Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Thoughts, early 21st century

Filed under: india

Bodh Gaya

Bhodgaya

Bodh Gaya is famous for being the place of Gautama Buddha's attainment of Enlightenment, known by the Buddhist as Bodhimandala.

This trip is very much improvised. Someone had told us we should visit Bodh Gaya, so there we were, driving a three wheel rickshaw that carried 14 people to a place unknown by us. During the ride we talked to several passengers. One of them, Shrikant Ravi, invited us to stay with him over night. We had no hotel reserved, so we accepted. In the photo you can see the surroundings of his home. It was beautiful, like an oasis. Our new friend spent almost two days showing us around, explaining us lots of things and even sharing his wife's super tasty home made cookies :) Thank you for your hospitality Shrikant!

At Varanasi

Wash

I am now typing texts I wrote on paper during last weeks. We had no Internet connection so I couldn't share these before. I don't know if the color in the images are good or not, this monitor looks totally yellow. I will re-upload them later if they don't look right.

March 2nd. Our friends from Ukraine and Russia leave the city one day after their wedding. I write from Everest cafe, 20 or 30 meters above Ganges river. I lost A two hours ago and I still haven't found her. I walked next to the river and I saw dead people burning on top of piles of wood. I saw huge piles of wood waiting for dead people. Cows and bulls wonder around and swim from one shore of the river to the other. Dogs and goats accompany their bigger quadruped friends. I can't understand why some worship cows but kick dogs. This morning when I was returning to my room after shower I saw three monkeys running out of my room. One of them, a female, looked at me defiant. Down here people are washing bed sheets in the river and drying them under the sun. The washing happens by smashing them against stones.
This cafe is quiet, unlike the area with the wood and the burning. The heat from the sun and the fires was suffocating. Smoke and shit smell from huge cows made me feel like fainting. Mistreated dogs look at people with fear. Sometimes I hear one cry when someone kicks him. People ask for money and I fail to find reasons to give. Teaching would be more helpful. Places are dirty, full of trash, shit and pee. Someone must have left those items there.

New Delhi day 3 (2)

We found a nice place to eat today called the English Diner, so we had dinner in the same place. It's small, maybe 8 or 10 tables, not fancy, tv showing cricket, the national sport. Policemen eat there. We were the only foreigners. Lunch for two 240 rupies, diner 220 rupies. Total 7 Eur. During dinner 4 kids came in. They looked homeless and wanted to trade a few USD for rupies. After some talk with the employees they got what they wanted. Before they left they asked for some food, which they also got poured in a small plastic bag and a small container.

After hours of walking I sit to listen to traditional music. Voices and drums. Suddenly a very loud thunder sound wakes me up and makes me write these words. Rain is coming soon. We are at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts which today had a varied programme. Ritual demonstrations with hypnotic voices and drums. When the rains starts we go inside to watch a photo exhibition. The colonial age, princes, kings, architecture. I was sad to see how some people enjoyed killing tigers and then posing with them.

On the way to the arts centre we were suprised by people playing cricket. Most of the players were in an alley with no traffic. But two players were next to us, with a 4 lane avenue separating us from the guy throwing the ball (pitcher?). Since he faced away from us he had no clue about the traffic situation. At times the ball would fly into the yard of a neighboring house. Other times it would cross the avenue landing next to use. A player then had to run with the ball avoiding cars and busses. I guess it made the game more exciting this way. I saw a pet monkey biting his rope. He looked like a miniature human to me.

All windows have mosquito nets in this apartment, and all glass sheets are open, so the air is very fresh and the temperature the same as outside. Same sounds too. Airplanes fly over frequently. I like the sound they make, which is different to previous planes I've heard. I also hear distant people, birds and religious calls during the day, dogs, cars going backwards (which also sound like birds to make people aware of them). Normally I prefer silence but here I enjoy the sounds. Maybe they add color to these minimally decorated rooms. It's also fun trying to recognise and identify unheard sounds and languages.

I remember an intersection with 3 or 4 lanes on each street. No traffic lights! Why did traffic switch turns from one street to the next? It seemed to work. Cars just stopped sometimes to let others go through. Truly amazing.

New Delhi day 3 (1)

Like every morning, after a shower and a banana we leave the apartment and go a few steps down to the street. A ver narrow street with people coming home or leaving to work usually by foot. Walking to the metro takes less than 10 minutes. On the way we see a small park with few people, a vegetable shop, a candy and chips shop, a clothes repair one-man business and a hair dresser, all of them not much bigger than a telephone booth. The wedding tent that used to be there on previous days is now gone, but we've seen many others around the city. Half way to the metro there is a gate and a guard. He never says hi or looks at us. Right after the gate there is the elevated metro line, and some construction work going on below it. Not many people and few machines are doing the work. It looks like some workers have their families with them, including a small half naked girl sitting and playing on top of this gray powder pile. A thin woman lifts tiles to be placed in the side walk.

All metro stations have checkpoints for women and men. A guard with machine gun surrounded by piled up sand bags is also always to be seen. Checkpoints have three parts: a metal detector, someone who checks you are carrying no weapons and an x-ray machine for bags. Like in the airport. The metro is very clean. It has power plugs for recharging laptops and cellphones. It's built by Bombardier, like the metro in Berlin. There are women-only wagons, and not many tourists. Writings and announcements are both in Hindi and English. It looks cleaner and people better behaved than in Berlin. Passengers respect no eating and no drinking. No loud nor drunk passengers. No one begging or playing music, no trash, no scratched windows. It calls my attention that there is less distance between guys, they are closer. Friends have their arms over their friend's shoulders, in the leg, or hold hands. If a kid doesn't fit, he may squeeze in between two people, maybe putting his hand on a stranger's leg. I can imagine someone's reaction in western countries if a kid put his hand on the leg of the person next to him :)

Coming from Europe, the guy's clothes are sometimes crazy. All kinds of colors, like bright red, pink, green blue or purple. Sometimes shiny. Or combined in what I find strange ways. Sometimes they have orange or red hair. I'm sure some will wonder how can I have such a messy hair, when theirs is always nicely cut and shiny. To enter the metro station you use RFID cards which you hold near the reader. We got a 3 day tourist card for about 4 Eur that ends today. I guess we will get a new one tomorrow.