The highs and lows of India
Amelia Romanos travelled to India in June/July 2011, funded by a media grant from Asia:NZ.
This was my first trip to India, and the experience was a true eye-opener. Besides following developments in the New Zealand-India relationship as I reported Prime Minister John Key’s movements, the visit also gave me a greater appreciation of the country’s culture, and showed me the scale of the poverty so many are living in.
Travelling with the prime minister’s delegation was particularly interesting because it gave me the chance to see parts of India not accessible to the public. I went to the official state welcome at the Presidential Palace, and later the state dinner at Hyderabad House, where I was introduced to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
I also visited Agra to see the Taj Mahal, and managed to snap a photo of Mr Key and his wife kissing on the bench in front of the palace. The photo was run internationally, and made it into all New Zealand’s major daily newspapers.
Another highlight of Mr Key’s trip was a visit to the Kotla cricket stadium in New Delhi. As well as covering Mr Key’s announcement about a new exchange programme between the countries, I was also able to visit a local slum, and was introduced to some children who lived there.
The delegation then headed to Mumbai, where I was able to visit a Bollywood film set, and speak to actors Abhishek Bachchan and Bipasha Basu. They spoke about their experience of filming in New Zealand, and what parts of the country they had enjoyed visiting.
It was intriguing to see the difference between how the New Zealand and Indian media worked. This was most evident at the cricket stadium and at the Bollywood set - undoubtedly the country’s two great passions. The New Zealand media contingent of about 15 was swamped by hundreds of local journalists at both events. The degree of competition for photos and stories was apparent as each journalist fought aggressively to get to the front.
When the political delegation and other journalists left, I was alone in Mumbai. While there, I met with a couple who were caught up in the 2008 terrorist attack on the Taj Mahal Palace, and interviewed them in the hotel’s restaurant, where they had been trapped for a day before being rescued.
Living in New Zealand, it can be easy to overlook the significance of overseas violence and become somewhat blasé to such situations. This interview gave me valuable first-hand insight into the experience of such an attack in a way that news reports could never have.
I also met Dr Kiran Martin, the head of India’s Asha Foundation, a non-governmental organisation thatworks to improve conditions in slums. New Zealand has some connection to Asha, with both the government and Tear Fund donating money to help build Asha centres in slums.
Martin spoke about setting up the organisation, which started 20 years ago with no office or facilities, and would use medical samples to help people directly in slums. Asha now has centres set up in about 50 slums, which assist more than 400,000 people.
In some cases there were 17 people sharing a one-room shelter at the slum, and my visit there really emphasised to me the poverty so many are forced to live in. Following on from the previous week’s trip with Mr Key, the visit to the slum also illustrated the huge divide between rich and poor in India.
I hope to be able to include much of what I learned of India in my future writing, and I will certainly have a much greater depth of knowledge on which to draw.
Images:
1. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh talking with Amelia
2. The Taj Mahal in Agra