I was watching a Bollywood preview on the BBC the other day, Becky, a British journalist visited Mumbai for a film festival there recently.
As she stood by Juhu beach, Becky had only this to say “The film fest is being held in a building near here which you can see. Its very run down I must say. It used to be University… Of course, this is the ‘Juhu’ beach, its very stunning as you probably think. But what you can’t see is that its absolutely filthy. There is all sorts of rubbish lying on the Beach and it smells awful. Think of the worse smell you can imagine and then multiply it by 5 times. There were a lot of beggars coming by here earlier, and they probably thought we had a lot of money, since we are tourists.”
Sad… I feel very sad, its obvious that they are not going to be able to see below all that. Nevertheless, Mithun mentioned this before. Even after having lived in India for over 6 months, his swedish (or swiss, I forget) friend had only the negative picture to relive.
India is basically a poor country, its poor have very base values! Filth, Disease, Dirt is nothing new for them. Shame is of course forgotten. This I won’t deny. Hence, the rubbish, the filth and the disgust. Its justified. But my dear friends, please let us help you look beyond that.