India - Incredibly Shocking

Don't get me wrong, we had a wonderful trip to India, we saw so much and learned a lot.  But as always with India, there are things that come out of the blue and are shocking to our eyes.  I have heard it said of India that you "love it and hate it, all at once".  There is some truth in that.

Here are some of those things...
  
1.
I thought rickshaws had long gone, but not in Calcutta.  I was shocked to see them.  Then I noted the big wheels and thought to myself "Oh, that's no so bad then" and was shocked again at how readily I had absorbed the world around me.

I read that rickshaws were one of the best ways of getting through floods.  Best for passenger I suppose.  Not too good for the driver.

2.
Walking down to one of the ghats in Varanasi, there were several dogs barking their heads off.  I stopped to look - they were agitated by a dog who was staggering uncontrollably and had some sort of dreadful wound on its face. Rabies?   No pic of that. I didn't hang around.

3.
The flower market was full of masses of flowers.  But you could see the areas above and below the stalls where people slept.  This city had, according to our guide, the poorest of the poor.  Many were refugees from Bangladesh, and some were Rohinga.  Goodness, if Calcutta is their refuge, what have they left behind them.

4.
We also saw a shop marked "Blue Print" and discovered it was  pharmacy, the blueprint being the prescription.  That was ok, but the shop was pretty disorganised.

5.
I saw a cat with a missing eye - literally.  It just looked at me with its one eye and empty eye socket.

6.
The travel agency representative apparently stealing our driver's tip from him.  A similar thing happened on our 2012 trip where the guide stole the tip we wanted to give to the trishaw rider.  Lesson?  Give tips privately, out of sight of other employees.

7.
The trains we hear so much about.  But no-one on the roof at least.

8.
And just as shocking, this is where we were staying.  Poverty demeans all of us.  Social welfare and universal health schemes are the price of not having this level of misery.

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