31 March 2010

TIME TO SAY GOODBEY- MY LAST DAY IN INDIA

Today will be my last day in India after 5 years of a more or less continuous stay.
It was an after all an overwhelming experience enabling me to see India multi - faceted lot more than tourist perspective of Indian live. On one side, due to the fact that I never was able to learn Hindi or Maharani I was not always able to understand what was going on around me And Indians me see me as an ignorant. On the other side I travelled most of the times like the Indians.
Indians now want to know my general impression about India and it is very difficult to define because the country is so large and multi- cultural with a social structure starting with the people sleeping at the border of the street, people living in the city in small tents, small house owners, the growing middle class, the owners of affiliates and medium size factories and the Mittals and Abamis. A variety of religions all with their own traditions, customs prejudices and the government trying hard (and quite successful) to avoid conflicts and real clashes.
What I admired the most in India is the free press and this is also the base of democracy to get people informed on a regular - non cheating base. Also the style of the news paper I know is very decent and informative; the stories of Spears and Hilton are really banned to the last pages. In general Indians are very open minded, honest and helpful.
In the 5 years I was in India, 3 times I lost my passport (simply felt out of the jacket) one time in Mumbai airport; people (non officials) followed my path from 1c to 1 d terminal based on the picture inside the passport to bring it back to me. I have to thank them. In 5 years in India nothing was stolen nothing went lost ! Stolen were 2 expensive Konia’s in Neuss, Germany.
I enjoyed the weekly flights (Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai) in earlier times struggling with the comfort of the old domestic flight terminals , with no time of flight and gate indication ( gate were announced by screaming either in the loudspeaker or by natural voice) to the already quite sophisticated domestic terminals now.
Walking to the streets of India should always remind us western how our countries looked like 1 or even 2 generation ago. One or two generation ago we had the same discomforts, with missing hygienic toilets , people spitting everywhere, rouspering , sneezing everywhere without limits and having no handkerchiefs. One day in a German news paper having a test (the call it Knigge - test) about not to do- in India, it was mentioned never clean your nose in front of people. Of coarse it is not a bad behaviour to clean the nose in an handkerchief, but since most Indians don't have, in the hand is a bad behaviour (Mr Bean I hear your objections)
Indian woman did not like me, well at least not as close as I was dreaming of, but this was very good and my Portuguese wife will for sure be happy about that.
Now than bad points and this are also the points where Indians might have problems when they go abroad and sure get attacked.... and this is than called racial but from my point of view it is not, is just a cultural conflict.
- Indians have no idea what is the meaning of a queue, they don't want to stand in- line don't respect the line and will do everything possible to omit the line.
- Indian traffic is the most dangerous of the world, I assume their are rules but no drivers know them and if they know they don't mind. Police doesn't mind either.
- Please don't walk in India , side walks ( beside Delhi) are just for trees , cows, hawkers, panels, high voltage transformers, shiting, and other activities , but not for walking
I could for sure write a lot more about my expiernces but need some sleep otherwise I will miss my flight back to Europe.
I THANK ALL INDIANS I MET FOR THE GENEROSITY,RESPECT AND HELP AND I HOPE TO COME BACK AS A TOURIST SOON

I still have a lot od unpublished expierences and pictures , so I will try hard to continue this blog , even if I will not be in India anymore

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