The Delhi Belly, known in other parts as Montezuma’s Revenge and several other names, is what keeps most Americans at home. We’re so afraid of the food, and our stomachs have become so homoginized that we’d rather stay in Des Moines and eat Big Macs than venture out of our own shadow. Unfortunately, it’s more or less with good reason.
There’s the odd thing is it doesn’t just effect tourists. Jonathon, the manager of the Aman I Khas said that they had to put in a water purification system in the nearby village where most of his workers lived to keep them healthy and coming to work. I took a “walkabout” with Jonathon through the grounds of his hotel to see how they did it. They have a totally integrated system and depend not one whit on the local infrastructure for food, water, sewerage, or health care. He said, “otherwise it would be impossible to stay in business.”
They have their own organic garden growing all of the vegetables served in their restaurant, they dug their own well and put the water through a purification system, a local farmer grows and butchers meat and chicken to his own specifications, they have their own septic system, and bring in their own doctor. Sounds kind of like Lyday Farms.
Jonathon told me of his introduction to Delhi early one winter morning arriving at the Delhi train station. Through the light fog arose steam from the human fecal matter being presented by an unending row of Indians squatting by the train tracks doing their morning duty. We’ve now been in several major Indian cities and have yet to see a public toilet facility of any kind, and it’s not like a western city where you can dodge into a local Mickey D’s or a Seven Eleven to use the facility with some certainty that you won’t be attacked by godzilla of the bacteria world. The fact is, I don’t have the foggiest notion where all of those people lounging about in the streets relieve themselves…..well, actually I’m afraid I do. The men just unzip and let it fly where ever they are. The women…..well, as usual, their life in this respect as in all respects here, is more difficult.
In rural areas, where eighty per cent of the population lives, there is almost no plumbing except for the village wells; which means of course no indoor plumbing. I guess they think of it as instant fertilizer….which is why one never eats any of the local produce except in the major western hotels and restaurants.
My capacity to endure long periods between visits to the facilities was never very good, but at my age, with my various maladies of the nether regions….about an hour and a half is my limit, and only then if I’ve been judicious with my morning liquids. This condition is often difficult even in NYC, but here, with the paucity of plumbing, it presents some really interesting challenges. Long car trips, of which we have had three, require careful planning, careful explanation to the drivers, limited ingestion of liquids, some daring, and then at times use of what our driver eufamisticly calls “The Bush Toilet”. One would normally resort to roadside petrol stations, but not here. Most of these have no plumbing of any kind and are visited by unending processions of long haul truck drivers……you get the idea. My guide in Agra cautioned my about the use of such facilities. He said, “much cleaner outside than inside”. Based on my recent experience, he was understating.
Then there is the disposal of remains. Normal garbage isn’t really the problem, well it is a problem because there’s so much of it. It’s dealt with more or less efficiently by the thousands of cows and pigs that roam free and root through the piles of edible garbage eating all except the inedible parts. Why didn’t we think of that. We could have saved all that valuable land that we use for landfills. As for the animal remains, of which there seems to be a surfeit, I can’t see that they do much at all except leave them laying about until various scavengers lower down the food chain eat their fill, and then perhaps someone will shove the leavings into a ditch if one is nearby. Human remains are even more oddly death with. I’ve not yet seen a cemetery here….for a good reason, there are no bodies to bury (with the minor exception of the few christians who have the bad luck to expire on the great asian sub-continent. They are all cremated in accordance with the teachings or traditions of Hinduism. That’s not so bad. What is bad is that whatever is left after the big fire (ashes and bits and pieces of bone) are all thrown in to the Ganges river or one of its tributaries, all of which are considered sacred. Nice touch. I’ve even thought that I’d like to have my final remains scattered on our tomato patch or somesuch. I don’t think that would disturb ecology or sanitation of Baker creek or the Middle Sulfur. But there’s 1.2 billion folks in India, and I suspect that more than a fair number of them expire every day, and they all get dumped in the river as does unprocessed effluents from businesses small and large along the river. The Ganges is reputed to be the most polluted river in the world. Our guide said one should not even walk in it. Doesn’t have to tell me twice.
So back to the Dehli Belly…..S. got it. I don’t know how, but it seems, so far, to be a light touch. We’ve medicated her with Pepto and some unknown pills from the front desk and waited for time and her digestive system to do it’s job. As for me, I’m eating everything in sight and taking G&T as a digestif each evening. So far so good. And I haven’t peed in my pants…..yet.
