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Twilight of the Taj Mahal

bbc.co.uk

51–60 of 96 posts

Re: Twilight of the Taj Mahal

#51
in actual fact internet hindus complain the asi spends too much money on this and not on actual archaeological research

my opinion this should be left to private muslim groups who might be interested in its preservation

hindus found out its history which was suppressed by marxists and are not likely to keep paying for it

cultural death by tourists of the kind seen in japan nowadays is not desirable either

Re: Twilight of the Taj Mahal

#52
post #48
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My personal situation, on a relative scale, is rather more tragic. I would suggest you not to make that assumption about my upbringing, for you would be quite incorrect.

>>My personal situation, on a relative scale, is rather more tragic. Everybody's is. Imagine what goes in the mind of a boy, who is living and watching crores of people starving in his country. Unless you have abundance for everyone, every ones gathers what they can for themselves.

You are ratifying my point, especially in your deleted comment. The rest of this response was originally for your deleted comment. I think it makes sense here as well:

A poorly funded school is a governmental/societal failing. As is the inability to afford basic necessities. It should simply never be that way. We produce enough food to feed c. 10bn people, yet parts of the world go hungry. We can cheaply disseminate education almost anywhere today, yet large portions of the world remain uneducated. In a country like India, these things can now be addressed, if only there was a plan and a sincere effort to execute that plan.

I did not mean to hurt you and I sincerely hope you escape/have escaped your hell, but more importantly, that you don't create hell for others once you do escape. Perhaps even try to alleviate the hell of others when you are able to do so.

My point is, given the resources we have, life doesn't need to be hell. It can be good, if we manage things properly.

Re: Twilight of the Taj Mahal

#53
post #49
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are we really poor? Or are we just badly managing ourselves? Seriously, in a country as naturally rich as India, there is no reason for people to be emaciated with poverty during peacetime. If only we had more passionate people willing to stamp out inefficiency and corruption. And btw, passion is not over-hyped - in my experience, it's almost vital when trying to improve your own or society's situation.

>>Seriously, in a country as naturally rich as India, there is no reason for people to be emaciated with poverty during peacetime. India is not a rich country. Natural resources are not what make one rich. Its human resources. The human resources development project has been abandoned ever since Jawaharlal Nehru died.

I'm not sure what you mean? Being naturally rich in resources is pretty much what makes you rich in the material sense. Other countries would kill/have killed for India's resources.

Re: Twilight of the Taj Mahal

#54
post #10

"Incredible India", as the country's tourism slogan claims, is fast disappearing. I know this may get downvoted by fans of India, but I'm just saying it as I see it. If it matters, I'm of Indian origin too. First of all, India has everything it needs to be amazing. A young workforce, driven, technical people, a nice selection of flourishing industries, bucket loads of natural resources and abundant sources of renewab…

this completely ignores the massive progress made by india mostly in the last four years on the cleanliness drive, making toilets available to most households to prevent open defecation, electricity and internet link up to all villages, massive jump in mobile data consumption, doubling the road length laid per day, switching the poor from coal and wood stoves to gas, switching massively to led lights, huge push in solar power, connecting up the national electricity grid, hugely stepping up building airports and city metros, massive spread of banking and cards to all households, massive program of health insurance to 500 million people, massive reduction in corruption and wastage of gov funds by direct benefit transfer and subsidy programs, big jumps in ease of business rankings, huge reforms of the indirect tax system and removal of transport and logistics hindrances etc

Re: Twilight of the Taj Mahal

#55
post #42
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My personal situation, on a relative scale, is rather more tragic. I would suggest you not to make that assumption about my upbringing, for you would be quite incorrect.

Fair enough, mea culpa . However, my argument (stated differently) that passion is a luxury that not everyone can afford , still stands.

I don't think you understand what I'm saying. In a sense, I'm agreeing with you.

Passion is a luxury in India, yes, but because of the way society has been set up. We need to change things so as to nurture the passions of our people, rather than have them scrambling for basic necessities. I believe we have all the ingredients to make it happen, but seem to lack the will or a plan.

Re: Twilight of the Taj Mahal

#56

in actual fact internet hindus complain the asi spends too much money on this and not on actual archaeological research my opinion this should be left to private muslim groups who might be interested in its preservation hindus found out its history which was suppressed by marxists and are not likely to keep paying for it cultural death by tourists of the kind seen in japan nowadays is not desirable either

> my opinion this should be left to private muslim groups who might be interested in its preservation

What does it say about a country when a large number of its people don't want to maintain its most famous monument because it happens to have been built by a king of the minority religion?

What about other monuments - should the maintenance of India Gate be left to private Christian groups?

> hindus found out its history which was suppressed by marxists and are not likely to keep paying for it

What was this history? I hope you are not referring to something like https://www.booksfact.com/archeology/taj-mahal-original-name... a theory being pushed by charlatan historians, and eagerly lapped up by internet hindus who suffer from a deep insecurity that India's most famous monument happens to be a "Muslim" monument.

Re: Twilight of the Taj Mahal

#57
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>While I was in Delhi about 2 weeks ago, my father asked me to advise the 17 year old son of one of his employees. I met the guy - a studious, fiercly competitive lad, but pleasant nonetheless. He wanted to become a doctor; I asked him "why a doctor?". His response was that he could make a lot of money in that field, specifically because people come to you when they're in need and in trouble. I then asked him "What a…

I don't disagree with you, however, the individual in my story was not "poor" - he was part of India's middle class. His father was being paid reasonably well at my dad's firm for the last 20+ years.

It is easy to moralize when you don't know where the shoe bites. It might look decent to you from the outside but even decently paid struggle to keep up because of the following factors:

1. India does not have a social safety net so every man or family is for themselves. This just forces people to give first priority to accumulation of money.

2. Even a decent life style in India is not affordable unless you are a business which is either insanely profitable or knows how to hide profits. Even the top bracket earners can't afford decent life style unless they are willing to live hand to mouth or on credit.

3. Suburbs and small cities are so under developed that you can't live there unless you have made a decision to compromise your Children future.

Fun fact: My salary is in top 10-20% range of what you can get in India but the moment I step into India my savings rate drop to almost close to zero due to following factors:

Taxes: You salary is taxed at 35% effectively. This is money you are paying with no returns to be seen. Remember there is no social safety net. If you are saving for modest future via Employee provident fund, your in-hand income drops to 50% of the stated salary.

Rent or Mortgage: Unless you were lucky or have an ancestral property in the right place, you will be paying a decent chunk of your income to rent seekers who will push for a 10% increases Y-o-Y unless you are willing to move bases every 11 months. With Kids going to school, it's not easy to switch every year. You can save this money only when you are willing to put up in shady neighborhood or travel from out skirts for 2-3 hours each side.

Schools & Education: There are only a few good state run Schools so putting kids into Private Schools (which are ironically called Public School) is the only option. This costs significant chunk of your remaining income.

Transportation: You have to buy a car to get anywhere as public transport is overcrowded and not very comfortable especially for Children and elderly. Even then you don't save much as travel from your home to these public transport will still cost you decent money as you just can't walk to public transport.

Re: Twilight of the Taj Mahal

#58
post #56

in actual fact internet hindus complain the asi spends too much money on this and not on actual archaeological research my opinion this should be left to private muslim groups who might be interested in its preservation hindus found out its history which was suppressed by marxists and are not likely to keep paying for it cultural death by tourists of the kind seen in japan nowadays is not desirable either

> my opinion this should be left to private muslim groups who might be interested in its preservation What does it say about a country when a large number of its people don't want to maintain its most famous monument because it happens to have been built by a king of the minority religion? What about other monuments - should the maintenance of India Gate be left to private Christian groups? > hindus found out its his…

it says that hindus dont want to pay to glorify islamic invasions which led to massive loot plunder and genocide of hindus

same for the european colonial loot and plunder

christians didnt even apologize for goa inquisition

Re: Twilight of the Taj Mahal

#59
post #10

"Incredible India", as the country's tourism slogan claims, is fast disappearing. I know this may get downvoted by fans of India, but I'm just saying it as I see it. If it matters, I'm of Indian origin too. First of all, India has everything it needs to be amazing. A young workforce, driven, technical people, a nice selection of flourishing industries, bucket loads of natural resources and abundant sources of renewab…

this completely ignores the massive progress made by india mostly in the last four years on the cleanliness drive, making toilets available to most households to prevent open defecation, electricity and internet link up to all villages, massive jump in mobile data consumption, doubling the road length laid per day, switching the poor from coal and wood stoves to gas, switching massively to led lights, huge push in so…

Your handle says it all - I hate Taj Mahal BBC, and your comment reads like a bullet list from a government apologist.

Addressing basic needs are not massive progress, the government is expected to do these things in response to the growing taxation, it's not a favor but their duty. India's whole problem is mismanagement and corruption, and the current culture placing profiteering over everything else and the parent explains these very issues.

Re: Twilight of the Taj Mahal

#60
post #53
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Seriously, in a country as naturally rich as India, there is no reason for people to be emaciated with poverty during peacetime. India is not a rich country. Natural resources are not what make one rich. Its human resources. The human resources development project has been abandoned ever since Jawaharlal Nehru died.

I'm not sure what you mean? Being naturally rich in resources is pretty much what makes you rich in the material sense. Other countries would kill/have killed for India's resources.

Oil has been there under the earth for thousands of years now. But it takes some work to put it use.

Human resources are the most important natural resource any country will by and far ever own.

That's also the reason why the 60 mile radius around Bay Area, a barren desert, has an economic output higher than several countries.

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