The Rundown
We just got back last weekend from our All India Tour. The purpose of the tour, as far as I can imagine, was to give us a broader, fuller picture of India. Since one area of the country differs from every other area in its language, dress, food, religious makeup, political system, geography, weather, and pretty much every other way imaginable, the only way to even begin to aproach an idea of what "India" is is to see and experience as much of the diversity as possible. Kerala, in particular, seems to be a particularly anomalous state, so getting to see other parts of the country was a very valuable experience.
But aside from calculated exposure to other parts of India, the Tour also proved to be several other things. Some parts of the trip tested our behaviour and tempers as Christians, Buddhists, and whatever-the-heck else we are (tests which we roundly failed); other parts were almost like a vacation; the whole thing was an experiment in group decision-making, and communal use of money and other resources.
I intend to write a sort of series of vignettes that will detail certain experiences I had and my reactions to them and reflections on them, and let this patchwork give you an idea of what the tour was like. But before I do that, I'll give a rundown of the places I went just so there is some sort of context for the forthcoming vignettes.
Our trip was sort of screwed from the beginning. We had booked our first train ticket back in February, from Ernakulam to Varanasi-- it would be a 50 hour train ride in an a/c coach that would get us to one of the most important sites in India and leave us in a good position to explore the north of the country. When we booked that train, we didn't actually get reservations-- we were put on the waiting list, but told "Don't worry, you'll get on." As the weeks went by, and we were still wait-listed, we were still told there would be no problem. People would cancel their tickets and we would end up getting berths. The day of our departure arrived, the other YAVs came up to Ernakulam from Kottayam, and we were still wait-listed. When they asked the head ticket examiner if we'd be able to get on the train, his precise words were "Not a chance."
Fortunately, the Chief Reservation Officer in Ernakulam was super cool and helpful and hooked us up with tickets to Chennai (Madras), from whence we could avail the Foreign Tourist Quota and arrange tickets to the north. However, we still had to wait two additional days in Kerala for the train to Chennai. But, we eventually made it to Chennai with no problem, got there around 7am and were some of the first people in line when the Reservation Office opened. Here we learned a very useful fact that got us through the majority of our tour-- the railway stations in most major cities have a Foreign Tourist Reservation Office. A reservation office just for foreigners where the people are actually helpful (for the most part) and help clueless tourists figure out how to get where they're going and go to great lengths to get you on the train you need or help you figure out alternative means when that's not possible.
So we booked a bunch of tickets from the Chennai Station and, thanks to the diligent efforts of the woman at that office, we were able to set out for the north that very day. Rather than going to Varanasi first, we had to take a train to a place called Mughalsarai, which was actually closer to Gaya, where we had planned to go after Varanasi. But that was fine. We could go to Gaya first, then head over to Varanasi. But the train ride to Mughalsarai was a NIGHTMARE. The train was packed to such an extent that one could barely move. You couldn't even get to the toilet at night because every inch of floor was covered with sleeping bodies and their bags. Making things even worse, the horde of men that situated themselves in the aisle next to us and occasionally intruded upon our reserved seats were of an especially rude, leering, hostile variety. None of the women in our group felt comfortable sleeping with those eyes on them. And we had to endure this for two days.
But we survived, got to Mughalsarai, and later that day caught the six-hour-long train to Gaya. We arrived at Gaya in the afternoon of our fourth day out from Kerala and just found a hotel and showered, washed clothes, and rested. The following morning we set out for nearby Bodh Gaya. Bodh Gaya is the town that has been set up around the site of the Buddha's elightenment. While the focal point is the Mahabodhi Temple complex, which actually houses the Bodhi Tree itself (the tree the Buddha was meditating under when he attained enlightenment-- well, not that actual tree anymore, but its direct descendant), Bodh Gaya is also home to temples from all the Buddhist denominations, and an 80' tall Great Buddha Statue. And lots of people trying to cash in by selling Buddhist swag. While I was standing there admiring the Bodhi Tree, a twig and a couple of leaves fell off it. I picked them up and the guards motioned that I could hang onto them. So I have some pieces of the Bodhi Tree. I think that's pretty cool.
After Bodh Gaya, we caught an early morning train to Varanasi. Varanasi is a really cool old city; in fact, it's the oldest continually inhabited city in the world. In addition to that, it is the holiest city in the Hindu tradition, and thousands of pilgrims and tourists arrive there every day. The dominant feature of Varanasi is the Ganges River, upon which the city is built, and the ghats, giant stairways that go from the city down to the river. The ghats are used for pujas (devotional ceremonies), ceremonial bathing in the river, and for funerals and cremations. The city itself is mostly made up of alleys too narrow for even an auto rickshaw to fit down, and is crowded with merchants, beggars, cows, tourists, pilgrims and sunyasis (holy men). It very nicely meets the romantic, mystical, Orientalist notions that most of us have about India. Our first night there we attended a huge puja on one of the main ghats, and then got to see a performance of classical sitar and tabla music over dinner. The highlight of this part of the trip for me was when the sitar player saw me inspecting his instrument after the concert and sat me down and began teaching me to play it! Early the next morning, we got to take a sunrise boat ride on the Ganges and see the city's riverfront by boat. It was beautiful, and the perspective we got of the city was overwhelming. We spent the rest of that day just kind of wandering around and shopping, but I did end up at one of the Burning Ghats, where cremation ceremonies take place. I wrote about that in my most recent newsletter, and will probably do a post about it in a little while, so I won't write about it here.
That afternoon around 5, we caught a 12 hour train to Delhi and arrived safely the following noon (the math only works if you're familiar with Indian Standard Time). At this point the group split up, and while the rest of the group stayed in Delhi for a few days, Alicia and I got right on another train and went up to Pathankot in Himachal Pradesh, from whence we took a 5 hour bus ride at 5am to Dharamsala/McLeod Ganj in the foothills of the Himalayas. Dharamsala is the name commonly given to the town that serves as the Dalai Lama's home in exile, the centre of the exiled Tibetan theocracy, and the epicentre of the Tibetan refugee community in India. But the actual name of the town is McLeod Ganj. Dharamsala is about 4 km down the mountain and really just has a marketplace, some restaurants, and a couple of hotels. McLeod Ganj was BEAUTIFUL!! If you looked in one direction you could see the plains of northern India stretching away to the horizon. In the other direction were the snowcapped peaks of the Himalayas. I've never seen anything so amazing in my life. Mostly we just walked around enjoying the views, eating awesome Tibetan food and, under the pretext of supporting the Tibetan refugee community, brought a crap ton of stuff. Disappointingly, I got really sick our second day there (our only full day) and didn't leave the hotel room at all. The third day there, we visited the main temple complex, which is supposedly a near duplicate of the temple in Lhasa. McLeod Ganj was cool in the same way as Bodh Gaya, in that there were Buddhist monks and nuns walking around all over the place, somtimes mumbling prayers. Of course, at Bodh Gaya there were monks from all different traditions, while McCleod Ganj was pretty much exclusively Tibetan Buddhist. But still, both places were infused with a sense of peace and mindfulness that it was very refreshing to dwell in.
We left McLeod Ganj the same we had come, taking the bus back down to Pathankot in the evening and getting on an overnight train to Delhi. After a very brief stop in Delhi-- just an afternon where we just showered, slept, and ate-- we headed down to Bangalore (about 2 days on the train) so Alicia could catch her flight back to the States. After she left, I took a train west to Goa where I just relaxed and waited for the rest of the group. Goa is like Hawai'i for Europeans and Aussies. Its palm-fringed beaches and cerulean waters are the kind of things postcard makers dream of. Not a bad place to spend a week while my friends were trudging through the desert in Rajasthan. After a week on my own there, the others joined me and, together, we spent another week in Goa before heading back to our sites in Kerala.
Our tour was a nice, long break from the multitude of stresses I encounter trying to be an accepting, accepted, and productive member of the community in and around UC College. And while it was replete with stresses of its own, they are the stresses that any tourist or traveler will encounter. And that's much less alienating than feeling that I'm totally on my own in my struggles. But now I'm back in Alwaye, the only white person for 60 km in any direction, committed to making the most of my last two months here. I feel rested, relaxed, refreshed, and enthusiastic.... It's going to be a good couple of months.
Stay tuned for more detailed posts on the places we visited...
We just got back last weekend from our All India Tour. The purpose of the tour, as far as I can imagine, was to give us a broader, fuller picture of India. Since one area of the country differs from every other area in its language, dress, food, religious makeup, political system, geography, weather, and pretty much every other way imaginable, the only way to even begin to aproach an idea of what "India" is is to see and experience as much of the diversity as possible. Kerala, in particular, seems to be a particularly anomalous state, so getting to see other parts of the country was a very valuable experience.
But aside from calculated exposure to other parts of India, the Tour also proved to be several other things. Some parts of the trip tested our behaviour and tempers as Christians, Buddhists, and whatever-the-heck else we are (tests which we roundly failed); other parts were almost like a vacation; the whole thing was an experiment in group decision-making, and communal use of money and other resources.
I intend to write a sort of series of vignettes that will detail certain experiences I had and my reactions to them and reflections on them, and let this patchwork give you an idea of what the tour was like. But before I do that, I'll give a rundown of the places I went just so there is some sort of context for the forthcoming vignettes.
Our trip was sort of screwed from the beginning. We had booked our first train ticket back in February, from Ernakulam to Varanasi-- it would be a 50 hour train ride in an a/c coach that would get us to one of the most important sites in India and leave us in a good position to explore the north of the country. When we booked that train, we didn't actually get reservations-- we were put on the waiting list, but told "Don't worry, you'll get on." As the weeks went by, and we were still wait-listed, we were still told there would be no problem. People would cancel their tickets and we would end up getting berths. The day of our departure arrived, the other YAVs came up to Ernakulam from Kottayam, and we were still wait-listed. When they asked the head ticket examiner if we'd be able to get on the train, his precise words were "Not a chance."
Fortunately, the Chief Reservation Officer in Ernakulam was super cool and helpful and hooked us up with tickets to Chennai (Madras), from whence we could avail the Foreign Tourist Quota and arrange tickets to the north. However, we still had to wait two additional days in Kerala for the train to Chennai. But, we eventually made it to Chennai with no problem, got there around 7am and were some of the first people in line when the Reservation Office opened. Here we learned a very useful fact that got us through the majority of our tour-- the railway stations in most major cities have a Foreign Tourist Reservation Office. A reservation office just for foreigners where the people are actually helpful (for the most part) and help clueless tourists figure out how to get where they're going and go to great lengths to get you on the train you need or help you figure out alternative means when that's not possible.
So we booked a bunch of tickets from the Chennai Station and, thanks to the diligent efforts of the woman at that office, we were able to set out for the north that very day. Rather than going to Varanasi first, we had to take a train to a place called Mughalsarai, which was actually closer to Gaya, where we had planned to go after Varanasi. But that was fine. We could go to Gaya first, then head over to Varanasi. But the train ride to Mughalsarai was a NIGHTMARE. The train was packed to such an extent that one could barely move. You couldn't even get to the toilet at night because every inch of floor was covered with sleeping bodies and their bags. Making things even worse, the horde of men that situated themselves in the aisle next to us and occasionally intruded upon our reserved seats were of an especially rude, leering, hostile variety. None of the women in our group felt comfortable sleeping with those eyes on them. And we had to endure this for two days.
But we survived, got to Mughalsarai, and later that day caught the six-hour-long train to Gaya. We arrived at Gaya in the afternoon of our fourth day out from Kerala and just found a hotel and showered, washed clothes, and rested. The following morning we set out for nearby Bodh Gaya. Bodh Gaya is the town that has been set up around the site of the Buddha's elightenment. While the focal point is the Mahabodhi Temple complex, which actually houses the Bodhi Tree itself (the tree the Buddha was meditating under when he attained enlightenment-- well, not that actual tree anymore, but its direct descendant), Bodh Gaya is also home to temples from all the Buddhist denominations, and an 80' tall Great Buddha Statue. And lots of people trying to cash in by selling Buddhist swag. While I was standing there admiring the Bodhi Tree, a twig and a couple of leaves fell off it. I picked them up and the guards motioned that I could hang onto them. So I have some pieces of the Bodhi Tree. I think that's pretty cool.
After Bodh Gaya, we caught an early morning train to Varanasi. Varanasi is a really cool old city; in fact, it's the oldest continually inhabited city in the world. In addition to that, it is the holiest city in the Hindu tradition, and thousands of pilgrims and tourists arrive there every day. The dominant feature of Varanasi is the Ganges River, upon which the city is built, and the ghats, giant stairways that go from the city down to the river. The ghats are used for pujas (devotional ceremonies), ceremonial bathing in the river, and for funerals and cremations. The city itself is mostly made up of alleys too narrow for even an auto rickshaw to fit down, and is crowded with merchants, beggars, cows, tourists, pilgrims and sunyasis (holy men). It very nicely meets the romantic, mystical, Orientalist notions that most of us have about India. Our first night there we attended a huge puja on one of the main ghats, and then got to see a performance of classical sitar and tabla music over dinner. The highlight of this part of the trip for me was when the sitar player saw me inspecting his instrument after the concert and sat me down and began teaching me to play it! Early the next morning, we got to take a sunrise boat ride on the Ganges and see the city's riverfront by boat. It was beautiful, and the perspective we got of the city was overwhelming. We spent the rest of that day just kind of wandering around and shopping, but I did end up at one of the Burning Ghats, where cremation ceremonies take place. I wrote about that in my most recent newsletter, and will probably do a post about it in a little while, so I won't write about it here.
That afternoon around 5, we caught a 12 hour train to Delhi and arrived safely the following noon (the math only works if you're familiar with Indian Standard Time). At this point the group split up, and while the rest of the group stayed in Delhi for a few days, Alicia and I got right on another train and went up to Pathankot in Himachal Pradesh, from whence we took a 5 hour bus ride at 5am to Dharamsala/McLeod Ganj in the foothills of the Himalayas. Dharamsala is the name commonly given to the town that serves as the Dalai Lama's home in exile, the centre of the exiled Tibetan theocracy, and the epicentre of the Tibetan refugee community in India. But the actual name of the town is McLeod Ganj. Dharamsala is about 4 km down the mountain and really just has a marketplace, some restaurants, and a couple of hotels. McLeod Ganj was BEAUTIFUL!! If you looked in one direction you could see the plains of northern India stretching away to the horizon. In the other direction were the snowcapped peaks of the Himalayas. I've never seen anything so amazing in my life. Mostly we just walked around enjoying the views, eating awesome Tibetan food and, under the pretext of supporting the Tibetan refugee community, brought a crap ton of stuff. Disappointingly, I got really sick our second day there (our only full day) and didn't leave the hotel room at all. The third day there, we visited the main temple complex, which is supposedly a near duplicate of the temple in Lhasa. McLeod Ganj was cool in the same way as Bodh Gaya, in that there were Buddhist monks and nuns walking around all over the place, somtimes mumbling prayers. Of course, at Bodh Gaya there were monks from all different traditions, while McCleod Ganj was pretty much exclusively Tibetan Buddhist. But still, both places were infused with a sense of peace and mindfulness that it was very refreshing to dwell in.
We left McLeod Ganj the same we had come, taking the bus back down to Pathankot in the evening and getting on an overnight train to Delhi. After a very brief stop in Delhi-- just an afternon where we just showered, slept, and ate-- we headed down to Bangalore (about 2 days on the train) so Alicia could catch her flight back to the States. After she left, I took a train west to Goa where I just relaxed and waited for the rest of the group. Goa is like Hawai'i for Europeans and Aussies. Its palm-fringed beaches and cerulean waters are the kind of things postcard makers dream of. Not a bad place to spend a week while my friends were trudging through the desert in Rajasthan. After a week on my own there, the others joined me and, together, we spent another week in Goa before heading back to our sites in Kerala.
Our tour was a nice, long break from the multitude of stresses I encounter trying to be an accepting, accepted, and productive member of the community in and around UC College. And while it was replete with stresses of its own, they are the stresses that any tourist or traveler will encounter. And that's much less alienating than feeling that I'm totally on my own in my struggles. But now I'm back in Alwaye, the only white person for 60 km in any direction, committed to making the most of my last two months here. I feel rested, relaxed, refreshed, and enthusiastic.... It's going to be a good couple of months.
Stay tuned for more detailed posts on the places we visited...
posted by Andy at 8:16 AM
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