India Review
People
India is a multi talented country, it is rich in colours and people. You can find the poorest and the wealthiest, beggars and bogglers. The new generation is on the move and computerisation striking. Some of the best computer engineers are Indian being needed by many industrialised countries.
Big technical schools are everywhere, bookshops full with proper lecture and courses offered. Education generally here is not to bad as most children in rural areas finish at least primary school, mostly even secondary. Helping programmes introduced by NGOs or missionaries start to be all over, whereas funds are raised in Europe. One big issue is helping women to empower themselves to produce either clothes or baskets or other handmade valuables; child marriage is also still an issue where awareness needs to be established in whole villages. Organic farming is one more big thing on this list. Financial aid from the state is poor.
I got to know many fascinating people who are assured and devotional to do the best thing and they help the community to be better once.
It was the first time for me that it got difficult to express myself with body language and vice versa the understanding of their way of expressing, our bodies seem to speak different languages.
Whenever we stopped with the bicycle to buy food or even to change tire for one of this uncountable flats I had there in the middle of nowhere we could be sure that within minutes we would be crowded with people staring at us and touching our things. When we camped and people found us they came over to watch us doing our usual preparations and would not be able to chat nor trying to but to be around and stare… At some part we almost got used to it after more than one month.
We were in every local newspaper and sometimes people just asked for autographs or pictures with us which was much friendlier.
Religion
You can still fell the distance between Muslims and Hindus; they can be both fanatic which often leads to bombing attacks or other violent. Some acts are saying a lot, for example when masses of people come together to tear a big mosque down, claiming this area being only Hindu. There is also this beautiful and divine prayer to one of their many gods; watching after holy cows and receiving blessings.
I got to know the amazing way of spreading religion or better to say of singing wisdoms, manifesting god into oneself and feeling love with an open heart. The sounds of Kabir, one of 99 names of Allah.
Ecology
Usually in any settled area you can find garbage next to every road, the problem is that India is overpopulated, many people almost everywhere and garbage is a side effect with no proper disposal areas nor recycling systems. Only a few fancy areas try to claim a plastic free zone, where things are wrapped in paper or leaves. In poor areas canalisation is also rare and bad smells absolutely normal. Cows, goats and many other animals eat whatever they can find and die of intestinal obstruction or carry one of many illnesses. Often dead corpses are thrown into rivers which do not make any things better; sometimes they are even halfway burned. Some rivers are so polluted that if you still don’t be chased away of the bad smell, bathing or worse drinking it may end fatal or with diseases, even for inhabitants..
On the other hand NGO movements won’t stop here. There is awareness establishing for the next generation and big efforts are being made in means of biodiversity protection with botanical sanctuaries or sustainable organic farming with protecting some area of the property for a biodivers triangle. After some years one would see the effort, natural protection of the own crops would be a side effect.
Friends
A plenty of people I got to know are very interesting for friendship and important enough to meet again somewhere, anytime. It is possible that future projects will happen in good cooperation.
I got one new real friend on this part of my journey, my companion was very important for me. Without him I guess India would be my last station but having someone who you can share your thoughts with, helping you out of difficulties, being there waiting for you and your works being done and even to learn more about yourself. I got to know that it is not always easy to travel together since everybody has different needs and imaginations. Angelos is not so far after all, we may meet again on this journey.
Red remembering
The time flew by in Auroville and I considered changing my plans to stay here for months instead of days. So many great people would be worth meeting again and I hope this wish comes true once in a while. I will definitely try to visit them in some of these great places they told me about. It was hard to leave but the friend from Argentina was awaiting me in Bangkok. I just managed the first night to sleep 10 km outside of Auroville in a red soiled canyon where it was one of very few places in India wh
ere nobody passed at all. I found out during the night why this was the case. It was raining like on purpose, it was the first sign of the northwest monsoon that returns from the big mountains up there. Mud took over the place I stayed and luckily some new ponds stopped just in front of my tent. I had to cross this and some more after freeing my somehow dirty tent from the red cover. My bike and me came out with the special new touch; when I did 140 km more to Chennai I felt a little like an alien. There I could stay at a couchsurfer’s place and got my things organized before leaving at night. Due to a wrong time written on my ticket I could afterwards sleep at the airport, stay there one more day and leave the other night. A German girl with two children missed her flight and I could watch for them for many hours, now I have one more place to stay when I come back through Europe.
The Mission and Auroville
The days in the mission flew by with some great new experience. We really built an improvised children’s park with woods we found around the place and some cotton ropes from Trichy. The children also loved the short movie of 6 minutes showing their all days life of waking up in the morning at 5’o clock, doing some exercise and drinking a lot of water before leaving to different schools. When they come back at 4 in the afternoon they would also have some free hours to play or to help with necessary works. At the time we were there they collected the cropped paddy and separated the rice from the rest. It was beautiful to be part of this community and luckily children will remember us as we left something behind they will use a lot.
Calling this person for visiting the tribe he finally didn’t seem really involved into their life and we decided to skip it. We also had some time issues to think about because Angelos is leaving early and Pondicherry and close by Auroville are worth it to stay a couple of days. Pondicherry is a city, which is very much Europeanized; French colony left their marks behind. Everything is written in Tamil and French, there are French cafes, restaurants and bars that finally gave me a little bit the feeling of some aspects I missed here in India; I even had a real strong coffee with apple pie. We were the only white guys that were not French. We stayed in this small city for two days before leaving to Auroville.
Some really interesting people can be found there and the first concept supposed to be utopian, but as a matter of fact the ideas and places that are developed here are just very alternative, especially for a region like South India. A lot of creative energy can be felt and the non religious golden temple in the centre is suitable for meditation like no other place I have been so far in my life. You sit inside this room inside the globe with a huge crystal in the middle enlightened with one sunbeam from above and as soon as you close your eyes you can feel the extraordinary strong vibes of this place and will reach awaited stadiums very quickly and you don’t want to leave again, maybe never. I will start hopefully a few projects but my time is very limited as I am awaited in Thailand. For people in the villages around Auroville it is an additional employment possibility and for other people who are interested in alternative energies, organic farming or making innovative products they can come here to learn these skills for free or very little money. People living here are from all over the world and in some communities there is still flair from the 68 generation left, from the year this city was found. This Friday at 5′o clock in the morning was a big bonfire enlightened in the middle of the amphitheater right next to the temple with some mass meditation and speeches from the mother who had exactly this vision 40 years ago. The program goes on with Sufi musicians singing about Kabir, one of the 99 words referring to Allah whereas trying not to be religious, not belonging to Muslim nor Hindu religion but finding the truth just inside one’s heart.
The temple was built right next to a huge living-forever Banyan tree, basically a strangler fig, which was so impressing with the roots spread all over, covering immense space being used as one more place for perfect meditation.
Sad for Angelos that he is not here any more to watch this things happen. Time together was beautiful, we certainly did not fit perfectly but I think we worked it out in the best way and I can say now we got to know each other. Thank you my friend!
