The nature of frustration in India

Trip Start Sep 05, 2006
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Trip End Ongoing


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Monday, October 30, 2006

Without a doubt India is an overwhelming country. Even after our 10 day silent meditation course that was in part supposed to make us more relaxed and calm, it is still oh too easy to end up fed up and exhasperated. To start things off, even though there are plenty of white people who do pass through India, many Indians still treat a "white person sighting" as a very special event. No joke, since we've been in India John has been treated like a real life movie star and rock star rolled into one. Every day we meet so many inquisitive Indians who ask us what our names are, where we're from, if we like India, and they promptly invite more and more of their friends over until we're absolutely surrounded. For alot of the time, we accept these situations in good humor and do enjoy talking to various individuals about their lives and what they think about americans. Every now and then, however, the crowd and the attention crosses the line and the situation quickly becomes an ordeal. For instance, while visiting the Taj Mahal in Agra, which by the way was spectacular, we must have been asked by at least 20 Indians if they could take their picture sith us. This wasn't the first time we've been asked in India and normally we're happy to oblige people with the request. So even though we found it a bit strange to become the tourist attraction at one of the most amazing tourist attractions in the world( the Taj is apparently one of the 7 wonders of the world)we passively posed for 10 photos or so. Then the hordes came. As soon as you pose for one it turns out, you're fair game for them all. It got so bad that one of the guards had to come and tell everyone that it wasn't allowed to take pictures of the white people. Even after that it didn't stop. So even though it is harmless and the Indians are simply curious, it does get exhausting to constantly be the center of attention.

Similarly I wouldn't be surprised if many Indians see white people as large walking dollar signs rather than as people. While walking through train stations we literally have dozens of beggar children approaching and running after us asking for a banana or for one rupee. It's terribly sad to see the children in rags holding out one hand to receive money while the other hand is used to mime hunger. But after you have at least 10 children doing this to you a day, poking at your arms and your side, it's easy to get jaded. I try to ignore them, that's what our guidebook tells us to do, but it's impossible to forget that they're there while knowing that in reality I can afford to give them a banana.

On a less complicated and morally sensitive topic is the issue of "eveteasing". This was explained to us early on in Bangalore by Laura, Scott's girlfriend, and apparently is fairly rampant all over India. Eveteasing is when women, any women mostly Indian though, are inapropriately touched or brushed up against by men on the streets or in public. It's such a strange phenomenon. Men will purposefully push their elbow into a woman's breast simply because they can. They're clearly not getting any physical pleasure from the action, maybe it's just a power trip. I don't know. It has occured to me a couple of times now where someone will walk in between John and me expressly to harass me in this minimal way. So far I've been too astonished to react, but I assure you that next time it happens I will.

Don't get me wrong. India has been a fascinating country to visit where we've known incredible generosity and seen some incredibly sights. There are though those moments when everyone is pushing you out of the way, cutting you in line, and surrounding you for no apparent reason that I do find myself wishing that the western concept of individual space existed here as well. Too bad of course. I'm not here to change India, I'm here for India to change me. And hopefully for the better.

We are in the town of Gorakhpur tonight. Its a bit of a dingy place, but this is the way to Get to Nepal. We catch a bus in the morning at 5am, cross the border by 7am and then we reach Pokhara Nepal around 6pm tommorrow. We are excited to get to Nepal, excited to change the pace, the scenery and to stop travelling on long haul trips through such a vast nation. Since we left our meditation in Hyderabad, we have been traveling. The day we left, we were on a train to Agra, the city of the Taj, this trip was 27hrs. We left on the 26th, arrived 2am on the 28th. Not fun. It was only 36 hours before we got on another train to Delhi. A near disaster in the Agra train station was averted, and we spent 3 hours on the train north to Delhi. 4 hours after we arrived Delhi, we departed for Gorakhpur, another 14 hours overnight on the train. We are happy to have this day to do almost nothing. There really isn't anything to do here anyway. When we reach Pokhara tomorrow, we have decided that we are going to stay there 4 nights before we set off on a trek. Kristina's birthday is on the 3rd, so a gift from her father is to put us up in a pretty decent place...lucky John, gets the windfall benefits :) In Pokhara we plane to relax, get lots of zzz's in a real bed larger than a coffin and doesn't shake all night with the ocilations of the Indian landscape. We'll read newspapers, drink chai, look at the nice mountains. Wont be long though before we get serious about our adventure into thin air.

For now, rest is number one on the to do list.
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