My trip to India

I'm going to India. There I've said it. I am by nature not a traveller I would like to think of myself as an arriver but what do I know. I've seen a bit of this country and always claimed to however was unfortunate enough to be within ear shot that I would be quite happy to go abroad but frankly there was a lot of this country that I have not yet seen.

The times I have travelled in this country I have mostly enjoyed, I enjoy seeing new things and people mostly seeing, as I am not a great people person. I am quite happy where I am with the friends I know. As I have become older I have realised that it is far easier to just assume you know everyone and skip the boring middle getting to know you business, this however does not always work…

So anyway I am going to India. How is still somewhat of a mystery as much to me than anyone else. Since I have been at BGC there have been quite a few announcements of trips or opportunities in other countries and were as they did catch my attention, they have failed to interest me because I am essentially a lazy person. So I suppose the how is that I have finally been forced into doing something; twice in fact, the first time to get to college and now to go to India. So to India I am going, being the far from seasoned traveller I am, I had when I agreed to go no idea what was involved; even now I am still some what at a loss. I have received instructions and have just about followed them, passport jabs and visa…

Passport, humm never had one. I'll apply, now this should be quite easy as I have someone at home who can sign the photographs which are always the big trouble with passport applications and indeed it wasn't. It only took me a month and a half to get the photos done and send them home. After some delay and technical problems (the chap signing the photos passport was out of date) I had managed that small task. I had of course got the paper work out and seen what else I needed and it would seem that I needed a birth certificate. Oh dear, mine really has vanished. I had it a year ago when I came to college and have not seen it since. So I apply for a new birth certificate, get one, and send the application (from a whisky shop no less) for my passport. As of yet its till has not arrived, without it I cannot send off for a visa. Getting desperate now, this is silly.

Jabs well they have actually gone okay. I was a little nervous as the last person I know that went ended up making a mess of the surgery floor after having a 'nasty turn,' a very nasty turn considering how bad he looked by the time I got to see him. So it was with more than a little trepidation that I went and sat a couple of days before Christmas to have my jabs. Now I was not sure quite where they were going to stick the needle (well you here stories) as it turned out just three injections all in the arm (I was so relieved) and what can only described as the most foul concoction ever for polio. Apparently it tastes like the seawater at 'skeg' if that is any help. When the nurse told me this I was hesitant to take the stuff but then what choice did I have? So it is less that twenty days now and I have no passport and no visa but a small amount of typhoid and hepatitis running round my blood stream.

11th January 2003

So where are we, we are sitting in my room in Lincoln writing nonsense to you the reader. My passport arrived and me being me I left it just too late to post the visa application off. So intrepid exploration was called for and last Thursday I got my stuff together and made the trip down to London to the Indian High Commission. Now being the connected young man that I am I had already checked out the commission's website so I knew that they only dealt with visa applications between eight thirty and twelve. This naturally meant that I had to get up early and catch the ten to eight train. Something I've not really been called to do for quite a few months now. So I managed to get down to the station catch the train and headed into London.

My wasn't it snowy… Cold as well… You can see that I am going to be a fantastic travel writer :o)

So London, I had checked and found out where the place was and even the connections for the underground so getting to the building was actually pretty easy. Nice large armed police man standing outside. As I was heading for the sign that said visa's this way I was sorely tempted just to pull out his gun and shoot him… Not through any malice it was just that it was there and painfully available… No just me. Okay.

So being the intelligent man of the world I had certain ideas how this day would pan out. I had seen Godfather and knew the stories of Ellis island and were as I was only visiting I expected something similar, the questions about political affiliation, whether I had any interest in drugs, prostitution, a criminal record (well I've got some pretty criminal records, the stock atkin and waterman one is probably the most criminal.) What I in fact got was lots of British people wining and all things considered probably the best you could make out of a bad job. So what you have to do for those who are thinking of something similar is queue in front of a window and get a piece of paper, rejoin the queue at the back whilst queuing put your name on the paper and when you get to the front of the queue exchange this paper for a q card. It is only at this point do you actually get to get inside the building; I walked up the stairs and saw in front of me a metal detector. This worried me some what. Wandered through it just waiting for the lights to flash and alarm bells to start ringing.

Needless to say that didn't happen and I was able to pass through the portal carrying two browning high power automatics and a heckler and Koch sub-machine gun. I didn't really but I wonder what would have happened if I tried all I was carrying was a camera , phone, assorted change and a Swiss army penknife which I was a little worried about. So more queuing and finally managed to get to a window, I paid my money took yet another ticket with another number on it and listened to more British people complain about the system and how much time it was going to take. Now I have to tell you that I was sick of their wining within about five minutes. Having to listen to it for forty something minutes almost drove me to distraction, and we not even in India yet,. Lord knows what they will be like by the time they arrive in India; I just hope there are as few tourists as possible anywhere near me when I arrive.

Now even a casual glance at the board on which they where displaying which number they where dealing with should have told these people just how many people they see in a day. Must be somewhere in the region of five hundred people a day and the people behind the scene's seemed happy and polite, certainly more happy and polite than I would have been in their place.

So my number was called again I journeyed up to the window was given my passport and I left. I was waiting for a piece of paper saying 'the bearer of this pass can come and go as he pleases' or something of that ilk but in fact it is a small piece of paper which they have cleverly stuck into my passport so I wont loose it. So that is that, I have a visa, a passport and a body full of antibodies. I am prepared, just money and malaria to sort out now. Oh and four essays in a week and half, Oh dear!

16th January 2003

Well its three in the morning I've discussed the big topics life, death, you know the sort of thing and I'm mildly drunk and feel the need to write and more importantly spell badly :o)

The joy of course is that this program will correct all but the most horrendous errors. It is almost worth testing just to see what it will and what it wont pick up but at the moment I shall refrain from that and put something vaguely on topic (incidentally if failed to spell refrain, or rather I failed to spell refrain… Lord knows why but there you go…)

So I'm going to India, worried? Just a little, I have spent It would seem most of my life dealing with and being interested in the religious and the ethical or philosophical. Everything I know both intrinsically and psychologically means that a trip to India will be a defining moment of my life. It is the exposure to other cultures and religions and that is what worries me, if I am honest it makes me wake at three in the morning in a cold sweet.

The fact that India might happen to me, that some how all this training will be for nothing and I shall respond to that religious impulse that would seem to be inbuilt or 'hot wired' within us. Frankly I don't want to, I am an intelligent young man (perhaps not that young but you get the idea) and the thought of coming back and boring everyone about a trip that they didn't go on and have no frame of reference for scares me. I don't want to come back some old hippie who on his first trip to India just goes native, neither do I want to become a white Indian. But part of me feels that against all my protestation I am still looking for a system of beliefs that holds, well I want to say water but if I am being honest I will probably say interest for more than five minutes. Not only that, to be honest it would be nice to be able to look at a belief structure without intrinsically seeing the holes in it. Judaism, Christianity and Islam would seem to me to be intrinsically flawed. Hinduism and Buddhism are just as flawed but I have never been called on to define their flaws. I suppose this is the call and as such I must prepare myself.

So India here I come. No idea what will happen, I am in no way prepared either physically or spiritually but there you go. Who is. I shall reply on my training as a miserable cynic to get me through without too many upsets. India beware, I am here and I bring you fear…

Monday, 20th January 2003

So India, we are here now, what have I got to say… The travelling was interesting if nothing else, never really traveled this sort of distance so it was more than a little strange. A screen on the plane showed me where I was… I've flown over places that I will never visit which worries me; It's likes following a large computer game. The trip to Bahrain was interesting and I really enjoyed it. A couple of movies and that was it really, not enough room to swing a cat but that is par for the course. It has been interesting watching how other members on the group have reacted to the change of cultures, so far most are being very British, and well frankly being people really. They react the same way as they would if they came against the problem in the UK or Europe. Feeling very western, I wonder if that will change or that is just because of the people I am with. Too tied to do much else but recap what has actually happened so here goes.

Richard and I meet at the station and caught the train down into London, managed the underground with little problem and ended getting off the train and being the great navigator that I am took completely the wrong direction, walked for ages before we managed to get where we where supposed to be. Meet by Alex and Simon and they took us to meet Tomas who is the Polish delegate, he's from Posnam and I know I know something about Posnan at this point I can not remember what it is. So after the introductions we ended up having food and beer which was nice. I should say that Simon, Alex and myself ended having beer, as Richard is having a month or so off. We watch Armageddon with subtitles then went back to Whiteland's college and tried to get some sleep. Got a few hours then it was up at 5:30, shower, change, and meet the taxi to Heathrow. Arrived in Heathrow and meet the rest of our group, strange sort but more on that later… Flight from Heathrow out at 10:00am UK time. Arrived in Bahrain 4ish UK time Spent three hours in Bahrain until the next flight which took us to Channai (or Madras) for about 01:00 UK time then there was a six hour stop over before the next flight out of Channai for Madurai, arrived at Madurai 1 o'clock local time or 08:00 UK time.

Going to finish this tomorrow the room is swaying and I really need to sleep will fill you all in tomorrow.

So what was going to fill you in with, oh everything really. The flights made a nasty mess of me, had the odd hour if that I would think on the planes, which really isn't enough at my time of life. So that brought me down a bit, as did the six hour stop over, absolutely nothing to do but wait in an airport lounge. Which did help with the people are people thing… You look around you and realise that it could have been an airport anywhere in the world... probably. We sat in the arrival area and watched people meet there nearest and dearest, watch business men get off and be welcomed by business men and you see the same thing everywhere. Air planes I like and I don't mind the flights, the staff are usually harassed, and as someone who has worked in a similar industry it is interesting to see that we all employ the same tricks, the avoiding people's eye contact, and not giving the choice when we know there is none, are still my favourites. The movies where not bad, Simone was okay if not great and Spy Kids or what ever it was was totally awful so I suppose one of the movies wasn't bad.

So culture and what have you, well didn't pay much attention to the bus ride through the city as I was just too tied, but I remember it not being quite how I'd imagined it, lots of animals wandering around pigs and goats noticeably. The people at the college all seem friendly enough. Nothing seems too much trouble, food is different but not unpleasant. Drinking enough water may end up being a problem as it is very hot here, somewhere in the low thirties dipping to about twenty five in the evenings, first night slept okay just woke early that was all. Downsides, no water in my room, but a room to myself and as yet that has been just fine.

Tuesday, 21st January 2003

Started late my phone ran out of charge so the alarm didn't go off. This wasn't much of a problem, couldn't face the idea of bananas for breakfast so I had some sweet toast which was okay. First overview of the course looks like we shall be very busy and if the first morning is anything to go by it will be interesting. Broad overview of the history of Hinduism and the culture of India was a bit much early in the morning, the second lecture I was somewhat more awake for and I think that helped :o) It was your basic Hinduism beliefs and practices from a Hindu. The most interesting thing was that it would seem there is very little set in stone, most of the tradition is passed from mother to daughter or father to son and as such the information is there but not the meaning. The lady who took the morning lectures said she had no idea about Verdic tradition before she looked into it to teach us. The daily practice is known as is the traditional language, (what to say, where, and when) but where this language goes back too and its significance is lost. There would seem to be little knowledge of Sanskrit any longer so the meanings have been lost. I wonder if this is why it was difficult for Jack to find a Hindu to come and talk to us for the living religions module.

Wednesday, 22nd January 2003

Another day another curry. It seems more than little pointless to talk about what happened for the rest of yesterday as I have absolutely no idea. Today was interesting, slept fairly badly as I think the heat or my body clock woke me up. So in the end fell asleep again and ended waking at half nine. After that couldn't really get into the day.

Weddings were the order of the day, the differences between Hindu upper and lower caste marriages and Muslim marriages. All very interesting, after which we had a marriage feast, in which a kind lass taught me how to eat properly. It was all very easy after a while, its quite natural and probably makes a lot of sense, finally I understand the way they have been feeding us here, there seems to me a course structure, you have something hot then very hot then cool or in a different order. Followed all this by something sweet. Very sweet.

We were in Madurai shopping today which was an interesting experience, managed to upset the locals, which I was mortified about, you are not allowed to take shoes into the temple, as luck would have it I was actually not wearing any and wandered into the temple only to see a metal detector. My Swiss army penknife was in my bag, there was no way they where going to let me in with that , as it turned out the problem was the fact that I had my shoes in the bag. You can't even carry shoes into the temple after some quick talking by one of the teachers from the college I managed to get out of the temple to put my shoes in the bus; which had gone, so I decided to put the shoes in the bag and walk back into the temple and hope that would be okay. Except I had forgotten of course about the metal detector that went off as I walked through it. I then had to confront the large Indian gentleman with the firearm about the shoes and the penknife. Somehow and again thanks to the college teacher I managed to get into the temple, some what naturally after that I was ultra careful not to put a foot wrong and it spoilt it a bit for me, I shall not be able to think of the temples without thinking how awful I felt.

We spent some time shopping, this being the first time that I've got out and about in the town, it is huge, bustling and I was very aware that I was a long way from home with no real frame of reference. Managed to buy a couple of things that made me feel more at home, problem is so much of it is tat. Not the stuff I would buy of course just the stuff that is on sale.

Thursday, 23rd January 2003

Interesting day all told, slept very badly again last night and I awoke feeling awful. The lectures in the morning were informative, Islam and India and a multi faith lecture and discussion with a panel of experts. Some what interesting to get them to talk about India now and how it all relates. Went to the bank where it became apparent that I do not get on with one of our party. It is a personal thing and she just annoys me. We had gone into town to change some travellers checks and unfortunately the college have obviously not done this before so we ended up at a bank that would not do it. We wondered down to another bank and again they couldn't do it. In the end we ended up in a bank that could, however it took forever as they were in the middle of their lunch break. It is odd that an English bank would have enough staff to maintain some sort of service, where as in India there is perhaps a shortage of qualified staff. Any way waiting around for an hour or so until the lady came back from lunch and Heather got more and more wound up. When we sat down there was a gentleman doing some banking and I guess when the teller went for her lunch he said he would wait. He went off, seemed to do some shopping and then came back. Mean while 'we' had kicked up such a fuss he had got shifted to the back of the queue. I don't know but I'd imagine that the conversation went something like this after we went. 'Sorry about that sir I just had to get rid of those tourists, it was easier than explaining that they had to wait you saw what they where like.' And that annoys me… Perhaps being in a similar situations having lived so long in and around Cambridge and having worked in the field I still do, you have to get use to arrogant people who won't wait and just don't seem to understand what is going on. I'm sure she wouldn't have done that in an English bank… But then may be she would…

Any way as the bank took so long we where some what late to the next meeting which was with Christian faculty members. Which was again interesting. Tristan said that they are offering an RS module at Trinity for teachers to give them a background in religious teaching. I was a bit surprised and unfortunately reacted like a teacher… Opps… After I started thinking again, it seems a good idea, at least if I go into teaching the ones from Trinity might not ask such silly questions :o)

After this high drama we went to a Church of India Cathedral/Church which was dull apart from a mildly interesting building. Then a Mosque

Now the mosque was very strange, cannot for the life of me remember whether I have been in a mosque or not. I have a feeling we didn't get to go to a mosque when we were in London, something about visiting them later in the course, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Well I had seen them on television so I had some expectations, what I actually got was highly strange. It felt like walking into a drop in centre for the homeless in some major city but given the Indian twist. While this was going on in the centre of the building there was a man praying and keeping vigil over two tombs. Meanwhile people where beginning to gather for evening prayers, so there were well to do Muslims wandering around as well. At the back of the building was a caged area in which the children of the mad played, as well as the mad. It would seem that those who are possessed end up here. What constitutes possession seems to be the usual assortment of things, women who's husbands no longer want them, women who have given birth to children out of wedlock, adulterously, or have been raped, and those with the normal mental illnesses that crop up throughout the world.

It wasn't sad, it wasn't upsetting but I did not like being there and wanted to get away, That is all I can say, I cannot decide quite why I felt like that I wasn't uncomfortable I just didn't want to be there. Having talked to others I think that I am not alone. I wish I knew what it was that had bothered me, might be handy in the future.