Final Thoughts on an Incredible Adventure
I began writing this on the train from Thrissur to Mumbai on Thursday and will finish it today, Sunday, April 3. This will be my last email of the trip as I fly home early tomorrow morning. I've tried to summarize my journey with some final thoughts.
The sun has just set on our northbound journey to Mumbai. The villages hidden among palm and banana trees are beginning to disappear. Some homes still have a faint glow in this period of civil twilight. My journey is also beginning to fade into twilight. Only a couple of days left and Mother India will reside in my memory as does Nepal and Tibet. What I have seen in the past three years and how each of these trips have changed me in so many ways.
I called her Mother India because everyone else did. But having spent the past almost six weeks of my life in her arms I now know why. From the moment you arrive she takes you by the hand and sometimes she takes you by the throat. Mostly she's held my hand very gently. She is a most beautiful country, a most beautiful and colorful culture, and above all she is a most beautiful people. She is the most populated city in India, Mumbai. Full of trucks, cars, motorcycles, and rickshaws all seemingly blowing their horns at the same time. She is the trash piled on the side of the railway tracks and littering every street in India. She is the bicycles transporting everything from twenty foot sections of rebar to a chai walla delivering chai to four 25 pound bags of ice (they don't ride the bicycles they use them as a transport vehicle). She is the beaches and colorful fishing boats of Varkala and Kovalum. She is the beautifully decorated elephants at the festivals. She is the Hindus and the Muslims and the Christians that all live in here. She is the large beautiful Hindu temples and the small but still beautiful roadside shrine. She is the Muslim mosque. She is the Catholic church. She is the colorful markings on one's forehead showing they've worshipped at the temple. She is the cows, goats, dogs, cats, and rats that walk the streets as if they owned them. She is the man on the sidewalk that will re-stitch your soccer ball. She is the cobbler on the sidewalk that will repair your shoe while holding it with his feet as he works on it with his hands. She is the man on the street who will repair your umbrella instead of just throwing it away. She is the boys playing cricket and soccer on the same dirt field in their bare feet (shoes are used as the wickets in cricket and goal markers in soccer). She is the men of India who work every back-breaking task in sandals or flip-flops and still carry most everything heavy on their heads. She is the women of India who work every back breaking task in a beautiful sari. And She is hot, She is one very hot lady.
Before this trip I never had much contact with the Indian culture. I guess the first Indian I knew was my teacher for Introduction to Digital Circuits in the late 70's. Akshay Jain, I still remember his name, and he was a really nice person and a good teacher. I've never gone to many Indian restaurants because I thought all the food was made with curry.
Having spent a bit of time in India and travelled to numerous cities, towns, and villages, stayed at all sorts of hotels, guest houses, and house boats, travelled by air, train, taxi, rickshaw, motorcycle, by just plain walking, I've discovered this: The Indian people are the most genuinely happy and friendly people I've ever met. The smiles and accompanying head wobbles from side to side are genuine, the wanting you to take their photo followed by it's viewing and the subsequent smile and head wobble are genuine. They will go out of their way to help you. Even when they tell you to turn right while they point to the left, they are genuinely trying to help. They say that a foreigner in their country is their God; this saying is really genuine. I can't say enough to describe how genuinely kind the Indian people have been to me.
How my perception of Indian food has changed. I've enjoyed every meal I've eaten here in India. My food experience in Dharamsala last July provided me much concern before I arrived. It didn't take long for me to realize that I wasn't going to get sick from everything I ate. Truth is, after six weeks I only had one day where my stomach felt a bit funny. It was probably from the grease of lamb dish I ate at a restaurant in Mysore. Most of the food I've eaten has been vegetarian. Lots of lentils, potatoes, carrots, green beans, cauliflower, and a lot of other vegetables I never heard of before. The Indians cook everything with such a variety of spices. You would taste ginger in one bite, cilantro in another, the flavors of cumin, turmeric, curry leaves, and green chilis would explode in your mouth. Sometimes all in a single dish. I brought a 96 pack of tums with me. Two weeks into the trip I poured half of them out. I've taken maybe three or four the entire trip. There's a lot more to Indian food than curry. One more note on food, the best meal I had here was at the Trattoria Restaurant in Varkala. It was a filet of fresh butterfish cooked in spices and wrapped in a banana leaf and baked in a clay oven. I actually ordered it twice.
Mother India loves the game of cricket. India has been hosting the matches for The World Cricket Cup since I arrived. I've watched enough matches to have developed a pretty good understanding of the game. The sign of a true sportsman. As you know from yesterday's email, India won.
Heather planned our trips to Southern India for a reason. The people and the food. She couldn't have made a better choice for a first timer to India. So I would say go to Kerala and get your feet wet there. If I had to pick a favorite location from my experience it would certainly be the backwaters. Heather put it best before our first visit there, when she said, "the backwaters are idyllic". I spent a total of six nights there. The beauty of the canals lined with palm and banana trees, hibiscus flowers, plumerias, jack fruit trees, and the occasional iridescent blue kingfisher diving in the water for it's meal was, well...idyllic. The everyday life of the backwater inhabitants was life standing still. People bathe at the water's edge. Men bathe with a light towel around their waist, women bathe fully clothed, and kids bathe in their birthday suits. They wash their clothes by soaping them and then rolling them on a flat stone. They rinse them in the water and then slap them hard on the flat stone for the final rinse. The slapping down of a shirt or pant on that a flat stone echoed throughout the canals. They wash their dishes, metal plates and cups in the canals as well. Kids have few toys if any. They just entertain themselves with what they have which is the nature around them. Materially they don't have much but they're all very happy, and they're rich, very rich.
I'd like to say to my traveling companion of the last six weeks how much I've enjoyed my time with this recovering gypsy. Heather has been an absolute pleasure to travel with. It would not have been the same experience without her at my side. I will forever treasure these six weeks with her. She did a marvelous job of planning and coordinating our activities, many times by the seat of her beautiful Ali Baba pants. She has always been the consistently beautiful and wonderful Heather we all know. Even when Mother India would grab her gently yet firmly by the hand and re-arranged her intention, she would just wobble her head from side to side and smile. She is a beautiful soul. Safe travels and come home soon as all your yogi friends in San Diego who miss you dearly. Thank you so much and my love to you always Miss Mev.
To Heather's Father and Mother, you did an outstanding job raising your daughter. She talked fondly of the both of you throughout the trip.
Thanks to all of you on my undisclosed recipients list for taking your time to read my, at times, lengthy emails. It has been a pleasure to share my experiences with you.
See you all soon.
Happy Trails and Safe Travels - Mike
PS. And lastly, thank you Mother India for adding so much more to my life.
I began writing this on the train from Thrissur to Mumbai on Thursday and will finish it today, Sunday, April 3. This will be my last email of the trip as I fly home early tomorrow morning. I've tried to summarize my journey with some final thoughts.
The sun has just set on our northbound journey to Mumbai. The villages hidden among palm and banana trees are beginning to disappear. Some homes still have a faint glow in this period of civil twilight. My journey is also beginning to fade into twilight. Only a couple of days left and Mother India will reside in my memory as does Nepal and Tibet. What I have seen in the past three years and how each of these trips have changed me in so many ways.
I called her Mother India because everyone else did. But having spent the past almost six weeks of my life in her arms I now know why. From the moment you arrive she takes you by the hand and sometimes she takes you by the throat. Mostly she's held my hand very gently. She is a most beautiful country, a most beautiful and colorful culture, and above all she is a most beautiful people. She is the most populated city in India, Mumbai. Full of trucks, cars, motorcycles, and rickshaws all seemingly blowing their horns at the same time. She is the trash piled on the side of the railway tracks and littering every street in India. She is the bicycles transporting everything from twenty foot sections of rebar to a chai walla delivering chai to four 25 pound bags of ice (they don't ride the bicycles they use them as a transport vehicle). She is the beaches and colorful fishing boats of Varkala and Kovalum. She is the beautifully decorated elephants at the festivals. She is the Hindus and the Muslims and the Christians that all live in here. She is the large beautiful Hindu temples and the small but still beautiful roadside shrine. She is the Muslim mosque. She is the Catholic church. She is the colorful markings on one's forehead showing they've worshipped at the temple. She is the cows, goats, dogs, cats, and rats that walk the streets as if they owned them. She is the man on the sidewalk that will re-stitch your soccer ball. She is the cobbler on the sidewalk that will repair your shoe while holding it with his feet as he works on it with his hands. She is the man on the street who will repair your umbrella instead of just throwing it away. She is the boys playing cricket and soccer on the same dirt field in their bare feet (shoes are used as the wickets in cricket and goal markers in soccer). She is the men of India who work every back-breaking task in sandals or flip-flops and still carry most everything heavy on their heads. She is the women of India who work every back breaking task in a beautiful sari. And She is hot, She is one very hot lady.
Before this trip I never had much contact with the Indian culture. I guess the first Indian I knew was my teacher for Introduction to Digital Circuits in the late 70's. Akshay Jain, I still remember his name, and he was a really nice person and a good teacher. I've never gone to many Indian restaurants because I thought all the food was made with curry.
Having spent a bit of time in India and travelled to numerous cities, towns, and villages, stayed at all sorts of hotels, guest houses, and house boats, travelled by air, train, taxi, rickshaw, motorcycle, by just plain walking, I've discovered this: The Indian people are the most genuinely happy and friendly people I've ever met. The smiles and accompanying head wobbles from side to side are genuine, the wanting you to take their photo followed by it's viewing and the subsequent smile and head wobble are genuine. They will go out of their way to help you. Even when they tell you to turn right while they point to the left, they are genuinely trying to help. They say that a foreigner in their country is their God; this saying is really genuine. I can't say enough to describe how genuinely kind the Indian people have been to me.
How my perception of Indian food has changed. I've enjoyed every meal I've eaten here in India. My food experience in Dharamsala last July provided me much concern before I arrived. It didn't take long for me to realize that I wasn't going to get sick from everything I ate. Truth is, after six weeks I only had one day where my stomach felt a bit funny. It was probably from the grease of lamb dish I ate at a restaurant in Mysore. Most of the food I've eaten has been vegetarian. Lots of lentils, potatoes, carrots, green beans, cauliflower, and a lot of other vegetables I never heard of before. The Indians cook everything with such a variety of spices. You would taste ginger in one bite, cilantro in another, the flavors of cumin, turmeric, curry leaves, and green chilis would explode in your mouth. Sometimes all in a single dish. I brought a 96 pack of tums with me. Two weeks into the trip I poured half of them out. I've taken maybe three or four the entire trip. There's a lot more to Indian food than curry. One more note on food, the best meal I had here was at the Trattoria Restaurant in Varkala. It was a filet of fresh butterfish cooked in spices and wrapped in a banana leaf and baked in a clay oven. I actually ordered it twice.
Mother India loves the game of cricket. India has been hosting the matches for The World Cricket Cup since I arrived. I've watched enough matches to have developed a pretty good understanding of the game. The sign of a true sportsman. As you know from yesterday's email, India won.
Heather planned our trips to Southern India for a reason. The people and the food. She couldn't have made a better choice for a first timer to India. So I would say go to Kerala and get your feet wet there. If I had to pick a favorite location from my experience it would certainly be the backwaters. Heather put it best before our first visit there, when she said, "the backwaters are idyllic". I spent a total of six nights there. The beauty of the canals lined with palm and banana trees, hibiscus flowers, plumerias, jack fruit trees, and the occasional iridescent blue kingfisher diving in the water for it's meal was, well...idyllic. The everyday life of the backwater inhabitants was life standing still. People bathe at the water's edge. Men bathe with a light towel around their waist, women bathe fully clothed, and kids bathe in their birthday suits. They wash their clothes by soaping them and then rolling them on a flat stone. They rinse them in the water and then slap them hard on the flat stone for the final rinse. The slapping down of a shirt or pant on that a flat stone echoed throughout the canals. They wash their dishes, metal plates and cups in the canals as well. Kids have few toys if any. They just entertain themselves with what they have which is the nature around them. Materially they don't have much but they're all very happy, and they're rich, very rich.
I'd like to say to my traveling companion of the last six weeks how much I've enjoyed my time with this recovering gypsy. Heather has been an absolute pleasure to travel with. It would not have been the same experience without her at my side. I will forever treasure these six weeks with her. She did a marvelous job of planning and coordinating our activities, many times by the seat of her beautiful Ali Baba pants. She has always been the consistently beautiful and wonderful Heather we all know. Even when Mother India would grab her gently yet firmly by the hand and re-arranged her intention, she would just wobble her head from side to side and smile. She is a beautiful soul. Safe travels and come home soon as all your yogi friends in San Diego who miss you dearly. Thank you so much and my love to you always Miss Mev.
To Heather's Father and Mother, you did an outstanding job raising your daughter. She talked fondly of the both of you throughout the trip.
Thanks to all of you on my undisclosed recipients list for taking your time to read my, at times, lengthy emails. It has been a pleasure to share my experiences with you.
See you all soon.
Happy Trails and Safe Travels - Mike
PS. And lastly, thank you Mother India for adding so much more to my life.
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