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**About  India**

Today, why don't we go back to highschool days, and  study again World history?
 Have you ever been interested in India? and  how much do you  know about India?
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India ― Four major world religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated from India with a number of great minds, philosophers and religious leaders.

Bounded by the Bay of Bengal to the east, the Indian Ocean to the south and by the Arabian Sea to the west, the country was also home to the Indus Valley Civilization.

Over its long history, the country has been influenced by other religions and culture forming a multicultural society. This backdrop enables the country to have 27 world heritages recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). India is the most appealing country to those who are seeking a spiritual world for meditation and introspection.

India is the world's seventh largest country and is estimated to have a population of 1.12 billion, ranking it as the second most populous country.

Among three cities to be introduced on this page, Mumbai is the largest city and financial capital of India, Aurangabad is a historic city surrounded by many world heritages and Goa is a tourist hub with its picturesque beaches and beautiful villages.

**MUMBAI
Formerly known as Bombay, Mumbai is a modern commercial city. With an estimated population of thirteen million, it is capital of Maharashtra and has a deep natural harbor dealing with more than half of India's seagoing passenger traffic. The city also houses India's Hindi language film center, the so-called ``Bollywood.''

**AURANGABAD
Located in Maharashtra, Aurangabad was named after the 6th Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb who was sent here as the governor of Deccan. The city has many historic sites in and around it including Bibi ka Maqbara (a replica of the Taj Mahal), Aurangabad Caves, Ghrishneshwar Temple, Khultabad Ford and Daulatabad Fort. It is also an important stopover on the way to the World heritage, Ellora and Ajanta caves.

**Goa
Influenced by Portuguese culture, Goa is a perfectly harmonious place where all religious people mingle peacefully. Some 4 million live there and mining is the city's first industry. Also Goa is a hub for tourism.

About 50 percent of the residents are Hindu, 40 percent are Christian and the rest are other religions. A lot of religious festivals take place here that welcome people of all faiths. Some say the many beautiful beaches make Goans generous and peaceful so there are no fights or conflicts there. The best season for tourists is between October and March.

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NEW DELHI _ If you want to understand as much as possible about India in a single day, maybe the best way to go is to take the slow bus to Agra. And by slow, I mean slow as in the speed of a backlash of taffy.

There are no fast buses to Agra because the road more resembles a war-zone in which countless people seem to be fleeing somewhere for their life. Someday _ yes, some day _ the new highway will be up and running, but who knows how long that will take? It sometimes seems as if India goes out of its way to be inefficient.

Most people go to Agra to get to the justly famed and fabulous Taj Mahal. From New Delhi that’s about a four-hour trip. The journey itself is worth at least as much as the destination. India itself is too great to rush through even if that were remotely possible.

India is often touted as the next slam-dunk superpower, after emerging China and of course, the established United States. The big build-up mainly comes from the Western media, especially in the U.S. Both the Clinton and Bush administrations have imagined India as a kind of balancing-superpower to China should the latter get too feisty, aggressive or in any way profoundly obstreperous to U.S interests.

With more than a billion people (half of which are under the age of 25) and a tremendous science and technology base (the legacy of its first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru), India might not be a bad bet to make it. But it has a long way to go _ perhaps much longer than Western hype or India’s own best hopes would suggest.

Travel the road to Agra and you see what’s out there in the real world of ancient India. You leave the fancy hotels and well-kept tourist sites in the nation’s capital and discover reality.

Reality is the caravan of camels pulling new and used electronics equipment up the road to a distribution center. There are about five tired-looking camels, each with a driver and a cart behind with goods to deliver. The tourist bus doesn’t seem to bother the camels _ indeed, nothing seems to.

A mommy-monkey hops across an open square with her baby clutching for her life on her back. It wins the cute-award for the whole trip. Going in the other direction, much more slowly, is a white cow. He crosses the square at his own good speed as the midday crowd makes way, ultimately deciding to park himself between a parked white Honda and green Acura.

This all takes place on a road through the state of Uttar Pradesh, This is where the metropolis of Agra and its famed monument the Taj Mahal are located. The state sports something close to 170 million residents. This is approximately equal to the entire population of Pakistan _ the nuclear-armed Islamic state to the northwest with which India is often at odds on big issues.

The good people of Uttar Pradesh struggle on with one of the country’s lowest per-capita incomes. People, from children to grandparents, do what they have to do to survive. They beg for money, recycle anything that can possibly be recycled and scrape up what they can while hoping and praying for tomorrow. It is a kaleidoscopic scene beyond any fictionalizing, but to Western eyes it might seem most like a memorable page or two from Emile Zola or Victor Hugo.

At the end of the journey north lay the city of Agra and its main jewel, the Taj Mahal, a white architectural apparition arising in the middle of 110 degree heat and a miasmatic tableau of tourists and locals.

Even if the camels and monkeys and cows and people of Uttar Pradesh had decided to take the day off and not provide one of the great tumultuous insights into the real India today, the delight of the destination would have justified the journey. But it is the people who make a culture and a nation, along with their animal helpers, their democratic constitution and their anti-colonial spirit. Despite all the backbreaking poverty and corrupt or hilariously inefficient bureaucracies along with everything else, India still has a shot at becoming that superpower.

``Notwithstanding the poverty,’’ commented a professional American social worker traveling with me, ``you don’t get the sense of defeat. After all, the people will do almost anything for a rupee. They want, badly.’’

Even so, it’s not so easy to become a superpower. China is not there yet and still could implode before it happens. America is there but it still might fall off its high horse if it keeps making wrong big-time decisions. India is far from there and whatever its realistic chances, superpower-status is anything but a slam-dunk.

That’s one reason why the soul of India that you see in Uttar Pradesh won’t give up.

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After watching the film "Slumdog Millionaire," winner of eight 2009 Academy Awards, Indian Ambassador Skand Ranjan Tayal has fallen into a dilemma.

Because of the film's worldwide recognition, it's a good bargaining chip for promoting his country, yet it contains misleading element he said.

The film tells the story of young man named Jamal Malik, from the slums of Mumbai, who ascends to become a winner of the Indian version of the TV quiz show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?"

He happens to know all the answers, not because he is intelligent but because of what he went through in life as a slum kid. Every question takes viewers back to how he got to know the answer.

Ambassador Tayal said despite the nature of the film, the extent of exaggeration of the slums gives the impression that Mumbai is full of them with children living in poverty and filth, that the social structure is completely corrupted by violence and the absence of the rule of law and that child labor and abuse are commonplace.

The film has caught the reality of it, but over all, it has blown it out of all proportion, he said.

"That's not what India is all about," Tayal told The Korea Times after viewing the film.

"What does the film make you think about Mumbai?" his wife, Kusum, asked.

Endless maze-like narrow alleys are good hideouts when the authorities show up. Residents of the slum drink from, do laundry in and clean themselves in a river nearby.

Children hang out at a nearby trash heap, and solicit their findings. Sanitation is nowhere to be found and one must go outdoors to relieve himself or herself.

There is a scene in which the young Jamal gets locked in an outdoor restroom.
As he cannot wait to see a super film star who was visiting the town, he chooses to jump into the septic tank and runs coated in human waste and, naturally, its odor.

Kusum, who must have been floored by the scene, emphasized that such acts were no longer typical in the slums.

From a diplomatic point of view, the ambassador thinks the movie has carried more of a negative impact than a positive one.

It wasn't just he who opposed the film. When it was released and was subsequently nominated for Academy Awards and won, controversy arose among Indians.

The New York Times quoted critics claiming it told the story of stunted, shafted slum children in India.

Meanwhile, some Indians have taken the victory as their own.

India's Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, congratulated the "Slumdog" team, saying, "The winners have done India proud."

Ambassador Tayal said slums are the result of the migration of people into urban areas. The Indian government, in response, has had to set up social welfare projects for those who dwell both in rural and urban areas.

"Children living in the slums shown briefly in the movie have access to free education," he said.

According to the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Center (SPARC), a non-governmental Indian organization working on housing and infrastructure issues for the urban poor, by 2025, half of the world's population will be living in cities, and one billion people will be living in slums.

In Mumbai alone, six million people will live in slums, the group said on its Web site.

The last time an Indian won an Academy Award was in 1982 when the biographical film "Gandhi," directed by Richard Attenborough and co-produced with UK production companies, won eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor (Ben Kingsley).

"Slumdog Millionaire" had a female Indian co-director, Leveleen Tandan.

The film was based on the novel "Q & A" by Vikas Swarup, an Indian diplomat to South Africa. Ambassador Tayal said Swarup has made a name for himself as the author of several books now, particularly "Q & A."

The film was shot between late 2007 and early 2008 in Mumbai. Later in 2008, the city was the stage for a terrorist attack. In fact, Kusum said the train station seen in the very last scene was the very spot where terrorists started to kill 173 people.
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*Warm-up

1,Please, bring short but interesting news.

*Main questions

1,When it comes to India, what comes up in your mind first?, or what image  do you have
   about India?
 
2, If you see the movie " Slumdog Millionaire" ,  you may see some parts of India.
    However, it is impossible to talk everything related to India.  why don't we touch several
   parts of India so that  we get some knowledge as common sense.
   Among these parts,  choose at least one and prepare some information, interesting stories and tell us.  Don't take it seriously...just study for our common sense.  
  
    *Movie
    *religion
    *political situation with neighboring countries
    *Historic sites
    *A caste system
     *etc..
3, Lastly.. Although we know a little bit about India and  we are not experts, if we forecast India's future, what perspective do you have?   Whatever you know about movie, sightseeing, economy ,a caste system...anything would be  OK.
  

[rachel]

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