फिर मिलेंगे - Phir milenge India!!!

"The simple and astonishing truth about India and Indian people is that when you go there,

and deal with them, your heart always guides you more wisely than your head.

There's nowhere else in the world where that's quite so true."

(Shantaram)

After my return from India I am now taking time for my final blog entry. Needless to say that I am only now realizing how "indianized" I have become. Already on the plane I was enthusiastic about being served an Indian lunch including gulab jamun, though I didn't find the food spicey enough no matter how much pepper I added and the chai not sweet enough no matter how much sugar I put in it... For some reason the stewardess didn't approve of my putting the emptied food tray on the floor of the aisle at all (that's how people usually do it on trains after all), and when exiting the plane I found myself actually accused of pushing people (but what else should I do if they just won't move??). Not to mention my unsuccessful efforts to bribe the airport personnel into quickly processing the passport control - they just did it by themselves even without involving me into a conversation of several hours! Somehow people are behaving very strangely in the West...
Realizing how much a few months in a different culture can change your thinking seems an excellent proof of the power of thoughts to me!

Experiencing many farewells in one's life doesn't make it any easier at all, and this time it was harder than ever for me to say goodbye to this country which has given me so many surprises, so many insights and most of all, so much love from people who I don't think will ever grasp how amazing they are.

At this point I would also like to thank those who have been accompanying me on this journey. First of all, I would like to thank my parents for giving me both roots and wings to fly away when I needed them respectively. I'd like to thank my friends for believing in me and believing in themselves. I'd like to thank all people who helped me to open my mind for a different view. I'd like to thank all people in this world who believe in positive changes.

I read a very enlightening newspaper article about the coherence between Indian English and the Indian psyche. It said "Because Hindu culture finds concepts such as understatement and irony - central to British English - difficult, English has been reinvented in India to express something deeper, a language of dreams and love, not business and criticism." It also said that "the ancient Indian approach to constructive dialogue contrasts with the Western obligation to employ critical analysis". "In the West you have a 'duty of doubt'; in India, we think of a 'duty of faith'." It explained a lot to me what I liked about India without being able to put it into words myself. Another really insightful part of my travels was the meeting with the music couple Daniel and Mai (picture and link to their website see below). In our conversations why they chose to live in India they said the most difficult thing about the West for them was the fact that people believed they could control everything. Well, I can only confirm that in India you won't be under that illusion for long... ;)

Now it's time for uploading the pictures of my travels in South India! I was lucky to have Pramod's company who helped me overcoming language barriers and experiencing everything from an additional different perspective to my Western one. (Such as South India vs. North India or "Bollywood / News India" compared to real India and much more...) One last big "thank you" for that!!!

Our stops in South India were Mumbai, Goa and Mysore. It was amazing again to encounter incountable differences both between the South and the North and between these places respectively. When we came to Mumbai, I finally realized that a place can indeed be even more crowded than Delhi! And as India in general it is a city full of contrasts. While it has the largest quantum of money of all cities in India, it is also the most populated city with the majority of people living below poverty line. In general it was cleaner, the streets were better, I saw less "roadside pee-ers" and people were not staring at me quite as much as in North India. All that of course only in the parts I saw. Some other pleasant aspects compared to Delhi were the facts that the auto rickshaw drivers actually went by meter without any need of bargaining (in that I must have become an expert by now!) and that the sellers were not half as pushy and persistent. People seemed more liberal and you could even see couples walking hand in hand which is a sight I never came across in Delhi.
The muslim community is markedly bigger and I also saw more "firangi" (white people) than in Delhi. The Marathi language and script was sometimes challenging but Hindi was still much more spoken than in Mysore where people speak mostly Kannada.

As for Mysore (actually the only place in real "South India" I've been to), the atmosphere seemed even more relaxed and the city even more colourful. Most eye-catching were the yellow painted cows, women wearing flowers in their  hair, the men wearing dhotis or lungis, people walking barefooted...

And in between Goa, the smallest state of India and strongly influenced by its former Portuguese colonisation.

But just see for yourself now...

Pictures from Mumbai:

The big version of an ice cube :)

These watches were being kept in water to proof their water-resistance

A "rangoli" in the university of Mumbai which we visited with our CS host

In front of the Victoria railway station (UNESCO world heritage site)...

... and the inside (which was also the location for the "Slumdog Millionaire" closing credits dance)

Typical view of a child performing an acrobatic act on the street

Visit to the Prince of Wales Museum (cameras were not allowed inside)

Woman selling peacock feathers on the street

Slightly more kitschy than in Vienna but still... :)

The famous Taj Mahal Palace hotel in the Colaba region of Mumbai,
one of the targets of the Mumbai attacks in 2008

In front of the Gateway of India

Have a close look and you'll see the statue being decorated :)

At the Marine Drive

Double-decker buses are as typical for Mumbai as for London

Traveling with a backpack in Mumbaian trains can be a bit tricky ;)

That's one of the less crowded trains I've seen ;)

I think I should open a "fruits around the world" gallery :)

What's it called? Pigeon English? ;)

A very typical picture of Mumbai, including a Mumbai taxi

Another typical picture of Mumbai, this time including an auto rickshaw

Queuing to enter the bus

Just hold on to whatever you get hold of and to your belongings!

View of Navi Mumbai, the largest planned city of the world

Our wonderful Couchsurfing hosts in Navi Mumbai, Mai (from Israel) and Daniel (from LA)
(finally re-united with my beloved Tahina! :) )
Please check out the website about their music project:
http://fullmoonrisingmusic.com/discoverfullmoonrising.html

Sunset at Chowpatty Beach

It's really refreshing to travel on trains without doors!

In Matheran, the only hill station in Asia where no vehicles are allowed

View from one of the look-out points

The small train station from where we took the toy train back to the nearest main train station

On the toy train

Iconic Ganesha seen from the train

Pictures from Goa:

In front of the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa

Slightly Indianized interior :)

... and similarly Indianized statue of St. Francis Xavier

Church of St. Cajetan

It's supposed to imitate St. Peter Church in Rome

Not quite fully functional, but somehow providing a nice view...

Freshly caught crab - Goan cuisine cannot go without seafood

View of Old Goa from a hill

This truck hasn't been used in a while...

Goa is the only place where I can afford a party on a cruise liner ;)

Performance of traditional folk dances

Since the Portuguese introduced cashew from tropical America in the 16th century
it has become one of the most important cash crops there

Entrance to the Sahakari spice farm

The lunch we were served there reminded a bit of Navdanya...

Cinnamon tree

Piper Nigrum: the colour of the drupes turns from green to red when they are ripe
"Black Pepper" is made from unripe drupes by drying, "White Pepper"is made from ripe drupes by retting

Cashew apple (Anacardium = "inverted heart") with the seed which we know as "cashew nut"

Green Cardamom plant (it belongs to a different genus than Black Cardamom)

Climbing vanilla vine

I didn't know there's anything such as "German ice cream" :)

"Sheera", sweetened semolina with raisins and nuts

Typical picture from Panjim, the capital of Goa

Sunset at Dona Paula Beach, known from numerous Bollywood movies :)

And again one could become jealous...

Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church in Panjim

Why use signs when you can also paint the destination of your bus? :)

Hindutva flags in Hubli (Hindutva is a nationalistic Hindu movement)

The first menu I came across where I could read how many grams I'm gonna eat :)
(click to enlarge)

Pictures from Mysore:

These kind of signs we came only across in South India

In Indian temples there's always harvest festivals going on ("Erntedank") ;)

Witnessing a havan, a ritual where offerings are being made into a consecrated fire

I just like taking pictures of people throwing stuff - even coconuts :)

Outdoor carpentry

Decorative way of presenting fruits on the streets

Only in Mysore I saw these people selling fresh chana (chickpeas) on bikes
- this gentleman is wearing a lungi 

View of the Devaraja Fruit & Vegetable market in Mysore

Piles of coloured chalk on the market

This time it's piles of never-ending flower chains -
how many meters do you want? :)

Uttapam, the South-Indian version of parantha (made from rice batter like dosa,
but more pan-cake like and with the toppings cooked in it)

Banana abundance...

... mountains of grapes... why did I leave this country!? :)

In front of the Jaganmohan Palace where we visited an amazing art gallery

Another thing Mysore is known for is sandalwood products -
incense sticks are available in big packs for 50 Rs.

Same thing as usual...

Cute little girl...

The yellow cows seen to be everywhere in Mysore -
maybe Milka can get some new inspiration here? ;)

Mysore is also the city of street astrologists...

... and of many really good "graffiti" paintings like this

The famous Mysore palace at night...

... the pigeons make a wonderful living ornament!

The palace is lit in various colours during a light show we visited...

... and in the end it looks like this -
illuminated with more than 96,000 lights

Rrrr... this bronze leopard can also be found on the palace premises

Relishing one last paan...

Fruits and a quote - the ultimate Johanna combination ;)

St. Philomena's Church - inspired by the Cologne Cathedral

And colourfully Indian (or Indianly colourful?) again from inside :)

Reunion with university mate Sagar after a long time!

Pretty impressive recycling system in the zoo of Mysore

Not only the bottles but also any other plastic is to be avoided

Well this sign in the monkey area of the zoo speaks for itself! ;)

Somehow strange to see Indian elephants in captivity within India...

Statue of Mahishasura in Chamundi Hills, a deity from Hindu mythology -
his mother was cursed to be a buffalo (mahisha = buffalo in Sanskrit)

The eight powers in a religious movement derived from Raja Yoga, a meditation based form of yoga
(click to enlarge)

Chamundeshwari temple on Chamundi Hills

The last "prasad" I carried into a temple - on *this* India trip! :)

A few days before leaving I finally got to try the famous "McAloo Tikki",
made from potatoes, peas and spices

And again I got to know a new kind of fruit - the "bher" fruit which has a really unique taste
(Ziziphus zizyphus, belonging to the buckthorn family)

Kannada version of "Spar" :)

I think my hands are too dear to me to visit this place! ;)

Mobile phone companies are now even offering advice for relationships... ;)

Well, it makes sense considering that mobile phones are nearly as important as relationships
in India - these charging points which are to be found in the most unlikely places provide the best
proof of that!

The way I saw many women wear flowers in their hair in Karnataka

My last "meal on wheels" -
somehow makes sense to end my India blog with a food picture ;)

Thanks to all of you for following my journey on my blog... I'm looking forward to getting in touch with you again and towards the next chapter of my life!


Until then, as usual:


Many many (if not too many ;) ) hugs!!!