Where Are These People Coming From?

Before I came to India, a friend of mine who had already been here told me I would be shocked with how many people live in India.  He said that statistics didn’t do it justice.  I laughed off the comment, who wouldn’t?  But it didn’t take me long before I realized how true that statement was.

Parking

Just walking around the block on the first morning in India, I already started to see what he meant.  I have worked as a valet parker for years and have a knack for being able to park close to other cars to save space.  Often times, I would open the windows of cars to jump out so we could park cars close enough to each other that the doors couldn’t be opened.  But the valet lots here just surprised me.  I was confused how the drivers were even able to get out of the cars.  There was no room to even jump out of the window!  I’m still thinking about how the parkers were able to get out of the cars.

Driving

The roads were just as baffling to me.  Obviously to an outsider, the way in which cars weave in and out of each other is a unique sight.  I’m undecided on whether that system works better than staying in your lanes as would be done in America.  Although drivers do not need to worry about slow cars in front of them, weaving causes a lot more sudden stops which, in turn, slow down traffic.  Furthermore, since cars need to merge into nonexistent lanes when the road narrows, it is even more imperative that cars are constantly stopping to yield to other cars.

I was curious for the first few days why I hadn’t seen a car accident due to how close the cars drive next to one another.  Maybe I should be more careful about my own premonitions. A day or two later, when we were walking to the bazaar near the hotel, I witnessed a car accident about a foot away from me!  A taxi slowed down at a traffic light and a motorcycle rear-ended it.  Luckily nobody was hurt.  Maybe from now on, I’ll stay on the sidewalk.

Walking

I worked in New York City, where the streets are always flooded with pedestrians.  But India always has people walking, whether it is in a major metropolitan area or on the side of a highway.  When we drove to Chandigarh, I still saw people walking on the sides of the most desolate or deserted areas.  Even when it seemed like we were passing nothing but farmland for miles and miles, there would still be dozens of people on the streets.

Statistics

According to the most recent data I could find, India’s population is approximately 1.14 billion and has a size of 1,269,345 square miles.  America, on the other hand, has about 304 million residents and is 3,537,441 square miles.  India has approximately 900 residents per square mile whereas the United States has about 86 residents per square mile.  This makes India about 10.5 times as densely populated as the United States.  After being shocked about the massive amounts of cars and how people seem to be everywhere, India’s large population density doesn’t surprise me at all, especially after seeing it firsthand.

Statistics taken from http://datafinder.worldbank.org/population-total?cid=GPD_1, http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/states/area.shtml, and http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-Oceania/India-LOCATION-SIZE-AND-EXTENT.html.

Kirpan

The Sikh faith is something I was completely oblivious to before coming to India.  Although I knew of its existence, I was unaware with the similarities and differences between Sikhism and other religions.  Some aspects seemed to be commonplace to me as a Jew, but others seemed to surprise me immensely.

Upon learning today that all Sikhs carry knives on them religiously (no pun intended), I immediately had to understand why this was the case.  This struck me as such a unique aspect of the religion since Sikhs have a bunch of external similarities to Judaism such as covering one’s head and refraining from shaving one’s face.  So this knife aspect startled me somewhat.  I made the assumption that this was some sort of symbol that a person should always be on the offensive but it is actually the opposite.

The knife is known as a “Kirpan.” Guru Gobind Singh, in 1699, declared that Sikhs must carry one at all times.  The reasoning behind this is to defend yourself and those who can not defend themselves in a time of need.  This is among several commandments (known as the 5 Ks) that the Guru enforced.  The Guru also stated that Sikhs should act as a bridge between Muslims and Hindus, which seems to continue on the peaceful theme as was counter-intuitively seen with the carrying of a knife at all times.

After asking my e-buddy about Sikhism, he seemed to be somewhat unaware of the reasoning behind their customs as well.  As a Hindu, he was most knowledgeable about his own religion.  But he did say that he could certainly see Sikhs as intermediaries between Muslims and Hindus.  Although he did not seem to encounter any racial issues personally, he could tell that there seemed to be peace between Sikhs and other religions but there was clearly tension between Muslims and Hindus living in India.