India is a land of extremes.
Children bathe in contaminated rivers, sharing the same putrid water with livestock slurping up the toxic brew. Trash inundates the cities and the countryside, spreading disease and stench. Beggars refuse to take no for an answer while aggressively tugging on the clothing and limbs of passersby, hoping to elicit sympathy and cash by exploiting their deformities.
There's no place to hide in a country inhabited by more than a billion souls. Visitors get bumped, elbowed, and pushed out of the way. Personal space doesn't exist. Cutting in line is an art form.
Control is a lesson in futility. A two-hour delay is the norm not the exception. India moves along in its own seemingly disorganized manner and will crush anyone unwilling to be flexible.
It's a place tourists either love or hate. So far, I'm quite captivated and disturbed by what I've encountered.
Once again, I'm traveling thanks to my week-long break for Lunar New Year. I've finally made it to India, a place I've wanted to visit for years.
First stop - New Delhi, the capital of India.
Even though I've read volumes about India, I still find the mass of humanity to be overwhelming - the noise, the smell, the constant stimuli. I might never be able to forget the image of a man without limbs lying in the middle of a popular tourist area wailing, as if in agony, for a few spare coins.
I don't want to dwell on the negative, but India can't be understood without the total picture.
Still, there's much to love about India - the culture, the history, the warm people. For two days, I had the great fortune to be hosted by Couchsurfer, Jeet, a retired New Delhi native.
Jeet showed me many of the sights but also a side of Delhi seldom seen by tourists. The highlight was a trip to a temple on the outskirts of the city, where I stumbled upon a weeding. One of the participants invited me to attend. Meet three of the youngest guests.
India is full of stories of tourists targeted by con artists. I experienced my own on the way to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal.
As I entered the New Delhi train station, I decided to ask about one of the particulars of my e-ticket. An official-looking man examined my ticket and told me the train had been delayed at least six hours, but he was willing to help me book a new train.
Hmm......"No thanks," I said, as I headed for the platform listed on my ticket. While traveling, I've run into enough suspicious people to know when something doesn't feel right. Of course, it was a lie, but the guy sounded so convincing.
Later that day, I had another bizarre encounter with a clerk who fired something at me for merely asking a question, but that's another story for tomorrow.
The Taj Mahal awaits.
No comments:
Post a Comment