|
INDIA:
A Diamond in the Rough
Article: Pieter Hofmann, Photos: Janis Wasend
While the Therouxs and Rushdies try to capture the essence of the world's largest democracy, one must experience the mayhem, confusion and at times absurdity firsthand to understand its uniqueness. This is India as a true traveller knows.
As chaotic as it seems-- things work. Teeming with over 900,000,000 people, countless languages and religious beliefs, the nation is a beehive in constant motion. Daily life and government function in a bizarre fashion. And that may be the beauty of the nation. The country appears to be out of order, but somehow everything is resolved.
We?ve all seen them--portrayals of India in all of its splendour. The Taj Mahal, a sadhu or a beautiful child with hands held in prayer. There is also the wildlife. Pictures of Bengal tigers, elephants, or perhaps a snakecharmer and his cobra. What is implied is the exotic, the spiritual and pure bliss.
Yes, India can be spiritual. Yes, it can be a journey into ones own sense of being, a voyage into the mystical. But when the clouds of incense clear, the average traveller awakens to traffic jams, mountains of red tape and rip-offs. It is polluted. It is also awash in humanity and abject poverty.
India is plainly a challenging place to travel. Full of paradoxes, the subcontinent is a true testing ground for the novice and experienced traveller alike. Once one has done India, the rest of the world, in a phrase, is minor league.
India?s beauty and unpleasantries co-exist within one alleyway to the next. It can go beyond love and hate. India is like no other. From mountains to desert to beaches to jungle, the subcontinent is as varied as the inhabitants are. Having toured through the country four times, I will eventually return. Few countries, if any, hold the fascination that it does. I recall talking to an Englishman in Puri. He hated India. He would never return. It was his ninth visit.
On the advice of a friend, Vancouver native Patrick Forster added India onto a backpacking trip through Australia. His first excursion abroad, Forster was overwhelmed by his six weeks in the country. Swapping travel tales on his return, he confessed his initial assessment:
"I landed in Calcutta in the evening and my first impression was overwhelming. My introduction was the cab ride into the city?there were so many people, cars, cows, dogs, and fires. It was almost surreal. I remember sitting in my guesthouse and looking through the barred window. I honestly was worried that I wouldn?t be able to eat here. I was thinking, "how am I going to do this [travel through India]?". Initially, I was frightened."
While violent crime rarely befalls the traveller, petty theft does occur and Forster found his backpack stolen in Varanasi. Ironically, he says this was the time his attitude towards India changed. He told himself that he was fed up with being nervous, upset and intimidated. At that point he began enjoying India. "That was when I fell in love with the place."
Despite the outrageously inefficient bureaucracy and constant scams that followed him, Forster looks back on his travels fondly. "At the time you can?t believe that you would spend the entire day trying to buy traveller?s cheques. I remember standing in the tourist queue at the Varanasi train station for three hours trying to buy a $6 ticket only to find out that I didn?t have a piece of paper proving where I purchased my rupees. So I had to get into another line and start all over again."
His first purchase was a pair of cotton pajama pants for which he would pay approximately five times the going price. "It still seemed cheap," said Forster, "but then you would see the same pants everywhere for a fraction of the price. Of course, they fell apart within a few weeks." Other ventures were more sophisticated, such as when in Jaipur; he was offered $10,000 US to transport jewelry back to Canada. Offered the cash and a return ticket back to India for a few days? work, Forster was tempted, but declined.
When one talks to him, the majority of tales he dispenses have a negative connotation. There is no mention of cocktails by the beach, fine dining or places of interest that the usual traveller recounts after returning from a vacation. Yet like many who have experienced the country, there is an unmistakable passion for India, which is never heard when people talk of other popular destinations.
India stays with the traveller and hardly fades from one's memory. And would he go back? Forster flashes a smile, "Definitely, I would go back in a minute. I think about the place all the time."
For Great Deals on Airfares, Click Here
|
