So. I came back to Germany. And, actually, I am about to return to India (Bangalore, to be exact), at the end of next week for an internship! I am working on this resume since my return. It is freaking hard! I did a presentation for my colleagues in university and I was told it was good, but afterwards I felt that I could not express and share what I have experienced during my stay in India. So. This is a new try.
I still tell everyone how much I love and miss India.
And still people keep on telling me how crazy my decision to go to India was. That they would never dare to do this. That it is too different, too scary, too dangerous. So I started thinking about the reasons.
We are always afraid of so many things, we are scared of giving up all our safety, of stepping out of a system, where all the big trouble happens in the news on tv, where everything is clean, everybody is looking healthy (and if not, we lock them away from sight), where we always know what will happen next, where the water is clean and we can pretend to save the environment by buying organic food, washing our clothes with washnuts and driving a car with a respirable dust filter.
Yes, I was scared before I went to India, too. But that was the reason why I wanted to go! To step out of this soft perfect bubble. To get away from "Don't do this, it is not healthy!" and "Don't do that, it is dangerous!" and "Let's not think too much about the world outside of what we know". Away from the safety of knowing everything.
Because to me, that is what India was all about.
If I had to summarize my time in India, I would quote a friend of mine, who gave a small note to me before I left: "Nothing is sure, but everything is possible. Strong nerves help. And Humor. In return you will get miracles and insanity every day. Have fun!" How true! The only exception is that the perception of miracles and insanity decreases if you live in India for some time. But almost every day we got to know something new. India is a paradise for curious people. There are so many things I do not know and I do not understand. Finding the answer is not only necessary, if you don't want to go crazy, it is also what makes India so fascinating. As helpless I often felt facing a new "question", as amazing is the feeling of being home and integrated, when you can answer some of them. It also brings the benefit that you don't feel like the tourist anymore, which many Indians see in you. On the other hand it is sad when you realize you don't burst in happiness anymore when a camel passes by in the streets.
To me, it feels that a lot of my time in India I spent like this:
How many people fit into a rickshaw? And when do we pay extra for it, because only 3 guests are permitted? When does night tariff start and how do you turn the number on the meter into a real price? What do i do when no rickshaw driver understands where I want to go? (For those who don't know: This is where the Indian helpfulness kicks in! You call an Indian friend, tell him your destination, pass the cellphone to the driver and let them talk in Hindi. So convenient! The same process you can do in a shop or any similar situation.)
How do I navigate in a city where there are no street names and house numbers, road signs aren't easy to distinguish from advertisement and rickshaw drivers sometimes even don't know the nearby neighbourhood?
Does no mean no? Experience tought me that you usually can get everything, you just have to be annoying and stubborn enough. Unfortunately Indians know that, and sometimes don't accept "no". But then again, sometimes the easiest thing is impossible or not available, altough you do know that this can not be true. Sometimes I get the feeling that an Indian doesn't want to do business, just because his neighbour's cow had a bad horoscope. And what does the weird head waving mean? Yes? Maybe? Later? How do you describe time and distances? How long does it take to chew a pan and how far is 40 Rupees? Are Indians always at least 30 minutes late?
Why do people in Gujarat rarely say hello, goodbye and thank you? No one uses Namasté or Dhanyavaad at all!
How do I communicate with someone who speaks a weird dialect of one of India's 122 languages? A person that keeps on screaming at me and waving her hand in front of my face? What is the hand sign for 1, 5 and 10, what the ones for eating, drinking and peeing?
Should I really eat ice cream? It would be stupid to miss all the yummy ice creams, which Ahmedabad is famous for. Especially at 44°C. How can I tell if a dish will be alright or cause diarrhea in the evening?
What should I wear, what can I wear? Does the combination of churidar trousers and a t-shirt to a conservative Indian look like I am showing my undergarments? Are low cut backs socially accepted? Why do most of the men wear western clothes, no matter what age or class, but women mostly sarees or kurtas? And why do all lower class men wear boot cut trousers?
I know the answers to most of these questions now. And it was big fun finding them.
But India did challenge me a lot and asked questions, which I avoided in Germany. Read about them in the next entry (which will, I admit, sound quite negative, because there ARE a lot of negative facts about India. But, for I can not keep this short, there will be a part three on this topic, in which I will talk about all the nice experiences I had :) Promise!)
I still tell everyone how much I love and miss India.
And still people keep on telling me how crazy my decision to go to India was. That they would never dare to do this. That it is too different, too scary, too dangerous. So I started thinking about the reasons.We are always afraid of so many things, we are scared of giving up all our safety, of stepping out of a system, where all the big trouble happens in the news on tv, where everything is clean, everybody is looking healthy (and if not, we lock them away from sight), where we always know what will happen next, where the water is clean and we can pretend to save the environment by buying organic food, washing our clothes with washnuts and driving a car with a respirable dust filter.
Yes, I was scared before I went to India, too. But that was the reason why I wanted to go! To step out of this soft perfect bubble. To get away from "Don't do this, it is not healthy!" and "Don't do that, it is dangerous!" and "Let's not think too much about the world outside of what we know". Away from the safety of knowing everything.
Because to me, that is what India was all about.
If I had to summarize my time in India, I would quote a friend of mine, who gave a small note to me before I left: "Nothing is sure, but everything is possible. Strong nerves help. And Humor. In return you will get miracles and insanity every day. Have fun!" How true! The only exception is that the perception of miracles and insanity decreases if you live in India for some time. But almost every day we got to know something new. India is a paradise for curious people. There are so many things I do not know and I do not understand. Finding the answer is not only necessary, if you don't want to go crazy, it is also what makes India so fascinating. As helpless I often felt facing a new "question", as amazing is the feeling of being home and integrated, when you can answer some of them. It also brings the benefit that you don't feel like the tourist anymore, which many Indians see in you. On the other hand it is sad when you realize you don't burst in happiness anymore when a camel passes by in the streets.
To me, it feels that a lot of my time in India I spent like this:
How many people fit into a rickshaw? And when do we pay extra for it, because only 3 guests are permitted? When does night tariff start and how do you turn the number on the meter into a real price? What do i do when no rickshaw driver understands where I want to go? (For those who don't know: This is where the Indian helpfulness kicks in! You call an Indian friend, tell him your destination, pass the cellphone to the driver and let them talk in Hindi. So convenient! The same process you can do in a shop or any similar situation.)
How do I navigate in a city where there are no street names and house numbers, road signs aren't easy to distinguish from advertisement and rickshaw drivers sometimes even don't know the nearby neighbourhood?
Does no mean no? Experience tought me that you usually can get everything, you just have to be annoying and stubborn enough. Unfortunately Indians know that, and sometimes don't accept "no". But then again, sometimes the easiest thing is impossible or not available, altough you do know that this can not be true. Sometimes I get the feeling that an Indian doesn't want to do business, just because his neighbour's cow had a bad horoscope. And what does the weird head waving mean? Yes? Maybe? Later? How do you describe time and distances? How long does it take to chew a pan and how far is 40 Rupees? Are Indians always at least 30 minutes late?
Why do people in Gujarat rarely say hello, goodbye and thank you? No one uses Namasté or Dhanyavaad at all!How do I communicate with someone who speaks a weird dialect of one of India's 122 languages? A person that keeps on screaming at me and waving her hand in front of my face? What is the hand sign for 1, 5 and 10, what the ones for eating, drinking and peeing?
Should I really eat ice cream? It would be stupid to miss all the yummy ice creams, which Ahmedabad is famous for. Especially at 44°C. How can I tell if a dish will be alright or cause diarrhea in the evening?
What should I wear, what can I wear? Does the combination of churidar trousers and a t-shirt to a conservative Indian look like I am showing my undergarments? Are low cut backs socially accepted? Why do most of the men wear western clothes, no matter what age or class, but women mostly sarees or kurtas? And why do all lower class men wear boot cut trousers?
I know the answers to most of these questions now. And it was big fun finding them.
But India did challenge me a lot and asked questions, which I avoided in Germany. Read about them in the next entry (which will, I admit, sound quite negative, because there ARE a lot of negative facts about India. But, for I can not keep this short, there will be a part three on this topic, in which I will talk about all the nice experiences I had :) Promise!)
So schön geschrieben!! Du sprichst mir aus der Seele!! Und ich freue mich so darauf bald ein paar Antworten, oder neue Fragen? zusammen mit dir erleben zu können!!!
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