on cleanliness

I am sitting in my dirty hotel room literally counting down the hours till I can leave this place, ChitraDurga. Namely, the Aishwarya Fort, which remains the dirtiest hotel at which I have stayed. Now, I have stayed at worse establishments, but they usually add an "s" to hotel (hostel....mmmkay?)

There are all of these odd stains on the walls, on my sheets. The other night I was trying to get some sleep because I had a stomach virus from something I ate, from their kitchen, when I woke up to the apocalypse, or so I thought. It turns out that my room was directly above the dishwashing area or something. I was so furious. I was sweaty, achy and feeling so ill from not being able to keep anything down all day and now I was waking up to pots and pans. I called the room service guys and all they could say was "umm what madam? ...room number?" Its at times like these I am so frustrated with how things work here. No one should have been sleeping in that room, it was so loud I was boggled as to how they ever rented this room out to guests. At that point, I ran downstairs and complained about the noise and they moved me to the third floor. The room was identical, though this time there was no underwear in the bathroom, so that was a slight improvement.

oh yeah, in the last bathroom, i even found a bindi still stuck to the bathroom wall and a tiny little spider in the corner next to my sink.

oh it gets better.. i went down to check to make sure i didn't leave anything in the room, and the boys had already "remade" the bed, in the dirty stomach virus sheets I had just gotten out of! i was like "YOU HAVE TO ChANGE THEM I AM SICK!" and they nodded "oh okay madame" i feel bad for the next guy who has to sleep there...ewwww....

From what I understood, people who stay in hotels in these remote areas are those who do not have relatives to stay with and therefore a hotel is a last resort. (no pun intended!) My Mani uncle mentioned that Indian hotels weren't even majorly used by businessmen until the last 30 years, and in rural areas, this is still not a common thing. Some of the nicest, five star hotels I have been to are in India, but I guess the lack of need in more rural areas, means that they are not held to as high standards. .... either way, i don't get stains on the walls and not changing the sheets, that to me, is just common sense, regardless of what country i am in.

i guess all that to say is that while i always thought there was this over emphasis on cleanliness in indian culture, it really isn't there in a widespread nature. people might broom the hell out of the area in front of their small shop, but then they will broom all the dirt from their shop straight into the street. "chakadai!" as my family calls it.... so even though someone's storefront is clean, the actual street and surrounding location is still disgusting, full of trash, poop etc.

This week I was waiting for someone to recharge my cell phone, when I saw this little girl with a pavadai chattai (outfit for younger girls that consists of a matching top and silk skirt with a big border). She screamed something in Kannada at her mother, then lifted up her skirt and just peed right there in the street. It was one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen. Its bad enough that all over the rural areas, and actually even in big cities, that men pull up against any wall on a major or minor road, to take a leek, but to see a little girl, just lift up her skirt and have no cares, as she stepped over a puddle of her own pee, was just too funny. It was also definitely gross, and resulted in me doubting every wet spot on the street thereinafter.

I don't get how people can hire all these people to come clean their dishes, dust everything, wash the floors, on a daily basis, and also simultaneously throw shit out onto the street. People drink tea in those little plastic or paper cups and they just throw them out. The only garbage cans around, don't get cleaned out often and always are swarming with flies.

I know I'm painting a really dire picture, but it really frustrates me that there's a cleanliness hypocrisy here. Indians are obsessed with cleanliness within boundaries, and beyond that they are completely comfortable littering the streets, not caring for the environment even a little bit. It happens even in NYC, but not to the degree with which it happens here, at least that's the way I see it.

Also - this seems to carry over into the way they are doing business. They are happy to pollute and use extra pesticides, and reason that the western countries had their opportunity to destroy the environment. While this is true, countries like India, China and Brazil, that are now major manufacturers of everything from cars to designer jeans need to learn from our mistakes, not make them again, because things like global warming and climate change can't be put on hold. We got a lot of hogwash from one of the TATA directors, who talked all sorts of BS about Corporate social responsibility but also could not answer the simple question of "do you practice what you preach? are your factories really green?" Of course they're not TATA! you can't talk green and not walk green or something like that.... more on this later when i get more research...