SRI LANKA

I was there for 3 months in early 2012.Sri Lanka has very similar to the south of India culture and lifestyle but a somewhat warmer climate with lots of sunshine.Even the terrain relief is much the same with southern India here.What IS different is that the relations between the upper country class and its lower situated people are very much different and much more distant by comparison with no visible social institutions in place.In India i didnt see the size of social differences between richer better situated classes and its lower poor parts,which both share very similar life circumstances,do very well live together with no considerable differences visible in one place.In Sri Lanka the considerable difference between rich and poor people has much stronger influence,the two leading lives,WELL too different from each other.I was there for 3 months in 2012,living in the town of Mount Lavinia half an hour to a full hour by train south of Colombo its capital also upon the ocean shore.Only the shoreline is plain terrain there and most of the inner island parts is either mountainous or hilly.Most of foreighners live in such small towns not far from the centre like Colombo city itself or so.Hotels of Colombo the capital do offer accomodation,but at much higher prices than those in small houses that are privately owned,exactly the way it is in much more numerous and active in many ways Kolkata,because neither street life nor agricultural output of the land(much weaker one upon mountainous terrains,badly nourishing vegetation grown upon them anyway)are of any significance in comparison to those of Kolkata,where infatuation with lower style activities is AS foolish as large numbers of followers of socialist ideas,exactly the same while well discredited even inside their motherland Russia.Funnily,the most social order orientated upper society classes i saw in either Delhi the capital or upper Ganges valley or in Varanasi,Bengal(most of my India times i spent in the city of Kolkata)showing no large inclinations of the sort among its rich citizens,only among the lower classes themselves.Rich people of lower valley are busy with their own intrerests predominantly.Grocery,my almost only food source even then(i was there in 2012),upon the island is both less tasty and less obtainable and expensive and the entire economics of the country is different,much depends upon complicated matters that well to do citizens develop in offices,resulting in much higher prices for most everything but office equipments of sorts than those of the Ganges valley in India.Prices for grocery objects in Kolkata had been much lower than those i witnessed in Sri Lanka.Unlike India,where railway roads system is well developed,sustained and cared about,the Sri Lankan 1 is in its primitive prehistoric condition in comparison,with trains being of old primitive modifications,uncomfortable and visibly both less effective and less fast in crossing the country,all moving by bad railroads with small speeds in comparison,people well satisfied with it while Ganges valley train system is much better maintained and the amounts of people using those is MUCH higher in the Ganges valley.The hilly/mountainous area inland and away from the seashore has only a small percent of trains running up into it.As i entered an inland city for a sudden visit i was surprised at just how much less active and central their life did look;how much more different inland and seashore people were there;this difference was MUCH unlike the very small difference in castes and ways of life different social orders in Ganges valley show.Holy books of Ganges valley detail the orders and social structure of the society very well and spend LOTS of time discussing those;yet THIS difference among their castes is 10 times more deep in Sri Lanka,where no castes are even mentioned in any sources and the topic itself is never even mentioned anywhere.In Israel,where also social matters are TOO well worked over even as never discussed,the feeling is very same-people in Holy Lands trash around/speculate over social differences a lot and THAT much,yet no THAT sort of differences northern countries DO have inside of them daily upon a regular basis among their social parts is even close to existing.Even Upon the Ganges valley stations i often saw small covered with wild growth dirty lakes with domesticated pigs,openly browsing them in searches of food,everyone of the waiting for a train impressed with the show and willing no change to the dirty pigs rule.What to speak of the famous tradition of India to never touch a cow and instead allow it to do whatever it wants exactly.Cows are taken off the streets in India only inside the large city transport junctions and upon latge streets.Hence many cows,grazing upon wild grass upon uninhabited by humans spots of land,which though ARE rare around Kolkata,its land very well thought about and managed.The free,perfectly well fed and unobstructed life of cows and half wild dogs in India is strangely contrasting with the 100 % dependance upon ANY HELP humans can give to not just each animal,but only nice pleasant ones like cats,the way it normally is in Europe.Because in Kolkata there are LOTS of wildly behaving and ravaging the area(no humans ever involved in it all though)dogs of pretty wild behaviour;these can ravage trash spots and behave wildly otherwise too,and no such a thing would EVER be taken nicely in Europe(Israel included).In Kolkata wild street dogs are strong,ravaging trash spots amazingly freely,and also in not central city spots wild monkeys ALSO can be pretty tiresome(even as never touching people in any way)by their stupid behaviour,obviously completely unafraid of people.Locals in India find some weird pleasure and satisfaction in observing half wild animals that thrash around city streets in search of food,never touching or God forbid offending them even.The trains are much less frequent in Sri Lanka than in the indian Ganges valley,and leave with you the well absent in India feeling of weak care about the railroads system,which IS significantly stronger developed in the Ganges valley,where people use trains freely and often,even liking riding in trains even as lankans visibly never do.Lankan trains are smaller in numbers,less practical and less comfortable and are even less used by population,which is reminding that of the south India area by their life habits(i observed my Kolkata and Sri Lanka home landlords quite a bit myself;their behaviour interestingly very similar,home orientated and lacking will to be much outdoors too).The entire south India region(i was there for 1 month too in Kochi town)is much reminding Sri Lanka by its characteristics,including hilly relief and the behaviour of the inhabitants too.Most of my time in Sri Lanka i spent in Mount Lavinia town,but sometimes did come to Colombo the capital city for walks around and visiting the market.Unlike in the Ganges valley,where all the area is complete black soil,very well worked over with no even hills around,Sri Lanka,even when in lower spots,is a hill orientated area with no stably soft level areas and is often containing many low hills instead.Food prices in Sri Lanka are several times higher than those of India and especially its Bengal area,where all is extra cheap(i observed the prices as was in BOTH middle Ganges valley towns,where i had been as visiting the family of my mid Ganges valley friend's family nest for some 3 days or so in a small lost in the rich lands village,and Kolkata for some considerable while of many months and closing on 1 full year as a whole.Lankan food isn't even close as tasty as the Ganges river valley 1,it is available but is also MUCH more expensive,worse by quality and in much lower volumes,like kilograms of a fruit name,available for buying around a city.Speaking of vegetation prices,I expected them to be reminding those of Kolkata,where I spent several months by then,but instead the prices were several times higher,revealing hidden dislike towards growing vegetation among Lankans,the real root of small amounts of vegetation grown and sold,causing its price plummeting later.I suppose it is the real reason also of the much larger prices size than those,that i saw in India.While ganges valley held most basic names of fruits ONLY the southern indian markets sometimes DID sell weird and rare fruits that i never ever saw upon the numerous markets of Kolkata.Most of bengalese inhabitants had a special feeling towards food and vegetation,they even tend to eat with their fingers no table appliances like spoons or forks ever used,well absent among Lankans,which seemed to me lost in some remote from reality of life matters.This low estimation of grocery as a life topic would be the real root of the much higher prices for food and consequently most everything else in Sri Lanka.The immense by size and amounts of sellers of vegetation markets of Kolkata are completely unheard of as any existing around entity in even the Lankan capital Colombo,to which I periodically came by local train from Mount Lavinia my rented place area,which is situated like 40 minutes from Colombo by train southwards,a very small town of maybe 50 000 people population.There ARE grocery markets in both Colombo and Cochi,yet their sizes and quantities of grocery items proposed there are like nothing in comparison to Kolkata ones;quality of the grocery items themselves WELL down from those of Kolkata markets all along.Colombo itself isnt a large city,and i would roughly estimate its population as from 500 000 to 800 000 people.Lankans are visibly slower in activity and are considerably less inclined towards ANY sorts of outdoors.Mount Lavinia is a very old settlement,built specifically by and for foreighners,and as much highly estimated by them(mostly europeans were around that town as it seemed to me),also holding the most quartrers for tourist on cheap prices even now,well after its completion as a housing destination for originally europeans.Climate there is very similar to the southern tip of India,just as the life style of locals seemed to me.What I DID perceive as a large difference was the complete lack of desire of local rich people to participate in the life of their poor neighbours(i observed mostly my landlord's family there),which in turn seemed oblivious to their mizerly social status and completely satisfied with it too.I noticed this as i myself lived in a house of rich local people there,renting from them the upper floor of their richly constructed couple-of-levels a private house.This quality is very different in the Ganges valley in India,where people ARE willing to face the social differences and address them in some way,even as AS simple as adding cash and food to their poor neighbours,what i DID notice around Kolkata as living there,and something well absent in both southern India and their neighbour yet another country Sri Lanka,a place very much reminding Kerala state in southern India anyway,where I lived in Kochi town,also for one full month in 2011.No interest to social ideology or improvement to their life did i see in Lankan inhabitants,all seemingly satisfied with worse life conditions than those of rich folks,while even comparatively lacking fine brains.Inhabitants of West Bengal were all in favour of a very specific social ideology,one of socialism with its stress upon removal of bad life of lower society classes.In Kolkata I saw many times symbols of socialism and proof that the population DID care about social differences,while no such things were around in even poorer Lankan households,people of which as i observed,never minding such ''details''.In Sri Lanka(this fact well corresponds to people in those too)i witnessed several weird looking rare fruits that were never sold in India though.