Kevin and I once again returned to the familiar yet once very unfamiliar Delhi Airport where we sat wondering and anticipating what the coming weeks would hold for us. So many weeks later it seems like so many experiences have been packed into the days we were in India that it feels impossible that we did so much in such a short period of time. One of the most important things is that we survived and that we are still alive or not maimed which is always a bonus but never a guarantee in a third worldish country. I wasn’t even sure we’d make it after we hit our second day of continuous travel just getting out of the US. We did it.
My most general observation about travel in India is that it isn’t easy. As “travel vets” we’d heard that just getting from point A to point B, even if point B is just down the street from point A can be brutal. After traveling 36 hours by plane to get here and then hopping immediately on a train for another seven hours north to Baroda, or with train trips that fill entire days, eight hour late arrivals, facing aggressive street merchants, pan handlers, drivers and holy cows I can say that the rumors are completely true. Moving from one side of the city to the other in a tuk tuk, squeezing through the seething humanity and Indian traffic or night bazaars can make you feel like an ant in an ant farm and also make you appreciate the relative peace of a rooftop restaurant of peaceful park like you never knew you could. But I am rambling now, maybe because it is so late or maybe because of the futile desire to try and put the experience of India into words. Nothing I can say can make the reader understand, see, hear, taste, smell, or feel what it is like to be immersed in India. It is nowhere near possible.
Before I close I’ll say that our last day in India was a good one and we kept it full just like every one of the last 18 days. I’ll try to keep it brief. This morning we met back up with our Linda from SF who surprisingly showed up again in the hotel restaurant because of a canceled train. We rented a tourist car for the day and checked off a few of the sites from our guide book that we wanted to see before we left Delhi. It was an overall peaceful outing. We saw King Humayun's Tomb with it’s quite and well maintained gardens and pleasant flowing waterways before moving on to the Baha’i church or as it is more commonly known, the Lotus Temple. The Temple was one of the few examples of modern architecture that we have seen on this trip. It was built in 1986 as opposed to Humayun’s Tomb which was built in 1562. The Lotus Temple is really just a functioning modern church but worth checking out because of the unique architecture, as you can guess it is designed to look like a blossoming lotus flower, but also for the intense sanctious aura that you feel when you're inside listening to people singing and reciting verses from various religious texts. The Baha’i religion bills itself as an all encompassing religion that forms its belief systems by combining all of the world’s faiths into a single religion. It was a cool visit but sort of too religiousy for me and had kind of strange undertone of being sort of cultish. Good though, don’t skip it because of that.
From the modern Lotus Temple we moved onto the Qutb Minar Complex which is a large group of very old buildings centered around a sandstone obelisk used as a minaret by Muslim muezzins to call their people to prayer. Construction was started in 1193 and finished in 1368. The minaret stands 238 tall and is covered with intricate carvings of verses from the Qur’an. It was built as a marker to the new Muslim domination of Delhi back in the day. Definitely a huge contrast to the modern cement design of the Lotus Temple.
We caught diner at a local Indian joint that was tasty and did not fail to be the usual intense dining-out-in-local-institutions experience. Good food. Eating messy butter chicken off the bone with no utensils is fun and, as is standard, the hygiene practices were the usual, bringing naan to your table directly in the waiters hand and the cleaning of chicken in the kitchen uncomfortably near the floor with a garden hose. Shocking if you are not used to seeing this. We were not shocked and my stomach has been good the entire trip.
So… India. Incredible India. Such a great experience as it has been I am sad that it is over but also glad and thankful to go back to San Francisco. Being in India, even just visiting but most definitely living as a resident, plant, animal, human, whatever, is a battle. It is life simplified and complicated to its most basic, the need to survive. This is apparent on the streets, in the shanty towns, next to the railroad tracks, in the lives of people scratching out an existence all around you. One billion people, poor, very poor or immeasurably rich do it every day multiplied by thousands upon thousands upon thousands. To the brief and ephemeral visitor, this way of life on its face, may seem to be a cutthroat existence, being pushed out of the way in line, a cough in your face, a crowd moving around a dirty and sad looking beyond homeless person without taking notice of them… with all of this there is a concern for fellow human beings that you don’t feel anywhere else in the world that I have been to. People look you in the eyes on the street and connect with you, sometimes for way too long, but it is because of this unexplainable connection with humanity that they look. And even though you are part of the one billion indefinable crowd, there is more of a bond with those around you, not a fear to look into someone’s eyes or feel a stranger next to you and actually make a connection with them. India is a place where, because you are packed shoulder to shoulder on a train or sitting less than a foot away from a person in a restaurant booth, a connection is impossible to avoid. But I still think that it is something even deeper. To survive here you have to look out for your brothers and sisters. The delicate infrastructure of the crumbling city streets would collapse without this connection and no one would survive without the help of those around them. I have felt this all over India and am thankful that this distinct Indian perspective has been introduced into my life. I have definitely learned from it. It will be something that I keep with me forever.
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