I'm full of
contradictions - I know it! I like to travel to discover new places, but really
there's no place like home. I love to wonder and enter my own world but I love
to be surrounded by people and entertain. I'd like to make a simple life but I
make it more complex. I like to get up early but I love my bed!
So really India should
have felt like home - instead it mirrored the realities of my own contradictions
and the challenges they bring.
Poor - rich
India is one of the BRIC
countries, growing faster than most with huge investment. New areas of cities
are owned by the rich ad powerful building huge complexes. The middle class
enjoys Shopping Malls, cinemas and international cuisine. Side by side leaving
among the poor, manual laborers, homeless, people living in shantytowns; One
earning a couple of dollars an hour, another struggling to earn that in a day -
let alone the mega wealthy.
Apparent in every part of
the world, but here it's even evident in the social classes and interaction
between these groups. It accentuates the split, the gap and the distance that
is seen at home - it makes you shudder. Not even the homeless have access to
clean water or toilets.
Trust
Trust is misplaced here.
Someone you know talks of trust, and someone you meet on the street talks of
trust. The word is miss-used and potentially misunderstood – especially for a
British traveler. It is thrown around like it’s a commodity, and it does soon
become a monetary factor. Trust is rarely used in Britain, it’s a term that’s
implied by conclusion not as a matter of fact.
Money
It makes the world go
round. But in India it is a factor that’s essential but loses it’s value with
every word you utter. Haggling is the norm, and frustration becomes the cause.
The contradiction is – you can buy products cheaper in the UK than you can in
India if your haggling skills are not up to scratch. I can assure you that many
items I bought could have been purchased at the same or less than in the UK,
especially small trinkets like magnets, postcards and posters.
Transport
The world is your oyster
in India, you can take a train, a car, a taxi, a helicopter taxi, an
auto-rickshaw or a poor man can pull you along like you are the cart and he is
the horse. But you get nowhere fast. You spend more time negotiating the fare
for the journey than you do actually travelling.
Food
India is renowned for its
food, either you will end up with Delhi Belly/Kolkata Splutter or you will dine
in the finest of restaurants (actually even then there’s no guarantee) but try
actually spotting restaurants, or at least somewhere you’re will to allow your
stomach to be abused by. Unfortuantely I found I was eating the same thing day
in day out, and only if I had travelled with someone else could I have had
diversity!
These are just a few
areas I can refer to – but it gives you an idea of the epic differences between
Europe and India.
Enjoy your trip as best
as possible. But I can certainly say, India is interesting, even if it is not
my cup of Green Tea!
