Reflections on India; culture shock in Thailand

It feels so impossible to begin to describe India in any way that people who haven't been will comprehend. It is predictably crazy and unpredictably beautiful. In each city or village that I visited I always get off of the tourist path - often it often only takes 1-2 blocks - and talk to the local people. The children are always super excited to practice the English that they know and see their photos in my camera. Which is good because children were always my favorite subjects.

In reflecting on my experience in this country, I thought I would share some of my favorite unblogged-about moments, faces and photos...




Joyful children: Who can argue with the sheer bubbling joy that Indian children find in their very simple lives?




Kedar from Varanasi & other young salespeople: His mother died during the birth of his younger brother, so he and his four brothers all work on the ghats selling postcards and other touristy trinkety things. He is six years old, speaks English well from communicating with tourists, and seriously stole my heart. It is very difficult to adopt kids who still have living parents, or Kedar would have come home with me! As soon as kids can walk and speak basic "Tourist English" they are often sent to the streets to sell goods to visitors. This young girl below was six years old, and though she told me that she went to school, I doubted it. It was 6:00 am and she was actively working the ghats selling flower pujas to visitors, including me.



The ritual of offering pujas: Pujas are given as an offering to a god or goddess, and they are given in hundreds of different ways. I offered several pujas and prayers for certain people (you know who you are!) to the Ganga river, and Shiva. They are a small cup made out of leaves, filled with flowers and a small tea-light. You make a prayer into the beautiful cup, light the flame and then release it into the mighty Ganga river.



The beautiful, colorful, sense-filled markets! How can one country have so many colors????


The bus ride that would never happen in the US: At 18-hours, my "10-hour bus ride" was still two hours from the destination and had been stopped because it had just crashed through a police checkpoint at 4:00 a.m. Sleeping passengers woke up with a start, in confusion, and then waited two hours before making other arrangements to get to our destination, Mysore. Earlier in the night, the brakes had overheated which required a one-hour rest, we'd gotten a flat tire (took over an hour to repair), got stuck on a narrow, windy mountain road because our bus was too big (don't they know these things before they take the roads?). My fellow passengers and I made a bonfire by the side of the road to keep warm, and it turned into a quintessential Indian experience!

Perfect night in Mamalapurum: Sitting on a beach in Mamalapuram with Gerdien I experienced a moment that will stay with me forever...Crescent moon and Venus in the western sky, a full slate of bold, bright constellations floating above the ocean in front of me, a warm salty breeze reminding me of my location. We sat on a log, laughed until I hurt, and watched someone offer a puja to the ocean right in front of us, complete with a candle and incense. The roar of the ocean drowned out the sound of our laughter ripe with shared wine. A difficult moment to re-create, but one of those moments that make trips like this so special.

New friends from around the world: There are too many to mention specifically, but this is a photo of the people who studied Buddhism with me in Bodhgaya. Wonderful people from Israel, France, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Australia and more. It has been such a blessing to connect with people who are sharing a similar adventure and have similar values. Definitely many people that I will keep in touch with!


The community of women: The sense of kinship that Indian women feel for one another is palpable everywhere, everyday. It's a kinship born of shared struggles, and the women gather anywhere they can, whenever they can catch a break. I saw many of these spontaneous gatherings in the middle of very rural areas where there was no apparent homes nearby, or sometimes it was in the middle of a busy alley. Always it involved talking, laughing and listening. It gave me a real sense that even though they have terrible, difficult lives, they seek solace in the comfort of friends.





Funny street signs: Whether or not it's interpretation or their very different sense of humor, the street signs never cease to crack me up. One in Varanasi proclaimed proudly, "Yes! We are less dirty!"









Sacred cows: Since neither Buddhists or Hindus eat beef, and cows are considered sacred in India, cows are EVERYWHERE. They appear to have no real "home" and instead just wander the streets and alleys eating whatever organic material they can find. They even walk down the middle of the busiest roads, and the cars and buses swerve to miss them. Some entrepreneurial types dress up a cow and walk to the beach, charging tourists for photos of their "sacred cows". I fell for this trap, but didn't know about the cost until after I snapped my photo - about 15 cents.





Small business, India style: My favorite chai shops are invariably the ones that are little more than a crude small camp-style cookstove, with a pot of tea on top. The vendors set up shop anywhere that they can find a small space with pedestrian traffic, which is about everywhere. They sell chai for 3 rupees per glass, about 7 cents. Often they speak no English beyond what is required to sell the tea, but they always take great pride in their beverages. This one was located in what appeared to be an abandoned shed on the side of the road where there was very little traffic, but clearly it is how this woman makes a living.



Fresh Lemon Sodas, and other uniquely Indian flavors: A lemon soda is not a sweet drink out of a bottle, it is the juice of at least one, maybe two fresh lemons served with a bottle of soda water. One of my favorite refreshing drinks. Other food I will never forget: South India's coconut chutney and sambar served with dosas, fresh coconut curry, fruit curd muesli, and chocoballs! Yum!

Leaving India like a Princess! Gerdien and I went different directions our last week in India and decided to meet in Calcutta the day before our flight to see the city again, and perhaps Slumdog Millionaire (didn't work). I get a call from her when I'm almost in Calcutta and she tells me that she's met "some friends" and we're going to spend the day with them. Great, I think. Gerdien has a knack for picking people up... So, I get to the train station and it's Rupak and Neha, his sister, and they are prepared to be our guides for the day. They do our laundry (!), feed us lunch and dinner, pay for everything, and let us stay at their house. The most hilarious part was that we were on parade for all their friends and family to meet. It was a perfect way to leave India, and also certainly a different side of Calcutta that I'd seen before.

I arrived in Thailand yesterday to great shock! My bus from the airport was air-conditioned (!?), clean enough to eat off of the floor (I didn't try), and was driving on the equivalent of an American highway with lanes (can you imagine!). The city is very shiny, very Western and already I've seen more Americans than I had in the previous five months. This is going to be a very different kind of adventure indeed!

With love,
Pam