A contrasting India

This is a country filled with contrasts. Last night Eric, Paul, and I ventured up to the main part of Guntur to go to a computer store and a men's clothing store and tailor. As we left the autorickshaw to enter the very nice men's store, Eric mentions to me, "We're walking into a nice store as we step over the gutter, the open sewer." Indeed. Throughout the city, the sewer system remains open to view, much like American cities used to be in the early 20th and late 19th centuries. There are parts of Guntur that sewer pipes are being laid underneath the ground, but in many areas the sewer system is in plain view. Contrast: a very nice, Western style, men's store with beautiful men's clothing but directly outside is extreme poverty and an open sewer.

Another contrast. On Monday afternoon I sat at a computer at the seminary preparing for class. The door to the office in which I was working was open. As I worked, a farmer brought into the seminary grounds three cows for milking. Here I was, using modern technology, connected to the world via the internet, while outside a primitive operation was happening...getting milk from a local cow for the seminary.

One can walk down the street and see nice cars with a wagon being pulled by an ox beside it. As India modernizes through globalization, this contrast will begin to lessen. But for now, the contrasts remain.