India DIY
“There are a hundred gates to enter India, but not one to get out “
These are the reflections following the first of my two trips to India, in August and December 2007
August 2007 – Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Agra
GENERAL CONSIDERATION
In hindsight, summing up, I would call it an epic adventure. It’s true that you see terrible things, extreme poverty, disease, filth, especially if, like me, you do not have the habit to filter reality through the tinted windows of a luxury coach. But it is as if all of this, after a while, will slip on you, leaving only the positive aspects.
It was years and years that I prepared psychologically to this travel, thinking not to be ready yet. My brother’s girlfriend, who had wandered in the subcontinent for six months, had fascinated me with her stories. In September 2006, after having been in Cambodia to visit the killing fields, and having felt on my shoulders all the insanity and wickedness of mankind, I thought I could take the risk.
At first impact, considering the heat and the monsoon in August, I opted for the “soft” area, that’s to say the far north. “Soft” up to a certain point, since it’s true that the climate is more favorable, but wandering at extreme altitudes is not a joke.
I am deeply convinced in saying that the best thing I’ve seen in India are the Indians, with their outer and inner beauty, their eyes, their smiles, their elegance
Here I realized that a woman can be sexy even if completely covered. I had never seen ladies so feminine and seductive until the time when one wrapped in a fluttering saree appeared in front of me
Of course I would have like immediately to buy one, but they are very complicated to wear, and it’s especially problematic to go to the bathroom, considering the squat toilets, so I decided for a shalwar cameez, the most common female garment in Northern India, while in the rest of the country, it is commonly worn by girls, while married women adorne with their colorful sarees
One aspect which has always disappointed me, when traveling, is the lack of diversity, observing that almost everywhere people now dress the same way, drinks and eats the same things. This obviously does not happen in India. Here my hunger for everything which is totally different was totally satisfied.
I was talking earlier about how attractive the Indians can be,
but this is nothing compared to their attitude towards life and other human beings. I mean empathy, compassion, curiosity, humor, spirituality.
What surprised me a lot is that most of them are not at all shy. They like to be shown in the pictures, and like to photograph foreigners. This of course is great, because the problem of how approaching a very photogenic person in his very photogenic dress does not exist, it becomes simply an exchange.
The second very good reason to appreciate India is the food, tasty, healthy, economical. If you only have a few rupees in your pocket you can be sure that you won’t suffer of hunger. Buses, along their journeys, make frequent stops to allow passengers to eat in the markets or in dhabas, (taverns), on trains the sellers constantly go up and down along the aisles offering any edible substance a stomach could desire. Some tourists are afraid of intoxications due to poor hygiene. I do not know if I was lucky, but I can boast of being one of the few people who returned from India “fatter” (1 kgs) than before, and perhaps the only one that had to use a laxative!
Moreover, it is heaven for single travelers like me, because the prices are really ridiculous, but also because you never feel alone.
A kind of huge psychiatric hospital, which admits everyone, without even a preliminary interview, and everyone tries to heal.
Like in the Divine Comedy, here we can find the different groups, the irresponsible ones, the toxic ones, the fugitives, the desperate ones, the missing ones, the depressed, disillusioned, the disenchanted, and so on …
It’s as if Dante had set Purgatory in India, in a freak and smoked version.
The good part: it seems that the constant theme of the trip is “what kind of life I want?” “is this the life I really want?”. You meet so many foreigners in search of themselves that even if you consider yourself an individual in peace with the world and balanced, it comes so natural to think about this questions, and of course seek answers
Travel to India compels to think.
And now the bad part, what I really hated. The scary or non-existent sanitary conditions in which many people are forced to live, the terrible look of some hospitals, the lack of drinking water. It’s sad to see around so many beggars suffering from polio, and think that would be enough to give them a sting immunity. It is not worthy of the human race, in a country that spends millions of dollars in wars with neighboring countries.
My trip lasted 4 weeks.
At Malpensa airport elegant ladies in line at check-in to destinations like USA or Caribbean look at me with an expression of pity, as if they thought “poor thing”.
I must admit that even my fellow citizens, mostly mountain dwellers whose most sublime concept of elegance is to wear North Face hiking pants, while I was still waiting for the bus to Torino in the main square of my town stared at me curiously.
My brother’s girlfriend lent me a Ferrino sleeping bag suitable for cold temperatures. Of course it has its protective bag, but, in order to better protect it, I thought to wrap it in black garbage bags layers. This cocoon is tied in some way over the backpack, with string, along with an old dawn jacket. This is the best and warmest period to visit Ladakh, but the weather conditions at high altitudes may vary abruptly, so it is better to prevent!!
Just to get back to the concept of Dante’s circles, in Helsinki, boarding to the connecting flight to Delhi, I can identify at least five of them. There are accomplished climbers, with ice axes, ropes and technical clothing, the inexperienced trekkers, like me, with Decathlon uniform, the former hippies, dressed in Woodstock style, who were young at Woodstock time, other other kind of former hippies dressed according the Indian fashion, and then young fellows grunge type.
DELHI
I paid the Finnair flight Milan-Delhi and back 640 Eu (450Eu plus tax). I booked it in February
The domestic flights hall at Delhi airport is an incredible mess. While waiting for my connecting flight to Srinagar (70usd with Spice Jet) agonizing for eight hours on a plastic chair I think “where the fuck am I, this will be worse than Cambodia”… Luckily I get distracted observing the magnificent bracelets and clothes worn by women. The flight is late, I have nothing to eat and to drink, and practically I land exhausted in Srinagar