INDIA EXPERIENCE

Well I'm back. Hard to believe I actually spent four weeks in India, from the south east of Chennai to the south west of Kochi....then from Kochi in a north east direction to Shillong...from there to the north west of Jaipur....then back to Chennai. In many ways it feels surreal. As though it happened to someone else.

Although I do have the photos..and I took notes. Page and pages of notes.

Not only in a diary like form....what ground we covered each day, how many mechanics we saw...what dodgy hotel we stayed in, whether they had a shower, working toilet or bedbugs etc etc.....but thoughts that occurred. As many of what I noticed, observed, smelt, felt, I put down on paper.

Or attempted to.

There is so much that can't be put down in mere words. Or more importantly I can't as yet find the right words.

How does it feel to actually drive an auto rickshaw over four thousand kilometres, on some of the worst roads in the world...and actually make it to the finish line?

Not in the official time, and not to be there for the End Party (which by all accounts was amazing)- but to know we actually succeeded. We did it. We traversed India...not in super comfort with air conditioning blazing....not with windows wound up tight to keep the dust and dirt out.

And this is how met the people...

Every time we stopped...we were surrounded. People curious to know what we were doing, why we were doing it and most importantly where we were from. Most laughed.

I still remember when we were stopped at a train crossing (which is often congested for over twenty minutes while you wait for the train...eventually it comes) and all these trucks stopped behind us, and all these truckies got out of their trucks. They came to us, asked what we were doing and just laughed...and laughed...and laughed  They thought it was hilarious.... travelling from Cochi to Shillong...in an auto rickshaw.

Just like when I was driving. The looks were 'oh my there goes a painted rickshaw'....then a double look' oh my there is a westerner driving it'...then the treble look 'OMG there is a western woman driving it.'

Women don't drive auto rickshaws.

But being in the rickshaw meant we met people like this. So happy to see us, to wave hello and perhaps yes laugh at the crazy westerners mode of transportation.

We got to meet the people, to see the India that few 'tourists' do....

So what did I learn? I had not expected some great spiritual awakening..and there was none.
But I learnt so much about myself. I am much more resilient and easy going than perviously thought...

I had gone on this journey with an open mind...not really knowing what to expect but had thought it would be hot and dirty, and that I would not be travelling in the lap of luxury.

I was hot, dirty, muddy, cold, wet, sweaty, bruised, aching, tired...and at one stage just wanting the whole bloody thing to be over and done with.

I experienced so much more...was humbled, ashamed, excited, filled with joy, awed, honoured, scared...but have never smiled so much. Have never had my photo taken so many times (there are strange photos of us all over India---many on facebook updates!).

Slowly I'm coming back to the reality of being home. But part of me is still there....waiting to load up the rickshaw in the predawn, look at the map and figure out which way to go and how many kilometres we'll make that day.

I think part of me will always be there.