India is calling
Since my last update we have travelled from Varanasi to Agra see the Taj (it was beautiful), then on to Delhi, Jaipur (the pink city) and then on to Mumbai for New Years where we still are now.
We have pretty much had our fill of temples, monuments and landmarks so I won't bore you with the details.
India has been quite an experience so far, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. There is something unique and endearing about Indian people and culture. Even though Buddhism was born here, and Christianity had a fair shot over colonial times, both religions did not sink roots here as they did just about everywhere else. Also, American youth/hip hop culture, (which seems to have penetrated almost every society), does not seem to have a strong a standing in popular culture as it does in many other countries. Youth still seem to prefer Bollywood dancing, sari's and Hindi music over breakdancing, baggy pants and Usher.
The intensity of the place is something that just has to be experienced, women (and some men) dress in the most vibrantly coloured sari's and there are just so many people everywhere. The slum area's are pretty huge, some are three stories high. They are comprised of bits of tin, brick, shadecloth, concrete, wood.... just about anything. They are quite well lit as they steal electricity off the powerlines.
Last night we caught the metro train to a club (Sankar's friend in Mumbai had got us tickets to a party out in the suburbs). And as it was a lot cheaper, we took the general compartment. At first it was a little packed and we were thinking "this isn't so bad" then, at every station, when it didn't seem possible, more and more people would pack in. It was so tight that people had to take a run up to barge a way through to get on the train with people hanging out the doors in the night air (which didn't close). I have never been so squashed before, it reached the point where it gets a little hard to breath because of the pressure of all the sweaty bodies on your chest, pretty clostrophpbic conditions. At any one point there are about five sweaty bodies pressed firmly against some part of your anatomy creating their own little sweaty patches. And the smells were pretty interesting too, you could distinguist maybe half a dozen different body odors mingled with dried fish, shit and piss (the toilets open up directly onto the rails), inscence and Sankars imitation Georgio Armani cologne.
Eventually our stop approached and we were faced with the seemingly impossible task of getting the 2 meters, through a density of about 10 people to the door. It didn't seem like we would make it for a while despite pushing hard at the mass of bodies in our way until.... I remembered the teachings of my old Kung Fu master, "be like the water". And so slowly, I began to firstly wiggle my hips to make a gap in the sea of bodies, then I would slide my torso to follow my hips. At this point I would be standing on a angle but the weight of people was preventing me from falling over. Then I would be able to get a space to take a step into, and then another. And so it went.
Other than that I had my ears cleaned by a street ear cleaner in Delhi (something any western trained GP would flinch at). The ear cleaner started by taking a metal rod about 15 cm long with a tiny spade at the end which he proceeded to use to shove into my ear and dig around. After removing an amazing amount of wax he began to tell me that I needed some medicine (which would cost extra) as my wax was to hard. He demonstrated this by flicking the metal rod into my ear as if he were testing the hardness of a freshly baked cookie with a skewer. I agreed to use the medicine (if only to stop him puncturing my ear drum). After cleaning one ear, he for some reason decided to take the metal rod, which had only seconds before been prodding at my ear wax, and shove the full length of it horizontally into his nose. Amazingly he did not puncture his brain, he removed the rod, gave it a quick wipe on his shirt and before I had the chance to protest, started on my other ear. Yummy!
Mumbai has to be the most beautiful city so far with it's old colonial architecture, the colours of the sari's and city lights, the smells of kakuri sausages and frying ghee, and the sounds of the chai wallahas and stray dogs. From here we go on to the party capital, Goa.
