By: Tina Paunovic
Photo by: Ana Maria
Jakopanec and Tina Paunovic
Although India was not the first country we visited this year, (we started from London
through Arabia to India and continued from
Southeast Asia to Australia) it is certainly a country that we’ll
remember for a long time. There are so many things that happened to us out
there, that the only thing I can say after returning home is: "Thank God I'm
safe and sound and in one piece."
So let's proceed to our Indian adventure. The only question is: With which things do
I start ? The good ones, which can be counted on the fingers of one hand, or
the bad ones which are numerous...
Before we left on
our trip we read a lot about India, the news, travel books, personal
experiences of other fellow travelers... So actually we knew that we were
going to a third world country and that we will experience a culture shock,
but as we had experience in traveling, we were confident in ourselves.
" Oh,
That’s a piece of cake for us..." Ana repeated few times.
When we arrived at the airport we still couldn’t feel or imagine what might be waiting for us
out there , despite that customs
officers tossed a silly grin, " Good
luck ! You will definitely need luck here."
But it was the point
of no return.
Outside of the
airport, there was the driver of the hotel where we had booked accommodation, waiting
for us with his car. We had no idea that this will soon become the most
traumatic ride of our lives. There were no signs of speed limitations on the road,
instead of three lanes for cars they are using six lanes and their way of
driving is just indescribable. Buses, cars( Suzuki Swift, Toyota and a few
TATA) and countless rickshaws are competing among themselves who will be first to reach the next traffic
light. Beside this, there are oxen running in these lanes, and what is the most interesting, they stop when
the red light is on. It took us a few days to get used to the constant
irritating noise of the car horns which is pretty loud even at night or on
weekends.
If you are traveling
alone to the Indian capital, without any agency, be carefull cause you’ ll probably get deceived wherever you go. If you
want to travel anywhere outside of New Delhi - you need a ticket for a train or
a bus. But they do not sell tickets at the bus or railway station but at the
government branch that usually carry the name: TOURIST OFFICE. So before you
go anywhere you need to go into this office. They will try to convince you here that India is a very
dangerous country and that you are not
likely to survive if you go somewhere alone by train or bus so they will immediately try to organize the entire
route with private driver for you and charge
it at european prices. We didn’t have so much money for a personal driver for all the places we wanted
to visit, and we asked for only two train tickets to Agra. However, an
official who works in the office told us that the tickets for the train and bus
were sold out and told us that the taxi is the only option we have left. We
knew he was trying to cheat us. We were already at the exit, when he changed
his mind and sold us two tickets for the bus to Agra. This negative experience
was on one hand an unpleasant cognition what awaits us on our onward journey, but
on another, we also learned how to behave in an endless debates with Indians.
The trip to Agra
lasted 5:30 hours. We have seen so many bad things from the bus. Poverty is
huge. People are living in unsanitary conditions in small huts, without water,
electricity, toilets, anything ... Families live together with cows, oxen, wild
pigs, goats . They all sit in front of the huts as if waiting for something to
fall from the sky. You can sense in the air all sorts of smells - smoke, automobile
gas, incenses, sewage... And the air is full of dust that is constantly
rising in the air and the weather seems to be cloudy all the time although it
isn’t. There are mosquitoes flying everywhere,
mainly infected with malaria. We did not buy any anti-malaria tablets,
although we were aware of the risks. The problem is that the price is too
expensive in our country. Useful information is that these pills contain
quinine - the same ingredient that is found in tonic and has the same effect if
you regularly drink tonic water. Another option is to buy anti-malaria tablets
in India at much less cost.
Size of the indian capital
is 24 million people, and of the Uttar Pradesh province is nearly 200 million. India is the second most populated country in the world ( after China ), and
seventh in the area. In the state there are 23 official languages, and the largest number of religious groups are Hindus and
Muslims.
NAMASKAR TAJ MAHAL
Should guilty seek asylum here,
Like one pardoned, he becomes free from sin.
Should a sinner make his way to this mansion,
All his past sins are to be washed away.
The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs;
And the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes.
In this world this edifice has been made;
To display thereby the creator's glory.
Like one pardoned, he becomes free from sin.
Should a sinner make his way to this mansion,
All his past sins are to be washed away.
The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs;
And the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes.
In this world this edifice has been made;
To display thereby the creator's glory.
Shah Jahan
In Agra people are
more sociable and I would say wealthier and better speaking english. It is
logical to conclude that they have a much larger number of tourists than Delhi
because of the Taj Mahal. As I recall, we have seen in Delhi a single tourist on the road. Here were
buses full of Brits and Germans passing
every few minutes.
While climbing up the Taj
Mahal, Ana and I have nearly forgotten all the trouble that happened to us in
India since we arrived. The area around one of the most beautiful buildings
I've ever seen in my life radiates positive energy. That day was very hot and
it was so crowded at the entrance of the Taj Mahal that I thought to myself:
" This will not turn out well. " But when we went inside, the hot
wind blew us with smell of incense, sandalwood, flowers and wax and it drew
a smile on both of our faces. And although everything was full of people
and over 37 degrees yet in all that crowd we found peace and tranquility.
Family where we stayed in Agra was very good to us.
They told us about the love
story of the Taj Mahal.
Mughal empire in
India was founded by the Mongol leader
Babur in 1526 year. One of the heirs of that monarch, Shah Jahan ordered a tomb
to be build - a mosque Taj Mahal in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal, which was greatly loved by him. Tomb was built by
22,000 people over 22 years. It was built from 1631st till 1653rd year.
Thousands of people do
the pilgrimage to this World wonder. They are mostly Indians, but you can find
also the British, Germans, Americans and even Bosnians. We met a Bosnian
family in the middle of the Taj Mahal! We stayed in Agra longer than we have planned.
Probably because of the good people and fine food or we just felt security and
serenity close to such a magnificent building, especially since we had a direct view
on it from our hostel.
“If we Indians could only spit in unison, we would
form a puddle big enough to drown 3,000,000 Englishmen”. M. Gandhi
We have visited also
Jaipur and Manali, and we returned back to Delhi. In Delhi there are a lot of
things to see, such as the Hindu Akshardham Temple, Lotus Temple, India Gate
and Raj Ghat memorial of Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian leader
in the struggle for independence which was known for its tactics of disobedience
and non-cooperation towards Britain, which finally led to the independence of
India in 1947. Gandhi resolutely resisted the Hindu - Muslim clashes and
massacres that led to the struggle for independence of India and Pakistan. He
was killed by a Hindu fanatic.
The overall
impression after this journey is that India is truly incredible. As if you’re watching a movie in which everything rewinds
in advance and the whole day passes in five minutes time.
While you are in India you
arrive to think about anything except on mere survival. Will riksha run me over
? Or bus ? Or an ox ? Will I get ripped off and sold into slavery ? All the
senses are at a maximum. So many sounds , so many smells , so many pictures...
Maybe this way of life is too stressful for us, but anyway it is worth of trying. There is a nice quote that Croatian writer Ivo Andrić said: " There
are so many things that we were afraid of in our lives. And there was no reason for fear. There is only reason to live."
Maybe the Indian people are inconceivable,
unpredictable, incomprehensible, but they know how to live, because they don’t know
for better. Their way of living has reminded me in some segments of my
childhood, during the war. But then again I think to myself: "By God, it was never so bad in our country
".
And yet they will smile to you and greet you on the street not like
most of our fellow citizens. Maybe because they do not know any better. Maybe it
would be better for us if we did not know any better.
Indians would advise
you:
" You are the
creators of your own happiness. You cause suffering to yourself, you do good
and evil things to yourself and to others,and you are the ones who close their
eyes and say that is dark. Get your hands off your eyes and see the light!
"
And then they would
ask you to pay for that advice.
been there, done that! good job girlies!
ReplyDelete