Impressions of India

Just back from a weeklong trip to India! This is what I jotted down in a journal when I first arrived:

Upon arriving in Delhi, I am immediately reminded of Mexico City with its lush, tropical vegetation--lots of palm trees and bright, colorful flowers. Also, the sheer number of people here is overwhelming. While there are about 22 million people in Mexico City, there are 33 million people in Delhi!

A young woman with Women With Wheels (https://planeterra.org/women-with-wheels/), an all-female taxi cab company, picked me up from the airport and we made our way in the rundown vehicle to the hotel. What a free-for-all! People--entire families of five!--on motorcycles, merging into lanes with open-door cabs called tuk tuks and carts being pulled by massive black cows. Young children begging for money at the red lights, twirling in cartwheels amongst the heavy traffic, contorting their bodies to impress viewers as their moms or older siblings beat drums on the sidewalk.

A man facing a stone wall, taking a piss. A turbaned man with a distinctive-looking white mustache and beard emerging from a crowd. It is almost phantasmagoric, the stuff of feverish dreams. A mass of people just trying to survive.

Before I left for India, someone said to me, "Well, you'll either love it or hate it." And I can see why the person said that. India overwhelms the senses: the endless honking of the cars in traffic; the beautiful, bright colors of the women's saris; the strong and spicy flavors of its foods. I loved how full of life India was, and, I'll be honest, it made life in the U.S. seem a little dull and quiet in comparison.

I took a G Adventures tour called "The Golden Triangle." It is a pretty well-traveled route that visitors make in northern India. You start in Delhi, visit the Taj Mahal in Agra, travel west to the Pink City of Jaipur, and then end up back in Delhi, stopping at many places along the way. This is now the second tour that I've taken with G Adventures, and I have nothing but great things to say about it. You meet up with a group of fellow travelers and have a local guide who stays with you the entire week. In my tour group, we had about 7 Americans, 1 Australian, 6 Brits, 1 Irishwoman, and 2 Danes, and they were all lovely people. You really end up feeling like a family by the end of the trip.

Probably one of my fondest memories happened when visiting Fatehpur Sikri, a town just west of Agra that was founded by a 16th-century Mughal emperor. Walking amongst its incredible sandstone buildings early in the morning when barely any other visitors were there, I heard an enchanting melody of a solo flute and wondered where it was coming from. When the tour guide gave us ten minutes to look around, I returned to the spot where I had first heard the music and saw a massive square basin of water that lay just beyond a fence. There were two monkeys sitting on the far lip of it, and on the right side, there was a turbaned man lying down on this back, his flute resting on his stomach. I called out to him through the metal fence, "That was beautiful. Will you play something else?" Hearing my request, he graciously picked up his wooden flute and improvised the most soothing, peaceful melody, as the birds chirped on in the background and the monkeys listened, as well.

What are your impressions of India? Please leave a comment.