To sum up and review one’s time spent in India, is to review a music album where every song is by a different artist of an alternate genre’, making it impossible to give anyone an accurate reflection and understanding of time spent here with a mere collection of carefully considered adjectives. To fully understand and appreciate it, this country must be established on the experiential level.
From mountains and rivers, forests, jungles and deserts that provide a harmonious display of nature and tranquillity, serenity and majesties on all accounts, to the cities and villages, highways and railways, illuminating the dense congestion of electrifying human activity as well as a reminder of how simple life can be when we refine our values and re-connect to the communities in which we were meant to coexist. India will provide a densely mixed bag of emotions from day to day and experience to experience. There is a euphoria achieved at ticking off a bucket list goal that has been sitting there since you first saw a picture of the Taj Mahal or heard one of the great Fort’s of Rajasthan, and a disappointment to go with it when expectation isn’t met, rather the reality of commercialism that has surrounded these tourist hot-spots. When the dollar sign that hangs over your head, like the florescent glow of an angel’s halo becomes ever more apparent to you as it is to the surrounding shop keepers with every tout and every attempt of a sale. Every question, every interest into where you’re from and how long you’re here for isn’t so much an interest into the answer, more of an opportunist making his move towards and easy rip-off. It’s all part of the game, which it is important to see it as so as not to take yourself too seriously, but at the same time not being the naïve and ignorant tourist where everything is just a bit of a laugh.
Perhaps you’ll get so frustrated with the pestering locals that you find yourself refusing a ride that you so desperately needed, or not buying that hairbrush that later you realise, ‘actually I really could have done with that’. Surrendering to the city and country is what’s needed to make the most of one’s time here, letting go of ego and pride results in an immersion into the life that you find yourself in. Whilst remembering for you it’s a temporary experience, for everyone you leave behind it’s a permanent everyday struggle and contest.
Walking through the streets of Delhi or Kolkata or any one of the overcrowded cities that manifest themselves across this vast country has you feeling like you’ve landed inside a very real video game, with obstacles the avoid, from scooters and tuk-tuks, to dogs and sacred bloody cows, power-ups to recharge in the form of a fresh sugar-cane juice providing you with that desperately needed rehydration and energy boost to get you to the next stage for just 20INR. To find the same product, as you sit in a restaurant for dinner or lunch, for 150INR, exclusive of service tax, government tax, restaurant tax, and whatever other taxes they come up with and place on your bill making you realise, ‘I could’ve got about 10 of these for that price,’.
Finding yourself amongst the chaos in one of the tuk-tuks gives you an insight of what life must be like for Mario or Yoshi as they fight for freedom of the enclosing traffic, with a constant consideration of whether you’ve just got the cheapest ride ever, or have been significantly ripped off. It’s all part of the game.
There’s poverty at every turn, don’t be thinking you’ll escape it, it punches you hard in the stomach and reminds you; life isn’t all Wi-Fi and Game of Thrones, it’s a desperate struggle for many people just to get through this day while you’re busy thinking where you should go for dinner, or tomorrow, or next year. Though you’ll meet those that will discourage your charity to beggars, illuminating the fact that today’s 20INR, can provide tomorrow’s tobacco (gutka) or alcohol for the baby in their arms to keep them quiet, and another justified excuse not to work and to continue to rely on such a charity.
A rich diversity of religions and languages, cultures and lifestyles has had me wondering where the hell all these ideologies and beliefs came from, and interested in the lives that dedicate themselves to certain guidelines and practises, while my head digests unasked questions like ‘Really? That’s where Ganesh comes from, surely he wouldn’t have survived? So you eat yoghurt but not yeast, what’s wrong with bacteria? Why would Buddha want a packet of biscuits?’ Maybe that’s not all part of a game ;)
Escape the chaos that resides in the cities, where packets of cigarettes are equivalently inhaled just by breathing in the air, and a constant struggle for elbow room turns you into a raged sycophant wanting to escape, and experience the visual orgasms that will have you yearning for more with the seemingly endless beauty that India’s natural landscapes have to offer. Melt away at the sight of those mountains that only Sir David Attenborough could effectively describe, rather than mere words of mine on a computer screen. The Himalayas will have you wandering how to fully appreciate and absorb what you are witnessing, the roads to reach them will have you wishing you were one of those 5 star comfort travellers with a helicopter, and the restless climate will have you shedding and reapplying layers of clothing by the hour, and it’s all wonderfully dramatic.
Wildlife thrives from state to state in the natural wildernesses that remain. You’d be hard pushed to spot one of the wonders of the animal kingdom close to the settlements of our own species but just to know you are in the land of tigers, snow leopards, red pandas and bears, as well as countless other species that make up the endless diversity of life within, is enough to keep your anticipation and alertness at an all-time high as your chance of a sighting is higher than it’s ever been before.
India has everything you could think of and a little bit more than you’d ever expect, the people vary from the richest of the rich, to the poorest of the poor, the enlightened and virtuous to the criminal and the gangster. The food is tough to beat while every state offers its own unique dishes which will have you under the impression you’ve just crossed a country border in comparison. The naturalistic world will provide with that awe you’ve long been searching for and the spirituality you thought never existed. In 5 months I only scratched the surface of what lies within, and I’d love to say I enjoyed every moment of my time here, but that would be a blatant lie.