“How do the cultural clashes between the traditional Indian culture and the emergence of technology such as text messaging and internet dating effect  romantic relationships in India?”

My answer:

I am in Bangalore, the centre of the IT-boom in India. I have been discussing this with a photographer. His friends claim him to be “the digital Romeo”. Apparently the internet and sms does not help that much in building relationships, for that you need to meet. However it helps people to maintain distance relations when jobs and other realities forces people to live apart. He also like to take first contact with the computer. According to his friends he has thousands of nice girls in his contact list of which 900 can be found online any given time. In my opinion these functions are more or less universal, so I ask if there is something more specific. The answer is that there are websites for arranging marriages where you can browse for race, caste, wealth and so on. This service is used by all kinds of people, not just parents. Another particularity is that it is more common to own a mobile than being able to read. So mms is more frequent than sms. Frequency of messages is also because of the prices. Depending on what plan you have you can send messages very cheap and it doesn’t take long time. It appears as if people in rural India communicate with pictures rather than words (at least written words). I like the thought that there is a new way of communicating growing in forgotten places.

The answer is yes. But the way to get there is not obvious. There are some initiatives that look promising, the new metro in Delhi which make communication more effective and lowers the use of taxi, introduction of the green and yellow auto rickshaws that run on environment friendly fuel and people recycling plastic in dumps and slum areas. But it seems to me that there is lack of seeing ones own contribution to the system. The ruling philosophy when people transport themselves is to be in front of everyone. Trains are often delayed because everyone want to board first. Garbage is often disposed of at location because there is almost no trashcans, and even if there were the trucks for emptying cans these would fill the streets and block most traffic.

One thing that is a huge success though (even though Indians may not agree with me) is the peaceful way different cultures coexist. I would like to compare with former Yugoslavia that, like India, have different religions and ethnicies, and had been living under repression and limited rights. The difference is that the differences and numbers of different social groups are pretty small compared to India. And India still has peace (even though the road have been, and is, winding and difficult). I think India’s great strength is to incorporate good things from different cultures.

India will not make the same mistakes as West has done, at least not to the same extent. If they did civilisation as we know it would end because of how many they are.

Next step is collective learning. It is better if everybody learn half of what is needed than if half learn everything. Signs of this you can see in some places. Crowd control in the metro is achieved through repeating very clear rules all the time. The biggest challenge from this perspective is dialogue, not between cultures but between classes. The recycling in the slum is not visible for the government (at least they do not seem to reflect and act to support it) and the goals of the government to acquire clean air is not present in the mind of the large masses.

The sheer size of India makes ‘a’ Gay India story an impossible task, and it’s not just size that matters; it’s also the intense complexity and patchwork of overlapping and diverse religions, discrete language dialects, gender divisions, class prescriptions and prohibitions, political fragmentation and fluid definitions of sexuality.

More than a few observers have said that India is a paradox: whatever can be said aloud deeper truths are unspoken; what is seen is unknown; it is packed with life, it is fraught with death; it surges with technology, it travels by ox cart.

The same can be said about homosexuality: there is no scene and there is an extensive network; there is no gay life and there is much gay energy; gay people hide in shadows and they gather to celebrate their lives and protest in public rallies.

There is also an issue with HIV and aids but the problem is more and more becomming a problem of all india and less a problem for only the homo-comunity

So far I have three answers: In the slum the main result is that a growing number of people are starting to live legally, and to work legally (I.e. paying taxes) and through that they obtain increased rights. As to the tourist area the result is that fewer has to go abroad to look for work. I also spoke to an engineer student involved in constructing tricykles for handcapped. He claimed that the money stays with the already rich and wealthy.

2008-03-12(typ, beroende på vart flygplanet befinner sig)

Tja, det här med att flyga till andra kontinenter är schysst. Just den här gången kan man lyssna på två kanaler japansk pop och en med finsk. Dessutom pratar personalen fyra språk (varav ett är svenska)

Dagens höjdpunkt är faktiskt att bli applåderad och mottagen med champagne av sina klasskamrater.