Being in India

May 24th, 2009

being in india is like going back in time. but every once in a while you see a nice car or a spiffy gas station and you remember it's 2009. cows are everywhere... big fat holy cows. the roads are lined with beautiful straw huts that house the cow dung that they use for fuel and fires and things like that. monkies playing in the fields look almost like small men. it seems like such a normal thing to have the monkies running amongst the children. india is the only place i have ever heard of that asks you to please honk your horn as often as possible when driving. i love how they decorate the cars and buses, trucks and rickshaws so colorfully; painting om symbols and flowers, cows and birds on the vehicles. most of the big trucks have "please honk horn" painted on the back of them. the women are so beautiful in their saris of every color imaginable. if you don't wear colors in india you will surely stick out. the highways are lined with eucalyptus and frangi pani and flamboyana trees. people brave the roads in all sorts of automobiles; bicycles, bicycles with trailers, rickshaws, motorcycles with whole families piled onto them (dad, mom, and three kids), nice cars that are big and small, trucks filled with loads of bricks, buses filled with so many people they look ready to pop. it's over 100 degrees outside and everyone always wears long pants and for the most part, long sleeved shirts too, with all different variations of scarves or shawls or head wraps or turbans. they drive in the right side of the car here and the left side of the road. an older man at the visa office in houston told me: in america you drive on the right side of the road, in england they drive on the left side of the road, and in india it's optional! truer words were never spoken. they serve no beef at the mcdonalds in india. what a concept. it's unreal to be here. it seems almost like a movie to me, but maybe that's because i am a vidiot. the indian people seem so thoughtful. i see it on their faces in this meditative, higher state. like they know a secret... and i want in on it. maybe it is that the people here have truly learned to let go because they have no control over the powers that be. the forces of nature are so fierce here. i suppose that is what you really have to do to be able to enjoy india... just take a few deeps breaths and let go. this place is pure, utter, divine chaos. there is nothing left to do but embrace it. i am here for the ride.

i feel like every click of my camera, every picture that i take is a masterpiece in itself. the drive to rishikesh was like a dream. the dirt road along the ganges river was so utterly perfect. monkeys lined the road practically the entire trip. old men sitting on the walls or the bridges, like trolls demanding a toll for passage. piles and piles of cow dung collected along the sides of the road, like bee hives or temples paying homage to the mooing creatures the hold so sacred here. women wrapped in beautiful clothes and colors balancing hand woven baskets or piles of sticks on their heads like it weighs no more than a book.

the traffic is insane everywhere you go and yet you see no signs on angry drivers here. there is not really road rage in india. how is that possible? i suppose maybe it's due to the diet here, since the majority of the people are vegetarians. what a world it is. this place is so poetic, mesmerizing, disturbing, inspiring. but most of all, even though i am as different from the people (to the naked eye) as can be, i don't feel foreign or alone here. for these few days while i am here, i will call india home. i have fallen hopelessly in love with the exploration of this old world so new to me. somehow i feel that i have never been so at peace as i am now. thank you, world, for bringing me such good fortune as to be able to see all these things with my own eyes. i am truly blessed.

everywhere we go heads turn and people stare. i have never caused such a stir. the way the indian people react to my friends and i with our white skin, blue eyes, blonde hair. you'd think we were aliens or something. at the taj mahal i think we may have had more pictures take of us than of the actual palace. so many people stopped us to ask if they could take pictures with us, men and women alike. we even saw an indian cross dresser in a sari who wanted to take a picture with us. it was the most random, entertaining thing. i was completely amused. and yesterday at the train station, we were the only three foreigners in the whole place. probably in a 50 mile radius, actually. little kids were running up to us to shake our hands, girls kept asking us where we were from, smiling shyly, men staring, old people frowning at us. i feel like a total celebrity here. i would hate to be famous.

overall, the trip has been amazing. in so many ways i would love to stay here forever and sit at the little buddha cafe every day overlooking the river, drinking chai tea or lemon nannas, writing in my journal about how this place inspires me. i love the style of this world. people aren't afraid to just sit and be with themselves. they don't need cell phones or tvs or internet to distract themselves from the real world. i love the low tables and the pillow seats and the way people aren't afraid to just lounge in the candlelight when the lights go out, like they do every day, and listen to the river rush by and all the tears and prayers of the believers that have been sent to kali in it. this is the epitome of bohemia and i am totally at home.