A Hitch Hikers Guide to travelling in India – the land of my forefathers.
India. The worlds largest democracy, the 6th largest country in the world AND one of the most ancient and living civilizations (at least 10,000 years old!) The most fascinating and inspiring country I will ever have the opportunity to visit. I began with some misgivings, having heard numerous stories of poverty, overcrowding, slums, traffic, stink, pollution, noise and much worse. It certainly was all of this and more. Hell, the first view of the country as you fly into Mumbai is a sea of slums just behind the airport.
BUT there was so much more. Exciting enough to drown out or overpower the bad. For instance, the stink couldn’t hide the of the wonderful aroma food. Along with the overcrowding came the amazing cultural and people diversity. Along with the poverty came the will, determination and ambition of these folk to succeed.
What follows are some insights into this amazing country.
# 1: India cannot be seen. It has to be experienced. You have to immerse yourself in the land, culture, traditions, food and people. I was on a vegetarian diet for about 20 days, drinking masala chai and camel milk, travelling by camel, horse and bicycle carriage, buses & trains (that seemed to be right out of the Fevicol ad) sleeping in dorms and even out in the open and more.
# 2: Do not underestimate the Indians. This is a country that has the second largest working population in the world. There are 1000’s of people dying for each others job. They are all at the very top of their ball game. Even though their looks may deceive you, as it did me.
# 3: Everything is big. Travelling from, say Jaipur to Agra may be only 221 km - 4.5 hours away, but this is a couple of km short of the full breadth of Sri Lanka.
It is no easy task to explore India. It has a population 54 times that of SL, with an area so large that 50 SL’s can fit in and with 14 official languages and about 15,000 more. There is so much to see and experience that one lifetime (or 2 months) is certainly not enough.
This is something that i wrote for my office newsletter
BUT there was so much more. Exciting enough to drown out or overpower the bad. For instance, the stink couldn’t hide the of the wonderful aroma food. Along with the overcrowding came the amazing cultural and people diversity. Along with the poverty came the will, determination and ambition of these folk to succeed.
What follows are some insights into this amazing country.
# 1: India cannot be seen. It has to be experienced. You have to immerse yourself in the land, culture, traditions, food and people. I was on a vegetarian diet for about 20 days, drinking masala chai and camel milk, travelling by camel, horse and bicycle carriage, buses & trains (that seemed to be right out of the Fevicol ad) sleeping in dorms and even out in the open and more.
# 2: Do not underestimate the Indians. This is a country that has the second largest working population in the world. There are 1000’s of people dying for each others job. They are all at the very top of their ball game. Even though their looks may deceive you, as it did me.
# 3: Everything is big. Travelling from, say Jaipur to Agra may be only 221 km - 4.5 hours away, but this is a couple of km short of the full breadth of Sri Lanka.
It is no easy task to explore India. It has a population 54 times that of SL, with an area so large that 50 SL’s can fit in and with 14 official languages and about 15,000 more. There is so much to see and experience that one lifetime (or 2 months) is certainly not enough.
This is something that i wrote for my office newsletter
posted by The Grin Reaper at
10:17 PM
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