Hi r/India.

Recently, we have a lot of threads that have shed a light on what many of us do and where do we belong to. I was a little curious and thought why not share some more. So, here I go first:

The fact that a person belonging to the same caste as me will be always there to help me and those belonging to other caste (specially so called higher castes) will just try to use me and throw away. I always hate to hear such an argument and I excuse myself from the discussion/anything where such an argument took place.

What are some of the beliefs you hear that you loathe?

Got a $25,000 procedure for about $4,000. I am still in India recovering, but should be good to go in another week. Gonna travel a bit and head home after. Interesting experience, AMA

Proof available if mods want it.

First, let me tell you I am a gay Indian who moved to the U.S not so long ago. I am really heartened by the LGBT movement in this country, (à la, no to prop 8, approval of gay marriage in Washington state, etc.), but it terrifies me to go back to India, largely because of ignorance and the resulting homophobia. Where do you stand on this issue? I'd really like to hear any personal stories that you have to share as well, since I have not explored the LGBT circles myself, in India. Thanks.

EDIT: I'm really encouraged by the number of progressive comments in this thread. If only whole of India was like this. Thanks people.

My roommate and I were discussing the other day about going back to India one day. Both of us realized that when we first came to the US the goal was to complete our M.S, work for 2 years and then go back once and for all. It's 2 years now and I am no way even close to going back to India. Although I hope to at some point. TBH, I have slowly started seeing why most desis don't go back to India. I fear that if I stay on for another 3-4 years in the US, I may never want to go back again. Any of you thinking the same way? What are your thoughts on this?

I am well aware that categories like "secular" and "religious" don't translate directly into the Indian context (at least not like they do in the US, that is, in nice, tidy little compartments of your identity), but, I was wondering, is it possible to be completely non-religious in India? Do any of the Indian redditors know of, or live, such a life?

/thanks for any and all feedback. Not trying to troll in anyway, just curious

Being active on Reddit for quite a few months, I realized a lot of people believe that religion is a complete hokum, the same feeling which I have been suppressing since childhood to avoid rants from my parents/teachers. I'm 21, from a Brahmin family and studied in a catholic institution, where we had to say prayers before and after school everyday. I don't have contempt against any religion as such but have a very strong feeling about how it's hindering the development and upbringing of our nation, how the politicians use it to increase their vote bank, how the public falls prey to the rituals and customs throwing away food and money like toilet paper.

Writing this because I'm not sure if r/India shares the same opinion??

Edit: This discussion took off quite well IMO. Glad to see so many people with a rational view towards life and fellow beings.

Quoting reply of "livingfortheweekend" which I found very true:

It is easy for people like you and me who are educated, have a life where the basic physical needs are satisfied to say that we need to have the knowledge of our so-called enemy, but for people who do not have those requirements met it is mighty hard to go beyond that what they have been taught and have learnt from people they looked up to (i.e. parents; who might I add are steeped in religious dogma) because (and this is only a very general assumption) they had no other role models.

Hello to the NRIs of r/India! I am curious to hear about your experiences in being an NRI – where you are, how you got there, and your experience with India and Indians alike.

Indian residents: overall, what are your thoughts about NRIs?

Pretty self explanatory really, how did India become so conservative? When did it begin and why?

I ask because Indian culture is so conservative and in some ways so backwards today, but there was a time when it was not the case; for example the sexual depictions on the old Hindu temples simply would not be possible today.

Was it Islam and the Victorian Brits?

EDIT: Since this has gotten a good number of responses, why is India still so conservative while many Muslim countries are more liberal and Britain is waaay more liberal? Lack of Education, general socio-economic malaise?

I go to a Californian school, and my roommate is from India. Do you guys know any tips/tricks to make him feel more at home? I'd just like him to be comfortable.

Thanks reddit!

Xo xO

Matt "LolPePe" S.

After going through the dowry thread, I was interested in finding out how many of us would say NO and not accept any dowry when offered more than a crore?

Imagine yourself in that position. Pretty tempting isn't it?

EDIT 2: satinel's comment has cleared some of the confusion for me and I can start to see why one would still want to say no.

EDIT 1: I am not talking about aiming for a dowry. Doing stupid crap just to get more dowry. The situation is, you are about to get married. You like the girl and can imagine staying with her forever. Now, if offered a dowry more than a crore, would you take it?

The lack of Civic Sense in India, or at least in most of its cities and towns is, appalling. People in general have no regard for anything; right from others' privacy to constituted laws. And that this takes a very big toll on the growth of a society, is a well known thing.

Although this decrease in civic sense can be attributed to a number of things like illiteracy, growing poverty etc, I'd like to know if people can narrow down on more factors in better detail. Please also share as to how you believe Civic Sense in the Indian society can be improved.

As a simple example, I'm impressed with how in parts of the world, it is frowned upon when someone litters; this has a very positive effect on cleanliness in public spaces. In our case, however, the minute somebody litters, that place is qualified as a dump and others just follow suit.

TL;DR: Please share your views on the factors negatively affecting Civic Sense in a country like India and possible remedial measures.

EDIT: Thanks for the replies, guys! I'm afraid this is turning into a place for all of us to vent out but that's fine. Looking forward to more.

Ok, We drafted some rules and you all seem to hate them, at least thats what I have seen from your replies.

First of all,** NO ONE IS ON A POWER TRIP. Get that into your heads. Secondly, the reason **neoronin requested for new mods is because it was very difficult for him to moderate when there are a gazillion reported links (99% of which are comments). We thought it was a very serious issue. Why?** because you were the people who were reporting them**. (Before you all go like, No I never reported, only pussies report shit like that, think for a second, we don't know who reported and why, we just get the link in our reported links queue).

I moderate a lot of internet forums and also r/topgear and I have never in my experience seen so many reports. Honestly, what I feel is, no one here gets along.

I will give you my perspective. As I said I was a mod over at r/topGear so let me tell you about r/topgear. Its a reddit about Top Gear, a TV series with exactly the same number of subscribers as r/india and this is what I see in the report queue http://snag.gy/3Z4J4.jpg . I am not saying r/topgear is better than r/india, I am just trying to tell you what the contrast is when compared to r/India. We in r/india have almost 20+ pages of reported links. Yes.** 20+.** I got tired after 20 pages to click next.

When I was made a mod of r/India, I checked the reported links queue. I was shocked. I am not sure if its personal grudges that made you report the posts or because you were truly offended. But none the less, When you report a post, it means moderators need to take action. That is what the report button is all about and why moderators even exist.

When we saw the reported comments and analyzed them we came to the conclusion that most of them were personal abuses.** So we came up with the rules so that personal abuses can be punished (This is because you were the ones who reported those and not because we are on a power trip). ** I have seen posts where you guys are revolting against the mods. We only posted the rules so that we can all debate upon the rules. If we wanted we could have never told you the rules and just ban the ass off everyone who personally abused any user. We were trying to be transparent and you all went to the beach and got sand up you vaginas. So CALM THE FUCK DOWN. We are not trying to silence you and we are not going to ban you just because you said "fuck your mom in the ass".

I guess all the reporters were acting upon the "Use the report button only for SPAM & abusive comments" sidebar suggestion. I think its debatable, but the only reason that suggestion was up because we all wanted to have a civil discourse. Since you have all proved that you don't want that, I as a mod cannot disagree with you, since you elected me.

So, Lets come to reality. Lets have a poll of the rules. You all know what you want, let this be a democracy. Tell us what you want us to do about the reported links. Tell us what you want to do with the trolls. Tell us what you want to do with the personal abuses. Tell us about your special cases of anguish about r/india. We will abide by what you tell us.

What I suggest is you all atomically post the rules. People will vote up/down the rules you posted. Mainly about reported links, trolls, abuses (personal and in general). By atomically I mean each rule should be a different comment by itself and we will consider what all the rules we need to follow and abide by those. We will even have a vote about what all rules we will follow. So don't worry, its not top five rules or anything. Discretion on what rules we chose is up to us (yeah fuck you all, we have the power) We will post the rules we have chosen, based on your votes and then try to include more based on your input.

*But don't think we are pussies who will listen to every word you say. We represent the minorities as well as the majorities. *

** WHAT I REQUEST IS, R/INDIA TO HAVE A CIVIL DISCUSSION ABOUT THIS. YES, I HOPE A CIVIL DISCUSSION IS NOT TOO HARD FOR YOU PEOPLE. AS A MOD I AM TELLING YOU RIGHT NOW, ANY TROLL/ABUSIVE POSTS IN THIS THREAD WILL BE DELETED (ONLY IN THIS THREAD AND NOWHERE ELSE) LETS FOR PETE'S SAKE BE CIVIL IN ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THREADS IN R/INDIA. I HOPE YOU ALL CO-OPERATE AND NOT BE DICKS ABOUT IT. I AM SORRY ABOUT THE LANGUAGE BUT I WILL NOT TOLERATE DIRECT ABUSES/TROLLS. "FUCK" "DICK" "SUCK" AND OTHER SWEARS IN HINDI OR OTHER INDIAN LANGUAGES ARE ACCEPTED BUT IF THEY ARE NOT CONSTRUCTIVE TOWARDS THE ARGUMENT, I AM GOING TO DELETE THOSE COMMENTS. YES, THIS IS MY POWER TRIP, SO DEAL WITH IT. **

On a different note, to the people who report the comments, remember you are on the internet and you are dealing with an anonymous crowd, you need to deal with it. Abuses are normal on the internet, if you are so worried when someone insults your mom, think about the girls on the internet who are insulted 24/7 just because of their appearances. Fat girls are teased upon and hot girls are always harassed. If they can deal with it, so can you. So grow a pair and man/woman up. But if someone is directly targeting you over and over without any specific reason, it is a concern and we will help you out.

TL;DR Stop being pussies and stop reporting every damn thing and grow a pair, or let us take care of everything. Vote and represent yourself.

EDIT: Look at this http://i.imgur.com/ff7O2.png and this what we are talking about. Please for the love of FSM can't we all get along?

EDIT 2: What do you feel about something like this? I get it, its funny, once, twice or even thrice but if he is stalking Daemanax and harassing him constantly why would we want such bullshit? Its not funny anymore, and its annoying and it never adds to anything constructive. What do you feel?

Please post every case of anguish/frustration/bullshit that you have encountered in r/india in a generic and atomic form and you up/down vote it.

---

EDIT 3:

OK I KNOW YOU ALL WANT TO DISCUSS ON THIS BUT I ALSO WANT YOU TO POST YOUR RULES SO THAT WE CAN FOLLOW WHAT YOU TELL US TO FOLLOW. SO FOLLOW THESE RULES I'M TELLING YOU. IF YOU WANT A RULE TO BE ENFORCED FOLLOW THIS FORMAT.

RULE: I want this shit to happen when something like this shit happens

and r/India please upvote anything of the format "RULE: I want this shit to happen when something like this shit happens" if you agree with it!

We need clear rules so that we can all have fun here!

---

EDIT 4:

I AM GOING TO KEEP THIS PINNED TILL THE NEXT MONDAY, THAT IS TILL THE END OF THE OUR INDEPENDENCE DAY (PST)! SO VOICE YOUR OPINIONS!!

I filed a divorce against my husband on grounds of domestic violence in India. My husband comes to the hearings once in a blue moon and files long extensions. In India, the court honors most requests for extensions. Therefore, my case has been dragging on for a while now. I am ready to settle for no alimony, but he just doesnt want to sign the divorce papers. Any tips on how I can move the courts to grant me divorce sooner? My lawyer is very capable and has been trying to make the judge understand that my husband is filing extensions only as an act of taking revenge on me.

I am currently living in Australia after living half my life in England and India. I am answering this with my grandchildren (two of evelen) and wife of 61 years. In the second world war I served in the 9th Gurkha regiment for six and a half years. During my time there I met Mahatma Ghandi briefly. Ask me anything!

Proof

Further

Edit: Grandson is typing this so please excuse any spelling mistakes, I THINK one or two of you mentioned that I spelled Gandhi wrong.

EditEdit: Thank you so much reddit, my grandfather appreciated your participation and thanks you!

EditEditEdit: Called Grandpa back and he's basically asleep so I'm afraid that's it for tonight! He has said he will get back to you though and I'll get him finishing off some of the questions that he was looking to answer tomorrow. Feel free to keep asking away as he is amazed at all of your interest in his life and wishes to read through each comment (much to my frustration). Thanks again guys, cliché you're the best here. Also a few people are doubting the authenticity so if you can think of any way to further identify my grandfather then drop me a line!

In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.

There's a reason that I've posted the above. It seems a lot of you seem to think trolls are either true haters, or are meant to be funny in the way small animals are. They. are. not. Trolls live to incite high emotions, primarily of a a negative variaty. There is only one way to deal with them. Ignore them completely. Downvote them and move on.

A few days ago, the other mods and I decided it would be entertaining to change /r/india to /r/bakchodi. So we did, today morning. And then the wonderful sense of humor of the community shone through. People bitched and moaned about "vulgarity and crudeness". And it pissed me off. Here's why:

It's an april fools joke. On the fucking internet. You people need to grow some thicker skin. We mods are not your dear mummy and daddy here to stop your sensitive eyes from reading hurtful comments. We are not the moral police. When you don't like reading an opinion on the internet, and specifically on reddit, you don't get to go crying to some force of authority and ask them to censor those who would speak an idea you don't like or feel comfortable with. You ignore it and move on.

Take a close look at your reactions to a fucking april fools joke. Turn off your fucking sense of entitlement. The reason that neo puts up with so much whining is beyond me, but he does it for you of his own volition. Not because he owes you anything, but because he wants a healthy community. And what's your response? Invent new slurs. Decide that because one guy is being a chutia, you're going to open a half dozen accounts and be another five choots. Bravo. You've shown your absolute maturity here.

I'm leaving this as an open discussion. But here's the basics.

1. We are not your mommies and daddies, to protect your tender feelings.
2. /r/India is represented by you, the users, not by us mods.
3. Content is not decided by us. If you want to see more content relevant to your interests, post it yourself.

Oh yeah, one other thing- brownboy15 and fecal_demon are poop_monster and I. We were trolling. The bans were part of the joke. They've been removed.

Well done with thinking independently.

Hell, /r/bakchodi handled this better than you lot by far.

Happy April Fools Day

Apologies for the morbid title, but I hope it got your attention. Okay, a little bit about myself first, before you dismiss this as yet another cynical thread. I'm an NRI (born/lived/grew up outside India all my life). I came to India for the first time about a year ago, and while the experience so far has been pretty awesome, there are so many downsides to living in India that it's not hard to be pessimistic about India's realistic future prospects.

There was a post earlier today (or yesterday) on the downsides of living in India, and several of your comments resonated deeply within me. Talking about what sucks about India etc is a very popular topic among groups of friends, but nothing seems to have come out of those discussions. We can do so much more. It's so easy to blame the government for ineptitude, but I'd argue that 99% of problems that Indian society faces begin at home. But let's not be overwhelmed, and perhaps start things off step by step.

So what I'm proposing is this – let's clean up India. We're all well-educated people in our late teens/20s/30s and need to step up our game. There's no point watching movies like Rang De Basanti and crying over the state of the India depicted in that movie, and soon afterward, spitting paan on the sidewalk, because, well, it's convenient. Treat India like a toilet and a toilet is what it will (and already has) become!

I really think that together, we can make a difference. Let's start a decentralized "Clean India!" campaign, and have youths riled up about the disgusting state vast swathes of the country is in help promote the campaign across metros and major cities nationwide. Throw out marketing slogans, get newspapers involved and hopefully entice companies such as, say, Pepsi (just an example off the top of my head) to place public trashcans every 300 ft on roads. Call out people relieving themselves in public. Start a Facebook group and spread the word to all our friends. Twitter could be very useful as well. Wear t-shirts. Put up banners. And so on. This needs to become an avalanche; Indians must realize how severe this problem is. If any of you have connections with anyone to help get publicity for a campaign such as this, please reach out to them and get the ball rolling wherever you are.

I'm in Bangalore now and if anyone wants to help make this a reality here, please PM me. It kills me that most Indians I speak to about this are seemingly apathetic and just don't care…hence, this post. I hope at least some of you are nodding your heads and willing to help take things forward.

Redditors are a pretty awesome bunch (alt account – I've been here for over 4 years), and have changed the lives of numerous people. I'm hopeful /r/India would contribute significantly in helping India move in the right direction.

If you've any suggestions on anything, please post away! If I sound like I'm from a different planet, feel free to let me know that as well, so that I can adjust my expectations.

I've been reading r/India for a couple of months now though I never myself participate. I just wanted to say thanks for the enlightening articles and more importantly the comments. There are a lot of inside jokes between users in this subreddit, probably dating back to early days of r/India, which I'm still trying to understand. A lot of old time users are missing too, saad, charas, muffmuncher n many others. Are they lurking around?

So anyway, speak your mind r/India, about anything. Take out grudges, bitch about people, rant against anything, introduce yourself, whatever. I see a lot of half-ended threads among users, so let's stir the pot!

New here. Seems like there are a lot of religions in India. Could I ask what religions, if any, do subscribers of this reddit believe in.

Also, why the strong feelings against Islamists?

We're starting in Delhi and leaving out of Mumbai. Right now we have a good idea of the sights we can't miss but we've got some unplanned time when we're near Kerala. Any ideas what's cool do to around Kerala?

Also what are some good short sentences I can learn phonetically that will surprise locals? I'm thinking some popular comedy reference or expression that usually only people who grew up in India know about. Nothing rude though, please don't get me beat up.

Thanks,

Edit: This thread is also really useful. I'll just leave it here for any future tourists.

Throw away account because my friends read my reddit and I don't want them to read this.

Background: I'm 25 and my brother is 28. My grandma was from India and moved to the US way back when. My brother and I are the second generation to be born in the US and we haven't even visited India yet. Our parents didn't teach us the culture and not even their parents' language.

Forward to present day, my dad was given a job opportunity in Chennai. It is a really good job, but he says he will only go if his whole family follows. So, obviously, we're all going. But we are really confused as we hear all kinds of different stories about India.

So, I would like to ask you guys and gals a few questions:

1. How's life in general for girls in India?

2. I have a bachelor's degree in business, how hard will it be to find a managerial job, taking into account that as of now I only speak English?

3. Will I have friends? How easy is to make friends with Indian girls, do they make friends with foreigners easily? Will their friends and families accept me and their friendship with me?

4. How do girls dress? Are shorts, mini skirts, acceptable in Chennai? By that I don't mean slutty skirts and shorts. Just normal ones like we wear in the west?

5. What about dating and drinking (socially) and nightlife? Do girls date? How often? Do they drink? Is it ok or is it considered vulgar? Can we go to pubs and bars and discos without gaining a "bad girl" reputation?

6. Is it normal or ok to be atheist? Will it be a problem when it comes to making friends?

7. What should I do to make the transition smooth and how should I show respect for the Indian culture and values? What if I fall in love, will the guy and his family accept me?

8. My brother asks me to ask just one question: How often you guys get dates and how hard it is to get a girl to date you. LOL!

My friends are really scaring us about going; some are being just downright ugly about it, so please forgive me if I wrote something that might sound generalizing or assuming. This post doesn't carry any political, religious or racial connotations. It is just such a big change in our lives, we are just trying to gather all information we can. Thank you for all your inputs and thoughts.

TL;DR: Moving to India. Want to know how life is for girls in Chennai, professionally and socially.

EDIT: Thanks to all of you who positively contributed to the discussion and took the time to reply. It is much appreciated, much more than you will ever know. My post definitely aimed to stay clear of heated discussions. The one originated here, I feel, wasn't caused by me, but I apologize for my part in it. If you do have something to add in the future, I will be checking this thread and replying to interesting content. Thanks for the many excellent replies. You guys rock.

SHUT THE FUCK UP!

I come to this site to read about and discuss issues and news, not to talk anout your personal opinions of India.

From the given links, the following is what is pissing me off:

I'll be damned if I have to live there.

who asked you to live here jackass? And who asked you about whether you want to live here? I did not. I do not want to know about your personal life. Lets talk about issues. Who said we were friends and could discuss about personal lives?

I made a promise today. As soon as possible I will GTFO India and burn my passport and national flag. So embarrassed to be born in such a retarded country.

Why bitch about how you have an Indian for a mother in an Indian forum? Go to r/UK or r/australia and tell them that how you are a white/western person underneath your brown skin. And tell your mom, how she was in the wrong place when she gave birth to you, sucker

All these people, have some common decency, and all the people who upvote them, get a frigging life, if you are from India.

To clarify: hate India all you want, give us facts that tell us how India sucks – thats all well and good. But I for one am not interested in your personal life – don't regale me about stories of how you do not choose to live in India. Its not about you – this forum is not a place where you can unburden your hate of your own past or the hate of this place. This forum discusses issues, and i will be damned if every 6 in the morning I have to listen to some wannabe-whitey tell me how they escaped the hell-hole that is India.

I do not dispute ( in this post) that its a hell hole, but am registering my protest at you fucking telling me how you hate that hell hole. Don't make it personal, or I will come after your mom.

Hi arrrrrr slash India

Melbournian here having a short 6 week visit to your wonderful country.

It's very, very, very different to anything in Australia… and really its not the time or place to get into a big debate or discussion about the differences… but one thing that has kind of urked me as my trip goes on is the Foreign Tourist rates for your attractions.

I'll be the first to admit – life is a lottery and some people are born lucky in a country where poverty and other issues aren't a daily matter. Again – i don't want to debate this here, but i just thought i'd give an outsider perspective that yes, I'm from Australia and yes i might be perceived to be "rich" (above poverty line)…but just because I can travel doesn't make me any different to any of you reading this…

This surcharge is making me feel 2400% different to you guys. Why? Here's why. Heading to attractions and seeing Indian admittance for 10rs and then 250rs (Elephanta Island), well… its just the easiest way to make us feel even more foreign in your welcoming country.

For example – as i mentioned above, my wife and i went to Elephanta Island today where there was the above charge (10rs vs 250rs). That is 2400% difference.

Putting it in perspective… if you guys ( Indian nationals) came to my country (Australia) and say went to the Zoo (for example) and let's say that it was 1000 RS ($17 au dollars… and yes, Australia is expensive)… well that's like me getting into the Zoo for 1000 RS and you guys having to pay 24,000 RS

I personally would hate to see that happen and its hard for us to progress if we can't treat each other equally.

Yes, there are huge polarity differences between any countries… but if you want to alienate your tourists, who are already way, way out on the thresholds of their comfort zone visiting this country, well this just makes it worse.

I hope i haven't offended anyone. Indians have been so friendly to us and we're loving this country. Just my opinion to share

Hey India,

Look at what reddit did to Godaddy for just supporting SOPA. Yet, here we are where the same scenario has been enacted multiple times in practice by Reliance.

Can we organize a campaign against Reliance for their stupid ritual of blocking websites at will?

Some suggestions:

Boycott Reliance BIG: This is the branch that got the court order. Stop watching/renting their movies.

Boycott Reliance Broadband: They act as the guardians of the internet and have actually carried out the blocking of websites. They blocked Dailymotion when I had their shitty service. I heard they have blocked reddit as well (Need confirmation here). Switch to any other ISP (Beam is my preference)

And if you have any other Reliance services (mobile, DTH) switch to something else and let them why you are doing it. (You'll usually get a customer relationship call after asking them to terminate the service)

Give me your suggestions. Should we have a 'National Boycott Reliance Day'? How can we inform our average facebook friend about this? Can we get more support and take this matter up with some elected representative? Am I just being slackitivist?

Sources:

http://www.medianama.com/2011/07/223-files-sharing-sites-blocked-in-india-because-reliance-big-pictures-got-a-court-order/

https://twitter.com/#!/ePandu/status/150250955429003265

https://twitter.com/#!/rajadnay/status/150198315873615872/photo/1

http://i.imgur.com/4Aw50.jpg

TLDR; Fuck Reliance!

I was born and brought up in Rural India (Vidarbha).

A gentleman told me that r/India might be interested in hearing my story.

link

Background: My ancestral village is near the Lonar Crater lake and I come from a family of farmers. We've around 35 acre of land in the cotton belt.

I was born and brought up in Akola and completed my education in Amravati. My cousins and I used to work in our farms during summer (unpaid child labour- sigh). My father pulled out most of his brothers from villages and village politics. He is responsible for giving us better education and he ensured I go to English medium school.

I got placed in college and went to Chennai and then to US. I am in the U.S now but will go back after few years.

Life in rural side: Life is very slow and city folks go mad when they come to villages. Now a days there are modern amenities like hospitals, theatres, food joints etc but still it is very different from big cities. Sex-in-sugarcane-fields is rampant and I was surprised to see so many 25 year old virgins in big cities.

We've heavy load shedding (8 towns, 12 hours villages), water shortages and INSANE TEMPERATRE in summer (~45-48 deg.). The worst part is when these 3 coincide. Imagine sitting in a house in 45deg, with less water to use and no electricity.

Riots: I've seen couple of riots starting from '92 babari roits, dalit-upper caste riots, riots over Ganapati visarjan and even riot over a cricket match. These days there is a calm and less communal tension.

Farmer Suicides: I've seen some farmer suicides and it is a sight which you can't forget. I've seen few in Govt. Hospitals and in villages. Last month my dad told that his friend Mohite ended his life and I was shocked to hear that. It is fucking crazy and depressing.

Politics: I have several family members involved in politics. One of my uncle is close associate of a state minister. We've contacts with several MLAs, one of my relative is chairman of a municipal council. But politics is very dirty and once you ask for help, you need to return any favor they ask.

I am not sure how to verify this, you've to take my word for it. I am sorry if you were looking for Pather Panchali, but rural India is a different beast.

I've 1-2 hours before going to bed. Ask away!

Edit Sorry but I've to go to bed now (US night time). I'll answer all the questions tomorrow morning. Thanks for the interest.

http://i.imgur.com/LyPhg.jpg

I shot this photo in India during a business trip. It's amazing how insane this would be to see in the US, but in India it is nothing out of the ordinary.