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News Flash:Assembly Elections in Assam, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala and Union Territory of Puducherry
Travelogue by GEORGE CHOMBA -- India: simply incredible
By GEORGE CHOMBA-Zambia Daily Mail
WHEN India’s Minister of External Affairs, Somanahalli Krishna, advised us to forget about what we have heard about his country and form our own opinion as we toured this Asian country, what he did not perhaps realise is that his counsel was coming a little bit too late.
“You have heard about India but my advice is that since you are here now, go out there and form your own opinion,” he said.
But we had already been in India for three days before we met Mr Krishna and three days for a journalist is more than enough to dissect a subject.
Before meeting the minister, we had already witnessed the tight security system, the traffic congestion, the tourist attraction of TajMahal in Agra, the construction and reconstruction of infrastructure and the Indian hospitality.
India, with its population of 1.2 billion, is simply incredible.
I was in a group of 21 African journalists from 10 countries invited on a programme the Indian government simply designated as familiarisation.
We were in New Delhi for four days from Saturday March 26 before proceeding to Mumbai for a two-day stay.
Those who have been to New Delhi and Mumbai lately would agree that there is a lot of construction in the two towns.
Apart from new complex buildings being constructed, there seems to be a deliberate project to replace slums with high rise flats.
As our taxi driver meandered through traffic from Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi to our hotel in the Diplomatic Enclave, I was amazed at the number of cranes at construction sites.
I thought about back home and I figured there is need to have a lot of cranes to further promote the construction industry in Zambia, especially in the construction of high rise buildings to save on land.
The deep thoughts I engaged in about what should be done in Zambia were interrupted by the screeching and hooting of vehicles.
As a motorist in India, there are two car parts which you should treasure to drive safely and comfortably on the roads. These are the brake pads and the hooter.
The brakes are constantly used because motorists are alive to the fact that another can cut in front anytime and no one should call that a ‘violation of traffic rules’.
I was impressed with the tolerance of the motorists on Indian roads. All they did was to apply brakes and continue with the journey.
When those left behind gain momentum and overtake their colleagues, properly or wrongly, life goes on.
The overtaking motorist has the hooter as passport. In New Delhi you can hoot as long as you want and no-one will charge you for noise pollution.
‘Hoot please’ go some writings on the rear of some vehicles, of course, this is on trucks and low standard vehicles.
Imagine driving for five hours and hearing hooters all through your journey. This is what happened when we travelled to Agra from New Delhi to see the Taj Mahal.
To the uninitiated, the Taj Mahal stands on the banks of the Yamuna River. It was built in memory of Arjumand Bano Begum.
She was married at 21 to Emperor Jahangir’s third son, Prince Khurram, and stayed by his side through good and bad times.
In AD 1628, Prince Khurram became king after a bloody battle of succession: he took the name Shahjahan or “King of the World” and showered his beloved Begum with the highest titles.
She became Mumtaz Mahal.
In 1631, Shahjahan went on an expedition to the south and, as always, Mumtaz Mahal accompanied him. But she died in childbirth at Burhanpur. She had borne Shahjahan 14 children, of whom four sons and three daughters survived.
When Mumtaz Mahal died, she was just 39 years old. Shahjahan was inconsolable and thus mourned his deceased wife for two years.
Shahjahan, who was a passionate builder, decided to erect a memorial to his wife in pristine marble that the world would never forget.
The site selected for the tomb was a garden by the Yamuna river, unshadowed by any other structure.
The garden had been laid by Raja Man Singh of Amber.
The site was chosen because it was located on a bend in the river, and so could be seen from Shahjahan’s personal palace in Agra Fort, further upstream.
Work on the mausoleum began in 1633 and 20,000 workers laboured for 17 years to build it. The most skilled architects, inlay craftsmen, calligraphers, stone-carvers and masons came from all across Indian and lands as distant as Persia and Turkey. The master mason was from Baghdad, an expert in building the double dome from Persia, and an inlay specialist from Delhi.
Yemen sent agates, the corals came from Arabia, the garnets from Bundelkhand, onyx and amethyst from Persia. This is according to TajMahal tour guide Ramesh Deewan.
For your own information, you do not tour the TajMahal with your shoes on. You either cover them with clothe or you go bare feet.
Although we had travelled for five hours, our tour lasted less than an hour. We had to get back to New Dehli. I imagined another five hours of meandering through traffic.
Although I had seen such traffic before, in South Africa, France, China, Uganda and Nigeria, I had not seen cattle having the freedom of the roads. And Indians respect cattle.
I did not bother to ask why because before I left for this Asian country, an official at the Indian High Commission in Lusaka gave me a download.
In the olden days when many Indian mothers were dying at childbirth, the source of survival for the infant was milk from a cow.
Cattle saved a lot of babies such that many Indians up to now do not eat beef. This is a symbol of respect for cattle.
So when you see cattle in India, do not think of beef.
We were back at our hotel at about 20:00 hours to go through the same security checks we were subjected to when we arrived on April 16.
I thought about Lusaka International Airport and Zambia at large and concluded that there is nothing to complain about in terms of security measures.
I have walked in hotels in Zambia without being subjected to any security scrutiny.
Even at our international airports, until recently, we were hardly subjected to being photographed.
Visit India and you will know what it means to implement security measures.
It does not matter whether you are a guest at a hotel, you and your parcel will be screened for the number of times you enter the resort.
Even at airports, it does not matter whether you are boarding a connection flight within India or an international, the security scrutiny will apply. I cannot blame the Indian government for the security measures.
The Indian government has to protect its citizens from terrorists. In 2008, there were more than 10 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai, India’s largest city, by Islamic terrorists who invaded from Pakistani seawaters.
The terrorists, who carried out the reconnaissance before the attacks, later stated that the attacks were conducted with the support of Pakistan’s secret service.
The attacks began on November 26, 2008 and lasted until November 29, killing 164 people and wounding at least 308.
Eight of the attacks occurred in South Mumbai: at ChhatrapatiShivaji Terminus, the Oberoi Trident, the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, Leopold Cafe, Cama Hospital (a women and children’s hospital), Nariman House, the Metro Cinema, and a lane behind the Times of India building and St. Xavier’s College.
There was also an explosion at Mazagaon, in Mumbai’s port area, and in a taxi at Vile Parle. By the early morning of 28 November, all sites except for the Taj hotel had been secured by Mumbai Police and security forces. A response from India’s National Security Guards (NSG) on 29 November resulted in the death of the last remaining attackers at the Taj hotel, ending all fighting in the attacks.
Ajmal Kasab, the only attacker who was captured alive, disclosed that the attackers were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based militant organisation considered a terrorist organisation by India, Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the United Nations.
The Indian government said the attackers came from Pakistan, and their controllers were in Pakistan.
On January 7, 2009, Pakistan’s Information Minister Sherry Rehman officially accepted Ajmal Kasab’s nationality as Pakistani.
On February 12, 2009, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik asserted that parts of the attack had been planned in Pakistan.
A trial court on 6 May, 2010 sentenced AjmalKasab to death on five counts.
This is the sad story of India and terrorist attacks.
So when we visited Mumbai, we were all eager to see the TajMahal hotel. This was few hours before our departure for home.
As I took my flight back to Zambia on April 2, I thought about the words of India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, Anand Sharma, when he opened the India-Africa project partnership meeting in New Delhi.
He said India and Africa have a lot in common.
Mr Sharma talked about Mahatma Gandhi.
He was a pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement.
Gandhi lived between October 2, 1869 and 30 January, 1948.
He pioneered Satyagraha. This is defined as resistance to tyranny through mass civil resistance - a term which Gandhi used in many of his statements and writings.
His philosophy was firmly founded upon non-violence. His philosophy and leadership helped India gain independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.
Gandhi first employed civil disobedience while as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa during the resident Indian community’s struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he organised protests by peasants, farmers, and urban labourers concerning excessive land-tax and discrimination.
After assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns to ease poverty, expand women’s rights, build religious and ethnic amity and increase economic self-reliance.
I remembered Zambia’s first President, Dr Kenneth Kaunda. He followed Gandhi’s philosophy.
Well, India is simply great. I would not hesitate to go back there. Only that this time, I would insist not to spend almost four of the seven days travelling.
I would want to mingle with the rich and the poor Indians.
Instead of seeing the poor from aboard a bus and drink ing tea with the rich, I would want to familiarise with both.
Otherwise, India is simply Incredible.
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