Last words from India (EN)

It has been two, almost three months, since I left India. I spent there only about three months, quite a short time comparing to all the wandering foreigners I met around there who have spent their lifetime getting to know India.

It has been a completely different experience for me. What do I mean by that? Well, there were few aspects of this trip which I haven’t experienced in any of my previous travels. I have to point out once again that I don’t consider myself to be a traveler. Yes, I spend my time mostly abroad, but that’s it. I don’t go on holidays or trips where your aim is to keep on moving around. From all the long months, now years that I have spent abroad, I was usually settled in one place. In Colombia it was Bucaramanga and for long time the only places I visited were the surroundings of the city like the Mesa de los Santos. Then, in Brasil, my second home Lapinha. My first three months in this huge and beautiful country I spent only there. Next trip I planned to travel around, but guess what happened, I almost didn’t leave Lapinhaagain :) And so India was a new challenge for me, I had no „home“ there, no contact or project where I could establish myself and this time I also WANTED to get some travels done.

That’s for the personal point of view. And the rest is... INDIA IS SO DIFFERENT to the worlds I have known. I was told that before. „Take it easy and don’t rush, you have to get used on this new universe of India“. At the end I did. It took me almost all these months to start feeling comfortable and to start feeling like I want to explore more. The first weeks I was even counting off the days to go back to Colombia, but at the end I could happily admit that I should return one day.

Here is a little summary I made for myself when I was constantly thinking why the things are not flowing and which helped me to accept the differences and new experience.

Why India has been a very different experience for me

• I had expectations, expectations of the difficulties I might face and I did at the end. I created a prejudice thanks to those expectations, especially towards people and their behavior.
• I have never been in this situation before, that I am not moving from one place to another, but I actually am on a temporal leave from my life. Sort of holiday feeling. 
• The language barrier makes it difficult to meld in.
• People and their culture make it completely different. Impossible to stop being a tourist. They respect you a lot, as a guest. But it is not like if I learn their language they will accept me into the society. Even among them, if you are from a different place, it might be super difficult to be a part of another place. You will always remain who you were when you came.
• They are very respectful though. Especially with guests. Treating them as Gods. But that is completely opposite of what I am used to, so another situation, I have to let them treat me as nobody had done before just to show respect to their culture and hierarchy in all kind of its form.
• The constant distance I have to keep between me and men. And that wouldn’t be a problem if men were not those you have to deal with in the society. Women are usually at home. Especially in the city life, men are the sellers, service providers, men are on the streets. So whatever you need, you have to ask men about. No any choice of searching for a female adviser.

Well, enough of philosophy. When speaking about last words I have to recall the memories of few things. First, I remember one extraordinary experience I had in Rishikesh. A massage.  Here is what I wrote down right after:

Incredible massage

– tips of the toes until tips of the hair... It was weird at the beginning, but felt very well. Just enjoying. I felt that the ambiance of all the spas I went through before is not even necessary to have a great feeling from a massage. When I was told it was the end and that I should rest two minutes and there was no relaxation music or aromatic oils only the noisy fan from the ceiling and sounds of working from the neighbors shop. Still, I felt super refreshed.

How to become a fashion-model judge and an ex-model 

– 24 hours which went completely out of the plan and took me to a totally opposite world to the one I am living in right now in Rishikesh. Away from meditation and questions about your supreme being, deep inner thoughts and pursuing the knowledge to the world of glamour and fashion shows. Well, without exaggeration it was quite a change. But what one won’t do for a desperate girl. (I was helping out a friend who needed to cover for her boss when a Russian ex-model presented to be a judge for selecting the new brand representative didn’t show up...)

Studying yoga in India

– can have many different forms. I talked to Akshish who spend 7 years living in an ashram and learning yoga from his teachers and guru. Quite different experience. As he said „we didn’t learn asanas, nobody was actually teaching them to us. Of course eventually we learned them, but by observing our masters. For example, after I came we were for 6 months studying just one or two techniques of Pranayama. Breathing...it was too much for many of the students and they left. For me one of the challenges was when my guru send me after a short time to deal with the management of the ashram. They are different people. You know, we, who wanted to learn about yoga, had everything. Food, accommodation, so we could concentrate on our learning without worries about the casual things, that was why we came. But the management is a different world. I didn’t want to be involved with these things, I wanted to study yoga. So I complained to my teacher and he told me not to complain and do the work, that once I will understand how important it is. That to know the management is also very important and will come in handy one day. And he was right. After seven years in ashram I really needed this experience, because there is no other way if you want to exist in the outside world. You cannot avoid it. And now I am having my own yoga school and at least for parts I can transmit my knowledge to the others.

Food

Paratha for breakfast, my favourite!!

And of course the food...Mostly vegetarian (excluding also the eggs), with rare exceptions of restaurants serving also chicken and mutton dishes. It really was much easier NOT to eat meat than vice versa.

Sometimes I couldn't resist. The truth is, I went through few "episodes" with my stomach. But nothing serious, just a little bit uncomfortable. 

The traditional food as I got to know it especially in the Nirvana camps is simple. Bigger meals consisted of rice and dal (soup-like dish made from lentils or different kinds of beans and veggies). Or mixtures of vegetables usually with potatoes called subzi accompanied with roti or chapati (simple Indian bread which I really LOVED). One of my favorites were parathas, bread similar to roti, but thicker, often filled with potatoes or onions and when fried a lot of oil is used to give it taste. These we were eating for breakfast, sometimes served with jam, sometimes with pickles.

Dal and rice served as lunch in Nirvana camp.

There is a lot of fried food on the streets in India. And yes, everyone will advise you not to eat there and it is after all a very clever idea. But who doesn’t know the street food doesn’t know the country I would say. So, in places which looked less risky I tried samosas and other super oily veggie or potato based stuff.  India also offers a lot of sweets, soaked in syrup. You can try them in one of many sweet shops and they nicely explain you if it is fried or not, if it is made of flour or rice... 

Men in a shop in Udaipur preparing all the sweet little balls called Gulab Jamun. 

As there is a lot of influence from different cultures I also tried Tibetan and Nepalese food and I fell in love with momos. I think they are known in English as dumplings. I loved them all, vegetable ones, with mutton, in a soup or without soup.  The Indian food is spicy, so I had to learn to say in advance that I don’t want spicy... It was spicy anyway, but just enough to still enjoy the food.

Mmmm, momos! In a soup!!

Chai

Chai and always chai!

It is something so typical that without „chai“ I couldn’t imagine India. It wasn’t always chai with spices, so called „masala chai“. Most common was a simple super sweet drink made from water, lot of sugar, black tea and a lot of milk. In the Nirvana camps we drunk about three or four cups of this every day. Sometimes accompanied by traditional Parle-G biscuits. Simple, but enchanting. Unforgettable combination discovered thanks to an India traveler I met during my stay in a hostel in Jaipur. Kevin from Mumbai. He definitely knew the best things about food and drinks in India.

In the Nirvana camp they got used to serving me chai without milk as I always asked them :)

Last last words. I hope to return one day. It doesn’t have to be super soon, but once more in my life I wish to go to India.