggage following some suspicion and later handed him over to police early this week.
Following media reports, his son, a software engineer in Chennai, got in touch with the authorities in Kerala and Ghali was handed over to his relatives yesterday, police said.

If my Indian math is correct, 1 lakh is 100,000. So, Rs 13 lakh would be Rs 1,300,000 or about $26,000 USD. Not bad for a beggar. I left the restaurant and saw a man sitting on the side of the street. His legs were cut off below the knees. He was waving the stump at people passing by. I pretended not to see him.

One Last Word and I let it go...

If you thought I was being bit harsh when I said the people of Kashmir "are very willing to believe in any report about police violence against the people", here is an example that happened not long after I left. Read this news report, 13 injured in clashes, grenade attack in Kashmir, from the Times of India.

Pitched battles between a stone-pelting mob and police were witnessed in some localities that left seven persons, including a policeman injured. Trouble started when residents of Maisuma locality blocked the main road after the disappearance of Asrar Mushtaq Dar, a 2nd year student of Islamia College, since Friday.

Then read this report, Attack on cafe exposes vulnerability of ‘posh’ Srinagar, from the Indian Express.

A stunned silence now inhabits Coffea Arabica, Srinagar’s most famous cafe, after a furious mob vandalised it on Wednesday.
The mob’s immediate provocation was the murder of a 19-year-old youth, Asrar Mushtaq, from Maisuma by still unidentified persons. His body was recovered from a graveyard in the downtown city.

Then this report, Passion crime killed Asrar, from the Hindustan Times.

The curious case of Asrar Mushtaq, 20, who went missing on July 3 and was found with his throat slit four days later, was cracked on Tuesday night.
Police informed he was killed by two jealous rivals, who resented his growing friendship with a local girl on the social networking site Orkut.
Mushtaq’s disappearance sparked furious anti government protests in Srinagar, which reached their peak when his body was discovered. The People’s Democratic Party called a three-day bandh as speculation ran rife about his having been illegally
detained and tortured to death by the security forces.

UPDATE: To finally put this topic to rest, here is the Chief Minister in a report in the Times of India.

CM Omar Abdullah on Friday said those who raise a hue and cry whenever something wrong is done by security forces are maintaining a ‘‘stoic silence’’ on
Thursday’s killing of a child and his father by terrorists.

‘‘They prominently organize marches and give ‘chalo calls’ to highlight violation of human rights,’’ he said. And, fairness, morality and respect for human rights demand these elements should raise same voice whenever terrorists kill civilians, he said.