But to Nicole: I am an Asian-American. I was born/raised here, and my parents are immigrants from India. Every time I go there, I can’t help but be appalled by the way the poor are treated in that country. I can’t help but feel that hate that you do towards the authority that allows this to keep existing. But my anger is geared towards the government, not the nation. Because no nation watches its poor as carefully as anyone would like. Even in the USA, we have issues of poverty and hunger, but that doesn’t mean we hate this nation.
And if you have to force yourself to try to like something, I think you might as well give up. You are allowing one aspect of that country to cloud your judgment of the entirety of India. Yes, there is extreme poverty. Yes, there are slums and homeless in every major city. But that is not all that India is. It is also a gorgeous place filled with plenty of interesting people, and amazing places. It is a country filled with ancient traditions and practices. And while it’s not the best place on Earth, it’s certainly not the worst.

Society (which is mostly passive) have to think differently.

Thanks for bringing up this type of issues.

If the story wasn’t sad, and disturbing, and vicious, and all encompassing frustrating – it would just be a story. This is a testimony of our world. A world that allows these things to occur because to have to actually confront, acknowledge, and assume responsibility would mean that we have all failed as human beings.

There should not be any warnings. By providing a warning, you are allowing others the right to choose whether or not to be burdened by some guilt. True stories should not have warnings. The “characters” in those stories are not allowed the privilege of choosing.

This is not an attack on you or your comment. I just feel that before we commit to a position, we have the responsibility to examine why we are making that choice. Killing the messenger, or putting restrictions or censorship on the message, or editing the content only compounds and empowers those who feel entitled to violate the living rights of others.

I understand and sympathize with your feelings of aversion to such a tragic story. I would be a hypocrite to criticize you for feeling this way, having become conditioned to avert my eyes from countless beggars on the streets of Calcutta and Delhi.

But I think a moving human interest story goes a long way in spreading awareness and in, quite frankly, hitting where it hurts. The emphatic part of our brain seems to turn off when the numbers of people suffering get too large. I think it’s vitally important to try and overcome this evolutionary impediment through stories such as this that put personal faces to the suffering, so we can relate to it, try to understand it, and try to help. If you’re already aware of the problems, you needn’t finish reading the story. But putting a warning before the story would defeat the entire purpose of trying to engage people who are already tragedy averse, as well as cheapen it considerably by comparing the plight of the victims to the commiseration of the reader.

As for your stance on choosing blogs based on the requirement that they will make you ‘like india more’, this strikes me as rather delusional and dishonest. You’ve stated your bias, and while you could quite easily select your media channels to meet any pre-conceived notion (and turn them off when they flash a misery warning), your resulting worldview need not have any strong correspondence to reality.

My father (a professor at Temple University in Philly) has also opened a school in his rural village in India, helping girls obtain an education where before they did not have the means to do so (www.rathoragirlsschool.org)

It is in the village Rathora in Uttar Pradesh, India (about 2 hours from New Delhi). We are there nearly 3-4 times a year. Please contact us if you would ever like to visit the school or speak to the girls and provide inspiration to them.

This is a wonderful blog. New Delhi is my favorite city (I’m currently a student in Baltimore, though born and raised in Philly), and I visit often.

Please continue to write about your experiences while there, the posts are both amusing and heart-warming. I’m sure you’ll grow to love the city more and more each day. The quirks you find there will stick with you when you move on. There’s a sense of belonging that you attain from the culture there which I’ve struggled to find elsewhere around the globe. Good luck with your endeavors!

Best,
Sikha
web.mac.com/sikhasingh