Trevor Fishlock lived and reported out of India for several years. He wrote a book called INDIA FILE, chronicling his view of India, which was first published in 1983. His "outsider-looking-in" view of India is very perceptive indeed, and still rings true, even a quarter-century after it was first written. It is rivalled in recent times by Suketu Mehta's Maximum CIty, which chronicles the seamier side of Mumbai city alone.
Some excerpts will (hopefully) indicate why I found this old book which I chanced upon, so interesting.
"Indians are a tactile people, living thigh by thigh, jostling, rubbing, holding hands and embracing, close to each other's breath and borborgymi, the bubble of each other's pots. They have learned to cram, to take a deep communal breath to admit just one more, to fill every crevice, to hang by their nails, to sit on one buttock, to stretch the seams of their streets, houses and vehicles. ... Indeed, the true Indian motif is not the Taj Mahal, the elephant or the patient-peasant behind the ox-drawn plough. It is the crowd, the ocean of faces in the land of multitudes, endlessly stirring, pushing, moving, as teeming and vigorous and urgent as spermatozoa." ...
"Whatever he chooses, an Indian with even a little education will hope to occupy a 'position'. India is a community of heirarchies, rigidly stratified, and a position is of great importance"...
"By shouting 'Expedite!' Indian leaders can achieve much. As I write, builders and engineers are creating records in building stadiums, hotels, roads and bridges for the Asian Games in Delhi. Four of five years' work is being compressed into two. It is a feat by any standard. (Why it all had to be done in such a rush is another matter.) In India, the eleventh hour often seems to be soon enough. ... The first time I went to a wedding, I arrived on time and was the only person there: the other guests arrived an hour later and the event began an hour after that." ...
"The marriage of the Prince of Wales in 1981 had elements familiar to Indians. He had, quite properly, to accept the constraints of his position and marry in accordance with his dharma, his responsibility and role in life. He could not permit himself to fall cap over spurs for just anyone: his great-uncle, Edward VIII, strayed from his dharma and inevitably lost his throne. The Prince of Wales's marriage had to a large extent to be an arranged one. His bride had to be a virgin, and capable of bearing children, facts announced in the newspapers. She had to be attractive, and of the prince's caste, the landed gentry. (Out-of-caste marriages still make news in Britain. The union of an earl's daughter with a lorry driver will always provide newspapers with a story).
As a rule, Indian marriages are not merely the union of two people, but a linking of families, clans and groups. Parents take pains to find compatible partners within the usual social requirements. They look for what any parent would look for, an attractive and decent character. Love is regarded as an unreliable basis on which to begin a marriage and is an emotion which is expected to develop." ...
"The sari is eternally in fashion, comfortable and right, and while the changes are rung mainly in colours and patterns, there are varying ways of wearing it. For example, the skirt may be worn high, or sometimes low on the hips, accentuating the belly-swell considered so attractive. Smart women in Bombay sometimes like to show some buttock cleavage, and the blouse, or choli, may also be low-cut. The sari is a garment of languorous grace, not suited to rapid activity. The wet sari, as seen clinging to film actresses, has in recent years come to represent an erotic ideal." ...
"A kiss is rerely seen in an Indian film, being too daring, and too offensive, in a society where such physical pleasures are enjoyed in private. Few Indian couples show affection in public. You hardly ever see boys and girls holding hands, and you never see them canoodling in the parks. Indeed, in parks, you are more likely to see groups of boys and girls sitting in sexually segregated circles, some yards apart."
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