India is a very conservative country. Period. Women still wear saris, alcohol is hard to find, arranged marriages are still prevalent. That being said, I expected things to be a little different here and people to be more reserved. However, I did not expect what I encountered last night.
When attempting to access a link on Yahoo! last night, here is what popped up:
ISB Internet Filter Message
Mind you, this was nothing racy, risque or inappropriate. It was actually a link to a story about Mark McGwire coming clean about his steroid usage. At ISB, students are more or less required to live on campus. That means ISB food, ISB housing, ISB internet. I understand that the school may have an interest in blocking certain sites which are illegal or promote dangerous behavior. For some reason, the folks in the administration here think students should not be able to read things in the "Entertainment category" even when they are at home.
There are certain sites that I read regularly at home - nothing too crude, heck I read them during class at Darden sometimes - that are blocked here. I've come to deal with that. This just put me over the edge. Pretty absurd.
On a side note, I've been in India for three weeks now and saw my first drop of rain today.
Woodson and I are traveling to Varanasi and Agra this weekend. I will report back to you on Monday.
Since you can't read "entertainment", tell Woodson he was voted the NFL defensive MVP.
ReplyDeleteEric- Just got caught up on all the blog postings. All I can say is Wow!! What a great experience you're having. It has been fun and educational hearing about all your travels. Keep them coming!!!
ReplyDeleteDo you think blocking some sites is more about limiting bandwidth usage then India's conservative nature?
ReplyDeleteAlso, can we note you complained more about not seeing a story about Mark's steriod use than about how some women are treated?