India on $5 and $10 a day [antikvár]

Introduction INDIA ON $5 M) $10 A DAY WHY INDIA? OUR FRIENDS seemed divided in their reactions when we first informed them that we were going to India. A substantial minority managed to look vaguely mystical, placed their hands together in a prayerful salute and rolled their eyes reverentially as if they were already in the presence of holiness. And then there were the others who sneered—"Ugh, you'll hate it; full of snakes and beggars, and so poor, and besides that, it's filthy." Now that we're back in New York, wdth India fully researched and documented, our suitcases fuU of knickknacks and our heads a montage of overlapping images, it's easy to understand the differing reviews. India undeniably has beggars (so does New York, for that matter)—they are there, but so are many other things. As for snakes, we never saw one, except for the sluggish specimens displayed in the laps of professional snake-charmers or the occasional exotic breed to be found in a zoo. The average Indian's familiarity with snakes is about equal to an American subm-banite's encounters with foxes. Holiness, though, is more pervasive: India is full of reverence. There are scores of religions (with Hinduism overwhelmingly preponderating), and, apart from sporadically bitter factionalism, they have made much the same accommodations towards each other as those in other countries. But somehow, in India, religion is more than that: It has endured as a reverence for life itself—a tolerance for and protection of every living thing. There are people who won't swat a fly, millions more who won't touch meat, much less allow a cow to be harmed. If a man wants to abandon the day-to-day cares of this mundane life and return to nature by becoming an itinerant holy man, there are few who would not pay respect to the sadhu's orange robes he dons. If a woman decides to dedicate her life to similar pursuits, the path is hers to follow. For the majority, this tolerance means living and working together in concert with capricious natural elements. For above all—despite independence as a modem state since 1947, and a century and a half before that of colonial rule; despite foreign aid, increasing industralization, five-year plans, increased exports and a recent nuclear blast—India's heartbeat is stiU primarily agrarian.