I have spent nearly a year of my life in India and have not made huge advances with the main language, Hindi. This lack is in large part due to so many Indians having a good working knowledge of English. Thus I have become lazy when I travel here and fall back on my native tongue.
If there is one noise in India that will ultimately test the patience of even the most battle hardened traveller it is the blast of a horn – or horns as it is rare that you hear just one.
Being a cow can really help in India given the massive cultural respect and significance paid to the bovine race by those of a Hindu persuasion. For Indians honouring the cow is believed to inspire in people the virtues of gentleness and connectedness with nature.
There comes a time on almost every extended trip when one finally loses the desire – hopefully temporarily – to get back in the ring. You have been under the cosh a little too long and things that you once thrilled to now have a grey and grimy lustre to them.
We landed in Jaisalmer at 5am on a cool morning and, swaddled in a fluffy pink blanket bought expressly for the night-bus, we drank sweet masala chai for an hour. A short tuk-tuk ride then dropped us at the outer gate of the fort and for the second time in my life I had the pleasure of walking up into this sandstone marvel in the desert a hundred kilometres from the border with Pakistan.
We left Anandwan over a fortnight ago and now, with time and distance under our belts, it is time to reflect on the time there and our transition back into everyday India.
For most of 2014 we’ve been sorting, evaluating and choosing what amongst our possessions we’ll keep and what we’ll discard or give away.
After all the planning, preparation and steady pressure of this year we are finally in Mumbai. But I need to fill in a few details before I can move on: some of you we have not seen in a while and so missed the development of the plan.
Every plan or idea, no matter how great or small, has at its inception a spark, that flash of inspiration that once ignited sends it all spiralling outwards in all sorts of weird and wonderful directions. A plan that had perhaps been dormant or sidelined by other considerations, but one that once brought into mind begins to develop with astonishing speed and clarity.
