Reflections on India

It was inevitable that with us only having 4 weeks here and India being such a vast country that we were only ever going to be able to scratch the surface. That said, we’ve seen a great variety of landscapes and had plenty of memorable experiences – we’ve loved it.

Fi came to India 30 years ago but didn’t visit the south. I’ve never been, but it’s been on my wish-list of places to visit for years. Our intention was to visit Kerala but in the end we never made it there; on the other hand, it was also our intention to slow down the pace after our constant travelling in Ethiopia and we have totally achieved that.

I’ve heard Fi speak many times of some of the shocking squalor and poverty she witnessed last time she was here and that has no doubt influenced my expectations somewhat. However, our experience has been very different – no hassle to speak of, no corpses floating down rivers, pretty clean loos, no dysentery (or any sort of illness, really).  We’ve consciously avoided the tougher parts and to be honest, I’m pretty glad that we have. We had one taxi ride in Chennai along the marina & beach and I had absolutely no desire to go and investigate more closely (endless street food sellers and presumably an open, communal loo on the beach), particularly with three children in tow. When people come to visit the UK, we don’t criticise them for not visiting the poorest inner-city estates, so I don’t feel too bad about opting for the sanitised version!

So what has surprised me about India? Maybe the extent to which I have really loved the food and the fact that the hygiene and tummy bugs have been so much less of a problem than I imagined. I love Chinese food but the last time I visited Hong Kong I remember bailing out after a few days and opting for Western food because I just couldn’t face yet another Chinese meal. And yet here I’ve been more than happy to eat Indian food twice a day, sometimes also opting for a traditional Indian breakfast.

The countryside has been less dramatic than in Ethiopia and our experiences less extreme. But the fading grandeur of the Portuguese architecture in Goa was beautiful; the vibrant colours of the markets and processions in Mysore were stunning; and the overnight train journeys with our troop of monkeys were really memorable (plus a great way of painlessly covering large distances). And then there was the beautiful green of the Coonoor tea plantations.

The driving here is crazy – overtaking on blind bends is absolutely par for the course and public buses in particular have a habit of not bothering if they don’t have room to overtake. The car coming the other way simply has to either get onto the verge or brake hard to let the bus back in. It was so bad that Fi just wouldn’t ride in the front passenger seat – it was simply too stressful! Crammed into the back being distracted by 3 children was her preferred option, so you can tell how bad it was!

The biggest negative here by far was the litter – it really saddened us to see it. It’s impossible to escape or ignore, and spoils what is otherwise a beautiful country. It seems like individual behaviour and local services just haven’t adjusted to the shift from natural, biodegradable packaging to aluminium and plastic. I don’t think we saw a single river that hadn’t been used as a dumping ground for household waste. It’s a big talking point here that Narendra Modi has committed to cleaning up India in the next 5 years – it will require an enormous undertaking to create the cultural and behavioural shifts required and whether he succeeds or not remains to be seen. I certainly hope so.

So just a fleeting visit but a lovely taster of what is such a fascinating country. We really wanted to stay longer and were sad to leave – we will certainly be back, given half a chance. And oh yes, Jemima has all but perfected the Indian head-wobble!