MUMBLINGS December 22, 2005

India is the seventh largest country in the world with area of 3,287,000 square miles, slightly smaller than United States lower 48. India is an interesting country from several standpoints, including religion, industries, agriculture, history, geography, and friendly people.

It is also a country of contrasts, those who are highly educated, and 65 percent illiterate. Literacy is improving.

Private education is better than public, and the schools out on the countryside are few, comparatively. One school sometimes may serve as many as two or three villages. The students start off young going to school but gradually get tired of it and drop out, since the only way to get there is walking, and sometimes is quite a distance.

Our guide was brilliant with a Masters Degree in Spanish because at one time he lived in Mexico. You can get a Bachelor’s Degree there in three years after high school. You can get highly technical degrees, including medical in about six years.

The Indians are known for their abilities in technical skills and some of the smartest mathematicians in the world live there.

They have several medical schools and turn out many doctors who serve in the country and throughout the world. Our guide said 90 percent of the doctors in England are Indian. I haven’t checked that but I doubt it…but it is a very high percentage.

Of course we have many Indian doctors in America.

As in most countries throughout the world, the dollar is acceptable. However, in India they will not change a ten dollar bill and give you American dollars back, they make you take rupees, which at the time we were there took 43 to make one American dollar.

Tourism is a gradually growing industry but 65 to 68 percent of the people still live in rural areas and agriculture is their chief income.

India is a tropical country and they grow almost anything, including fruits and vegetables of all kinds. With a population of 1,200,000,000 people, they have to grow a lot of produce to feed themselves, in which they do a fairly good job.

While we where there in November the weather was ideal. The sun shined every day and the temperature was from about 60 degrees at night to about 75-80 during the day. The monsoon season is in July, August, and September… however, the total rainfall in that area is only about seven inches a year.

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Continued

There are a few days during those months when the temperature reaches 125- 128 degrees. Some people entertain themselves by scrambling eggs on concrete. The richer people live on shady streets and they say it is 20 percent cooler. If you want to realize how hot that is, stick your hand in 100 degree hot water and you will jerk it out real quick. I don’t understand how they stand it. Most hotels and the richer homes have air conditioning.

India has a lot of English habits, including driving on the left side of the road with all steering wheels on the right side of the car. England had control of the country for over a 100 years. In 1947, they became independent.

India, as you know, is a poverty stricken country, but their gross national product is growing at an annual rate of 8 ½ to 9 percent, the highest in the world next to China.

Religion is a complicated matter there, with 70 percent Hindu, 22 percent Muslim, five percent Christian and three percent a mixture. Another guide said there was only three percent Christian and other religions… all the rest where Hindus and Muslim.

The guide said that within five years, India’s population would exceed that of China, which is presently 1,500,000,000. China has birth control and India has none. The Muslims are allowed four wives and the Hindus are only allowed one. Thus, the percentage of Muslims is growing much faster and claim to have 300,000,000 in the country at this time.

We passed by the largest Mosque in India and the 4th largest in the world but we did not go in because once you go in one you have seen them all. We had visited one of them in Turkey.

More about India later.

See you again soon, I hope.