India in Contrast

I saw bits of two programmes on telly tonight both filmed in India.

They were both beautiful but in very different ways.

The first one was Unreported World about the gruesome murder of members of the lower caste system by those in 'higher' castes like the warriors as they rebel against the caste system that regards them as untouchables. OK depressing? No. It wasn't done that way, the child of the lower caste being interviewed about being shut in a dark toilet cubicle for daring to ask to go to the toilet, wasn't depressing. And when they were accused of being rat-eaters as a put down by teachers in class it was followed by a rat-hunter digging out rats and his children cooking and eating them on a makeshift fire, horrible as that was to see it also wasn't put forth in that way. They came across in a very dignified, peaceful and determined manner which was amazing to see.

The other was in Natural World showing tigers in the most splendid surroundings. I'd heard the story about why animals are striped because it breaks up their outline - which it probably does - but as the tigers were moving through the grasses it was like a strobe effect which just looked like the grasses moving in the wind - becoming harder to see. Anyway there has only ever been one filmed tiger kill, and they finally managed to get a second on film in the programme. They are incredibly rare for all the usual reasons like loss of habitat, poachers etc. The environment seems different to Africa, less harsh and more sensual.

So in hugely different ways they were both about living life in a beautiful way in India