India: Is there room for everybody?

     Bus rides, like most things, are great in moderation. Looking out the window is like watching a movie, better yet like seeing a discovery channel show in the IMAX. I had already played a part in the congestion of Indian traffic, as a pedestrian, in a taxi, and most memorably in a rickshaw. But, watching the scenes change as quickly as the bus moves gives way to a completely different response to a country.

The crowdedness of India was stressed repeatedly during preport. It wasn’t until I had my elevated panoramic view that this was validated for me.

     India has a population of over one billion (one-sixth of the world’s population). My first few days, I didn’t realize the impact of the population density. I thought there was not much traffic at all.  I could walk among the crowds with ease. From the bus-view I could see it: the crowds, the expansive living areas, the lack of living areas, the array of people, and the disorder. In other places, crowds form around specific places. In India, crowds form up and down every street and alley, inside and outside of stores, with two to fifty people, for a specific reason or (on most occasions) no apparent reason at all. In all seriousness, on my two hour bus ride, there probably wasn’t a space longer than a half mile that wasn’t decorated with the compliant people of India. In Ghana, I had been shocked by the reality of poverty- living in a shack. By South Africa, I was accustomed to being surrounded by poverty. In Ghana, the shacks lined the major roads. In South Africa, the shacks were crammed within the walls of the infamous townships. What was striking about India was because of the population the shacks were piled everywhere: up and down every street in rows, between stores, stacked upon each other down allies, and finding foundation in every nook and cranny available. Although there are these expansive living areas, it is not enough for this population that is growing quickly at nearly 2% a year (globally it is just over 1%). Many people and entire families post up on sidewalks, doorsteps, and in ditches. One of the uncanny sights I came across was not on the bus ride but in a rickshaw around nine at night. On a ride to the beach along the busiest road in Chennai, I saw real life.  By day, families stood guard around their makeshift shelter. By night, there were dozens of people lying on the large slab of sidewalk under a thin sheet or often just the sky.

     On the bus I passed the time trying to answer questions like: was that slab of concrete there for a civil engineering purpose or for the purpose of giving an area to sleep? Who among this multitude of people we are passing sleeps on the street? It is hard to distinguish economic class when every woman is in an equally bright and beautiful sari walking through the dirt. Who has a job? Who is Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, or Jainist? Where is everyone going? What are they doing?