为什么有些人仍然想生活在印度这样的国家？（一）-网帖翻译-龙腾网

I lived in a little town called Ooty up in the Nilgiris Hills of Tamil Nadu. It’s a rather beautiful place surrounded by rainforest. The town is served by a railway, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Mountain Railways of India, that snakes its way up the hills providing views like you wouldn’t believe.

我住在泰米尔纳德邦尼尔吉里斯山上一个叫乌堤的小镇上。那是一个被雨林环绕的美丽地方。小镇上有一条铁路，这条铁路是联合国教科文组织世界遗产印度山区铁路的一部分，它蜿蜒而上，提供的景色让你难以置信。

Ooty is pretty clean - cleaner than London at least. (For the record, I don’t particularly enjoy living in cities anywhere - Mumbai is great for a visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there!) Most single-use plastics are banned there, and they’re getting stricter every year. For someone who loves the natural world, Ooty is spectacular. At the weekends I would just hop on my motorbike and ride around the mountains through the tea and eucalyptus plantations. If I fancied it, I could ride down the mountain through all the hairpin bends (great fun!) and head into the national parks and see elephants, bears, peacocks, monkeys and, if I was lucky, the big cats.

乌提相当干净——至少比伦敦更干净。（就个人而言，我不特别喜欢在任何城市生活——孟买适合旅游，但我不想在那里生活！）那里禁止大多数一次性塑料制品，并且他们每年都在加强管理。对于喜欢自然界的人来说，乌提是一个壮观的地方。周末我会骑上我的摩托车，穿过茶园和桉树林环绕的山脉。如果我想，我可以沿着盘山公路骑下山，穿过所有的急转弯（非常有趣！），进入国家公园，看到大象、熊、孔雀、猴子，如果我幸运的话，还能看到大猫科动物。

If I fancied going even further I could quite easily pop into Kerala and go to one of the beach resorts. I could go from the cool drizzly Nilgiris Hills and be on a warm tropical beach in a few hours. Not many places you can do that!

如果我想走得更远，我可以很容易地去喀拉拉邦，去一个海滩度假胜地。我可以从凉爽多雨的尼尔吉里山区，几个小时内就到达温暖的热带海滩。没有多少地方可以这样做！

This is a photo of me (I’ve got the green rucksack) and some visitors doing a trek in the mountains around Ooty. We’re right at the edge of them - just behind us are the Mysore Plains and it’s pretty much a straight 1000m drop from here to there!

这是我和一些游客在乌提山区进行徒步旅行的照片（我背着绿色背包）。我们就站在山脉边缘，我们身后就是迈索尔平原，从这里到那里几乎是直线下降1000米！

The variety of natural landscapes is a big attraction for me - you don’t get that in Britain. I could even get to the Himalaya quickly and easily through a cheap domestic flight or an even cheaper (and fun) train journey! If I fancied going scuba diving one holiday I could go to Goa or the Andaman Islands.

自然景观的多样性对我来说是一个很大的吸引力 - 在英国是无法体验到的。我甚至可以通过廉价的国内航班或更便宜（而且有趣）的火车旅行迅速轻松地到达喜马拉雅山！如果我想去潜水度假，我可以去果阿或安达曼群岛。

I’m also fortunate in the sense that I earn a reasonably decent salary. By UK standards I don’t, but by Indian standards I’m rather wealthy. It meant that when I lived out there I could afford to have a maid - this is impossible for most British families, even relatively affluent ones. I had a nice house out there - comfortable and I never really had to worry about money. I basically did what I liked, ate out regularly (masala dosa for about Rs 50? Fantastic, and that was the inflated price I paid for being white!), went on holiday to exotic locations and had a nice motorbike. I worry about money constantly in the UK. The cost of education is frightening (gotta love all that student debt), my rent (small flat) is ridiculous, my bills go up every year (my salary doesn’t), etc. etc. I haven’t taken a proper holiday in YEARS.

我也很幸运，因为我有一份相当不错的薪水。按照英国的标准，我的薪水并不高，但按照印度的标准，我算是相当富裕了。这意味着当我住在那里时，我负担得起一个女佣 - 这对大多数英国家庭来说是不可能的，即使是相对富裕的家庭也是如此。我在那里有一个漂亮的房子 - 舒适而且我从来不用担心钱的问题。我基本上随心所欲，经常外出就餐（50卢比一份马萨拉多萨？太棒了，而且这还是我作为外国人支付的高价！），去异国度假和拥有一辆不错的摩托车。在英国，我经常为钱而担忧。教育费用令人恐惧（必须喜欢所有的学生债务），我的房租（小公寓）荒谬得离谱，我的账单每年都在涨（我的薪水没有涨），等等。我已经好几年没有度过一个真正的假期了。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

I made it to the top of Thorung La in Nepal on a trekking holiday doing the Annapurna Circuit - one of the best experiences of my life. Getting to Nepal is dead easy from India.
The standard of living in India is higher - much higher - for middle-class families than in the UK, and that’s nothing something you’d necessarily realise unless you’ve experienced both. I could do half as much work as I do now and still have more disposable income in India than I have in the UK. Contrary to popular belief, you can still get hold of just about everything you can get hold of in the West - even Marmite. I appreciate this is because there’s a large portion of the country that doesn’t have a lot of money.

我在尼泊尔进行了一次徒步旅行，完成了安纳普尔纳环线，成功登上了尼泊尔托隆拉，这是我生活中最美好的经历之一。从印度前往尼泊尔非常方便。印度的中产家庭的生活水平比英国高得多，除非你亲身经历过这两个国家，否则你可能不会意识到这一点。在印度，我可以只工作一半的时间，但可支配收入仍然比在英国更多。与流行观点相反，你仍然可以买到几乎所有西方国家能买到的东西，甚至包括马麦酱。我明白这是因为该国有很大一部分人口并不富裕。

I love the people. India has just over a billion of them and they speak dozens of languages and practice several major religions (and many more minor ones). It is genuinely incredible that, for the most part, the country functions pretty well. My first few hours in India took me from Bangalore Airport to Ooty. On that journey I went through three states speaking three different languages with three different writing scxts (Karnataka, Kannada; Kerala, Malayalam; and Tamil Nadu, Tamil). I love that linguistic diversity. On the street I lived on were Christian families, Muslim families, Buddhist families (Tibetan refugees), Jains and Parsis. It is very rare even in the more cosmopolitan parts of the world to have that. While tensions do flare up from time to time, they are unusual.

我喜欢印度的人民。印度有超过十亿人口，他们讲着数十种语言，信仰几个主要宗教（以及许多其他次要宗教）。令人难以置信的是，这个国家在很大程度上运转良好。我在印度的头几个小时就从班加罗尔机场前往奥蒂。在这段旅程中，我穿越了三个邦，使用了三种不同的语言和书写系统（卡纳塔克邦，卡纳达语；喀拉拉邦，马拉雅拉姆语；泰米尔纳德邦，泰米尔语）。我喜欢这种语言多样性。我住的街上有基督教家庭、穆斯林家庭、佛教家庭（xz难民）、耆那教徒和祆教徒。即使在世界上更国际化的地区，这种情况也是非常罕见的。尽管紧张局势时有发生，但这种情况并不常见。

I once took my motorbike on an epic trip from Ooty to Goa and ended up breaking down just outside Mysore. I ended up pushing it to a mechanics (you can get anything fixed in India - no need to chuck stuff away) and we managed to have a conversation despite me not speaking a word of Kannada. The mechanic spoke a smattering of English, Tamil and Hindi, and so did I. We just switched between the three!
[Photo dexed because someone reported this answer for being ‘inappropriate’, citing this photo. Not sure what was so inappropriate about it, but thank you anonymous internet police for making me a better person.]

我曾经骑摩托车从乌提到果阿进行一次史诗般的旅行，结果在迈索尔市外抛锚了。我最终把它推到了一个修理厂（在印度你可以修好任何东西，不需要扔掉），尽管我不会说一句卡纳达语，但我们还是能够沟通。修理工人会说一点英语、泰米尔语和印地语，我也会。我们就这样在这三种语言之间切换着交流！ [照片已删除，因为有人举报此回答“不当”，引用了这张照片。不确定这张照片有什么不妥，但感谢匿名的网络警察让我变得更好。]

I was a geography teacher and here with one of my classes. There are six languages represented in this photo.
I met some unpleasant people too, including some people who mugged me in New Delhi, but that’s no different to anywhere else in the world. For the most part, Indians across the country are helpful, polite people.
The food is incredible (and if you don’t like Indian food you can have Chinese, pizza, fried chicken, whatever - it’s all there), there are amazing landmarks (the Taj Mahal really is worth seeing) and it’s an extraordinarily exciting place with a lot going on and rapidly evolving.
I could go on and on. India is my second home and I’d very much like to go back!
Samuel Lickiss
Writer and broadcaster
www.samuellickiss.com

我曾经是一名地理教师，这是我和我的一个班级的合影。照片上有六种语言。我也遇到过一些不愉快的人，包括在新德里被抢劫的经历，但这和世界上其他地方并没有什么不同。总体而言，印度人民都是乐于助人、有礼貌的人。印度的食物令人难以置信（如果你不喜欢印度食物，你可以吃中餐、比萨、炸鸡等，应有尽有），有着令人惊叹的地标（泰姬陵真的值得一看），这是一个非常令人兴奋且不断发展的地方。我可以继续说下去。印度是我的第二个家，我非常想回去！ Samuel Lickiss 作家和广播员 www.samuellickiss.com

So, wow, and thanks! I normally hang around in the science/linguistics/geography section of Quora and get a few dozen upvotes for answers I spend several hours researching and writing. This answer took me a little bit of my lunch break and required no research at all beyond a quick scroll through Facebook to find some photos. Quora’s funny like that.

哇，谢谢！我通常在 Quora 的科学/语言学/地理学部分活动，并为我花费几个小时进行研究和撰写的答案获得几十个赞同。这个答案只花了我午餐时间的一小部分，并且没有进行任何研究，只是快速浏览了一下 Facebook 找了一些照片。Quora就是这样有趣。

I have responded properly to most comments individually and in detail so far, but quite a lot are getting added every day and I have a feeling I’m going to find it prohibitively time consuming to do so. I’ll respond to common points here.
Most comments are positive, which is great because this answer was supposed to be positive.

我已经逐个详细回复了大多数评论，但每天都会有很多新评论，我感觉要回复所有评论将会非常耗时。我会在这里回应一些常见观点。
大多数评论都是积极的，这很好，因为我的回答本来就是积极的。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

Some are more critical, and that’s great too because I like being kept on my toes and it gives me a chance to clarify a few things.
Something I do understand is that India is highly divided country with a lot of poverty, particularly rural poverty. There’s no sense in denying that. I’ve travelled widely in the country, including to adivasi villages, a prolonged stay in Dharavi, Mumbai (which locals don’t seem to visit themselves), and a long summer in suburban Varanasi teaching English and geography at a summer school for children from poor backgrounds (while studying Hindi myself).

有些评论更具批判性，这也很好，因为我喜欢保持警惕，并有机会澄清一些事情。
我能理解的是，印度是一个高度分裂的国家，存在很多贫困，尤其是农村贫困。没有否认这一点。我在印度广泛旅行，包括到访原住民村庄，长期在孟买的达拉维居住（当地人似乎很少去那里），以及在瓦拉纳西的夏季为来自贫困背景的儿童教授英语和地理（同时学习印地语）。

The question, however, was about some people, and I’m a person and I can only speak from my own perspective. I am fortunate to have been born into a middle-class family and had a stable upbringing. I’ve also had a good education and I’m well-qualified. I had a particular desire to go to India because my godfather was born in Chennai back in the late 1940s (actually the year of independence) and he actually attended the same school I went to teach at with his brother. Growing up, a close family friend of ours also attended the same school. For me, it’s a country I’ve long been interested in and had a connection with.

然而，问题是关于一些人的，而我是一个人，只能从自己的角度说话。我很幸运出生在一个中产阶级家庭，并拥有稳定的成长环境。我也接受了良好的教育，具备良好的资历。我之前提到，我有一个特殊的愿望去印度，因为我的教父在上世纪40年代末（实际上是独立的那一年）出生在金奈，并且他实际上曾经和他的兄弟一起在我去教书的那所学校上学。在我成长的过程中，我们家的一个亲密家庭朋友也曾在同一所学校上学。对我来说，这是一个我长期以来一直感兴趣并与之有联系的国家。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

When an opportunity to teach there came up, I took it. I’d never been to India and never left Europe before. I’d never lived more than two hours away from the town I was born in, so it was a significant change for me! I went out there for one year and stayed for three, and I’ve been back on holiday several times since.

当有机会去那里教书时，我抓住了机会。我以前从未去过印度，也从未离开过欧洲。我从未离开过我出生的小镇两个小时以上的距离，所以这对我来说是一个重大的改变！我去了那里一年，结果呆了三年，并且之后还多次回去度假。

I mentioned finances. Money has never motivated me really, though I do enjoy some expensive hobbies like scuba diving! I worked in India on a local salary (and you can earn quite a bit more teaching than I did at some of the more famous/wealthier international schools) and I made very little effort to save money. I had fairly long school holidays and I took full advantage of them. That included trekking in Nepal, scuba diving in the Andaman Islands, and travelling by train and motorbike all over the place. I even had a maid (never had a maid before or since!). Among middle-class Indians, a maid is pretty normal. It’s very abnormal in Britain.

我提到了财务状况。钱从来都不是我的动力，尽管我确实喜欢一些昂贵的爱好，比如潜水！我在印度以当地薪水工作（在一些更有名/更富裕的国际学校教书可以赚到比我多得多的钱），而且我几乎没有努力存钱。我有相当长的学校假期，我充分利用了它们。包括在尼泊尔徒步旅行，在安达曼群岛潜水，以及乘火车和摩托车四处旅行。我甚至有一个女佣（以前和以后从未有过女佣！）。在中产阶级印度人中，有一个女佣是相当正常的。在英国非常不正常。

I still ended up saving money - I still have savings there in a bank account collecting a nice amount of interest (much more than in Britain).
From my perspective, I had much more disposable income in India than in Britain. I had a nicer house there too, a maid, could eat out whenever I liked, etc. In Britain, I earn pretty much average. That money does not get you very far. I’m not poor or anything like that, but I can forget about going on scuba diving holidays. Saving is challenging, and I’m actually trying to now because I would like to buy my own home! Housing costs in the UK are genuinely ridiculous. Slums don’t exist here, at least not ones like Dharavi, but slum-like conditions are emerging in parts of London and other parts of the country (The families living in modern day slums). It’s getting worse.

我最终还是存了一些钱 - 我仍然在那里有一笔存款，收取相当可观的利息（比在英国高得多）。
从我的角度来看，我在印度的可支配收入比在英国要多得多。我在那里也有一个更好的房子，一个女佣，可以随时外出就餐等等。在英国，我赚的几乎是平均水平。这些钱用不了多远。我并不贫穷或其他什么，但是我可以忘记去度潜水假期。存钱是有挑战性的，而且我现在正在努力存钱，因为我想买自己的房子！英国的住房成本真的太离谱了。虽然没有类似达拉维那样的贫民窟，但在伦敦和其他地方（现代贫民窟中的家庭）出现了类似贫民窟的条件。情况越来越糟。

Proportionally, the salary I could command in India is miles above what I can command in the UK, with a corresponding difference in quality of life. The key word here is ‘proportionally’. Forget about absolute numbers.

从比例上看，我在印度能获得的工资要远远高于我在英国能获得的工资，生活质量也相应有所不同。关键词是“比例”。忘记绝对数字。

I both appreciate and understand that this difference is because there are a large number of people in India who have nothing because there is so much wealth division. In geography we talk about the Gini coefficient as a measure of wealth disparity. You can look up some stats here (Human Development Reports). It’s worth pointing out that India is gradually becoming more equal, which is a good thing, while the UK (and especially the USA) are becoming less equal (bad). All that said, from my perspective, and mine alone, the quality of life is higher.

我既欣赏又理解这种差异，因为在印度有很多人一无所有，因为财富分配如此不均。在地理学中，我们谈论基尼系数作为财富差距的一种衡量方式。您可以在这里查看一些统计数据（人类发展报告）。值得指出的是，印度正在逐渐变得更加平等，这是一件好事，而英国（特别是美国）正在变得更加不平等（不好）。尽管如此，在我的角度和我一个人的角度来看，生活质量更高。

Some people have also mentioned the wisdom of having immigration from the west to India. Why does a school need me when there are plenty of perfectly well-qualified teachers in India? Good question.
Something I quickly learnt in India was that the term ‘international’ is basically meaningless when discussing education. Check out this answer: Which are the top 10 international schools in India?

有些人还提到了从西方移民到印度的智慧。当有足够合格的印度教师时，学校为什么需要我呢？好问题。
我很快就了解到，在印度讨论教育时，“国际”这个术语基本上毫无意义。看看这个答案：哪些是印度前十名的国际学校？

The school I worked at is mentioned in a few of these answers, and actually is an international school. It followed the British exam system and had roughly 50% of its students and staff come from India. The other 50% came from all over the place: South Korea, USA, UK, parts of Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Nepal, Thailand, etc. I.e. it’s actually international.

我工作的学校在这些答案中提到了几次，实际上是一所国际学校。它遵循英国考试制度，大约50％的学生和教职员工来自印度。另外50％来自世界各地：韩国，美国，英国，非洲部分地区，澳大利亚，新西兰，巴西，尼泊尔，泰国等。也就是说，它实际上是国际性的。

Most international schools in India are not like this: their students and staff come almost entirely from India.
Teaching British exams requires knowledge of the British syllabus and western teaching methods. This is very, very different to ICSE/Indian teaching methods. I worked with Indian teachers who were exceptionally competent, highly talented people, but adapting to a different style of teaching and syllabus is challenging and having such a diverse school does require diverse teaching staff to reflect that.
International schools exist in Britain too. They exist all over the place. I grew up next door to a Japanese school where, naturally, most of the teaching staff were Japanese.

在印度的大多数国际学校并非如此：他们的学生和教职员工几乎全部来自印度。教授英国考试需要了解英国的课程和西方的教学方法。这与ICSE /印度教学方法非常不同。我与印度教师共事，他们非常能干，非常有才华，但适应不同的教学风格和课程是具有挑战性的，而拥有如此多样化的学校确实需要多样化的教学人员来反映这一点。
国际学校在英国也存在。它们遍布各地。我在一个日本学校旁边长大，自然而然地，大多数教职员工都是日本人。

Today’s economy is global and India is a major part of it. Whether globalisation is a good or bad thing is a whole other discussion, but it’s here to stay whether Trump, Modi and British Brexiteers like it or not. India’s economy benefits directly from it - major Indian firms operate overseas (e.g. Tata Steel and Cobra Beer in the UK) and the same is true in reverse. For that to work, cultural exchange is necessary.

今天的经济是全球化的，印度是其中的重要组成部分。无论全球化是好是坏，都是另一个讨论，但它无论特朗普，莫迪和英国脱欧派是否喜欢，都是不可避免的。印度的经济直接受益于此-印度的主要企业在海外运营（例如英国的塔塔钢铁和眼镜蛇啤酒），反之亦然。为了实现这一点，文化交流是必要的。

I have a profound respect for India and its people, a genuine one, not because of yoga and ashrams and that pseudo-spirituality that many westerners seem to like. I don’t pretend to understand everything about the country - it’s a complex and diverse place, and I find that fascinating, and that’s why I continue to learn.

我对印度及其人民深表敬意，这是真正的，不是因为瑜伽和灰色地带以及许多西方人似乎喜欢的伪灵性。我不假装完全了解这个国家-它是一个复杂而多样化的地方，我发现这非常有趣，这就是为什么我继续学习的原因。

I also acknowledge that it’s not perfect. I experienced first-hand the corruption and violence that exists there. I also had an unpleasant experience getting mugged in New Delhi once and went to the police, who were downright useless. They kept trying to get me to change my statement from, ‘my wallet was stolen’ to ‘my wallet was lost’ and said it meant the same thing, which it really isn’t.

我也承认它并不完美。我亲身经历了存在于那里的腐败和暴力。我还曾经在新德里被抢劫过一次，去了警察局，他们非常没用。他们一直试图让我把声明从“我的钱包被盗”改为“我的钱包丢了”，并说这意味着同样的事情，但实际上并不是。

Britain is a great place too, and I especially think the British police are fantastic! I love my country (in a non-weirdly nationalist way), its culture and people. I have a good life here. However, I’m not blind to its own flaws and will happily point them out. I’d quite like to combine the both of European and Indian living - that’d be perfect!

英国也是一个伟大的地方，我特别认为英国警察是极好的！我爱我的国家（以不怪异的民族主义方式），它的文化和人民。我在这里过着美好的生活。然而，我不盲目地忽视它自己的缺点，并乐意指出它们。我很想将欧洲和印度的生活结合起来-那将是完美的！