March 5, 2019 -
“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”
― Terry Pratchett from ‘A Hat Full of Sky’
It’s complicated.
There is a scam here where young local children will come and pull at your sleeves and beg you to buy them a piece of candy. Who wouldn’t want to do such a thing? So they take your hand and lead you to a nearby stall and you happily buy them a sweet. You feel great, hug the child and you are on your way. What you don’t realize is the urchins are working for the shop owner. He then buys the candy back from the kids to sell again and gives the kids a few rupees as a reward. It is then repeated over and over again. We fell for this trick many times.
As I said, it’s complicated. After being here for almost six weeks, we have only scratched the surface of this massive country. It is fair to say India has been by far the most challenging country we have visited. We leave for home tired and ready for some semblance of normalcy.
The reason India is so hard is that it presses you from all sides everyday. You watch movies like “Eat, Pray Love” and travel videos highlighting tour sites and you begin to believe India has a mystical magical quality that shimmers in the bright sun, just waiting to be grasped by you. This is not reality. The simplest things here are often unnecessarily hard.
I want to be honest with this blog and share both the good and the bad. India has some very difficult hurdles to overcome as a traveler. Here are a few of them.
The pollution is staggering. It is not uncommon to see trash and open sewers everywhere. There seems to be to be no limit to how much abuse Indians are willing to put on their environment. Much of it they cannot help for pollution and poverty go hand in hand. The cities don’t have a waste management infrastructure like you would find in Western countries. But some of it they can do something about if they are only willing. We watched a young boy ahead of us eating an ice cream. His little hands dropped the wrapper. The mother picked it up off the sidewalk. She did not put it in a trash can that was near by. She reached through the fence and threw the wrapper on the green lawn of the tomb. Of the 10 most polluted cities in the world, seven are in India.
Food choices and water represent a clear and present danger of illness.
We have never visited a country where they routinely check for car bombs at your hotel and there are ads on TV for what to do if you are the victim of an acid attack. It’s sobering.
The traffic is appalling. I am not kidding. If you plan to travel here, do not even think of driving. You will die.
There are to many wandering cows. Way to many.
The scams and hustles are endless. You have to constantly be aware of your environment. You try to bear in mind that these are very poor people who need money. They see a Westerner and view you as a target. We tried to be patient and as generous as we could, but at the end of a day of touring you are just exhausted.
And the poverty....It just stuns you and can break your heart. Most Indians live on no more than $5 dollars a day. You think you are ready to see such a thing. You are not.
Yet there is beauty here. So much of it that it makes you believe in the goodness of God and the majesty of His creation.
We saw women decked out in dazzling saris work their way through markets chatting happily. These markets were filled with brightly colored oranges, bananas, carrots, mangos, chick peas, and everything else you can imagine coming out of a garden. Green parrots flew overhead. Color was everywhere. There is a dedication to family here and children play in the alleys with no more than sticks happy and secure. They are always so eager to say hello to you and shake your hand.
We walked through palaces and tombs steeped in history that are still beautiful today. They easily rival Rome or Versailles and were built long before these Western monuments. There are 36 UNESCO World heritage sites here and one of the seven “Wonders of the World’.
Arguably the most “Christ like” man and woman of the 20th Century chose to live, work, and die here in this land. And only one of them was a Christian. There is a palpable spirituality here. Pilgrims from all over the world seek it and we met several of them.
For the first time in our lives we could really appreciate the symmetry and soaring glory of
Islamic architecture. The Mughal Emperors built massive works here that stand today as a testimony to a grand history and culture.
There are Hindu temples that are far older than any church you have ever visited. The faith appears to have arisen from the deep parts of the earth and is felt in the old stones here. It is full of smoke, fire, bells, strange primeval music, and so very mysterious to a Westerner. The faith is so deep and old that it would give birth to Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism yet still remain undiminished. Temples are filled with the old and the young as they bringing meager offerings of food and marigolds to different gods in hopes to receive a blessing of good fortune. Hindus are perhaps the most passionate of pilgrims.
We also washed our hands and feet with Sikhs and watched them feed thousands. In a humble auditorium we saw Christian grace poured out like cool clear water to a hurting congregation.
Your soul is both hurt and moved here. It is complicated.
We had the chance to first hand experience a popular culture that is exciting, fun, vibrant, and owes nothing to Hollywood. Indians know how to party and have a good time.
Here we met a people that were almost uniformly warm, generous, and excited to talk to you. They are immensely proud of their country and intensely curious about your home. This impression was especially true with children.
We walked through the vestiges of the British Empire at the height of it’s Victorian glory. And we learned a lot of just how much a people can suffer under colonial rule. No matter what lens you view history, the British left an indelible mark here and those scars still resonate in conflicts today. The current air strikes and rumors of war between Pakistan and India are a legacy of partition and British rule. It’s complicated.
You are consistently humbled by the fact that this is an ancient land filled with traditions that are foreign to us, but still seem to work. People here are proud, hard working, and strive for more. There is nobility here that you could see and feel. We were taken out of our comfort zones, and made better for the experience.
And we rode elephants and camels! (And tried to avoid hitting them in traffic)
It was a thrilling and exhausting, beautiful and ugly, pure and dirty, healing and painful, honest and deceitful; all at the same time. It’s complicated.
Why come here? It is definitely not for everyone. We would never would say that. But one out of every six people in the world live here. We wanted to see their home and learn more about them. For us, that was reason enough.
So are we glad we came? Definitely. This episode of ‘The Road to Bali’ will likely be the most memorable.
We head home today and I want to thank those of you who follow along with us for coming. Episode VIII starts in July.
“Wait a minute, wait just a second! You can’t stop there!”
“Why not?”
“You never said if you had a good time. Did you like it?”
(Bemused smile). “Well that answer is ....complicated”
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